Hello from Wellington, where the weather has, well, become wet and windy! We're in the middle of doing more 'open boats' at the moment - fair play to everyone who's been braving the elements to visit the Rainbow Warrior. As this phase of our deep sea life campaign rolls to a close, we're leaving Wellington today, en route to Auckland for the 20th anniversary of the sinking of the first Rainbow Warrior. This weblog will be coming to an end - but you can follow the adventures of the Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand via the Greenpeace NZ website. Thanks to everyone's who's been following the weblog over the last few weeks - especially all of you who took the time to post comments. The crew of the Rainbow Warrior have been delighted, excited and amazed by the huge response, which has been a source of inspiration while we've been out at sea.
Our voyage grows closer to its end. This morning, we got our wake-up call from Abri at 7:30am, and stumbled out on deck, rubbing eyes and nursing hot drinks in the chilly dawn air. We were already in sight of Wellington, and the harbour pilot was on board, directing the Rainbow Warrior toward's Queen's Wharf, right in the downtown area. Again, this morning, the setting moon caught our attention - directly off the bow, and above the city. Behind us, the sun was beginning to rise, and off to port, I could hear people beeping out salutes on their car horns.
Over the last couple of days, we've been making our way from Nelson, on the South Island, to Wellington on the North Island. Our exit from Nelson was a little bumpy - straight into the tail end of some fairly rough weather. As we left the harbour, it was rough enough that a surfer lying on his board in the breakers managed to wave to us!
When you go on a tramp (hike) in the mountains here in New Zealand, you start in the lowlands walking among nikau palms, then as you get higher you head into rimu and rata trees, and then continuing even higher you end up in beech forest that eventually thins out to shrublands and mountains tussocks.
Well after what feels like a lifetime, we have finally arrived back in New Zealand. Although we are at sea now, in transit to Wellington, we have had a few days in Nelson to start getting used to shore life. It has been quite a shock to realise just how well the campaign has been going while we have been out in the middle of nowhere.
Dave:
Sunny Nelson lived up to its reputation on Sunday. I did the early morning watch on deck, 4-8am. As dawn broke, the sun started burning off the thick fog that had enveloped the harbour, and by 9am, the sun was quite warm. Our open boat day started at 11, so I went for a nap - by the time I awoke, the Rainbow Warrior was full of families, with a long queue stretching across the Wharf. I'll leave it up to Abri and Erin to tell you their experiences...
It's been a busy time in Nelson. Last night, two reggae bands - One Vibe and Wicked Draw, and two DJs -RAS Selector and DJ Bird played a benefit concert for us in a local venue, The Phat Club. Lots of the Rainbow Warrior crew, as well as local activists went along. It was very strange to see Wooly's video footage of bottom trawlers - with Greenpeace inflatables zipping around them - playing in big screen at the back of the stage. But thanks to everyone who was involved or attended!
Three weeks - it's a long time to be away from land. There were a few jittery knees today as we clambered down the gangway, in Nelson, on New Zealand's South Island, to a warm welcome from our landlubbing colleagues. Nelson is the largest fishing port in Australasia, so it's a natural place for us to visit on our campaign to protect deep sea life.
Land Ahoy! On Friday 17th June, the Rainbow Warrior will be arriving in Nelson, in New Zealand's South Island. And on Saturday and Sunday, we'll be having an 'Open Boat' - that means we'll be opening the ship up for public tours between 11am and 3pm on both days.
You can find us at the Coastal Berth, with public access from Wakefield Cove.
As I write this, we're coming towards the end of our voyage in the temperamental Tasman Sea. Outside, the weather is rough, so I'm twisting my hips left and right in my chair, compensating for the rolling of the ship.
It recently occurred to me, what with all the writing I've been doing about bykill or bycatch - the fish discarded by bottom trawlers - I've not said much about the target species of these boats - orange roughy (Hoplostethus atlanticus). After encountering so many doleful stares from bulging eyes - either through bottom trawl nets or, from disembodied heads, expunged via bycatch chutes, I thought it was high time to tell their story.
Hi, Carmen here. On behalf of the Rainbow Warrior crew, I want to thank everyone for following the story of our protest against bottom trawling in international waters, and especially for all the messages of support we have received!
Naomi, 2nd Mate on the Rainbow Warrior, shares her experiences of working on fishing vessels, and her thoughts on the future of fishing, as well as the ocean ecosystem
We saw the last of the Ocean Reward today - we left it to its daily grind of wrecking the ocean bottom. Now we're heading further out to sea, looking for other bottom trawlers. We know that vessels from Australia have been out here in the past. There have also been flag of convenience ships - we found one of the latter last year, the Belize-registered and chinese-owned Chang Xing, and caught them dumping CITES protected black coral through their bycatch chute.
