Fishing company claims activists cut net

Nelson-based Amaltal fishing company says it is planning to file for an injunction against Greenpeace today, after claiming activists had cut a trawler's nets in an act of high-seas "piracy".

"They are being attacked by a bunch of hairies and hippies with knives and gaffs," Amaltal director Andrew Talley said today.

"We are shocked at this attack. It's an act of piracy."

However, Greenpeace denies that it cut the Ocean Reward's nets with knives or gaffs yesterday, saying instead that activists trying to stop the boat from bottom trawling were shot at by fishing crew armed with potatoes in compressed air guns, and were sprayed with high pressure fire hoses.

Greenpeace says the fishing crew shot at it after activists delayed the Ocean Reward from deploying its net by attaching an inflatable life-raft.

The confrontation happened in the Tasman Sea, 560km west of the North Island, as the Ocean Reward, a deep sea trawler, was fishing for orange roughy.

Mr Talley said he did not know if the Ocean Reward crew fired potatoes at the Greenpeace activists, or sprayed them with hoses, but if they did, they did so in defence.

After speaking to the fishing crew this morning, he said Greenpeace activists aboard the protest ship Rainbow Warrior had slashed the trawler's nets in an unprovoked attack, causing several thousand dollars worth of damage.

The skipper was shooting the net into the water when the attack happened, and found the damage when the net was pulled out again, Mr Talley said.

"When anyone attacks a boat on the high seas it's piracy," he said. "The crew will take any steps to defend themselves."

The Ocean Reward was seven days into a two-week fishing trip.

Although Amaltal disputed Greenpeace's argument that deep sea trawling was damaging the ocean floor, Mr Talley said the matter was not about "political messages", it was about the rules of seamanship being observed.

The Rainbow Warrior was still near the Ocean Reward this morning, filming its practices and documenting what came out of its net.

Mr Talley said Amaltal planned to seek an injunction against the Greenpeace vessel and skipper, citing a breach of maritime and safety rules.

Greenpeace New Zealand campaigner Carmen Gravatt said from the Rainbow Warrior today that activists were protesting peacefully, and did not cut the trawler's nets with knives.

However, at one point an inflatable craft was unintentionally caught up in the trawler's net, and she could not rule out that the net was torn then.

"We don't want to damage any of their equipment or harm their crew in any way," she said.

- nzpa