Crew Profiles

Maaike - 3rd Mate After four years voluntary work for the Greenpeace in Hoolland, I got a job on board the Arctic Sunrise as a volunteer deckhand. In those years in the Dutch action team I participated in every action possible, while also studying. Some of the actions were on board of Greenpeace ships. That meant going to sea for a few weeks as an activist/boat driver. When I joined the Arctic Sunrise I enjoyed being on board so much, I felt that sailing was the right thing for me to do. There are not many jobs that give me the satisfaction the way working for an environmental NGO does, but after a few trips as a Greenpeace deckhand, I went back to school and got my mate/engineers-ticket, so that I could sail on commercial ships. I had some different jobs as a deckhand and later as a mate on several ships. During my study I was working in the office in Amsterdam for a small year. Which was very good, because it made me see the organization from a different side. Last year December I got back on a Greenpeace ship, as a third mate. This year I'm back again on the Esperanza. After sailing on ships outside of Greenpeace (cargo ships, research vessels), I appreciate sailing for Greenpeace even more. Sailing for Greenpeace makes it able for me to make a difference, to stand up for what I believe is right. I think there are still a lot of global problems that needs to be solved. We can achieve much more, raise more awareness, which is necessary.

Alain - Deckhand My name is Alain from France, I'm 36 and I've been sailing for Greenpeace for almost 4 years now. I started as a volunteer on the Esperanza in 2001 and since then have made several trips on Greenpeace ships and have been involved in many different campaigns. Why did I joined Greenpeace? I wanted to put my energy and skills (I'm a chemist) into an NGO (non-governmental organisation) that stands for the rights of all of us to live in a clean and safe world. We do have a responsabilty to take care of the earth, not only for our own health, but also for the future of our kids. Thanks for all our supporters all around the world, and thank you for this incradible amount of trust you put on us... Peace Alain

Yabel - Medic Hello, my name is Yabel and I come all the way from Panama. Big change for me, from the sun to this cold and windy weather... beautiful. I'm the doctor on board, and this is my first time sailing with Greenpeace. Why am I here? This is a question without a specific answer. Things just happen... but I really think we can help our world doing something, from this ship or from where you live, it's just a matter of choice. I usually work in Panama in a small hospital, or doing medical work with Indian comunities in my country. Here my job is more likely to be a deckhand, and looking after anyone who gets sick or injured. You don't need to have experience, just need a lot of cheer and disposition for hard work. The only thing for sure is that you'll never get bored! So, If you like the ocean and you're an action person, this is an unforgettable experience. Hola, mi nombre es Yabel y soy de Panama, asi que he cambiado mi caluroso pais por este maravilloso clima frio y lluvioso... Trabajo como medico a bordo del MVES. Esta es la primera vez que navego con Greenpeace. Por que estoy aqui?, pues es una pregunta dificil de contestar, no tengo una respuesta especifica, solo son cosas que pasan...pero en verdad pienso que para ayudar a salvar nuestro mundo tenemos que hacer algo (desde este barco, o desde tu propia casa, no importa). Todo es cuestion de escoger una forma. Cuando no estoy aqui trabajo en un hospital en mi pais, o ayudo en las giras medicas a las comunidades indigenas panamenas. A bordo del Esperanza mi trabajo es mas que nada como marinera, mientras nadie se encuentre enfermo o sufra algun accidente. Contamos con un pequeno, pero muy bien equipado hospital. En realidad para estar aqui no hace falta tener mucha experiencia, solo es necesario venir con muchos animos y ganas de trabajar. Lo unico que si es seguro es que no hay tiempo para aburrirse... asi que, si te gusta el mar y la accion, esta es definitivamente una experiencia inolvidable. Gracias por tu atencion y espero verte pronto a bordo!

Madeleine - Chief Mate - from Australia I have been travelling on Greenpeace ships since 1995, but this is my first trip on the Esperanza. Finally we are underway, heading to the seamounts, of the North Atlantic. The days are shortening, and the wintry pattern of low pressure systems have begun to sweep across the ocean. We are heading towards a group of seamounts whimsically named after characters and places from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. They may as well be fantasy locations for all that humans know about them. The tragedy is that most of our knowledge about lives on these mystical seamounts comes from what is dragged up as 'bycatch' in the nets of bottom trawlers. These bug-eyed mysterious creatures are facing extinction before humans have even documented their existence. This feels like a real frontier campaign - going out into an unknown wilderness to protect it for its own intrinsic value. There are so few pristine areas left on this planet and I feel very committed to doing all I can to preserve the mystical seamounts of the North Atlantic.

