Greenpeace releases captured animals

The environmental organization Greenpeace has released more than a dozen animals captured by a Spanish boat near New Zealand, including an endangered mako shark, blue sharks and swordfish, it has been announced.

“Greenpeace activists have disrupted an industrial surface longline fishing operation in the South Pacific Ocean near New Zealand, seizing nearly 20 kilometres of longline and more than 210 hooks from a Spanish-flagged industrial fishing vessel,” it said in a statement.

In this operation, the crew aboard the Greenpeace vessel “Rainbow Warrior” freed more than a dozen animals, including a mako shark, four swordfish and blue sharks.

When celebrating World Oceans Day, the organization pointed out that 37% of fishing resources worldwide are overexploited due to unsustainable activity.

According to Greenpeace, the low selectivity of fishing gear, combined with public policies that have financed large fleets, has led Spaniards to move to third-country waters.

The environmental organization demands that leaders, who are starting a meeting in Nice today, protect 30% of the oceans by 2030.

“It is urgent to ensure ratification by the 60 countries required for the entry into force of a Global Ocean Treaty,” he stressed.

The third oceans conference will be held in Nice, France, from this Sunday until June 13, after the first one in New York and the second in Lisbon, and will be attended by the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, and several ministers from his executive.