First Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal and the Netherlands's leading business paper, covered the success of our Dove palm oil video, and the effect it's having at Unilever HQ.

And this weekGermany's FT says the unlikely shift that GMO campaigners helped create in the European Commission has "seriously set back" the agro-chemical industry, something the industry would like to play down.

Finally (how's your German?), Handelsblatt.com printed a detailed feature on Lo Sze Ping, our top guy in Greenpeace China.

greenpeacebuzz

Today we caught an illegal tuna purse seiner (Queen Evelyn 168) in the Pacific Commons between Papua New Guinea and the Federated States of Micronesia. This Philippines-flagged vessel was close to the transfer of tuna between her sister vessel and a refrigerated mothership. It is likely that a transfer of fish at sea involving an illegal vessel was about to occur, but upon our arrival the vessels immediately separated and fled.

Transfers of fish at sea are known to facilitate pirate fishing around the world and now we have seen it with our own eyes in the Pacific. For years tuna have disappeared unreported on motherships like this.

One of our volunteer activists from Fiji boarded the mothership and has written about her experience.

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My name is Ana and I am a Fijian volunteer. I am the assistant cook on board the Esperanza . Today, I was an activist for the second time since I have been on the ship. Early this morning at about 5.30am I was woken up by a phone call from the bridge, telling me that they had spotted a fishing boat and that I must get ready because the boat was launching at 6.00am. Little did I know that the real action would not start until about 11.00am, so back to the galley I went to help prepare lunch. That's just the way it goes sometimes. The helicopter came back and we began to chase a reefer (a vessel that takes the tuna catch away from fishing vessels so they can keep catching more fish without coming to port) out here in international waters.

Boats were launched and we took off towards the reefer, radio contact was done already and Lagi our campaign leader came with us. When we arrived at the reefer some of our crew were welcomed on board. The captain and crew were very helpful and even our photographers were allowed on the reefer, which was really nice of the captain. I stayed in the inflatable for a while and bobbed alongside the ship for about 2 hours and then finally the radio contact was made asking me, my wantok Danny (from Papua New Guinea) and Sakyo (a Japanese activist) to also board the ship.

We managed to get on the boat without any mishap and I am still surprised that I actually climbed up that ladder because I am afraid of heights. But with the encouragement from my fellow crew on board the African Queen I managed to climbed up that ladder with shaky knees! Thank you Helena for your patience and encouragement from the rest of the team. We were invited to go down to the cooler which was half full with tuna of various sizes. We climbed down the ladder to document the cargo of tuna in there.

Being in the cooler, I got a close look at all the fish and it made me really sad because the smallest tuna that I could see was the size of my palm. No wonder there is a decline in the tuna stock because these foreigners took whatever size of tuna that they could get their hands on. I was filled with rage when I came out of the cooler I had to sit down for a while to get my emotions back together. In order for the Pacific to have tuna stocks for our children tomorrow we need to act now.

Images © Greenpeace/Paul Hilton

Well guess what! Yesterday they reached a groundbreaking agreement in Montreal and adopted a blueprint for action to protect the high seas from bottom trawling. NAFO members include Canada, the European Union, Norway, Iceland, Russia and the US.

The agreement reached will implement a United Nations General Assembly resolution adopted in 2006, which called for urgent action to protect deep-sea corals and other vulnerable ecosystems from the impacts of bottom fishing in international waters. NAFO has now agreed that all high seas bottom fishing will be subject to impact assessments by the end of 2008, and that fishing areas should be closed or fisheries prohibited where damage to corals, sponges and other deep sea species cannot be prevented.

Having worked on the campaign to help bring about this kind of change and now being back on the Esperanza when this news came through - I am simply overjoyed! Here we are, working again on an other campaign to defend the oceans and sometimes it can feel like the problems are insurmountable and it's often hard to see any light at the end of this tunnel. It's great to see that NAFO has lit a beacon in the darkness!

