THE LYING DUTCHMAN

Sea Shepherd vessel the Steve Irwin (last encountered in SchNEWS 753) successfully evaded Somali pirates this week, travelling through the Gulf of Aden on their way to the Suez Canal.

The cunning new paint job of camouflage colours and ‘77’ painted on the bow fooled the pirates - and a US military Blackhawk helicopter - into thinking the ship was a Dutch warship. The three pirate skiffs that had been tailing Steve Irwin for a few miles soon backed off, and the vessel continued on its way to the Mediterranean Sea, where it will be defending the threatened bluefin tuna and disrupting illegal fishing operations.