Well, I began in August 2005. It was my responsibility to put together the team and oversee the preparations for the first leg of the project – the expedition to the Southern Ocean to defend the whales. I also had the job of planning and coordinating what we called the “corporate campaign” against companies (Gorton’s in the USA and Sealord in New Zealand in particular) associated with Nissui, one of the shareholders of the whaling company.

And what a project this turned out to be. We found the whaling fleet. We stayed with them for 4 weeks. We stopped them reaching their quota thus saving approximately 80 whales. We broadcast never before seen images of the cruelty of the hunt and of course our “corporate” work resulted in all of the commercial concerns divesting their shares in the whaling operation. The effect of this has been to further isolate those involved in whaling.

I’m happy to say that I was also given the job of preparing the current Southern Ocean Expedition and that we are now enroute to the sanctuary to once again save the whales.

I have been with Greenpeace on and off now for 20 years. Much of that time has been spent working on the whaling issue and in particular on the Southern Ocean Sanctuary. I still remember briefing and lobbying the Irish government back in 1994, looking for them to support the Sanctuary proposal at the IWC. Then in 1999/2000 I sailed on board the MY Arctic Sunrise as expedition leader to the Southern Ocean. Since then I have been team leader for all subsequent Southern Ocean whale expeditions (2001/2002, 2005/2006 and 2007).

I have had the privilege, and continue to have the privilege, of working with a great bunch of committed, inspiring and fun-to-be-with people on a campaign that means so much to me.

One of the greatest things that happened personally for me over the past year was meeting up with Paul Spong at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in St Kitts in June. Paul is responsible for Greenpeace taking up the whale campaign and while our team was being arrested on the beach outside the IWC meeting he told me that what he was watching was “in the true spirit of Greenpeace”. And you can’t get any better than that.

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