Cold and grey perhaps, but in need of protection

From the coast, the North Sea looks cold, grey and bleak. And to be fair, having spent the last two weeks bobbing about on it, I'd say that can be a pretty good description. But the last fortnight has also shown me other sides to the North Sea.

The North Sea is an important environment for a wide range of marine life. The underwater photographs that we took early on in the tour showed all sorts of colourful and bizarre life that looked like it would be more at home on a tropical coral reef. Above the water, we have seen lots of bird life - magnificent gannets and massive herring gulls. And a pigeon too, with a ring on his foot, taking a rest on our deck - I dare say on his way back to Yorkshire. This sea is damaged, but there is still life here in urgent need of protection.

I've also seen life destroyed here - the hauls the fishermen brought up to their decks and the wasted, discarded fish and other creatures that are thrown back over the side dead. As I'm writing, I can see an oil rig several miles off, a bright flame burning at the top of one of its towers, releasing a plume of dark smoke. There is still much to do to ensure that this sea is protected.

It's the North Sea's cold and grey bleakness that I suspect is part of its problem. It's always been viewed as a working sea, a harsh environment. Perhaps people have tended to think there was little worth saving. The work that Greenpeace is doing now is challenging that view. There is much to protect here - the challenge is to get that protection in place before this distinct environment is damaged beyond repair.

We're on our way back to Amsterdam for another crew change at the weekend. The weather has deteriorated and the sea is pretty rough, throwing us from side to side. I seem to have found my sea legs just as I am about to get off. I almost feel hungry for the first time in a fortnight. I won't be eating fish.

- Olly

Posted by Elaine

From sea to sea

Iris with the Esperanza

Initially we spent a lot of time collecting data and bringing it into a Geographical Information System (GIS). This system allowed us to overlap the data of existing and proposed marine reserves, species and habitat distribution, nursery and spawning areas as well as human uses. The next step after mapping out our reserves was to discuss our proposals with scientists from different fields. These discussions were all very helpful and we received a lot of constructive critism and support. It was hard work, but in the end we developed a really good proposal.

August on the Esperanza tour was planned mainly for "defending" the Dogger Bank Marine Reserve, a particularly sensitive area because of its environmental factors. But it is also an interesting area due to the fact that it crosses so many European economic zones - Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and the UK - which are all within the proposed marine reserve. My part on the Esperanza has been to help out with campaign issues and to bring the story back to Germany and to the German politicians.

My time on the Esperanza is coming to a close, but as you may already know, this campaign is not just about the North Sea and we have developed proposals for ten marine reserves in the Baltic Sea. In September, as the team on the Esperanza works for the establishment of marine reserves in the North Sea, we will be doing the same on the new Greenpeace Germany ship - the Beluga II, in the Baltic Sea.

The Beluga II is currently touring the German Wadden Sea coast. In the Baltic we will mainly be working in the Bornholm Deep - an important spawning ground for the heavily overfished Baltic cod. BUT: the Bornholm Deep is also an important fishing ground. We will try to communicate our ideas of marine reserves for the protection of nature as well as for the future of the fishery to the fishermen. This part of the campaign will be mainly run by the Nordic and the German offices. And me, well I am happy to say that in a few weeks I will be back on another Greenpeace ship doing my part to help establish these very necessary marine reserves!

- Iris

Posted by Elaine

Waving home

Mike, the second mate, in action

We have a 15-degree roll from side to side; it takes about eight seconds to complete the motion from port to starboard. In addition we are yawing down a starboard quarterly swell and like a rolling corkscrew the bow pirouettes through a circle of ten degrees. We pitch but do not pound - in a sense we have caught the surf and are skiing home.

Natalia from Athens - where the Olympics are currently competing with our actions for publicity - continues to be the sailor on dogwatch with me. It has been a month now. Her father was a seaman - I met him in Piraeus last year and she does well in his footsteps. She is overjoyed to be in a gale, and together with her fellow sailor Penny, they have been laughing all day, scrubbing the decks in the weather.

There is no spray from the sea, the wind whistles up behind us, and we are racing in our own Olympic home run. The sea helps us along, keeping the poop deck awash as every seventh larger wave catches up to us from behind. Some of the campaigners have been feeling a little pooped themselves - the sea is relentless. This is one of the more dangerous ways to run a boat for fear of going broadside - but it is only a five-metre swell and not overwhelming. The surf's up and we are heading in.

- Mike, the mate

Posted by Elaine

Seismic trouble in marine reserves

This weekend we went to another proposed marine reserve near the Dutch coast - the Greater Wadden Sea Marine Reserve. We knew that the seismic testing vessel Geo Pacific would be surveying in the area until October. We found the vessel on Saturday morning, towing six four-mile long cables behind it. We were instructed to stay well clear of its path.

The area where the testing is taking place is an important spawning ground for sole, and a nursery area for other species of fish, such as plaice and whiting. It is also an important area for seals, birds and harbour porpoises.

Seismic surveys are used by the oil and gas industry to locate new resources. The surveys utilise airguns that produce explosive impulses of sound directed toward different layers under the seabed. These tests are massive, covering vast areas of ocean with thousands of blasts going off every few seconds - in some cases over the course of days, weeks or months.

We have a hydrophone on board - a 400m long cable that can be towed behind the ship. With Gavin's technical knowledge, a headset and a computer we were able to both see and hear the sound. The closest we were allowed to get was 4.5km and the booms were very loud still at this distance. We could still clearly hear the sound as far as 30km away, after which we lost the vessel on the radar and could not be sure how far away we were when it finally disappeared.

The results are pretty straightforward. Every eight seconds, for three months, this very loud noise, well above human pain threshold, is disturbing the area. It is hard to imagine that any marine life with means of swimming away would like to stay.

