Sea Shepherd Departs for Hostile Libyan Waters to Save Tuna

Operation Blue Rage, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s bluefin tuna defense campaign, kicked off today with the departure of two of their ships from the port of Toulon, France. The Dutch flagged Steve Irwin and the Australian flagged Brigitte Bardot departed from the port of Toulon, France today bound for the waters of war-torn Libya. Sea Shepherd’s mission is to search out and intercept bluefin tuna poaching operations of vessels taking advantage of the war to illegally catch this highly endangered fish.

The two ships departed from Toulon ahead of their 1500 hour scheduled departure in order to avoid the threat of an attack by angry French fishermen, attempting to prevent the departure of the Sea Shepherd ships.

Forty-six volunteer crewmembers make up the Sea Shepherd crew, including 18 women and 28 men, all of whom are prepared to undertake action despite the risks of confronting poachers in hostile Libyan waters. The crew represents 17 nationalities, including 10 European Union member nations. The represented nations onboard are: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

Operation Blue Rage 2011 is focused on intervening against any bluefin fishing operations taking place in the area off the Libyan coast, a region closed to the exploitation of bluefin tuna by the International Commission on the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) and the European Union fishing commission.