Greenpeace members park fishing boat outside ministry of agriculture and anchor themselves to it

They pinned up a huge sign saying 'Cañete, don't sink the fishing industry', addressed to agricultural minister Miguel Arias Cañete.

These activists, who are volunteer members of Greenpeace, anchored themselves to the boat in a bid to convince the Spanish government to hold talks with them and with fishermen's representatives to promote more environmentally-friendly ways of conducting trade.

A huge Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise, has travelled around Europe and docked in Barcelona, Bilbao and Dénia (Alicante province) to host meetings on board with local authorities from each of these locations to discuss the serious over-fishing in Mediterranean waters which is dramatically reducing stocks of fish.

Throwing caught fish back into the water, using non-manual means and over-fishing will be seriously harmful to the industry and cost thousands of people their jobs, says Celia Ojeda, spokeswoman for Greenpeace.

She laments the fact that the ministry of agriculture has not responded to any of Greenpeace's requests for a meeting and says Arias Cañete will 'go down in history' as 'the man who made Spain's fishing industry extinct'.

The 12 activists have been charged with public disorder and disobedience of authority.