It is very difficult to study the physiological effects this may have on marine life and very little data exists. However, evidence from beached whales and dolphins does tend to show some long-term hearing loss, with up to half showing some physiological compromise. The sound produced by seismic tests, equivalent to a fighter jet taking off right next to you, is loud enough to damage fish hearing permanently. More generally it is observed that when seismic testing takes place, marine mammals, fish, turtles and squid, all leave.

This is a good example of how activities that happen at sea, away from public view, can still go on when they would never be allowed on land. Imagine a nature reserve on land. An activity that would drive away all the birds and wildlife would never be allowed to take place.

We are calling for marine reserves where no extractive and destructive practises are allowed. This includes new oil and gas development. Since seismic testing is the first step in locating these resources, it should not take place in marine reserves. Marine reserves are set up as refuges for marine life where they can breed, feed, grow and travel through as undisturbed as possible. This means that animals should not be harmed and disrupted by human induced noise pollution such as seismic testing.

On the other hand we should not forget that the amount of hydrocarbons in known reserves already exceeds what may be burned without completely destroying the climate. It is absurd and immoral to waste money, and to disturb the marine environment in the process of looking for more.

- Sari

Posted by Sari, campaigner/diver

Trying to protect the plaice...

Greenpeace activists on a buoy being dragged along by a beam trawler

I woke this morning to the sound of my roommate Jetske being called - "time to get up girl, time to drive a boat..." Last night's plans are put into action as we send one of our inflatables out to make contact with the UK flagged Dutch beam trawler 'Friendship'. We have both the UK and Dutch campaigners on the rigid inflatable boat (RIB) to communicate in both languages. There is no reply to our requests to talk and hand over information, so we head towards the next beam trawler and again the call goes out and there is no reply.

Our campaigners return to the Esperanza and a second RIB is launched, this one will be the action boat, containing half a huge plastic buoy with some ingenious additions attached. The RIBs close in on the trawlers starboard net. The fishermen have their ammunition ready and start pelting the inflatable with chunky metal shackles. We continue, helmets in place, and manage to hook onto the net line, launching the buoy into the water. It's floating behind, being towed by the trawler. Our volunteer swimmers jump onto the buoy and for a few moments they too are being dragged behind by 'Friendship'.

Our videographer - who is capturing the action on film - escapes a direct hit, but his camera gets a shackle head on, stopping filming for an instant. The buoy disconnects from the trawler line and we recover it, heading back to the Esperanza for an action debrief and to discuss the next move. The camera looks quite sad now, lying in the hallway, a chunk of metal panel smashed and limp microphone hanging off, I'm just glad that wasn't one of our activists.

After a short break, the team have managed to fix the buoy line and we head out again. Moving towards 'Friendship' once more, flares are fired at our RIBs. As we have previously experienced flares from the Dutch fishermen and are aware of how dangerous they are, we hang back and observe their behaviour for a few minutes. More flares are fired, some missing the team by only a matter of metres. Again heavy metal shackles and chains are pelted out and we decide to approach the next vessel, having previously attempted to make contact with them.

The violent behaviour continues with the next boat and more flares are fired. The decision is made that the situation has become too dangerous. The whole point of being here on the Dogger Bank is to promote the creation of marine reserves to protect the North Sea. It's non-violent action, not a war with trawlers and we don't want to encourage an escalation of violence from the aggravated fishermen. The RIBs head back to the Esperanza - the scene is documented and no-one is injured.

- Elaine

Posted by Elaine

Salads for sea life!

Hello everyone. I'm Chris and I'm currently on board the Esperanza as a volunteer assistant cook. This position is (probably) the most glamorous and influential within the whole Greenpeace organisation, but I try not to let this go to my head.

But seriously, it's a very interesting learning experience for me as it's both my first time working in a kitchen other than my own and my first time on board a ship. So I am learning to wash, chop, prepare and present food while the whole kitchen (sorry - galley) moves up, down, backwards and forwards around me. Also, for good measure, we get the occasional bucket of cold seawater flying in through the portholes.

Apart from developing my sea leg(s) (I'm currently limping badly but that's another story) and my culinary skills, it makes me very happy to be able to play a part, however small, in aiding Greenpeace to protect the fragile ecosystem of the North Sea.

It was the repeated ignoring and dilution of scientific recommendations, combined with the absurdly unworkable fishing quota system, that led me to join Greenpeace in the first place. Firstly I became a monthly contributor, then for the last two years, a volunteer working on many campaigns.

While aboard I have also been doing some four-hour lookout shifts, which help me to familiarise myself with every part of the Esperanza - from the controls on the bridge to the mysterious workings of the engine room. Hopefully I will also get an opportunity to put some of my rigid inflatable boat training into action as well.

So finally I find myself working on the campaign that is closest to my heart, with some great people, while learning new skills and having fun. It's not a bad life really.

- Chris

Posted by Chris, volunteer assistant cook

Using the North Sea

I've been on the Esperanza in the North Sea for a week now. During that time we've covered quite a bit of ground - moving around the edge of the entire Dogger Bank and its neighbouring areas, along several of the primary shipping lanes and parts of the Dutch coast. One thing that really stands out to me now is just how much people want to take something from the North Sea. There doesn't seem to be many people out here who are trying to give something back.

The reality is that most of the vessels we pass out here are in the business of taking. Fishing vessels are an obvious example. Trawling nets through mid water, or running nets over the seabed - these vessels are here to take from the sea. But there are many other people out here also in the business of taking. Seismic testing vessels blast massively loud sounds at the seabed, scanning for new reserves of raw materials to take from the seabed or below it. We know that the sounds released by these vessels are damaging to the marine environment and to the creatures that live there.

