Mikhael Verbitsky was no better or worse then any of the other fishermen in the area – he just happened to be the closest fish factory with nets trailing in the water. Just before noon we launched three boats. Cameras and swimmers boarded the inflatables from the hull-side door.
With the boats running in formation beside the Arctic Sunrise, I called the fisherman over the radio. He answered and changed to a working frequency. This allowed me to get our campaign message out: ‘Greenpeace is here to protest against foreign fishing in Senegalese waters’.
The radio went silent and as I looked ahead through the bridge windows, our boats leaving for their target, there, just fifty metres off the bow, a whale surfaced and blew. Was it a sign? Timing was impeccable.
It takes courage to swim in the path of a fishing boat, what with all of its cables and nets dragging through the water behind. Two little swimmers cannot stop a fishing boat, but that is not their intention. They slip over the side and into the waves to send an image to reach the hearts of people who can make change happen.
Three times they slipped into the water, just a couple hundred metres ahead of the Mikhael Verbitsky. Each time they were run down by the factory to be picked up by the safety boat off the stern, before they could entangle with the trawl. One of the buoys was not so lucky and snagged on a wire. It was hauled beneath the surface, leaving just a whirl of white water until its counterweight ripped off and the orange ball popped up like a super charged rocket.
Protesters returned to base, leaving the media boat to trail behind the fisherman for another six hours before the haul. When it came up I watched through a pair of binoculars. The net was full, grey with fish and the trawler seemed to labour to haul it up the ramp. It reminded me of one of those fat grey ticks, full to bursting. A cry came over the radio – there were dolphins inside the net.
