Seamount Trawl Interdiction — South Atlantic VME Closure
Disrupt-tier interdiction of the Seamount Reapers Fleet inside a vulnerable-marine-ecosystem closure. Trawl doors fouled, the closure breach logged with position and timestamp, smashed cold-water coral recovered as evidence. Open-water hulls tracked, not touched; no injuries.
Summary
On the night of 2091-06-12, FPV Sea Wolf, with the DSV Nerites submersible providing benthic survey, interdicted a trawler of the Seamount Reapers Fleet dragging weighted gear across a seamount peak inside a declared vulnerable-marine-ecosystem (VME) closure. The closure breach was first logged with position and timestamp; the trawl doors were then fouled so the gear could no longer drag, leaving the hull safe and seaworthy; and samples of freshly smashed cold-water coral were recovered from the trawl path as evidence of the breach. Open-water hulls in the area were tracked but not touched. No injuries.
Intelligence Picture
The Reapers' subsidised distant-water hulls had been monitored against the RFMO's VME closures for weeks. NEREID's track placed one trawler repeatedly working a closed peak where centuries-old coral gardens aggregate spawning stock — the exact ground the closure exists to protect.
- One ~60 m bottom-trawler working weighted gear across a peak inside a declared VME closure.
- Trawl track crossing mapped cold-water coral gardens and a spawning-aggregation zone.
- Catch profile consistent with targeting aggregating deep-water spawners; heavy non-target bycatch expected.
- Breach assessed Severe and irreversible by NEREID; objective set at Disrupt — log, foul, recover, withdraw.
Execution
Conducted under Disrupt-tier rules: log the breach first, gear only, no harm to persons, open-water hulls untouched. Narrative log, condensed:
- Breach log (22:10Z). Before any intervention, Sea Wolf and the Argus Swarm fixed the trawler's position against the closure boundary and time-stamped the breach to the evidence locker; Nerites confirmed gear on bottom inside the line.
- Benthic survey (22:40Z). Nerites ran the trawl path, imaging the fresh furrow through the coral garden — the physical record of the damage the closure was meant to prevent.
- Door fouling (23:30Z). Argus Swarm units fouled the trawl doors so the net could no longer spread or drag, halting the tow without boarding the hull or endangering its crew.
- Coral recovery (00:10–01:50Z). Sea Wolf recovered samples of freshly broken cold-water coral and bycatch from the trawl path, each tagged, photographed, and bagged to chain-of-custody.
- Disengage (02:40Z). With the breach logged, gear fouled, and evidence aboard, Sea Wolf cleared the closure. Open-water hulls tracked through the night were left untouched.
Outcome & Evidence
The breach log, benthic furrow imagery, and recovered coral were sealed as package SM-2091-0309 to Evidence & Custody for the RFMO closure-violation file. Affected records in the Universal Marine Registry were annotated: cold-water coral (AE-SPX-0063), the seamount spawning stock (AE-SPX-0077), and a non-target deep-water species recovered as bycatch (AE-SPX-0013).
Follow-on
- File package SM-2091-0309 to the RFMO closure-violation track; attach to the Seamount Reapers Fleet dossier.
- Maintain persistent NEREID monitoring of the VME closure boundary; auto-flag any gear-on-bottom inside the line.
- Schedule a DSV Nerites condition re-survey of the damaged coral garden to baseline recovery.
- Annotate affected registry records (AE-SPX-0063, 0077, 0013) with the breach and bycatch findings.