Nearer the coast, sand and gravel extraction vessels literally hoover up the seabed, taking not only the layers of sediment that are vital to life, but also the life itself. Meanwhile, ships of all shapes and sizes, with cargoes of varying degrees of safety, pass up and down the shipping lanes. With all this taking and using, it's no wonder that the North Sea is so badly damaged.

We need to stop and think about the way we use the sea. Most of us do use it, even if we never visit it. Not so many years ago, there was a common belief that the sea was a limitless resource. Some argued that you could never take too many fish from it, others that the sea was more than capable of dealing with any amount of pollution dumped into it. Such views are now completely discredited. We all know we can damage the oceans and most of us know that we have already damaged them. The question we should ask now is how can we stop harming the oceans?

Marine reserves are an essential part of protecting the oceans, but the fact remains that we need to find ways to take less from the sea, and give more back. If you want to give back, start asking questions about what it is you are taking. Next time you queue for fish and chips, visit the fish monger or buy fish from a supermarket, try considering not just the taste or your preferred sauce. Ask the person selling the fish where it came from. Which fishing method was used to catch it? Was the seabed damaged when it was caught? How much other sea life was killed and thrown back into the sea for it? If we all start asking these questions and only consume seafood when we are happy with the answers, the companies that do so much damage will soon want to change their practices.

We all have a role to play in protecting the North Sea and the world's oceans. For many of us, I suspect this role starts with our stomachs.

- Olly

Posted by Elaine

Baltic reservations

Divers hold banner in Hoburgs Bank, part of the Greenpeace network of Baltic Sea Marine Reserves

As both the North and Baltic Seas are almost completely EU waters they come under the same legislation and policy. For fisheries this is the Common Fisheries Policy and for protected areas the Habitat and Bird Directives. It is the failure of these policies that we want to address and change in our campaign in order to rescue our seas. This is why the different offices are joined in effort. Together we are stronger - an important feature about Greenpeace worldwide!

During this summer I have been busy preparing for this campaign push on the MV Esperanza. As a diver and marine biologist I have taken part in three different diving and documentation tours. In May we were here at the Dogger Bank area and in June in the Finnish Archipelago - one of the proposed reserves for the Baltic. In July we toured another one of our prosposed marine reserves - the Baltic offshore shallow banks.

The Baltic Sea differs from the North Sea in many ways. It is a brackish water body with salinity gradually decreasing towards northern parts. There is also almost no tide due to the small channel of water exchange between the North Sea and the Baltic through the Danish straits. A large part of the Baltic Sea freezes during the winter months. It is because of these factors that the Baltic Sea is very vulnerable to issues of water quality. Nutrient and toxic overloads from different sources have had devastating impacts on the Baltic Sea and its inhabitants.

During the diving documentation in June we encountered a dead and anoxic seabed and dead fish in the Finnish Archipelago. It was very shocking, even though I was aware of the situation from scientific literature. Even under those threats originating from far away inland, marine reserves are a needed part of the solution to rescue our seas. If we ban activities that put extra pressure on the marine environment in parts of the sea, it will allow for the ecosystem to be more resilient to external threats such as eutrophication and global warming.

Baltic marine life is also different from that of the North Sea. For example, the Baltic cod is actually a different sub species. It is similarly very threatened by overfishing as the North Sea cod. The situation is also alarming in that the cod in the Baltic is unique and has adapted to the low salinity conditions over time. Baltic cod eggs can float at salinities that North Sea cod eggs wouldn’t. This is a special adaptation and if we lose the cod in the Baltic it will be gone forever.

It is because of this urgency and the need to awaken our governments to act that I am here. From the first hand experience of witnessing destruction above and below the water we can put pressure on our politicians as well as communicate these threats to the public. For example, the bycatch we collected from the trawler last week was presented to the Danish and German politicians this week in Berlin and Copenhagen. It might be smelly and unpleasant but it is the reality out here and the decision makers need to realise it.

- Sari

Posted by Elaine

Driving work

Jetske and crew in action

Boats have always been a part of my life. I grew up in a harbour town and from the age of six, my parents took me out sailing almost every summer. Six years ago I applied for a desk job with Greenpeace in Amsterdam. Three months later, I was learning to drive a fast inflatable boat.

After what seemed like endless training, an opportunity to use these new-learned skills soon came. I was thrown in at the deep end driving boats for the nuclear campaign at Cap la Hague in France. Here, at the site of a nuclear discharge pipe, the currents can run up to ten knots and the waves reach heights of up to three metres. Suddenly all that training seemed worthwhile and I'd finally found what I really wanted to do.

Four years later and I'm here on the Esperanza in the middle of the North Sea - some of the most treacherous waters in the world as a boat driver. My job doesn't just involve driving the boat, it is also my responsibility to prepare the boat before use and ensure we have all the correct safety equipment on board for whatever task we have to undertake.

We are never at sea alone on an inflatable - I always have a crew member working with me to handle the ropes and act as a second set of eyes. The boat driving tasks on a campaign like this can vary enormously. One day I might be a taxi driver running people into a harbour, the next I could be driving a safety boat for diving operations, and then of course there is the most exciting part - driving the boats for the action work. This can vary from the classic Greenpeace image of driving a fast inflatable close to a fishing boat while it's unwelcoming crew throw nuts and bolts at us and spray us with fire hoses, or the far less glamorous image of driving a rather smelly inflatable containing over a tonne of bycatch collected from a more cooperative fishing vessel. Personally I know which aspect of this work I prefer, although both are equally valid.

