Reeled in: activists battle industrial fishing off Aust

Environmental activists have intercepted an industrial longline fishing operation off the coast of Australia, seizing hundreds of baited hooks and releasing more than a dozen of marine animals, including an endangered shark.

Operating from a small inflatable boat, the activists confronted a European Union-flagged industrial fishing vessel, which had just left the Lord Howe Rise and South Tasman Sea, where it fished for 160 days last year, according to Greenpeace.

The action comes ahead of the UN Ocean Conference in France, as activists warn Australia's oceans face growing threats from climate change, habitat loss, and industrialisation.

Leaders from the Australian Marine Conservation Society and Greenpeace are urging the federal government to honour its climate commitments at the upcoming conference.

They also called for the establishment of the Global Ocean Treaty within the first 100 days of government and the proposal of large marine sanctuaries, including in the Tasman Sea, where activists recently intercepted a large fishing vessel.

Georgia Whitaker, senior campaigner for Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said the scale of industrial fishing on the high seas is "astronomical."

During the rescue operation, she said activists witnessed "shark after shark being hauled up by industrial fleets, including three endangered sharks in just half an hour".

Activists retrieved an entire fishing line, including more than 210 baited hooks from the vessel including an endangered longfin mako shark, eight near-threatened blue sharks and four swordfish.

"These longliners are industrial killing machines. Greenpeace Australia Pacific took peaceful and direct action to disrupt this attack on marine life," Ms Whitaker said.

"We saved important species that would otherwise have been killed or left to die on hooks."

Greenpeace said they have been documenting longlining vessels and practices off Australia's east coast, including from Spain and China over the past three weeks.

More than two-thirds of sharks worldwide are endangered, and a third of those are at risk of extinction from overfishing, according to 2024 report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.