Read more here and here.

Langi, on board our ship the Esperanza, with an update on destructive fishing in his part of the world, and what we're doing about it.

Written by Daniel Loo on board the Esperanza

I was born in Fiji and have lived there all my life although my family emigrated to Fiji in the early 50s from Kiribati. I have a really interesting heritage as my Dad is Chinese while my mother is Gilberteese (Kiribati) with ancestors from Tuvalu, Ireland and Germany.

When first approached to write something about my experience onboard Esperanza the first thing that came to my mind was whether I had to write something from an activist point of view or as a deckhand. Well to start off, this is my first time to work on a ship and these three weeks have been some of the best in my entire life. Its been truly amazing!!!

Being out at sea as a volunteer has been an exciting experience, and I take my hat off to the dedicated hardworking crew who give one hundred percent effort including their lives for a cause they believe in. By doing this we are able to raise global awareness about the decline of our precious marine resources currently overfished today by hungry money making tuna fishing companies.

When we approached an American fishing vessel just as it had hauled in the net we asked the captain about his fishing activities and informed him about the declining stocks of tuna in the world. He did say he was aware of this, but he did not think that the tuna would run out! But pacific fishermen are very concerned about the damaging impact that foreign fishing vessels have on their catch.

It really is upsetting because despite the obvious impacts on our marine resources, fishing vessels continue to overfish and somehow try and find excuses to get away with what they are doing, even it means paying loads of cash to get governments to support them etc. We are taking action out here in the Pacific Commons in order to get the message across that this craziness needs to stop NOW and we mean business! We have been getting a lot of reaction to our activities out here and as a Pacific Islander and an activist - I say "Hooray!!!" with my thumbs up!

Life at sea is not just - campaigning and actions. There is a lot of work involved just to keep the ship running. We like to say here on board that "a clean ship is a happy ship". Well that was what I was told when I first boarded in Suva, Fiji. As someone who has worked in an office for 7 years, I must admit I was very much a novice and lost from the very beginning. I had absolutely no knowledge of how to use the tools and equipment to do various tasks as all of them were very new to me. But I have learnt how to clean and maintain the ship and how to get the inflatable boats off the ship and into the water. The closest I had ever seen a helicopter before was in the movies but now I prepare one for launch so that it can go looking for fishing vessels!

The best part of my trip so far was actually flying in the helicopter and taking photographs of the fishing boats. This is something I will surely tell my grandchildren about! It seems that with Greenpeace... nothing is impossible! I work with inspiring as well as wonderful people who are there with me all the way and were it not for them I would not have been able to learn and experience all these amazing things.

If I have the chance to come back and do this again as a volunteer, I will do so in a heart-beat!

Daniel

Image: ©Greenpeace/Paul Hilton

This morning, the crew of the Arctic Sunrise found an illegal drift net in the Mediterranean. Our crew went into action, seizing the net and releasing the sea life trapped in it. Now our ship's followed the fishing boat back to Sicily, where it's being met by the coast guard. (Full story with video.)

Lisa's posted here a few days ago about the Esperanza crew's direct action to stop a dodgy long liner in the Pacific commons.

This is the kind of thing I love to see Greenpeace doing. These aren't the first Greenpeace ship tours to either region. We've been there before, talked to the governments, talked to the industry, talked to the scientists. At some point you've got to stop talking and do something.

Great work by both of our crews.

Update (8 May): "Turtle's demise greatly exaggerated" The Arctic Sunrise also saved a turtle from the driftnet. I didn't mention it in my first post because I'd seen the video here and thought it was dead. This morning I got news that the crew was able to revive and release the turtle. Hopefully it will recover from its ordeal.

Not Unilever’s ads, that’s for sure. Produced by WPP Group’s PR agency Ogilvy & Mather, Unilever’s ads have previously scooped top prize at the annual advertising convention held in Cannes, France. But they’ve been knocked off top spot on YouTube by Greenpeace’s parody of Unilever’s “Onslaught” ad. “Onslaught(er)” was launched only two weeks ago, and produced at a fraction of the cost of the original.

