18 May 2006

Videoblog - Azores wrap up

by Elaine, soon to be onboard the Esperanza

As the Esperanza heads towards the Mediterranean, we look back at the Defending Our Oceans tour so far. There's more stunning footage from the underwater world of the Azores, Captain Frank talks about whales and Moff the medic/painter/deckhand talks about pirates. Sara and the crew throw you a challenge - and everyone loves a challenge!

Watch Ocean Defenders TV »

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17 May 2006

A passage to Spain

by Thom, radio operator onboard the Esperanza

It has been quieter on board the Esperanza since we departed Ponta Delgada in the Azores on Saturday. All of the scientists, campaigners, and media people have left the ship there so there is no one left but sailors.

This in no way means that work has stopped. Instead we are using our break from campaign activities to do the maintenance we did not have time for while we were so busy and also to prepare for our next period of activities. Though we are concentrating on ship tasks we continue the marine science work. We tow the hydrophone array all the time and we put out our marine debris sampler for an hour every day.

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12 May 2006

Slideshow: marine treasures of the Azores

by Joss, onboard the Esperanza

Since arriving in the Azores only three weeks ago, we've been privileged to see many of the remarkable marine treasures that the archipelago has to offer. Thanks to the hard work and skill of our ace photographer Gavin, ably supported by Wolf and Berhard, we've been able to gather high quality video and still images of many of them - from the greatest of the cetaceans, the blue whale, right down to some of the tiniest invertebrates.

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11 May 2006

So long and thanks for all the fish (and whales and salps)

by Richard, onboard the Esperanza

Ask anyone who's been on a Greenpeace ship - ship time is different. The days are long and full and it's hard to keep track of the days of the week and the date, and somehow the weeks just disappear. And so it is, we've come to the end of the Azorean leg of the Defending Our Oceans expedition.

Nobody onboard can be in any doubt after this trip that the waters of the Azores are brimming with marine life. I just hope that we have been able to convey some of the excitement that we've felt on encountering numerous whales, exploring bits of the seabed never seen by human eyes before, and learning about whales and salps. As I write this, Joss is preparing a slideshow of images for the site, mainly taken by our extraordinary photographer Gavin, which display this extraordinary variety - from the largest animal on the planet to some of the tiniest. As a campaigner I know these images will be used time and time again in reports and public materials to illustrate the beauty of these oceans and show why they should be protected.

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10 May 2006

It's Different for Deckies

by Moff, onboard the Esperanza

A day in the life of a deckhand: The first thing I do this morning is splash phosphoric acid into my eyes, in the form of Metal Brite - my favourite industrial strength cleaning fluid. I love the smell of Metal Brite in the morning; it removes any stain and leaves the ship all nice and shiny, but using it on a floodlight pillar on the heli-deck into a strong wind - not a good move. As I stand there blinded, with acid burning into my cornea, I muse that alkali burns to the eyes are far more dangerous than acid, as they saponify fats and travel deeper into tissues, so I decide not to bother stumbling visionless towards to the eyebath, but to let my tears do the job.

I stand there on the deck, crying alone in the wind and rain, and thinking about the use of phosphoric acid as a homeopathic remedy, where it's indication can be summed up as 'exhaustion through communication'. That's why they put it, in smallish amounts, in Coca-Cola, because it encourages shininess and communication, and in high doses its effects give you that post-coke feeling, hence it's use in homeopathy.

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Open Boat: an invitation to join us

by Joss, onboard the Esperanza

Well, all too soon it seems, the Azores leg of the Defending Our Oceans expedition is coming to an end. We’ve all had a wonderful time in these friendly islands, and to say thank you, we’ll be holding an ‘open boat’ day on Friday 12th May at our mooring site in the harbour of Ponta Delgada in São Miguel.

Organised in conjunction with our colleagues at the University of the Azores, we’re inviting you all to come aboard Esperanza, between 1pm and 6pm in the afternoon. So if you would like to find out more about the campaign, and what makes a Greenpeace boat tick, please feel free to come and join us!

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9 May 2006

Ship life - second nature to me now!

by Laura, onboard the Esperanza

After two weeks on the Esperanza, ship's life is becoming second nature to me. It's a very different life from at home, but the standards and routines set by the crew have made me fit into my new surroundings pretty fast. When I get hungry it means it is either 7am, noon or 6pm. It's strange how fast your body adopts these strict mealtimes. Whatever work is happening at that moment, it is important to get downstairs as soon as possible. Getting there too late means cold food and less choice. For me it also means finding a place close to the exit. I hoped it would wear off, but I still get seasick at unexpected moments...

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Taking the squid out of sperm whales' mouths

by Richard, onboard the Esperanza

We've not been so lucky with the weather this trip. For the second day running we have quite a large swell which is preventing us from sending our dive team out. Overnight we took the ship to the lee side of Terceira island, where we expected to find more shelter. But as luck would have it the prevailing wind changed direction, and we've now moved once again to the south side, hoping it will be calm enough for the divers to try again this afternoon.

