This film charts the shocking events, which
led to the heretofore unknown phenomenon
of Somalian Pirates, whose fame was recently
given the Hollywood treatment, in a film
starring Tom Hanks.
In the wake of the civil war in Somalia, which
deposed the US-installed puppet dictator of a
nation whose waters face strategic shipping
lanes for petroleum carriers exiting the Middle
Est to ports worldwide, the country did not find
peace but has descended into clan warfare since
1991. The current government cannot even
control its own capital and Somalia is today
considered to be the most dangerous country
on Earth. (And THAT'S saying SOMETHING!)
Fishing ships from various industrialized countries
in Europe, the US and China then began to take
advantage of this chaotic situation, practicing a
kind of fishing labeled I.U.U. Illegal, Undeclared,
Unregulated.
Their incessant and uncontrolled activity,
employing methods of fishing that are prohibited
in other regions of the world is depleting the fish
reserves of a country that lacks the authority and
resources to protect its coasts. It is estimated that
the income generated by the illegal fishing amounts
to more than 450 million dollars, annually.
Tuna fishing has experienced a vertiginous and
unsustainable increase in the last 10 years. The
tuna fleet alone, comprised of Spanish ships, with
60% of the catch and French ships, with 40%,
illegally poach in Somalian waters, taking
approximately 500,000 tons of tuna each year.
They are robbing the local population of its principal
source of protein, while destroying the local
fishermen's way of life and their ability to sustain
themselves, bringing about an intractably hopeless
situation, without remedy, to a fragile country in
agony and almost dead from starvation.
Since 1990, the Somalian community has protested
repeatedly before the United Nations and before
many intergovernmental organizations, their
complaints falling on deaf ears. But the nightmare
doesn't end there:
Since the fall of the government in 1991, other ships
began to appear near the Somalian coast. Their
activities were more mysterious. The ships would enter
Somalia's territorial waters, throw barrels into the sea,
and leave.
The contents of these barrels remained a mystery
until the end of 2004 - the year in which a terrible
tsunami struck Southeast Asia. When the tsunami
reached Somalia, hundreds of barrels landed on the
coast and many barrels broke open and began to leak
upon the beaches.
The people in the area soon became sick with
respiratory infections, intestinal hemorrhages, strange
chemical reactions on the skin and more than 300
sudden deaths. After a time, babies began to be born
with severe birth defects.
Nick Nuttall, spokesman for the United Nations
environmental program stated that when the barrels
were broken by the strength of the tsunami, they
brought to light an appalling activity: Somalia has been
being used as a dumping ground for toxic wastes since
the beginning of the '90s and which has continued,
unabated for 14 years.
The toxic trash is of comprised of several different
kinds: principally, radioactive uranium and heavy
metals like cadmium and mercury. There is also
hospital and industrial waste, chemical wastes and
other kinds, of which the filmmaker does not wish
to name, at this time.
The most alarming factor is the dumping of nuclear
waste. The radioactive waste is killing the Somalian
people and is totally destroying the oceans. Ahmedou
Ould Abdallah, The United Nations special representative
to Somalia declared to Al-Jazeera that dumping of toxic
wastes continues to take place into the present time.
The diplomat affirmed that he had reliable information,
proving that European and Asiatic corporations are
dumping the chemicals and nuclear wastes on the
Somalian coasts. The United Nations sent
representatives to observe the catastrophe and
without any more thought, the chapter was closed.
So far, there hasn't been a single trial, detention, or
sentence for the these criminal acts.
Somalia is a devastated country that is literally
starving to death, with rich countries flocking in
to snatch away the fish - and on the way, they
contaminate the country's waters with toxic and
nuclear waste: This is the context in which the
men that some call "pirates" appeared. (Who would
want to eat the tuna caught in such toxic waters?
Fish is not on my menu at all anymore. ALL fish!)
Being completely defenselessness and undefended,
some fishermen reacted in a desperate way. They
began to form alliances of small armed groups and
using motorboats, they tried to drive away the foreign
fishing boats and dissuade the ships that dump wastes
into their waters.
They call themselves "Volunteer Somalian Coastguard".
According to a survey, 70% of the Somalian population
strongly supports this activity as a form of defending the
country's territorial waters. One of their leaders, Sugule
Ali, explains their motives: "To put a stop to the illegal
fishing and the dumping in our waters. We don't consider
ourselves outlaws of the sea. We consider those who fish
illegally and dump toxic wastes to be the outlaws."
At first, no one took them seriously. The foreign fishing
fleets continued to fish with impunity and the toxic waste
dumping continued - but given that this is happening in a
country that was armed to the teeth and divided into rival
groups of current and ex-combatants, soon these groups
joined the fishermen and this the erstwhile fisherman-based
"Volunteer Somalian Coastguard" became heavily-armed.
Due to newfound weapons and aided by trained warriors,
they began to see a lucrative business in the capture of
these ships by creating the financial need for their rescue.
As soon as they they began hijacking these these
malevolent ships, the area began seeing a mass-clearing
and the foreign fleets.
The powerful nations saw their lucrative fishing business
threatened and themselves deprived of their private and
cheap dumping ground for toxic and nuclear wastes. The
United Nations, which has systematically ignored
the Somali's complaints, began instead, to listen
to the countries affected by Somalian "pirates".
Spain and France, countries with important fishing
fleets in the area headed the petition for a joint military
action. This is how "Operation Atlanta" was born The
mission brought eight battle ships, supply ships and
surveillance aircrafts.
Following the failure of the operation, its duration and
budget was increased, with more than 20 ships and
1,800 soldiers. The approximate cost for this operation
to the Spanish government amounts to more than 6
million euros per month. The cost of the Galician and
Basque tuna fishermen's private security forces
amounts to half a million euros per month. The Spanish
government takes responsibility for half of this cost,
using the nation's general budget.
Let's remember the definition of a pirate: They rob
at sea, taking possession of that which does not
belong to them. They carry out their actions,
heavily-armed and on occasion, they have the
protection of a nation-State
But...Why do these fleets fish there? Can't they do it in
their own territorial waters? In their own oceans? No.
And the reason they can't is terrible: It's been completely
fished-out. The rich countries have exterminated the
marine life in their own oceans. The marine ecosystems
of Europe have been exploited to the limit. (And now
they are fishing in toxic waters that they continue to
poison with more radioactive waste! Any fish they catch
there must be glowing with toxicity. What IDIOCY!)
Senegal (also subjected to toxic dumping, along with
many other African nations) trying to protect its own
natural resources, stopped renewing its fishing agreements
with EU counties in 2006 - but it seems impossible to stop
the European fishing fleets. They mock the law, creating
fake corporations and buying licenses from other countries
and flying flags of convenience. One can purchase flags of
convenience in a few minutes on the Internet for less than
500 euros.
In Senegal, fishing boats have ceased to be useful
for their intended purpose and now they are used to
transport immigrants, looking for a better future in
European countries. Ironically, they are flocking to
the very same countries that have plundered their
futures in their own country. In Somalia, the boats
can no longer be used for fishing and now they are
used for piracy.
The global conference on the Oceans announced that 75%
of the world's fish reserves have disappeared. The Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations also
reported that 80% of the worlds fisheries are over exploited
and 30% of all marine species are under the biological
security limit.
Taking all of this into account, many scientific studies
calculate that in the year 2048 all of the world's fishing
reserves will have been depleted.
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