I have seen a few things at sea - I have swum with whales, seen a green flash sunset or two, but never have I seen my shipmates confused with bykill (what we used to call bycatch).
Wednesday: It's an overcast calm morning in the Tasman Sea. Four inflatables from the Rainbow Warrior are in the water, astern of the Ocean Reward. The bottom trawler is drawing its cables in, having dragged its net along the sea floor for some six hours.
Another hectic day in the Tasman Sea. On Monday night we located the Ocean Reward, yet another familiar Deep Sea Destroyer from last year's campaign. This year, however, it's changed its colour from a dark blue to the red and white of the Talleys fleet.
10:30 on a Monday morning. Just an average morning with a beautiful sunrise, in the middle of the Tasman Sea. We're more than a thousand metres above the Challenger Plateau, and hundreds of miles west of New Zealand. This morning, however, instead of just bottom trawlers ravaging the seamounts below, the Rainbow Warrior and its mini-fleet of inflatables are holding vigil.
While our friends on the Rainbow Warrior pursue bottom trawlers on the high seas we've also been busy back here in the Greenpeace office in Auckland.
Using New Zealand's 'Official Information Act' we have extracted this incredible image from the Ministry of Fisheries. Taken by a fisheries observer aboard a NZ bottom trawling vessel, the photo shows a piece of gorgonian coral bigger than the two men attempting to untangle it from their bottom trawl net, and you can also see more similar sized pieces still in the net. Gorgonian corals of this size are estimated to be around 500 years old!
It's been an interesting weekend on board the Rainbow Warrior. On Saturday afternoon, far out into the International waters of the Tasman Sea, we tracked down the Tasman Viking, a bottom trawler from New Zealand - one that we'd found out here last year.
Earlier today, I was reading about the meteorology of these waters, in Deep New Zealand by Peter Batson. Thanks to weather coming from the 'Roaring Forties' - which refers, of course, to the stormy latitudes of the southern hemisphere - New Zealand's ocean weather tends towards the dreadful. Even the Three Kings Islands, situated off the North Cape of the North Island, are continually battered and can only claim an average, seven days of calm weather every year and an appalling seventy-fives days of gales!
A couple of days ago, as we headed out to sea in search of bottom trawlers, Kate, our assistant cook, drew us together on the bow of the Rainbow Warrior. She performed a Maori blessing or Mihi - a greeting and showing of respect, if you like, to the atua (gods) of wind and sea, informing them of our journey, and our goals. She also read out a whakatauki, which went something along the lines of 'may your sea be calm, and pleasant and your path glisten before you'.
As if being surrounded by rainbows wasn't enough - yesterday was our first significant day of dolphin sightings, with a small pod playing about in the Rainbow Warrior's bow wave for a while. Despite strong winds and a rolling swell, several of us watched them ducking and diving, breaking the surface and even chasing each other.
While the Rainbow Warrior sails for the high seas, back here in Aotearoa we have a small team on the ground in Nelson doing information stalls on the street and at the local markets.
Nelson is home to the largest fishing port in the southern hemisphere and to some of the bottom trawlers we found in international waters in the Tasman last year. It's a small town so the fishing industry is an important part of the local economy. Fishing is BIG BUSINESS in Nelson.
It was a classic example of a well planned and executed event, backed up with sound resource allocation and creative flair, all captured on film, in true Greenpeace style.
We've been at sea for a few days now - and have been dealing with some pretty awful weather. Whenever it's improved though, the crew of the Rainbow Warrior have been getting to know each other, and gelling as a team. With a new crew on board, we all have to get to know each other's idiosyncrasies - but we also have to make sure we're all trained up for life at sea. Part of the beauty of sailing on Greenpeace ships is that you end up with a great group of people at the end - but that group only exists for a short period of time. While you might sail with some of the same people again, it's rare to get the actual group back together again.
My name is Erin, I'm the communications officer onboard the Rainbow Warrior. It's my job to write press releases, liaise with our videographer and photographer and generally make sure that the story of the Rainbow Warrior's voyage gets back to our land-based team, so they can get it out to the rest of the world. It's my first time at sea, so my anticipation and excitement about going on the Rainbow Warrior has been mixed with a certain amount of apprehension. I've been so busy with preparation, organising a press conference and the larger whirlwind of work involved with our campaign, that it wasn't until we were waved off by a group of friends and family that I was hit by the fact that I was going to be away from land for the next month.
Deja vu, anyone? Our flagship, the Rainbow Warrior is pulling away from Prince's Wharf, Auckland, the crew poised for a pursuit of trawlers wrecking the ocean floor. Bottom trawling is the most destructive fishing practice in the world - and it's destroying the largest pool of undiscovered life on Earth....