The rapid success of our campaign has staggered the business world. The palm oil issue, and Unilever’s policy shift, has even reached the pages of The Wall Street Journal, where a spokesperson for one of WPP Group’s other branding consultancies, Added Value, noted that Unilever had been smart to respond to the pressure we’d applied. Unilever itself is reported as claiming that our protests had some bearing but a very little influence on its decision.

It seems to us that shifting its policy in just two weeks hardly suggests that Unilever hasn’t been heavily influenced by the runaway success of our campaign. The YouTube experience has taught them that it’s possible for their own brand to be outbranded when it comes to public concern about environmental issues, and that’s got to hurt.

On(slaughter) - our take on Unilever's "Onslaught"

Let’s hope that the bosses of other multinationals, reading their Wall Street Journals this weekend, take heed of the power of public mobilisation and follow suit. Otherwise, we just might find ourselves scooping the top prize ourselves at next year’s Cannes advertising convention!

I shot this video using a little digital hand held camera and edited it on my laptop - so sorry about the background noises of the ship and the wind

We've just confiscated several kilometres of tuna fishing gear, freed marine life and sent a Taiwanese longlining vessel out of Pacific international waters and all before lunch! The 5am wake up call today came way too early for some but the dark, surly morning quickly turned into a dramatic action-packed wildlife rescue operation. Last night we spotted a longliner in one of the areas of international waters just north east of Papua New Guinea.

We researched the vessel and discovered that it was previously involved in shark finning in Costa Rica. We stayed with it until first light this morning when we launched inflatable boats. I helped to navigate the Esperanza alongside the fishing lines and later went out in a boat as safety crew in case anyone ended up needing help - but I wasn't out on the water for long and didn't get to see most of the action so I have bribed Sari, one of the campaigners on board, with chocolate to write an update for you.

The following is from Sari

We first tried to radio the vessel from the ship but got no response so our Chinese translator went over to speak to the vessel. We handed over the letter which explained our campaign and the captain nodded whilst reading it. We asked him to stop fishing and leave the area and he agreed but wanted to haul in his line first. We told him he had to free all marine life on his line and then we branded the hull of the ship with "PIRATE?" in red paint because it is impossible for any authority to know if this vessel is fishing legally as it is very difficult to regulate fishing in international waters.

We told the captain that since he is not willing to stop fishing we will now interfere with his line and confiscate his equipment. We freed the fish coming up on the line before it went onto the boat. A radio beacon was coming up on the line and one of our boats managed to take it on board, and almost at the same time a turtle appeared on the line. We lifted it up and managed to undo the hook and pull out the bait (squid) that was tangled in its mouth and we released it back into the ocean. We later identified it via photos as an endangered olive ridley turtle.

The captain was clearly alarmed by the fact that we now had the radio beacon and he asked us if we wanted him to throw all his fish over board in order to have his beacon back. We established that all he had on board was already dead so told him to keep it but that everything else that comes up has to be freed. He agreed and personally came down after that to free everything that came up. The first thing released was a huge (at least 2.5m) beautiful blue marlin that jumped high out of the water between the boats. Pretty wild, but unfortunately it was so quick that we didn't get pictures.

For the rest of the line, several sharks and large tuna were released. We stayed with the ship until it got to one end of the line while at the other end, the Esperanza hauled up the line and hooks together with another radio beacon.

In the end we negotiated to give the radio beacons back to the captain for his word to leave the international waters and return to Vanuatu where he is licensed to fish. We confiscated the line and kept it on board and will return it to the Taiwanese company headquarters. Throughout the activity, which took about 5 hrs, most of the crew on the fishing vessel remained calm and smiled at us. Now and then when the captain wasn't looking we got little thumbs up from some of them.

