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31 March 2006

Just a Quickie from Ed

by Ed, onboard the Esperanza

(Ed wrote some of this just before, and right after our visit to Conakry)

Just a quickie. Another week or so has passed on board the Esperanza. We've been very busy - part of this blog was written a week ago but has had to wait due to us being so busy. We've had lots of technical problems and a few some emergencies that have now passed, it seems that it has been just one problem after another! Anyway, I made urgent repairs to all the little wooden greenpeace ships that are stuck with blue tack to the world map in the mess room , so everything should be ok now (Also the whole crew has been working really hard!).

More deck work has continued with several of the crew managing to paint their hair various shades of red and grey and I also managed to hit myself in the head with a hammer, whilst I was balancing precariously on top of some hand rails. I fell off and smashed a light bulb with my shoulder on the way down, I looked up and considered trying to remove the broken bulb from it's socket which would have given me a big electric shock. I instead, I decided that the hammer blow to the head was sufficient pain and suffering for the day, so I went and found Mike the electrician, so that perhaps he would get electrocuted instead of me. (He's used to it)

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Miguel - Cook (possibly most important person on ship)

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Videoblog: Pirate boat arrested in Guinea, West Africa

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Here's some footage from the arrest of the Lian No.14, which was fishing illegally off the coast of Guinea, West Africa. Includes interviews with Helene Bours of the Environmental Justice Foundation and Greenpeace campaigner Sarah Duthie of Greenpeace.

Bit more serious than our usual vblogs...
Watch Ocean Defenders TV »

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29 March 2006

Arrival in Conakry - during an eclipse

by Sarah, onboard the Esperanza

Almost everyone on board the Esperanza has been looking forward to watching the eclipse. It had been marked on calendars and in diaries almost since the day we left - we were supposed to be able to see an 80% eclipse of the sun. Of course, the other big event that we have all been waiting for is the arrest of a pirate boat. Pretty amazing that somehow these two things collided at the same moment.

After spending the night escorting the Lian Run 14

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Slideshow: Solar Eclipse

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

While Sarah and the others were escorting the Lian Run 14 into Conakry, I remained on board the Esperanza, where I had the chance to photograph the partial eclipse.

I've seen totality before - back in 1999, on the Black Sea coast of Turkey. But back then I didn't have decent camera gear, or any proper filters, so I wasn't able to photograph it. This time, I was more fortunate, and was at least semi-prepared.

I've left the lens flares in - because I think they're quite pretty!

- Dave

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Pirate Ships Scuppered in Lithuania

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

While we've been chasing pirate fishing boats in the sweltering heat of the tropics, our pals in colder latitudes have been freezing their bums off. This morning, in the port of Klaipéda, Lithuania, our activists pushed through chunks of floating ice to paint 'Stop Pirate Fishing' on twelve Georgian, Russian and Cambodian flagged pirate fishing vessels. Lithuania has been flouting EU laws by allowing blacklisted pirate vessels from re-supplying and refuelling in its ports - and we're demanding that the government start paying attention to these laws!

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Happiness: The Chinese zombie ships of West Africa

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Part 1 of a two-part story: Read Part 2 »

We're in the big African Queen inflatable, cruising alongside an anchored trawler. It's more rust than metal - the ship is rotting away. The foredeck is covered in broken machinery. The fish deck is littered with frayed cables, and the mast lies horizontally, hanging over the starboard side. A large rusty Chinese character hangs on railings above the bridge, facing forward. It reads 'happiness'.

Zizi - our Chinese translator - shouts a greeting. A head pokes out from the accommodation, puzzled at this disturbance. A female voice, out here? He picks his way through the debris to the side of the ship. He's friendly, but a bit perplexed at our presence. Sarah asks questions - Zizi translates. He's the 2nd mate, and says that he's been sitting here on his own for five days, awaiting a new crew, He doesn't know when they'll arrive. The trawler itself has been anchored here, at this spot, for three months.

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Slideshow: The Chinese zombie ships of West Africa

by Pierre & Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Off the coast of West Africa lies a 'graveyard' of rusting ships, abandoned by their owners. The thing is, there's still fishermen living on board. Take a look at the photographs of this sad, strange place. Read more: Happiness: The Chinese zombie ships of West Africa »

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Webcam: Conakry, Guinea

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

(updated at 13:30 Amsterdam time) Morning all - we're currently anchored off Conakry, Guinea, where we're handing over the arrested pirate fishing vessel to the local authorities. The webcam is currently pointing inland, towards the river, so who knows what you might see - we've got a partial solar eclipse happening in the next few minutes!