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8 May 2006

Mayday message for the deep seas

by Richard, onboard the Esperanza

Calling all Ocean Defenders! Well, we're now well into the third leg of the Defending Our Oceans expedition, a collaborative venture with scientists from the University of the Azores and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

The first dive of the three we conducted yesterday was fabulous. It was so exciting seeing parts of the planet that nobody else had ever set eyes on before. The coral communities we found there were other-worldly, strange white whip corals, yellow tree-like gorgonians, plus blue sea cucumbers and orange fish - and once we glimpsed a deep water shark in the distance.

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Slideshow: images from the drop-camera

by Joss, onboard the Esperanza

Underwater filming isn't easy, which is why images and film-footage from these deep-sea habitats are like gold dust. Last week, before the sad loss of our underwater video and stills research camera, we were able to 'fly' it over the summits and ridges of some of the little explored seamounts of the western Azorean islands. Take a look at a short slideshow of what we found there...

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7 May 2006

Next life I'm gonna be a wave...

by Måns, onboard the Esperanza

In the harbour at Horta, in the Azores, they have a tradition. Every boat that moors there has to leave it's mark by making a painting on the harbour wall, or at least a small piece of it.

I liked the idea, so now, on that wall, there is a painting of Esperanza steaming through calm water. The structure of the concrete wall gave me the shapes of the waves, quite handily, and started me thinking about waves and what they mean to me.

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6 May 2006

Feeding frenzies and ctenophore signals

by Richard, onboard the Esperanza

We knew that the Dom João de Castro Bank was a special place before we arrived of course, but it was confirmed yesterday morning by the fact that there were whales all over the place. Not only were there sperm whales, but a big blue passed close by the ship. Unfortunately I missed this one - being down in Esperanza's interior, cleaning the alleyways with a mop.

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5 May 2006

Question Time! Talk to our marine biologists on 6 May

by Joss, onboard the Esperanza

If you've been following us on this leg of the tour you'll know that we've been collaborating with the Department of Oceanography at the University of the Azores, and have two of their top marine biologists, Filipe Porteiro and Fernando Tempera, aboard - helping us to identify useful places to surf the seamounts.

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4 May 2006

Art4Oceans - our new gallery goes live!

by Joss, onboard the Esperanza

I have just heard from Elaine, one of our brilliant webbies in Amsterdam, that our new Art4Oceans gallery has just gone live. Right now it features some great pictures by some well known British artists (including Julian Opie, whose contribution is shown at left) and some lyrics by a pretty well known Irish band who have been inspired by the oceans.

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Plan B

by Richard, onboard the Esperanza

I have yet to experience a campaign or expedition where everything went according to the original plan and this trip is proving no exception. Unfortunately yesterday we lost the Phoenix - our rebuilt drop-cam. We were conducting a deep dive when the drop-cam got stuck and the cable snapped. Bernhard did everything in his powers with the winch to get the dislodge the gear in the final seconds but it just wasn't to be.

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3 May 2006

Stranger than fiction - the giant squid

by Alejandro, onboard the Esperanza

Looming out of the inky blackness of the deep sea waters - an enormous tentacled creature is locked in a life or death struggle with a mighty sperm whale. This classic Jules Verne-like image of a legendary sea-monster is still our most common image of one of the least known denizens of the deep - the giant squid.

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2 May 2006

Rise of the Phoenix

by Richard, onboard the Esperanza

I am continuously amazed by the ingenuity and resilience of my fellow Greenpeacers. Yesterday's disaster with the drop-cam might have pushed lesser people into deep depression, and indeed I was wondering just how much of our mission we might be able to fulfill with only the ROV at our disposal. After all it's the drop-camera that can go really deep.

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1 May 2006

Death of the 'Drop-Cam'?

by Richard, onboard the Esperanza

Around lunchtime, just as I was on a Defending Our Oceans project leaders conference call, and being cautiously optimistic about how well things are going out here so far - disaster struck the underwater video and stills research camera, affectionately known as the 'Drop-Cam'. While surveying a coral ridge it had crashed into a rocky outcrop and been broken into pieces.

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30 April 2006

"Abandon ship"- dressed as a lobster

by Dorothee, onboard the Esperanza

At regular intervals, or when new people (like me) arrive on the ship, an 'abandon ship' drill is held to show everyone what to do in an emergency.

That means that once the alarm rings, we all have to stop whatever we’re doing, run to the helli-deck and assemble in good order: crew members on one side, campaigners and visitors on the other. Once Nadia has checked everybody off the list, different tasks have to be fulfilled. Each crew member has a different task to perform. As one of the boat team, mine is to free the taglines on our inflatables, so that they can be launched quickly.