- Jetske

Posted by Elaine

Responsibility

There is a comment from a "trawlerman" earlier on in this weblog. It pleases me that fishermen are visiting the site, but worries me that this particular person seemed to think that the state of the oceans is none of our business. Taking up around two thirds of the planet, I believe the oceans are everyone's business. Greenpeace is fighting for the introduction of marine reserves to protect this valuable resource that belongs to all of us, not just to the people that take resources from it.

The images that Gavin has taken under the North Sea reveal a whole different world - a place so beautiful and mysterious that we really do take for granted. The more I learn, and I am learning and witnessing a whole lot out here, the more my respect grows for the oceans and their inhabitants.

With knowledge comes responsibility and each of us has to make decisions based on what we know. The fishermen must be aware of the waste and destruction caused by certain modern equipment and techniques they choose to work with. We have witnessed the bycatch of one haul from a few hours beam trawling - the people who work on these boats see this up to ten times a day.

We now know that the oceans are not indestructible or inexhaustible. From tiny delicate ecosystems and to massive climate changing currents, they are all being effected by human actions. It's not just fishing - there are plenty of other horrific things we do to our oceans. Dumping, extraction and pollution all contribute to the decline of one of our greatest natural resources.

It's a complex situation and governments, closing their eyes to the problems and passing the buck, must take the big steps in saving our oceans now. They do it on the the land with the industries that we can see, but with the oceans it seems to be out of sight, out of mind.

It's down to individuals, the fishermen who work the seas and the consumers - you and me - who are aware of the issues to stop blaming everyone else and take action, now! If the fishing industry is to have a future, it will need to change in order to become sustainable.

Greenpeace is not an organisation to shy away from controversy. Trying to make change happen where change is necessary is something that I am proud to be involved with. We bring into focus issues that are important and that need responsible actions.

- Elaine

Posted by Elaine

Bottom trawling in the home counties? Not likely

Swimmers in front of oncoming beam trawler

We launched three inflatables from the Esperanza at 6.30am and began the action at 7am, using various tactics to try and get them to stop fishing. As a campaigner, my role was based on the bridge of the Esperanza helping to co-ordinate the action and relaying information back to the UK office.

Once the action is underway, the UK press office send out a press release so that journalists have the story early in the morning and can take it to their first editorial meetings. At the first opportunity, our onboard photographer and cameraman download the images they have taken of the action and then send them out to all of the Greenpeace offices who are pushing the story.

These images are then relayed to television newsrooms and newspapers across each country. In this way, a story that starts in the middle of the North Sea is quickly relayed back to land where it can be shown to the public and politicians. This process is critical if we are to make problems that at first seem distant and invisible to people, relevant and in need of urgent action.

I’ve been watching bottom trawlers working for several days now and I think it’s the invisible nature of the problem that allows such practices to continue. If someone had proposed a similar method for catching food on the land it would never have been allowed. Imagine a massive net or container being dragged over the home counties in pursuit of roaming sheep, pulling down fences and hedgerows, the occasional house or farm, tearing up meadows and ripping up streams and ponds, accidentally catching and killing badgers, birds of prey, rabbits and the odd pet cat.

Such an indiscriminate practice would never have been allowed on the land, but because we can’t see these fishing nets working under water it’s been accepted over the years that doing this kind of indiscriminate damage to the seabed and the species that live here is fine. Greenpeace is at sea now to challenge this acceptance and to try and change the way we treat the sea.

Our action today did not halt the fisherman for long. They are skilled at their jobs and learn quickly how to prevent us from successfully stopping them. On board the ship tonight we’ll be discussing new approaches to stopping them tomorrow. There is a long fight ahead to see the North Sea, and all of the world's oceans, protected with Marine Reserves. But at least it’s underway.

Your support is vital to this campaign. Find out how you can help by visiting the Get Active section of the site.

- Olly

Posted by Elaine

Watching the action

With a 5.30am wake-up call, we gather in the mess, grasping cups of tea and coffee, preparing ourselves for the day ahead. There is some tension in the air - we are in action mode and there are three inflatables being prepared for launch.

The Esperanza has been following a beam trawler through the night after attempting contact yesterday afternoon. By 10pm the boat had joined a group of other fishing vessels and it seemed we would be going into the water with a total of nine trawlers in the area. There is concern for those going out after last week's rather intense confrontation, and the talk at our early breakfast is of safety.

The rapid inflatable boats (RIBs) are launched and we watch from the bridge as our team heads out to one of the three trawlers visible. Theo repeatedly hales the vessel over the radio but there's no reply. He lets them know that this is a peaceful protest and we would like them to stop fishing in our marine reserve area.

Our RIBs spring into action, skipping over the now sturdy waves. Five Greenpeace activists in dry suits jump into the water ahead of the trawler. The fishing vessel keeps up its speed, passing through the line of swimmers.

We recover them and try again. The dry suited folks jump in again, and once more the trawler ploughs through the line. No one is injured and we decide to return the swimmers to the Esperanza and move onto the next phase of the action.

The waves are getting bigger and the wind is picking up. The RIBs head out to another trawler, waiting for it to haul its nets. As the nets go up, the action team move in - dropping a buoy with a marine reserves flag into one of them. It misses but as the trawler turns sharply trying to avoid them, they grab the buoy, this time managing to get it in the net. Just for a few seconds we have it in the goal, then the buoy, not attached to anything, bobs up and out of the submerging net.

We wait again for the next ship to bring in its catch. Hours later they finally drag up the nets, seemingly nervous of our attention. They have called for company and two other trawlers are now steaming towards them. They manage to avoid keeping the net out of water, wise to our current techniques. After being sprayed by deck hoses for several hours our team head back to the Esperanza to warm up and dry off.

