The Return of the Rhein

The Rhein was once again the focus of our attention last night when it was met by a Greenpeace flotilla including the Vega - as it entered Melbourne carrying 6300 tonnes of unlabelled genetically engineered soya.

Four Greenpeace zodiacs, three yachts and six kayaks displaying banners saying, 'Stop GE imports' and 'Genetically engineered food - unnatural, unnecessary, unwanted', escorted the ship for five miles from the West Gate Bridge to its berth. The Flotilla was honoured by the presence of the Vega, famous for when it successfully challenged the French atmospheric nuclear testing programme at Moruroa during the early 70s.

Melbourne restaurateur Dur-e Dara supported the protest: "I'm shocked that GE soya is getting into our food through animal feed. I don't want this experimental stuff in my food, or in meals I serve to my customers. It's outrageous that this is going on without us knowing anything about it."

The nocturnal escort was the latest meeting between our campaigners and the Rhein. The ships meet for the first time last week in Brisbane and earlier this week, the Rainbow Warrior attempted to stop the Rhein from continuing to Melbourne by blocking its departure from Port Kembla harbour.

One of our campaigners Jeremy Tager has been onboard the Rainbow Warrior through all the latest adventures...............

We had been at sea for two days. When we left Sydney, everyone thought we were bound for Melbourne. Word came on Monday morning that the Rhein had arrived and was due to depart for Melbourne with its load of around 7000 tonnes of genetically engineered soya that night. We began to move immediately.

We wanted the Warrior to be there, to give a kind of emphatic voice to our campaign to stop the worldwide trade in GE soy.

We steamed into the port our banners proclaiming 'The Future is GE Free'. We waited for all hell to break loose. The media had been notified. The captain of the Rhein, only several hundred metres away, must have been aware of our presence. We notified the harbour master of our intention to block the channel as long as possible or until the importers of GE soy committed to no longer import GE soy.

We had obviously completely surprised the authorities. They knew that both the Rhein and the Rainbow Warrior were bound for Melbourne and expected us to act there in the most public of places, not in the industrial port of Port Kembla. At first it was only the pilot boat that approached. Later the police boats arrived, although they didn't make contact with us. We waited.

At one point we received information that the Rhein might try and sneak past without moving us. We upped anchor and moved into a narrower part of the channel ensuring the Rhein was going nowhere. At 10pm, the Rhein was due to depart for Melbourne. It didn't.

We waited. Some of us grabbed a few hours sleep. We expected a long night. At 11:30 the water police boarded the Warrior. They took control of the ship, bringing all of us onto the lower deck. A pilot boat came alongside and shortly after one of the large port tugs appeared. In a little over an hour the Rainbow Warrior was brought up against a grain pier inside the harbour.

Police waited on the pier. At that stage, we were informed that the Captain, Derek Nicholls, would be arrested and the rest of us would be confined to the vessel. When Derek left at around 2am we all applauded - he had risked the most in this blockade and was about to find out what charges would be laid against him.

Around half a dozen-water police stayed on board. The next several hours were made up of coffee and tea with the police, quiet conversations, snatches of sleep. At around 4:30 Derek returned. He was facing two charges and will have to return here in June from New Zealand.

Jeremy Tager, onboard the Rainbow Warrior

More information

- Tell Inghams to STOP using GE feed.

- Read about the Warriors earlier action.

- Visit the True Food network to learn more about GE in the food chain

- Visit the Rainbow Warrior in Melbourne.

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