http://thethrillsociety.com is your link to Thrilling Stuff! This article is just a taste!
Congratulations to our most recent A-Hole(s) of the Week, The Thunder Crew!
The Captain and two senior crewmembers of
the commercial fishing ship Thunder were found guilty of illegal fishing
by the island nation of Sao Tome and Principe. This small country is
located off the west coast of Africa in the Gulf of Guinea.
The Thunder’s three crew members were fined
$17 million and between 32 and 36 months in jail. The Captain of the
Thunder is Alfonso R. Cataldo, 48, a Chilean. The Thunder was crewed by
40 men, 30 of which were Indonesians.
The Thunder was built in 1969 in Norway and multiple names and was registered in multiple countries over the years.
The illegal, unreported, and unregulated
fishing industry costs more than $20 billion year in lost legal catches
and eliminates jobs and depletes fishing stocks worldwide.
The Thunder was considered to be the
world’s most notorious, outlaw, fishing vessel for fishing in protected
Southern Oceans for Patagonian toothfish. The toothfish is sold as
Chilean sea bass to restaurants and can fetch up to $30 per plate.
The Captain of the Thunder had lost his commercial fishing license over a year ago.
The Thunder had been banned from fishing in
the Antarctic since 2006. It is estimated that the Thunder caught over
$76 million in illegal fish in the last decade.
In an attempt to evade authorities the
Thunder released a 27 mile long fishing net that later had to be
recovered. When capture was no longer in doubt the crew of the Thunder
sank the ship to hide their illegally caught haul of fish.
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