Toothfish Pirates Evade Prosecution

The worst of the pirate fishermen come from Spain, in particular from a family-owned Galician shipowning enterprise, Vidal Armadores S.A.

This company came to public notice in August 2003 when an Australian Customs and Fisheries patrol vessel, Southern Supporter, spotted one of its vessels taking toothfish in Australian territorial waters in the southern Indian Ocean. Ordered to stop, Viarsa 1 fled.  

The captain, Ricardo Mario Ribot Cabrera, led a three-week chase through huge seas and icebergs.

As the pursuit moved west, three other boats joined in: a southern African salvage tug John Ross, an icebreaker Agulhas, and a Falkland Islands-based British fishery patrol boat Dorada. On August 28, after travelling 7200 kilometres, the little fleet surrounded Viarsa 1 southwest of Cape Town.  

The boat was put under arrest and taken back to Fremantle in Australia.  It had 97 tonnes of toothfish on board. Australian authorities, having won the world's longest sea chase, then botched the case in court. A jury found the evidence of fishing violations was only "circumstantial" and that this raised enough doubt to prevent a conviction.

In 2011, the US Center for Public Integrity's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which bills itself as one of America's oldest and largest non-partisan non-profit investigative news organisations, published an article on Viarsa 1.

It had turned out that Vidal Armadores was linked to more than 40 alleged cases of illegal fishing.  ICIJ journalists had confronted Manuel Antonio Vidal Pego, the company's co-owner, who denied being a pirate fisherman.

"You can see I don't have a hook, a parrot on my shoulder or a wooden leg," he said.  For more information on this incredible, illegal trade still going on, click on the following links: Poachers' false flags; Tough to fight poachers.