Mir - 4th Engineer I am an interpreter and a retired biologist and spend roughly half of my life on the Esperanza, where I work as an assistant engineer and computer geek. I spend the rest of the time in Panama City eating rice and beans.

Anne - Deckhand I'm Anne, volunteer deckhand. I come from France, and I'm both lucky and very happy to be on the Esperanza, because I haven't any particular knowledge about ships or doing Greenpeace work (yet!). But I'm learning all about being a deckhand and I enjoy it, even the job of 'garbologiste', which consists of making sure that our waste is properly sorted out for recycling, and keeping the garbage room clear, clean and orderly!

Paul - Marine Biologist Normally, I can be found working with the Greenpeace International Science Unit based at the University of Exeter in the UK. Here, we carry out scientific work in support of Greenpeace activities worldwide. You can find more information on this work on the Greenpeace website and also on www.greenpeace.to ». So what am I doing out here in the real world? Well, in eighteen years working for Greenpeace, most of the issues that I have worked on have been related to the marine environment, chemical and radioactive discharges, waste dumping at sea, oil pollution and marine conservation. So, when I was asked to join the ship for this work on deep sea trawling and seamounts I was very happy about it. Truth to tell, our group at Exeter has been working on seamounts for a couple of years now, quietly gathering knowledge and expertise. I don't often get the chance to work on the ships and this was an opportunity to contribute to some really worthwhile work and also catch up with people that I hadn't worked with (or even seen in some cases) for over ten years. So here I am, hoping to contribute in some small way to pushing the political machinery so that the deep seas get protection not only from destructive fishing methods but also from all the other threats...

Vanessa - Campaigner I’m one of the oceans campaigners onboard the Esperanza. Based in New Zealand, I usually work on the climate campaign. Now I’m excited to being part of the team working to bring the destruction of bottom trawling to the attention to the public and our world leaders. Bottom trawling is one of the most wasteful and destructive fishing techniques in the world, destroying species before we even have a chance to study, understand or even name them. To me it represents the worst of the greed and shortsightedness destroying our planet. I’ve been an environmental activist for about 8 years and worked with Greenpeace for about four and a half years. In that time I’ve worked in both Australia and New Zealand on the oceans, genetic engineering, toxics and climate campaigns. As a kid I loved playing in the bush in the Blue Mountains and on the beach. From those times I felt a growing strong connection to the land and to the sea. From there I studied environmental science at university. But after finding that science wasn't "changing the world" as fast as I had hoped, I discovered environmental activism with The Wilderness Society. There I worked on a campaign to protect the Great Barrier Reef from the threat of prawn trawling. It seems we’ve failed to learn the lessons of the past. Bottom trawling that has threatening coral reefs and ecosystems closer to land is now being used at ever increasing depths, further and further from shore. But there’s still hope. With global public pressure the UN must act, put in place a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling and protect the life of the deep sea life.

Dima - Campaigner I was born Moscow, Russia in 1962. When I was six, my family was exiled to Eastern Siberia after my father was accused of "anti-soviet agitation and propaganda". In the middle of the taiga forests, miles from the ocean, my only escape lay in books, and the world of real and imagined seafarers. I literally swallowed books by Thor Hejerdahl, Robert Louise Stevenson and Jules Vernes. Later, we were expelled from the USSR and moved to New York as refugees. After I left university, I lived in Indian villages in Ecuador, where I met Anitta, and we were married in Guatemala in 1986. We moved to Sweden in 1987,where our first child, Anton was born. In 1989 we moved back the US and started door-to-door canvassing for Greenpeace. Over the next two years I was involved in a number of actions and expeditions, including a two month trip to Antarctica, trips to Novaya Zemlia (the Soviet nuclear weapons test site), a mass action at a US nuclear test site in Nevada, and trips to nuclear submarine base areas of the Pacific. In 1991 we moved to Moscow, where I began building up Greenpeace campaigns in the newly liberated Russian Federation. Our daughter Emma was born while there. In 1994 we moved back to Stockholm, where I have worked on a variety of campaigns, from anti-nuclear to forests, GMO and oceans. But by far the most significant moments, the gift that Greenpeace has given me - have been the oceans campaigns. Whether coordinating anti-whaling campaigns in Antarctica or off the coast of Norway; catching Russian barges dumping radioactive waste or confronting bottom trawlers that kill ocean life; whether stopping nuclear submarines or single-hulled oil tankers, its working for the survival of our seas that makes me feel most whole. Anitta, Anton, Emma and Luke (born 1999) and I now live outside Stockholm. We don't have a car, but we do have 7 bicycles. It takes us about a half an hour to bike to the closest sea shore.

