Eco 'pirates' hit by £½m demand

The Sea Shepherd group's vessel, Steve Irwin, was arrested over a fortnight ago on the authority of a judge at the Court of Session in Edinburgh after a Maltese-based aquaculture firm raised an action for damages.

A bid to have the arrestment recalled was earlier rejected, but Lady Stacey yesterday said it could succeed if the security is provided.

The aquaculture firm, Fish & Fish, has raised an action at the High Court in England seeking 660,000 after claiming that it lost about 600 valuable bluefin tuna when divers from the Steve Irwin tore open netting and released the fish into the sea.

It said it was authorised to operate a fish farm for the species by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas and bought live fish caught in an authorised fishery in the Mediterranean and transported them to the farm in floating cages.

It claims that on 17 June last year bluefin tuna were being taken from Libyan waters to Malta when the Steve Irwin arrived at the cages. It alleges the former fishery patrol vessel rammed one of the cages.

The action also maintains that bottles were thrown at crew members involved in the fish transportation and a diver was shot at with a rubber bullet, before the nets were torn, allowing the fish to escape.

The Steve Irwin was docked in Shetland last month.

Following the decision to arrest the Steve Irwin, conservation charity Sea Shepherd UK sought to have the order recalled, but the move was rejected last week by Lord Emslie.

In his decision, the judge said: "This was a wholly extraordinary event. It involved a deliberate physical attack on the high seas.

"A cage was rammed. Divers went down and nets were cut, allowing tuna to escape. A rubber bullet was fired and liquid-filled bottles thrown.

"From start to finish, the impression is one of concerted offensive action over a short timescale."

He added: "A key Sea Shepherd campaign at present is to pursue and expose those responsible for illegal fishing practices by which the bluefin tuna is allegedly threatened with extinction worldwide."

He said the Steve Irwin appeared to be one of its major assets, and if the damages claim brought by Fish & Fish succeeded the firm might be left with no means of satisfying the court order without the arrestment of the ship.But Lord Emslie said that the practical consequences of his decision might require further discussion, including the possibility of alternative security being offered.

When the case came back before Lady Stacey, Roy Martin QC, for the charity, asked her to fix security at 400,000 to release the ship from the arrestment so that it could sail.

He said it had been valued at 350,000 to 400,000 and argued that the sum offered as a bond was reasonable.

Mr Martin said that if security was fixed at 400,000 then that sum could be made available immediately, providing for the release of the vessel as quickly as possible. If a higher amount was set, additional funds would have to be found.

But Robert Howie QC, for Fish & Fish, maintained that "a significantly larger sum" than 400,000 should be fixed as security. Another valuation of the ship estimated it was worth 640,000.

The Sea Shepherd conservation society is a US-based, non-profit, marine conservation organisation that specialises in direct action tactics to protect sealife.

It was founded in 1977 under the name Earth Force Society by former Greenpeace member Paul Watson, right, with a view to pursuing a more aggressive approach towards operations such as whaling and seal hunts.

The organisation has justified its aggressive actions as necessary because the international community has shown itself to be unwilling or unable to stop species-endangering whaling and fishing.

While supporters have applauded its actions, its members have been branded "eco-terrorists" by the Japanese government. Greenpeace has also been highly critical of the group's tactics.