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Running into No. 14

by Mike Mate, onboard the Esperanza

We were headed in a northeasterly direction when the top of the radar screen started to fill with yellow echoes. The computer calculated their speeds to be 3 knots, regular for fishing, but it was the density that confirmed it. I slowed the Esperanza down, tailing a couple of them at a safe distance of six miles. We were mingling into the echo party, waiting for sunrise and the Tweety bird, which lifted off the green deck precisely two minutes after sunrise.

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Videoblog: Undercover uncovered

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Sara reveals what we've really been up to in the last few weeks, while our other Sarah explains why we're doing it! It's all about pirates and we're bringing in the authorities! Also, as Tweety, our usual helicopter, is off on holidays, meet its cousin!

Watch the video on Ocean Defenders TV »

Grab the podcast »
More Greenpeace podcasts

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28 March 2006

Pirate Vessel Arrested!

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Been watching the webcam today? Then you'll noticed the Esperanza alongside a trawler for a couple of hours. Thom had rigged up the webcam on the bridge wing, so we could show the event to the world.

This trawler was the Lian Run No 14 - which our helicopter had spotted in a 'dawn raid' over the ocean, 60 miles from the coast of Guinea. The Chinese trawler had no authorisation to fish in Guinean waters.

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Slideshow: Pirate Vessel Arrested

by Pierre, onboard the Esperanza

Here's a slideshow showing the arrest of the pirate fishing vessel Lian Run 14, 60 miles west of the Guinean coast on March 28th.

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Sarah - Campaigner

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Trawler on the webcam!

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

We've moved the webcam down to the to the starboard side - we've got inspectors and crew on board a fishing vessel at the moment - that's what you can see!

More as it happens...

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Developing countries are not able to protect their biodiversity

by Wael, at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Curitibam, Brazil

Ok! The first week of negotiations at the convention on biological diversity meeting is over, and now the real and exciting work is starting. Last week was full of speeches from the many countries and delegates, stating their opinions on the different issues at hand. This week all these opinions will be melted down into the documents that the countries present will have to agree on.

"Countries agreeing?" Sounds like a difficult task, right? Well, you bet your life it is. This week we will witness delegates fighting over text, trying to change sentences, phrases, words, letters - even the simple punctuation. It might sound a bit silly to change something as insignificant as that, but don't underestimate what a single stroke of a pen can do. One small change, such as deleting a phrase or adding a letter can save - or destroy - thousands of species in the real world.

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Deep-Sea Fish Populations Boom Over the Last 15 Years

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Just spotted this report from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The Ocean Defenders team is a bit obsessed with deep sea life - for my part, I've worked on three deep sea expeditions with Greenpeace! So I find this stuff interesting - I hope you do too.

"In first-of-its-kind research published in the March issue of the journal Ecology, David Bailey, Henry Ruhl and Ken Smith of Scripps analyzed fish and other marine animals over a 15-year period in the deep sea of the eastern North Pacific Ocean. At the site, the source of one of the longest time-series studies of any abyssal area in the world, the scientists found a threefold increase in fish abundance, an upsurge that appears to have been driven by an increase in the food available to the animals."

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27 March 2006

Glowing in the dark

by Nadia, onboard the Esperanza

As Adam was heading out of the bridge, he wished me a nice, quiet watch... I thanked him but I told him that I will prefer a safe and busy watch... Mmmm, I haven't been that well served before. The navigation conditions are now a bit more difficult... it's very dark night without the moon, shallow water and the presence of many canoes (the pirogues) without lights. We need to keep a good look out and be aware of any change of situation. A few minutes after the beginning of my watch, Moff went for his first round. I was then on my own on the bridge. Suddenly, I noticed a big white spot next to the ship, but I could not say what it was.

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Slideshow: Pirate Fishing in West Africa

Posted by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Check out this slideshow of work by Greenpeace photographers - both on land in Guinea Conakry, and at sea, where pirate ships plunder the food of poor countries.

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Pirates unmasked off Guinea, West Africa

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Ok, so we've been a bit slow at updating the Defending Oceans weblog the last few days, but we've a good excuse. it's because we've been working undercover off the coast of Guinea, West Africa. It's pretty hard to hide a 72-metre-long blue and white ship with rainbows on the bow, but we did bring the element of surprise.

In the last 10 days, we've witnessed and documented the theft of fish from one of the poorest regions in the world. Now, it's time for us to announce our presence, and to take action. We're working with Hélène and Sam from the Environmental Justice Foundation, who've been on board since the start of the trip. Also joining us are two Guinean enforcement agents, who are authorised to arrest these pirate vessels before they can launder any more of their illegal cargo through Europe's ports.

