A dozen activists were despatched to board the trawler, where some of them spent almost 24 hours. The Deep Sea Defender team attempted to stop the bottom trawler from recasting its nets - which resulted in three of us being tossed into the Atlantic Ocean by the Anuva's unscrupulous captain.

A fishing vessel which activated its distress systems after a wave crashed through the bridge window in gale force weather has now managed to change course and begin making way towards the Scottish mainland, escorted by two vessels.

The vessel 'Anuva' is Lithuanian registered and Spanish owned. It was 262 miles from the Butt of Lewis at the time of the incident.

Stornoway Coastguard was called by the Norwegian Coastguard at 5.15 am this morning to report that they had received an Inmarsat C distress alert from the vessel. A mayday message was also broadcast by the ship and was intercepted by the UK Coastguard and relayed for the attention of all shipping. Stornoway Coastguard was also able to confirm, via Falmouth Coastguard, that the vessel was still afloat using satellite communications and the Spanish Coastguard.