Here's an account written by Rose, our Chinese translator from New Zealand (Rose was keen to write something and didn't even need any chocolate!)

When the captain personally came down and cut the first fish off the line, he wanted the beacon back immediately, but "NO WAY!" I said (in Mandarin), "Get all that line on board first!"

I think at that time he didn't really believe our big ship would pull in the line. He seemed to think we were bluffing. But after the Esperanza began hauling - he was certainly cooperating, making me so glad to be part of this action to defend these international waters against overfishing and protect this amazing ecosystem. I told him about the depleting tuna stocks, the importance to the Pacific and to all the Pacific people's livelihood, and how this area needed to be a marine reserve.

He just kept saying "Yes! Yes! Just give me that beacon!"

But I said "No! Not until you agree to leave this area without returning."

He finally got it, but I was a very stroppy translator at that point because I had to get our message across.

I think one of the funniest moments was as we were leaving, I bid him farewell in Chinese which is "Zai jian", literally meaning "See (you) again".

But the captain's reply to me was "BU jian", meaning "NOT see (you) again!"

At which point I got the last word in for the campaign – "Well as long as you don't come back here, that's fine with us!"

Image info: Upper - Activists release an endangered olive ridley turtle after unhooking it from longlining gear © Paul Hilton/Greenpeace
Lower - The Esperanza hauls in long line fishing gear © Lisa Vickers/Greenpeace

Here's a blog from Dean, our Kiwi communications officer on board the Esperanza

OK, so I admit it, I didn’t want to leave Honiara. Land itself had been such a welcome relief for me – but the big smiles, the new food, the busy markets, the curious people, the artistic talent - particularly obvious in weaving and carving), the smells – both intriguing and horrible, the multiple languages and tribal groups, the history and the sense of humour of local people had an unexpected intoxicating effect. I loved Honiara. And also it was quite a shock to be in a town that was incredibly poor with bad sanitation and air pollution (especially for 50,000 people) and to know that the ocean wealth and potential wealth of the country was disappearing. In fact, you could watch it happening from town, the wharf and along the foreshore. From there was my strongest first and last impressions of Honiara: the massive cargo motherships, with a smaller purse seiners each side with cranes lifting the tuna catch into the expansive hold of the motherships.

At night they looked like brightly-lit floating casinos. Then of course, the motherships leave, destined for the fish markets of Tokyo or another huge city. And in return, Pacific Island nations get 4-5% of the US$3 billion generated from catch in the region. There is obvious unemployment and they must to pay for their children to go to school from the time they are 8 years old. HIV/AIDs transmission has exploded as a result of increased contact with foreign fishermen and prostitution.

• Women who sit underneath a huge tree with their woven pandanus (a type of long-leaved plant) and bright crocheted bags hanging on the lower branches for sale.


• Big smiles you get when you smile at people on the street (don’t ever be stingy with smiles in the Solomons!).


• Chicken and pork that was stuffed inside bamboo and cooked on hot coals – and the rest of the feast the Greenpeace Wantoks (love you all!) put on for us on Sunday for our official first day off in 3 weeks.


• Shipload of giant clam shells (each about 1 metre long!) that I was told was heading to the US to become hand basins for the rich.


• Crocodiles, turtles, whales, crayfish, carved from wood with their shiny shell eyes.


• Music from a local band played on instruments I couldn’t name.


• Stories of a great local permaculture project (on Malaita Island?), and the various low-impact community forestry/logging projects.

I’ll be back.

Image Info: Dean Baigent-Mercer from New Zealand and Daniel Holland from Papua New Guinea hold the Solomon Islands flag as Honiara slips into the distance © Paul Hilton/Greenpeace

The Esperanza has just left Honiara in the Solomon Islands where I joined the ship so that we can keep you up to date on all of our adventures in the Pacific. I have replaced Jess, the webby from the Greenpeace USA office, who has reluctantly returned to her desk in Washington DC. If you've missed whatś been going on in the Pacific over the past few weeks you can check out her blog here.

