The following is an account from Mike (chief mate) of what happened in yesterday's action against high seas bottom trawling...
The sun rose and some of the crew were out to watch it for its brief appearance. The rest watched with us as it disappeared again, half an hour later into dark rain filled clouds that took over the sky whilst we were launching the boats. The wind rose in the suns wake to a Beaufort force six, occasionally gusting to seven. Esperanza swung one way and then the other, making a lee to each side in order to launch the boats in the twelve foot swell. The Hurricane, with me as coxswain and Florian as crew were the first in the water. Florian, is a university student of environmental science from Germany, who joined the Esperanza as an activist in Halifax. He wears his long blond hair in dreads, and volunteers for everything all of the time.
Next in the water was a Noviranea, its role in the action was to be a safety boat, to tag along behind the scenes and pick any body out of the water, should the sea wash them from the deck of the Hurricane. On board the Noviranea for the terrific ordeal into the weather was Fritz, the Greenpeace International crew manager. He apparently laughed for the first hour and then hung to his dear life for the next, for the sea was relentless with the small boat. The African Queen in her grace was third in the water, she went ahead and started then ended the action as the on site co-ordination and media boat.
In the action boat, we were joined by Marta from Madrid and Tara from Stockholm. They had come along as the painters. The four of us wore helmets for protection and bright yellow vests, with the words `Deep Sea Defenders' emboldened on the back in large black letters. My helmet was fitted with a camera to capture another angle of the activity. Inside the boat, we carried five litres of water based orange paint, two rollers and a paint tray. We also had a back up banner with magnets, and a small yellow flag to fly from the stern of the Hurricane. The weather tore at the small boats and within minutes the seas on the Flemish Cap had found their way through our action suits.
The Queen headed towards the target vessel and positioned herself ready with the cameras. Then the call came through, " Your turn Hurricane". A goodbye wave to the Esperanza and away we went at fast speed, straight into the action. I brought the Hurricane alongside the Icelandic bottom trawler 'Petur Jonsson' whose gear was down, trawling at a slow speed. The rise and fall of the swell was phenomenal. Marta poured some orange paint out into the tray and Tara dipped the roller into it. The hurricane rose and fell two meters at a time as she tried to paint a question mark onto the Petur Jonsson's hull. But the roller slid and did not paint well over the wet surface and we risked getting dashed against the side of the trawler. I filmed this as it was happening, with the camera on my head. Gavin, our video guy, had instructed me to try and look at things for periods of ten seconds at a time so not only was I concentrating on the positioning of the inflatable, but I was try
ing to restrict the movement of my head, whilst looking out of the corner of my eye.
The fishermen rushed out onto the deck and turned their fire hoses on us and I heard them shouting in a language that I did not understand. The paint was not going on and the painting plan was not coming off. I shouted above the wind to the crew, "Lets try the magnets and banner". The girls put away their paint, whilst Florian pulled out the banner. It was a simple message that read, `LEGAL?' A number of attempts were made to place the banner on the ships side with magnets, but somehow the wind whipped around the side of the Petur Jonsson and tore it down again. The crew resorted to holding the banner up in their hands and for the picture I was asked to position the Hurricane under the bow, beneath the ships name. As the bulbous bow came up cascading with white water, it pushed the bow of the hurricane away, swinging the stern onto the hull of the trawler. Effectively we were being bounced around and I needed little engine movements to keep her in position.
Despite the odds, we held our message today before the camera lenses to focus attention on the international waters, which cover 64% of our Earth. Like a message in a bottle it was cast off, with love and peace.