While the action was taking place on the water, I was running between decks, from my little corner of the radio room up to the bridge and down to the mess, checking out what's going on, making cups of tea for the crew and creating a flash video player to show you all what we've been seeing out here. Gavin, our wonderful videographer, has captured some fabulous footage - it would be rude not to show you!

- Elaine

Posted by Elaine

Marine Reserves are basic maths

My name is Oliver and I am an oceans campaigner based in the UK office. This is my second trip on the Greenpeace MV Esperanza. It's always exciting to be on board, but I'm particularly excited about this trip because we are working on a campaign that I have spent the last six months helping to develop at my desk in the UK office. Now it's time to put all the theory into practice and actually start defending our newly proposed Marine Reserves.

It's a good time to join - not just because the sea is doing me a great favour by staying flat but because we are now moving into a very active part of our work at sea. Having spent the last four weeks researching and documenting life in the North Sea and marking out our Marine Reserves with buoys, we are now starting to take peaceful action against some of the activities that are responsible for badly damaging this important environment.

I boarded the ship on Saturday afternoon and we departed from Scheveningen in the Netherlands on Sunday evening. The following morning we are well into the North Sea and moving into our Dogger Bank area marine reserve. It doesn't take long for us to find our first beam trawler. These are vessels that use a particularly destructive fishing method that is not only indiscriminate about what it catches, it also badly damages the seabed. When we find a vessel like this our first task is to launch one of our Rapid Inflatable Boats (RIBs) so that we can get a couple of our campaigners out to the fishing vessel in order to talk to the captain (or skipper). This an opportunity to explain our campaign and the importance of marine reserves.

We head out on the RIB and I'm quickly shown why marine reserves are so urgently needed. Approaching the fishing vessel we radio the skipper to ask if we could come aboard and talk. He tells us that he is just about to haul his nets in, but we can come on board once the operation is finished. As we wait along side, the vessels net-hauling machinery cranks up and over the next ten or so minutes we watch on as the nets are bought to the surface.

Beam trawlers tow two large nets with heavy metal chains, or ticklers just in front of them, stirring up the seabed and disturbing the marine creatures so that the net can catch them. Made of iron and rusting very quickly in the salt water, we see these massive metal chains emerge from the water shiny and silver, buffed by the rocks and seabed they have been dragged through. These massive, heavy chains seriously damage the seabed and to make matters worse, there is so much of this type of fishing in the North Sea that it is estimated the seabed is ploughed over in this way up to three or four times a year. It is little wonder that the marine life on the sea floor is not only badly damaged but also has no chance to recover.

Just after hauling, we board the ship. The deck is still awash with the discard from the catch - another illustration of why marine reserves are needed. There are tiny, almost perfectly formed miniatures of many of the sea creatures that you would expect to see in the North Sea - including hundreds of small flatfish such as plaice and sole - no larger than three or four inches long. They are well below the age at which they can reproduce and are the accidental bycatch of beam trawling. All are dead and all are thrown overboard as waste by the fishermen. This was the result of just one trawl, on one vessel. These vessels, at sea for up to three or four days at a time, haul their nets up every two or three hours around the clock. Multiply that number of hauls by the number of beam trawlers in the North Sea at any one time and you can see very clearly just how much damage is being done by this destructive fishing. The need for marine reserves is basic maths.

We handed over our report and maps of the North Sea Marine Reserves to the vessels skipper. I hope this will give him something to think about overnight. We leave him behind for the moment as we continue to patrol the marine reserve.

Posted by Elaine

Action stations...

I find myself running around the bridge with a pair of binoculars in hand, steering well clear of captains and mates and anyone else I might get in the way of. It's 6am and we're launching three of our rubber inflatable boats onto the relatively calm waters within our recently declared Dogger Bank Marine Reserve in the North Sea. We are here to protect this unique marine environment from further exploitation by industries like fisheries, oil and sand and gravel extraction. With a 5am wakeup call, believe me, we are serious.

We attempt to make contact with a Dutch beam trawler that we were in touch with last night. The reception then being rather graphic and less than friendly, we try them again on the radio. They ignore us so we get head into action mode. The team has been briefed and everyone is ready to go.

Five other Dutch trawlers in the area close in. Keeping the Esperanza at a safe distance, we see the trawlers attempting to corner our inflatables. Our team sticks to their chosen vessel, waiting for the nets to be brought in and reset. Metal objects are being thrown down at them and at one point the skipper of the vessel we are following takes aim with what appears to be a firearm, threatening to shoot us.

Back on the Esperanza the GO28, a Dutch trawler with nets up, is steaming towards our port side at a frightening pace. We start taking photos, and as she comes within 100 metres of us, guys wearing balaclavas start firing flares above our ship. Surprised by their actions, I was then shocked when they aimed a flare at the Esperanza and actually hit the mast. Flares are dangerous weapons and at this point we run for cover!

The action continues through the day, showing the beam trawling industry that we mean business - this fishing technique is incredibly destructive and action needs to be taken immediately to stop it. We are calling attention to our proposed Marine Reserve areas, and the word is certainly spreading! The Dutch Fisheries union, which has ignored our calls for action for several years, now makes contact with Greenpeace, suggesting talks.

It's late afternoon Thursday, and as we expected the trawlers raise their nets and steam homeward for the weekend, needing to be at port for the fish auctions at 8am the next morning.

It's been a long and action packed day for the Esperanza and now we're heading back to port, to restock supplies and staff members! It's sad to say goodbye to the seven people who are disembarking, most of them on board for only two weeks. We have become members of an extended family with everyone literally in the same boat! Soon we will be welcoming those joining us for the next leg of our North Sea Marine Reserves NOW tour - their knowledge, experience and skills making a contribution to this urgent call to action.