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29 April 2006

In search of seamounts

by Joss, onboard the Esperanza

This morning as I stir in my bunk there's a different feel about the ship, a quivering energy that's been absent for the past few days. My sleepy mind gropes to explain the change, and then lights on the reason - the engines are running!

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Podcast: Whales, noise pollution and military sonar

by Joss, onboard the Esperanza

Our oceans campaigner Richard describes how important sound is to whales and dolphins, and how underwater noise pollution, particularly from powerful military sonar equipment, may be having a powerful negative impact on these amazing creatures, even to the extent of causing their deaths.

Listen

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28 April 2006

At last - perfect whale-watching weather

by Joss, onboard the Esperanza

Some days things just go right. After a frustrating couple of days here in Horta when the weather stubbornly refused to play ball, remaining resolutely wet and cloudy, yesterday dawned bright, calm and fair – perfect whale-watching and filming weather, which is exactly what we were finally able to do. For me it was a dream come true: sperm whales, fin whales, sei whales and the rare Risso's dolphin, plus (most spectacular of all) a giant blue whale all crossed my path on a day I'll long remember.

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25 April 2006

Courageous activist threatened

by Joss, onboard the Esperanza

There’s no doubt that the Azores is a success story – here on this island archipelago they’ve really turned things around in the last few years. A long tradition of whaling has morphed into profitable whale-watching, and destructive bottom trawling has been banned from Azorean waters. If only we could replicate this state of affairs throughout our oceans.

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Studying the mysterious lives of sperm whales

by Russell, onboard the Esperanza

What we see of the sperm whale at the surface only gives us a brief glimpse of a life that is spent mainly in the dark depths of the ocean. Early studies of sperm whales were mostly limited to studying their carcasses. More recently, through careful observation and with help from modern technology, we're beginning to learn more about their lives through benign research techniques that do not disturb them. Nevertheless, there are still many things we do not know. For example, we still don’t really know how they find and catch their food, or whether their numbers are increasing or decreasing.

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24 April 2006

Here be whales

by Richard, onboard the Esperanza

Today has been an extraordinary day in many ways, but one I will remember for the rest of my life for one thing in particular, I saw a blue whale. Russell and I were on the bridge wing when he spotted a blow and lead my eye to the sufacing whale.

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23 April 2006

The hydrophone - our 'ear' in the water

by Richard, onboard the Esperanza

One of the pleasing things about today was hearing a group of dolphins recorded by the hydrophone we are currently towing behind the ship. Russell Leaper, a whale scientist from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has been on board sorting out the hydrophone, a high-powered underwater microphone that can be configured to pick up sounds across a wide range of frequencies far above and below the range of human hearing.

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22 April 2006

Sperm Whales - myths and realities

by Richard, onboard the Esperanza

Of all the creatures of the deep ocean, the sperm whale probably enjoys the most legendary status. Immortalised in Moby Dick, in real life they are a far cry from the vengeful creature that tormented Captain Ahab and his crew. Quite the reverse, in fact. It was the whaling ships of the 19th and 20th centurys centuries that persecuted them. They were much prized for their valuable oil - in the southern hemisphere alone, 400,000 were killed in the 20th century. Thankfully, no commercial hunting of sperm whales has been allowed by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) since 1986, when a global moratorium on commercial whaling came into effect.

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20 April 2006

A job for the weekend?

by Ed, onboard the Esperanza

The West Africa leg of the campaign is now over for the Esperanza and everything that was hoped for seems to have come to fruition - amazingly! There remains a lot of work to do now, with the ministers in Guinea and Spain and the EU...an unenviable job for the people of the EJF and Greenpeace. I think what we have all managed to do here so far, may well have long lasting effects which can help to make a change for the better, for people and the ocean, so well done everybody!!

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Talk to us - open thread

by Joss, onboard the Esperanza

Any questions, words of encouragement, hate mail, love mail, peace mail, etcetera: about seamounts, whales, pirates, fishing, the oceans, Greenpeace, us, what it's like to work onboard a ship - anything like that, send it our way. Really, we'd love to hear from you. This thread is a public forum.

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Setting off for the Azores

by Joss, onboard the Esperanza

Hello again from the Esperanza. It´s time for another crew change as the West Africa leg of the expedition comes to a triumphant conclusion, with the confiscation of the consignment of stolen fish from the Binar 4. And time to bid a fond farewell to our hard working webbie Dave Walsh, who heads off to the showers for a well-earned rest after putting in some sterling work, and to say hello to me, Joss Cope, his replacement.

This evening we´re heading off towards the islands of the Azores in the Atlantic. The waters around the Azores are home to some amazing marine life and habitats, including vast mountains under the sea known as seamounts (the 9 Azorean islands themselves are in fact mountain peaks of the giant mid-Atlantic ridge), giant squid and up to 26 different types of whales and dolphins; including the legendary sperm whale.

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