The ship spent 6 days in the Solomon Islands and I arrived on Saturday morning just 2 days before we left and yet it feels like I´ve already been here for a long time. Memories from being on board before came flooding back as if it was just yesterday but it's nearly 3 years since I left the ship in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

I have not sailed with most of the crew on board before and it's always a great pleasure to make new friends and hear new stories (speaking of stories, the photographer keeps trying to have me believe he has a chicken in his cabin!). There are people on the ship from every corner of the world and many from this particular region. But it's funny that I often I hear claims that only western folks sail around on Greenpeace ships telling other countries what to do with their environment.

Geoff Mamata Dennis is from the Solomon Islands and single handedly runs the Greenpeace office there but with the ship's visit he was joined by several folks from Greenpeace Australia Pacific and several local volunteers. They launched two reports while the ship was in port on fisheries and forests outlining a sustainable and equitable future for those two industries and warning the Solomon Islands that they can't allow the same to happen to the oceans as they have for the forests. These islands are the political centre for tuna fishing in the region as they are home to the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) and so the campaign team has been informing local and regional decision makers of the looming tuna crisis and offering solutions.

Lagi and Sari are the two campaigners on board who were also in Guam with me last year at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) meeting. We've moved from sitting in meeting rooms witnessing the complete failure of the WCPFC last December to the international waters where the unsustainable plunder of the Pacific continues to threaten the food security and the economies of the Pacific Islanders. We are all looking forward to the weeks ahead that look set to bring enough exciting action to make a blockbuster movie!

I've created a Flickr photo set of the images I took while we were in the Solomons. Click here to see them. I also found a great set from the Pacific Greenpeace tour in 2004 AND when you get bored looking at those - you can watch the web cam up on the mast - it's working again.

A webcam image from just before we left Honiara showing foreign fishing vessels (purse-seiners). They were transferring their catch to carrier vessels. These ¨transhipments¨ allow fleets from distant fishing nations to avoid declaring their catch when they come into port.

Short clip of the sunrise through the porthole in the mess room - as the Esperanza steams towards international waters

Top image info:
Family members sell tuna at the market in Honiara © Paul Hilton/Greenpeace

Here's a few choice quotes:

Now, between sips of pinot grigio, he's offering up dubious factoids: Nuclear waste is safe enough to store in a backyard swimming pool, the areas around the plants are "as clean as nature preserves," and Three Mile Island was a success story because no radiation was emitted. He dismisses anti-nuke arguments as "illogical imaginary fears."

Despite being paid to attend political meetings, hearings, give interviews and schmooze with politicians apparently

Moore claims they needn't register as lobbyists because they don't lobby; they educate.

Now I didn't know you could really get a teaching qualification in nuclear promotion?

So it was business closed for these tuna suppliers. Not just that but the ensuing chaos – including overwhelmed police blocking the way meant entire halls stopped trading for much of the day.

I remember an oceans campaigner telling me once about the Expo “It’s unbelievable, these guys are literally selling ocean destruction, neatly packaged in arty displays.” It didn’t take long to walk around to confirm this. 1800 stalls over a massive exhibition centre - fish, fish, fish everywhere.

That’s why this direct action was so good. Stopping the tuna from being traded = stopping an environmental crime from being committed.

Greenwash is about misleading people rather than changing products and business practices to be better for the environment. It's also one of those words that gets thrown around a lot. Check out StopGreenwash's straightforward criteria. And if you spot something you thing might be greenwash, you can report it here.

Afterwards, all those that welcomed us came onboard for a press conference and a look around the ship. Photos from our work in the Pacific over the last few years hung in the helicopter hanger and people seemed to be really interested in them.

We're in Honiara for the rest of the week and there will be an official open boat on Saturday 10:00 to 5:00. If you are in the Solomons be sure to stop by and take a tour of the Esperanza!