- Elaine

Posted by Elaine

Discarded life

We have collected lots of bycatch - the so called discards from commercial fishing. The skipper on one of the many beam trawlers that work the Dogger Bank invited us to come on board and talk about fisheries in the area. They also gave us some of the bycatch they bring on board every time a fishing net is taken in.

It's sad to see how much life is being wasted - each hold containing several tonnes of baby fish, huge crabs and all sorts of marine creatures.

Of course it's not the fishermen's intention to acquire bycatch, but the nature of bottom trawling is that almost all living beings on and in the seabed are caught and only the target species are kept while the rest is discarded - most of it heavily injured or dead.

In the majority of bottom trawl fisheries, the amount of bycatch is considerably higher than the quantity of fish for consumption. Quite often 80% or more is being thrown dead overboard.

I get so angry when I see this kind of ignorant action. It is a disrespectful waste of life that needs to be banned as soon as possible.

Everybody should see it - that's why we are here. People should be aware that if they eat one plaice, eight plates of marine creatures have been killed and wasted for it. Our crew helped sort through the bycatch back on the Esperanza and were shocked to see what they had only heard before. Edible crabs with their claws ripped off, hundreds of starfish, homeless hermit crabs, soft corals and immature fish - including plaice, whiting and cod - all dead and dying.

Today the weather is a bit more windy, but we will try to collect as much bycatch as we can, so that we can shove it in the faces of our unbelievably inactive politicians.

But the sun shines and it is good to be here to fight for change.

- Thomas

Posted by Thomas, campaigner

Sad fish tails

In our search for fishing vessels working within the confines of our new Dogger Bank Marine Reserve, we contact a Belgian beam trawler. The Skipper is interested in what we have to say and invites us onboard. Arjen Boon, our Dutch oceans campaigner speaks to him at length about the problems with the North Sea fisheries and how creating Marine Reserves of the size we are demanding is a very important tool in saving fisheries and the marine environment.

The skipper gives us permission to return later so we may collect and document the discards of a single haul. Four of our crew spend the day on the trawler, sorting through the fish and talking with the fishermen. We gather around a tonne of discards, load it onto one of our rubber inflatable boats (RIB's) and head back to the Esperanza.

Four of our crew spend the day on board the trawler, sorting through the fish and talking with the fishermen. We gather around a tonne of discards, load it onto one of our rubber inflatable boats (RIB's) and head back to the Esperanza.

It's estimated that about a quarter of all sea life caught around the world is caught and then simply discarded dead or dying as bycatch. It's such a tragic waste of life.

Once the haul is on board we begin the sorting operation. A tiny proportion of creatures that haven't been crushed in the trawling process still show signs of life - mostly crabs, sea squirts and the odd tiny starfish. They have been dragged 60-70 metres up from the seabed. The huge air pressure change killed most things on the ascent. We put anything still alive straight back into the sea. Everything else we count.

All together there are around 11,000 dead sea creatures - including immature flatfish, hundreds of undersized Whiting and Gurnard, and more than 8,000 crustaceans, starfish and shellfish. Documenting this discarded life is so distressing, especially knowing that hundreds of beam trawlers are stripping this quantity of life from the North Sea floor up to eight times each day.

Beam trawlers tow large nets across the seabed - indiscriminately removing vast quantities of sea life while ploughing up the seabed, destroying habitat and killing large numbers of bottom-dwelling marine organisms.

There can be no denying that drastic action is needed to prevent the North Sea from becoming an impoverished wasteland. It's something that the politicians and decision makers need to know is important. Please take action NOW by signing our online petition and sending an e-letter to the UK Environment Minister.

- Elaine

Posted by Elaine

A swell day

It's 6 am, the anchor is up and we're off. The wind is picking up and the waves are real! Arjen the Dutch campaigner informs me that we are experiencing a lovely "screwdriver effect" where the ship goes up, rolls to one side, then to the other, and then back down. Walking up the stairs is especially entertaining - cup of tea in one hand and crystalised ginger (calming on the stomach - just in case) in the other. Lesson one: best have one hand free to hold on to the ample railings provided!

I'm still exhausted from a day in the galley, where I cooked for the 36 crew members so that Daniel, our wonderful chef from Mexico, could have Sunday off. A fry up of massive proportions was prepared and Martha created a fruit salad to contrast with my greasy tucker. Bjorn, our German press officer, produced a huge rich chocolate mousse!

After dinner there was a presentation for the crew of images gathered in the last week: launching of buoys, underwater banners and discussions with trawlers. Fantastic images and it's great that everyone on board can see what's happening and feel more involved with the action. Each member of the crew is an invaluable part of the team that makes what we do possible.

The waves are now around three metres high (that's about as high as I want to see - thank you!) and we're steaming at about ten knots on the look out for beam trawlers to document bycatch. The use of beam trawlers is particularly destructive, both to the ocean floor and any life that gets in the way. The bycatch issue is especially relevant to this method of trawling, with up to nine out of ten targeted fish (sole and plaice) caught being too small to be kept. By the time these immature fish are sent through the disposal chute back into the sea they are dead or dying.

We want to prevent this destructive trawling in our Marine Reserve - allowing both the environment and the depleted fish stocks to recover.

Documenting the bycatch and alerting the public to the massive size of the problem is just a start. You can help us now by signing this online petition and sending an e-letter to the UK Environment Minister.

Elaine

Posted by Elaine

Buoy power

Two months ago we decided to demarcate the Dogger Bank Marine Reserve. With little time to prepare all the equipment and no previous experience in buoy placement, I found the challenge very exciting!

