Eolie, Operation Siso against illegal fishing: 500 kilometers of nets, hooks, and plastic recovered.

Last Updated: July 25, 2023

Eolie, operazione Siso contro la pesca illegale: recuperati 500 chilometri reti, ami e plastica

#Messina
Thanks to the collaboration between the Italian Coast Guard, the Financial Guard, and the constant patrol activities of Sea Shepherd ships, in the last year alone, 224 km of illegal fishing nets and thousands of hooks have been identified and recovered. They have also reported vessels and surveyed fishing areas, enhancing the policing activities at sea of the Italian authorities. The Sea Shepherd’s “Operation Siso” takes its name from the sperm whale killed in 2017 by an illegal net in the waters of the Aeolian Islands, whose skeleton is now a symbol and protagonist of the MuMa, the Sea Museum of Milazzo. Launched in 2018 in collaboration with the Coast Guard, the Port Authority, and the Financial Guard, Operation Siso aims to safeguard the delicate marine ecosystem of the Aeolian Islands from poaching and illegal fishing practices.

The story of the sperm whale Siso testifies to the presence of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing gear in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The derived nets (banned in 2002 but still used today) catch species of migratory pelagic fish (such as tuna and swordfish) and also represent a deadly trap for other marine species such as turtles, dolphins, and most marine mammals. Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs), in addition to being the largest environmental disaster in terms of plastic pollution in the entire Mediterranean, pose a serious danger to marine turtles that get entangled in them, sometimes fatally.

Andrea Morello, president of Sea Shepherd Italy, explains: “We share with Buddhist philosophy the concept of interdependence and compassion for all beings. It is exactly our mission because we all depend on other living beings; two out of three breaths come from the sea because oxygen is produced by phytoplankton. The Mediterranean is the most overfished sea in the world, with over 70% of species overfished. In some areas, 40% of the catch is illegal, and 30% is the result of accidental fishing. When we add this to a sea now filled with micro and nano plastics, we understand that it is an environment where the lives of its inhabitants are in great danger, and we ‘depend’ on them to continue living as a species.”

Operation Siso has allowed the identification of over 1,700 FADs in the last year alone, totaling approximately 2,000 km of wire and plastic, mostly made of polypropylene, and tens of thousands of polluting plastic containers, forever abandoned in the sea.

Andrea Morello also has good news: “The sea, which hosts 80% of life on the planet, is resilient: where the ecosystem is protected, for example by establishing protected areas, nature is reborn. In protected marine areas – which in the Mediterranean are 9.7%, but less than 2% are effectively protected – life re-emerges quickly. For example, in the Marine Protected Area of Plemmirio (Siracusa), where Sea Shepherd has been engaged for over 10 years in constant patrol activities in collaboration with local authorities, a 500% increase in biodiversity has been recorded in just a few years. Goal 14 of the UN, ‘Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources,’ sets the target of protecting 30% of the seas by 2030. We must reach this goal by making it a priority for our country.”