30 Days/29: The sea is like a minefield': The web of illegal fish traps in Italy's Mediterranean
12 June 2025 Alice Pistolesi and Monica Pelliccia Sea Shepherd Sea Shepherd is cracking down on illegal fish-trapping devices off the coast of Sicily (Credit: Sea Shepherd) Off the coast of Sicily, Sea Shepherd and its volunteers are hunting down illegal fish traps and working with Italian authorities to crack down on this environmental crime. The flat water melts into the teal-coloured sky as a former pilot vessel, the Sea Eagle, sails through the calm Tyrrhenian Sea surrounding the Aeolian Archipelago of Sicily. The ship is operated by Sea Shepherd, an international marine conservation non-profit. Today, the team is searching for fish aggregating devices (FADs), man-made plastic structures used to attract fish. They float in the water, anchored to the seafloor, with hanging nets to catch fish. FADs made from plastic, without GPS tracking devices attached, are illegal in Italy . While listening to techno music, a group of volunteers uses a winch to detach one of the F...