An old Thames buoy was bought from a shipyard in London and two other buoys were bought second-hand from Balmoral, Scotland. The chains came from IJmuiden, Holland.

I studied the maps to ascertain the lengths of chain needed. Research included talking to sea captains and other experienced people in this field.

Many long days were spent working with a large group of volunteers in a Dutch warehouse. Welding connections in chains to get them to the right length and moving the finished chain into cages for transportation were particularly strenuous jobs. We added navigation lights, official signs and painted the buoys the correct shade of yellow. Two trucks were used to get all the equipment to the Esperanza on time.

The first buoy was the smallest and perhaps the most symbolic, as it announced our plans to the world. It was also the scariest moment for me. Reassuringly, Captain Frank has done this before and with our excellent crew it was deployed without any problems!

Launching the second buoy was more dramatic. The anchor chain weighed 1,300 kilograms and was hanging over the railing on small pieces of rope. We launched the buoy with a quick release hook, cutting the ropes that held the chain. Finally we cut the rope holding the 2 tonne concrete block that would be the anchor. It all went very quickly. The concrete block fell down with a huge splash, and we all cheered!

I was reassured by the confidence and professionalism of the crew. Jetske, a Dutch activist, stood on the buoy and held a banner which demanded that this place should be a marine reserve.

This morning we launched the third buoy on the border of Danish and Norwegian waters. It's amazing how quickly we feel comfortable with the process. There is a relaxed atmosphere, we all know what we have to do and it only takes an hour to launch. I was nervous when the buoy floated on its side, but Captain Frank told me not to worry: "The weight of the anchor will get it up." And when the chain was released, up it stood!

The weather is changing with gale force winds forecast for the weekend - the waves are already getting bigger. We are heading for the south west Dogger Bank where we expect to encounter more fishing activities. We want to document bycatch as well as alert people to our plan to defend our new Marine Reserve.

It's all going well.

Theo

Posted by Theo, action co-ordinator

Buoys will be buoys!

Urgent team meeting - 8pm in the mess! There's a rumour of an oil spill within the boundaries of our new Dogger Bank North Sea Marine Reserve. It is 10 hours away, close to our next buoy drop, and we are going to steam through the night towards it and see if we can assist and document the incident.

The Marine Reserve is not just about fish, and an oil spill highlights the environmental impact that can occur when there are not enough controls and penalties on industry.

On arrival, we find no trace of the spill. It's so great the Esperanza is out here patrolling this important environment. If the threat had been real we would have been ready to record it and take action.

We continue with marking out our Marine Reserve by lowering an even bigger buoy into the water. The whole operation takes about an hour, but the preparation has taken weeks.

Once again Sari, Gavin and Wolf get to wet their dry suits and throw themselves into the blue. They take an underwater banner with them, which proclaims the need for Marine Reserves for future generations. Gavin takes a photo of it, looking up at the buoy.

Dinner is served at 6pm - another crowd pleaser by the lovely Daniel, our Mexican cook, assisted by UK volunteer Chris - Happy Birthday Chris! Steaming towards our next destination, the calm waters gently rock the Esperanza as the sun slowly sets on the North Sea. We're one day closer to making our North Sea Marine Reserve real.

- Elaine

Posted by Justine

Demarcation begins!

Bright and early start this morning, with a lovely 6.30 am wake-up call for the Greenpeace crew. A momentous occasion is taking place as I scurry about taking pictures and interviewing the various campaigners. We are putting in place the first marker buoy in the new North Sea Marine Reserve. It's the first of 4 symbolic buoys to be placed in the Dogger Bank area, crossing international boundaries and calling for urgent action to be taken to protect our marine environment.

Theo, our "Action Man" from Greenpeace Netherlands, has been gathering the buoys, chains and anchor weights required to demarcate our Marine Reserve. Purchased secondhand from a fishery chain supplier, the 27 metre lengths are often used for beam trawling...Theo has spent the last few weeks joining these pieces together to form the 105 metre lengths required for this job. Each metre of chain weighs around 15 kg and swiftly slides into the water, not to mention the 2 tonne anchor weight. Safety is of the utmost concern and onlookers keep well out of the way.

As the first buoy is lowered into the sea, we put up banners in German and English to help explain our demands.The fog clears as the anchor chain is dropped -and success! There is a subtle sigh of relief from Theo, Action Man who is a buoy releasing virgin. Three more to go...

Minutes later we spot a Dutch beam trawler and we're off in pursuit. Arjen, our Dutch campaigner, is ready to make contact with the fishermen in order to alert them to the new Marine Reserve and Greenpeace's plans to work with them to save the North Sea marine environment. The action has begun!

-Elaine

Posted by Justine

Double Dutch

After a long period of preparations in the Netherlands and all the other GP offices around the North Sea and the Baltic, I finally go to sea for the action tour.

The first two weeks of the tour have focused on research for shipping, fisheries and oil and gas platforms as well as getting images of beauty from the North Sea. Our divers have come back with great footage and in the next two weeks they will document the damage mankind is inflicting on our sea.

Now we set sail to proclaim the Dogger Bank area in the central North Sea as a marine reserve and to demarcate it with buoys. We are also looking for fishing vessels to talk to them about fisheries and other marine problems and to see what they think about our ideas and solutions.

The whole of Monday we have been busy bringing stuff on board needed for demarcation of the area. It is beautiful weather and we hope it will remain that way, making deploying the buoys much easier - and safer- than in rough weather. After the action tour, we will remove the buoys; Greenpeace tidies up after itself (a good example that deserves following). I give an interview for a popular Dutch pop music radio station in the sauna. Luckily it was not switched on, it was already warm enough as it was.