Mariajo - Campaigner My name is Maria Jose, but my friends are called me Mariajo. I've been working at the Oceans campaign in Greenpeace for five and a half years. I am from Madrid, a city surrounded by land on four sides, but I have always loved the sea. After finishing my career in Biology, I decided to find out what it was living on a ship (to the great displeasure of my parents!). I began to work for the Oceanographic Institute of Vigo, on board bottom trawlers in the waters of Newfoundland. Those were five unforgettable months, both for the work and for the life at sea. My future was marked, and since then, I tell my life according to my crafts. The second trip was to the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica with Greenpeace, and those two months overcame all my expectations: we sailed searching for pirate ships who destroy the few marine resources that are our common heritage. During the voyage, my niece Paula was born in Madrid. The next voyage was to Sierra Leone, also searching for modern pirates, with a substantial change: it was my first navigation without horrific weather. On the sad day of September 11 2001, we were on board, and it was a terrible experience. Now I am on my way to the North East Atlantic Ocean, to demand the protection of deep sea life. During this voyage, my niece Valle will be born in in Madrid. Aunque mi nombre es María José, pero mis amigos me llaman Mariajo. Llevo cinco años y medio trabajando en Greenpeace, en la campaña de Oceanos. Soy de Madrid, ciudad rodeada por tierra por los cuatro costados, pero siempre me ha gustado el mar, asi que, nada más terminar la carrera de Biología, decidí probar como era eso de vivir en un barco (para gran disgusto de mis padres!) y comencé a trabajar para el Instituto Oceanográfico de Vigo, a bordo de barcos arrastreros de profundidad en aguas de Terranova. Fueron cinco meses inolvidables, tanto por el trabajo como por la vida en el mar. Indudablemente, aquello marcó mi futuro, y desde entonces, cuento mi vida según mis embarcaciones. La segunda fue a la Antártida, ya con Greenpeace, y aquellos dos meses superaron todas mis expectativas: nos fuimos en busca de piratas que destruyen unos recursos marinos que son patrimonio de la humanidad. Durante la travesía, en Madrid, nació mi sobrina Paula. El siguiente fue a Sierra Leona, también en busca de piratas modernos, eso sí, como un cambio sustancial: fue mi primera navegación sin un tiempo horroroso. El triste 11 de septiembre de 2001 nos pilló a bordo, fue una experiencia terrible. Ahora, me voy a surcar el Atlántico Norte, para demandar la protección de las profundidades marinas. Durante esta travesía, en Madrid, nacerá mi sobrina Valle.

Olivier - 2nd Mate I am the second officer on the Esperanza for this tour, from Montreal. I am in charge of all the navigational charts. I correct the charts and also prepare them for the voyages we make. I am also on the 12 to 4 watch, known as the dog watch. With Paul, the watchkeeper, I spend most of our watches looking for bottom trawlers. They're not easy to find in this rough weather... I joined Greenpeace two years ago. Having a commercial ship background, I just thought carrying oil around was not quite the right thing to be doing. You can call it an eye opener, or karma equalizer or whatever, here I am. With my knowledge of navigation and ships, I hope to contribute in helping Greenpeace to fulfil its goal. In my last vacation, I went scuba diving and got the chance to see intact corals and lots of tropical fish. Sometimes, I hish the crew of bottom trawlers could see what I saw then. Maybe they wouldn't be destroying all this amazing, rich and yet fragile life that lives on the ocean seamounts.

Dave - Web Editor I grew up in the south east of Ireland, where I spent my time messing around in boats on the River Slaney, helping with small-time salmon fishing, and watching seals and otters. I've spent the last decade working as a freelance journalist and web editor, but it was a moment of clarity - while sitting in a dive boat in the Ionian Sea - that made me realise that I should combine writing, photography and web design with my passion for the ocean and the environment, and boats. So instead of sitting at a stationary desk in Dublin, here I am, on the Esperanza, in the middle of the Atlantic, writing... This is my second Greenpeace expedition - the first was as web editor on the Rainbow Warrior's recent expedition to the Tasman Sea, the first leg of our mission to save deep sea life. It was one think to understand the implications of the damage being done to our oceans - it was quite another to be sitting there, in a Greenpeace inflatable, watching rocks being dragged up from the sea floor, and thousands of mutilated fish being dumped by trawlers. I was shocked, and sobered by the arrogance of us humans. When not doing Greenpeace stuff, I'm running blather.net, mountainbiking, scuba diving or travelling.

All photographs: Greenpeace/Kate Davison