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24 March 2006

Happy birthday to a friend

by Mike (Sparky), onboard the Esperanza

Hi, my name is Mike; I am the electrician on the Esperanza. A couple of trips ago I met Remon here on the Esperanza. He is a welder and fitter, so we both belong to the engineering department. We got to know each other trip by trip and we are good friends by now. We were lucky again this time and joined the ship together at the same time in Cape Town. Anyway, today it is Remon's 30th birthday so I want to say 'gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag' to my friend!

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23 March 2006

Dumping at sea: banned at last!

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Tomorrow - March 24th, 2006 - marks a momentous date for the future of our seas - new rules will finally come into force, governing the dumping of wastes at sea. The new rules are defined by the 1996 Protocol to the London Convention, which aims to prevent the indiscriminate dumping of wastes at sea that could be hazardous to human health, marine life and the environment, or impact on other legitimate uses of the sea.

It's hard to believe that such an obvious and necessary ban on the dumping of nuclear, toxic and other wastes in our seas could take so long to achieve. The 1996 Protocol, which was meant to replace the rather 'weak' 1972 version, took a long time, as 26 countries were need to ratify it - Mexico came on board a month ago. However, we're not out of the 'woods' just yet.

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So does the 1996 Protocol mark the end for ocean dumping?

by David Santillo, at the Greenpeace Research Laboratories

They say that a week is a long time in politics. But to get precautionary regulation of ocean dumping all the way from its agreement by all nations, to a time when it finally becomes law, has taken the best part of ten years.

The 1996 Protocol to the London Convention, which 'enters into force' on 24th March, marks a major milestone in global governance of the oceans, and another achievement of the unceasing efforts of Greenpeace since the late 1970s to ban the dumping of wastes from ships. Many may recall the incredible images of Greenpeace inflatables being bombarded with barrels of radioactive waste as nuclear nations continued dumping, regardless that their irresponsible activities were no longer 'out of sight, out of mind'. But few may realise that, at the same time, a different side of Greenpeace worked tirelessly to give the oceans a voice at the table of meetings of the London Convention itself.

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An aggression against nature

by Pierre Gleizes, onboard the Esperanza

Since the beginning of the nuclear age that followed World War Two, nuclear waste dumping at sea has been used extensively, by both the military and industry. Most of it happened behind the horizon, where no one could see it... Until 1978, when Greenpeace and the Rainbow Warrior took a closer look, with the present master of the Esperanza, Pete Bouquet, at the wheel.

After our actions in 1978, 1979 and 1981, the biggest dumping ever was planned for the summer of 1982; 20,000 tons of so-called 'low' and 'medium' activity nuclear waste from the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland was to go over the side of three dumping ships.

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Precaution at sea

by Rémi Parmentier, formerly of Greenpeace, of The Varda Group

It is likely that there will be very little attention next Friday, to the fact that the 1996 Protocol to the London Convention has finally come into force. This is regrettable, because the 1996 Protocol should feature very high on the list of international legal instruments incorporating the precautionary principle.

The 1996 adoption of this Protocol to the London Convention was the culmination of many years of efforts, by Greenpeace, to ban the dumping of radioactive and industrial wastes at sea. In 1999, at the request of the journal International Negotiations, I wrote why and how from the mid-1970s onward, and until 1996, a small group of dedicated Greenpeace environmentalists were able to transform a permissive international regime - that was legitimising the dumping of wastes at sea - into a precautionary regime that banned all forms of deliberate waste dumping at sea with very few exceptions. This article is available at the click of a mouse, because Greenpeace has kept an electronic version of this article on their website.

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22 March 2006

Celeste - Assistant cook

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Seamounts, supermarkets, supertrawlers, sharks and the sex lives of fish

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

News, news news. As we've been sailing the seas, lots of interesting ocean-related news stories have been popping up. Got any of your own? Post them as a comment!

Here's one, for a start - researchers exploring the Davidson Seamount, the peak of which 1300m below the Pacific, and 160km off the coast of California, have found a a 'forest' teeming with animal life, which exists in total darkness and near freezing temperatures.

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Finding REMO - UN Fish Stocks Agreement Meeting

by Duncan, at the UN Fish Stocks Agreement review conference in New York

Our legal expert, Duncan Currie is currently attending the UN Fish Stocks Agreement review conference preparatory meeting in New York - here's his on-location update.

This week-long meeting was started in order to review the 1995 Fish Stocks Agreement - this is an international agreement aiming to ensure "long-term conservation and sustainable use of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks". This UN get-together is a preparation for the actual review conference that will take place in late May. Greenpeace is here to bear witness, and to work with other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and national delegations to try to fix some of the real problems that are out there in the deep sea.