Around 8pm we leave Amsterdam and a few hours later we are navigating in the dark through the North Sea. Green and red lights everywhere, the Hoogovens (large Dutch steel industry) behind us. I have seen it all before, but it always feels great to get out on the water, especially in this good weather where we have the opportunity to "fight" for the recovery of our own North Sea.

It's Tuesday evening when we arrive at the spot where we will deploy our first buoy. We drop anchor and prepare for the Wednesday 6am start. We begin with the smaller buoy, to see whether the deployment plan we set up actually works. The captain has experience with this work, and his plan works perfectly. The crew put the buoy, the chain and the concrete block (together about 4,000 kilos) in the water. A big hurray for the crew!! Now it's time to send out the press release to let the world know that we are here again. We make some nice footage of the buoy and some interviews to send to the media. Let's hope it all arrives in good order. That way people on shore will know what is happening out here at sea and why we "fight" for the recovery of all the riches that once were here.

We search for fishing vessels on the way to the second buoy. We want to talk to them about why we are here, and give them documents we prepared that explain why we want marine reserves, where and with what background. Many scientists want to see the implementation of large-scale marine reserves and support our campaign. We hope by talking first, we'll create some understanding for why we are out here, but we know we have a long way to go.

We see a dot on the radar screen moving at the speed typical of a fishing vessel. When we close in we find a Dutch beam trawler, the UK 68. As the Dutch speaking campaigner it's my job to hail them on the radio and explain to the skipper the purpose of our campaign, asking if we can come on board or hand them our documents. We go out with the rubber inflatable boat (RIB) to take a closer look at the ship. Having worked on these vessels as a fisheries biologist, I discuss with our team how beam trawlers function.

Back on board the Esperanza I hear about another beam trawler, so all the gear is put back on, and the RIB is launched again. We wanted to catch some discards, the stuff they throw overboard after sorting the catch. The beam trawling technique is a very destructive and wasteful fishing technique, which should be banned a.s.a.p. On average, almost 80% of the plaice caught with this technique is thrown overboard, dead or dying, and mostly these are young plaice, which will never have young themselves. How strange that the plaice stock is doing so badly.

When we return, Gavin, Wolf and Sari (our Finnish campaigner) are preparing to make a dive to document the damage the beam trawl has done to the sea floor. This is such an unique opportunity! Even scientists rarely get the chance to do this! Again I realise that we at Greenpeace are privileged to do this kind of work, thanks to the people that support us. They won't be uplifting images, but we can show evidence of how mankind is treating one of our richest natural environments. And of course, how important it is that we do something about it, so we can guarantee a clean sea full of fish and other life for us and our children.

-Arjen

Posted by Arjen, campaigner

Sociable hermits

Gavin, one of our divers, is mad about hermit crabs. He observed them gathering in groups in the sand while photographing marine life in the Dogger Bank area for Greenpeace's Marine Reserves NOW! tour. Along with the starfish, crabs and whelks, the little hermit crabs are an important part of the food chain. As scavengers, gobbling up leftovers, they are one group that is thriving in the North Sea.

Having dived for the last 25 years, Gavin has certainly seen some startling changes in the marine environment around the UK and the world. It's most obvious in the Mediterranean, where sea life has been so obviously depleted. Places like the North Sea that aren't so attractive to divers and holidaymakers are often ignored. It's only when we go to get our cod and chips that we are affected - why is fish so expensive? We don't realise that the price of cod is the least of our worries...

On this trip Gavin has been documenting life in our proposed Marine Reserves that is out of view, under the water and in places that most of us would never dream of going. This is a "nice" trip for him - when Greenpeace calls it's usually for a pretty nasty task like measuring discharge from nuclear reactors!

The images that have been brought up so far have surprised most people. We certainly didn't expect colour and beauty in the North Sea - the delicate soft corals and gorgeous sea urchins. It's those oohs and aahs that have been a highlight for Gavin. He loves to share what he sees down there and to change people's perceptions of places they don't understand.

One nautical mile from here, Gavin, Wolf and Sari are diving 24 metres below the surface. They are recording the trail of destruction left by a Dutch beam trawler that we encountered earlier today. It will be quite a contrast to the beautiful images Gavin has been collecting of life down there. Beam trawling trashes everything in the way, including hermit crabs on the seabed.

Posted by Elaine

Shipping out...

From winter in drought ridden Sydney to summer on the glamorous North Sea, I find myself on the MV Esperanza writing the weblog. There are 4 of us in my "cabin", updates will be sent by email via the "radio room" and as normal I eat in "the mess", though this time it's shared with 36 others. Ready to test for sea legs and writers arms. I have two months to learn about and to show you around one of the most over exploited regions of our blue planet.

Greenpeace has just released a report proposing the creation of 7 Marine Reserves covering 40% of the North Sea as well as 10 Marine Reserves covering over 40% off the Baltic Sea. The North Sea Marine Reserves would be located in the waters of the UK, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. It is a truly international effort which is reflected in the crew, whose languages and accents add to an awareness to the importance of our task.

This particular campaign has only just begun and we are highlighting the urgency of the situation as well as showing that there really is something left to save. Greenpeace has some pretty amazing people on board including scientists and experts in marine issues and the environment of the North Sea. It's a 10 week tour and I will be adding to the crew profiles as new members come onboard.

Already the watery expanse has developed beyond its expected shades of grey. Photographs taken in the area over the past two weeks have surprised us all.

I'm not sure what to expect from this trip - first time on a boat and already missing my constant access to the internet, oh and friends and family of course! The areas that we will be visiting I've only heard of on the shipping forecast late at night on the BBC. So far so good, and the small swell is gently rocking the MV Esperanza as we head towards our first destination, the Dogger Bank.

- Elaine

Posted by Justine