The Greenpeace ship Artic Sunrise blocked a pair of boats using trawl nets to fish for sardines and anchovies on Monday in the Channel of Sicily, located between southwestern Sicily and northern Tunisia, reported ANSAmed.

The activists claim the boats' fishing method is destroying sealife thanks to an ''experimental license'' that can be renewed every six months by the Italian agricultural policy ministry.

The anchovy population in the Canal of Sicily is at risk of collapse, said data by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM).

GFCM