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Videoblog: Mapping the future

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Good grief - it's time for another nail-biting installment of Ocean Defenders TV. How can one 72-metre vessel turn out such a massive body of televisual media? More to the point, what do maps, politicians and statues of Jesus Christ have in common? We hear some more fascinating ocean facts, and find out why our Sara's in the doghouse.

Watch the video on Ocean Defenders TV »

Grab the podcast »
More Greenpeace podcasts

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Urgent! Help keep up the pressure on Iceland to stop whaling!

by Dave onboard the Esperanza

Since 2003 Iceland has killed 100 minke whales under the guise of 'scientific research'.

This Thursday (23rd March 2006) Ben Bradshaw, the UK Minister for fisheries and nature conservation, is due to meet the Icelandic Minister for fisheries. It's time that whaling was halted, once and for all. Write to Minister Bradshaw and ask him to express the UK's opposition to Iceland's whaling programme, and ask for it to be stopped!

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21 March 2006

What is the Yellow Thing?

by Adam, onboard the Esperanza

Hi, Adam here. Now that we are busy tracking down pirate fishing boats - as part of Defending our Oceans - I thought that it time I put pen to paper (oh, those were the days) and tell you all how the ocean debris sampling work is going. The bright yellow sampler (affectionately known on board as "The Yellow Thing") has been stowed for a few weeks on top of the heli-hanger: a fantastic location affording it near unparalleled views of the Atlantic Ocean. It will relax there until our activities are more conducive to the sort of rigorous scientific experimentation for which it was commissioned.

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If the Amazon is the Great Barrier Reef of the land

by Karen, at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Curitibam, Brazil

If mountain gorillas are the whales of the African rainforests, and wolves are the tunas of the American prairies... If the Amazon is the Great Barrier reef of the land, and the monarch butterfly the hairy lobsters of the deep-sea. If all the water of the oceans were emptied and we stopped distinguishing between land and sea, viewing our planet and the diversity of life upon it as integrated whole. Then would we be facing the greatest extinction of all time?

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20 March 2006

Morrisons: Britain's worst fish retailer agrees to change its ways

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

UK supermarket chain Morrisons have been naughty - they'd been selling seafood species caught in highly destructive ways, and had a poor sustainable fish policy. But now they've agreed to clean up their act, following this morning's activities in the northern English town of Bradford.

At 7am, UK activists unfurled a banner on the roof of Morrisons' flagship store just 150m from their headquarters, with the message, 'More reasons Not to Shop at Morrisons. No1: Worst Fish Retailer' alongside a picture of a pile of 'bycatch' - the fish and other marine life caught up in fishing nets which are thrown back in to the sea as waste, dead or dying.

In response to his morning's protest, Morrisons has agreed to review its practices.

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Webcam: Shifting our Point of View

by Mike Mate, onboard the Esperanza

I walked onto the bridge as the phone started ringing, the wind howling through the barely open bridge windows. Nadia called out to me from the chart room, "ee'zz fur yu". I looked on the monitor to see who was calling, picked up the receiver and exclaimed, "My God!" To which Thom's voice answered, "I am very high up in the crows nest, how can I help you my son?" "I want to see the world wide web". I replied and the image on the consol screen shifted, I was looking at the naked V-Sat dome facing a strong force six breeze in the Atlantic Ocean.

"Up a bit Thom", I called - and the web camera tilted to take in the horizon behind us and the ship's wake astern. "Now I can see clearly what happened. What about the future?" I asked. Thom's chompers appeared to open up around the screen, the image grew misty and then cleared to reveal a hairy belly-button, a finger followed by a shirt - he wiped the lens of the webcam clear. We're looking forward no more, neither are we in the here and now - it is in retrospection that the world wide web watches. Why have we shifted our point of view?

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19 March 2006

Webcam on the move

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

The Esperanza's webcam has been a bit up and down recently - this is partly because we've been messing around with it! Webcam-addicts will note that it's now facing a different direction - it was facing forward (so you could see where the Esperanza was going) but now it's facing aft (so you can see where we've been. Thom (radio operator ) and I were up in the Crow's Nest this morning, doing some work on the new-view towards the stern. Well, Thom was doing all the work, I was just hanging out, enjoying the height, and taking some pictures with my wide-angle lens.

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18 March 2006

Mike - Chief Mate

In 1986; the year of Hailey's comet, the explosion of the Challenger Space Shuttle and the Chernobyl meltdown, I crossed the line - one of twelve navigation cadets to do so onboard an old general cargo 'training' ship bound for Hong Kong. We met Neptune in the South China Sea in sight of Borneo, and now I've just crossed it again for the fifty-second time. For ten years I carried valuable cargoes around the planet from one continent to another. At home I have a wall map of the world onto which I've inked in every route I've sailed. One of my longest voyages never crossed the equator, it took me on an easterly heading from Japan right around the world to Taiwan.

I embarked on my first Greenpeace voyage ten years ago, when I joined the Moby Dick, at Granville island, Vancouver. The Phyllis Cormack, the first Greenpeace ship, had sailed from the same berth twenty five years before. I was the newest recruit, meeting the oldest founders - the perfect time and place.

There's nowhere in the world I'd rather be then at sea 'Defending our Oceans'. On this trip we're looking for pirates - I've run into them before in the Southern Ocean - a long-liner called 'Salvora', with an illegal catch of 20 million dollars worth of Patagonian toothfish in its holds. It was like finding the needle in a haystack; but we found them, chased them, and had them arrested in the pirate port of Mauritius. Now we're looking again, in the Atlantic Ocean.

Some sailors spend time with knot-work, others take up needle point, I've taken to writing stories, I publish them on a 'Google Group' called 'Mike's Week'. You are welcome to subscribe and please write to me, more than this beautiful earth we play upon, I love people and cherish friendship.

- Mike

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17 March 2006

Adam - Science

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Ocean Defenders TV: It's getting hot!

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

More video! Yes, ladies, gentlemen and others, another installment in a thrilling series. Tune in watch Sara get all hot and bothered - things are warming up as the Esperanza crosses the equator. We meet our first fishing boat, talk about tuna and frolick with dolphins.

View the movie on Ocean Defenders TV »

Grab the podcast (mp4) »

More Greenpeace podcasts »

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16 March 2006

Brazil, and the Convention for Biological Diversity

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Next week, Brazil will host the Convention on Biological Biodiversity (CBD) - we're calling it 'The Summit for Life on Earth'. Delegates from 188 countries, will be sitting down to discuss a series of crucial issues central to preserving the planet's health - (oceans included!).

Stay tuned for more on the CBD- but in the meantime, check out this reminder to the delegates - photographs of activists unfurling a banner from that iconic statute of Christ in Rio de Janeiro - it reads 'The future of the planet is in your hands'.

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Rostock Update: Fifth pirate now in chains!

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Here's a quick update to the 'Pirates of Rostock story'. When our activists chained up those four blacklisted fishing vessels on Saturday, the fifth one had already sneaked away, under cover of darkness, towards Poland.

This morning, activists paid a visit to the Carmen, in the port of Swinoujscie, wrapping it in chains and hanging a banner that reads "Stop Pirate Fishing".

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Moff - Doctor

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15 March 2006

Hammock Haggling

by Sara, onboard the Esperanza

They talk about the steamy heat of the tropics, and now I know why... it's barely just passed 6 am... the moon is still big and full, the line of the horizon is only just beginning its first flush of pink from the morning sun... and the thermometer on the bridge wing is already reading 29 degrees Celcius. As a famous English tabloid once emblazoned across it's front page - 'Phew! What a Scorcher!'

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Ascension Island - another Diego Garcia?

by Ed and Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Arriving at Ascension Island on Saturday, I saw - with my own eyes - that a few people are intent on controlling the planet and the space around it. Ascension was littered with giant radio masts and giant golf ball-style satellite domes (like the ones you may see at RAF Menwith Hill in Yorkshire) on several of those volcanic peaks and headlands. This military base is owned by the UK and part of it is leased to the United States. The Air Force Space Command 45th Space Wing (nothing to do with Buzz Lightyear) and the Eastern Test Range Launch Program are both supported from the island. From here, they constantly monitor space for 'debris' and it is also a missile and satellite tracking base for the Southern Hemisphere.

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Bent - Chief Engineer

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Convenience store flags and the pirates of Rostock

by Dave, onboard the Esperanza

Right - we've a bit of an update to the Rostock story. That fleet of illegal trawlers we chained up in the German port are called the Oyra, Ostroe, Okhotino, Olchan and Ostrovets. They used to be called the Eva, Junita, Rosita, Isabella and Carmen, but following their involvement in last year's collapse of fish stocks in the North Atlantic, they rapidly changed their names - in an effort to cover their tracks. Back then, then, the boats registered in Dominica (a tiny island in the Caribbean) - now they are flying the flag of Georgia, the former Soviet state on the Black Sea. These cosmopolitan trawlers really get around, don't they?

In fact, the five vessels have changed their "flag of convenience" three times in the last five years. In 2002, they were flying the Russian flag, but changed to Cyprus, before changing to Dominica. Are you getting dizzy yet?

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