15 January 2007

Remember...

By John Bowler, in New Zealand

Today’s blog is not about the Esperanza or the whale campaign or how the Open Boat went today (for your information it was great, 500+ visitors and the sun shone brightly). Although I really enjoyed it again today my head (and my heart) was elsewhere.

I have been with Greenpeace for 20 years and during that time have travelled widely, but I have never been to New Zealand before. Yes, this is my first time in Auckland and so I had to check out Marsden Warf just about one kilometre away from Princes Warf where the Esperanza proudly sits.

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14 January 2007

Five days later

By John Bowler, in New Zealand

It’s now five days since the Esperanza arrived in Auckland. During this time we have been busy with crew going and coming, repairs and maintenance, and the arrival of equipment for the upcoming Southern Ocean voyage.

It has been a busy five days, full of hard work, long hours and constant discussions over the strategy and tactics to be employed to stop whaling in the sanctuary.

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10 January 2007

The Esperanza sings

By Sara, at Princes Wharf in Auckland

After 15 years working in television news, I now know why I spent all my time IN FRONT of the camera and not behind it - because I am a rubbish camera woman. The lovely surprise for you all was going to be great footage of the wonderful songs the team here in Auckland had rehearsed for the ship and the equally fabulous musical response the crew had been practicing for days... But the tape needs "a little work" on it before it is presentable and frankly might never see the light of day.

So to compensate here's what you would have seen, but in a way that even I can manage - written down!

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9 January 2007

Videoblog: Return to the Southern Ocean

What will it take to finally end whaling? As the Esperanza and her crew prepare to return to the Southern Ocean we investigate the background of Antarctic whaling - and the many strands of work required to end it - whether in political fora, corporate boardrooms, within Japan, or with ideas from people like you.

Check out the latest installment of Ocean Defenders TV.

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Powhiri Update

By Adele, in the Stockholm office with a little help from John Bowler

Sadly I haven't yet received any incriminating footage from Sara which may reveal how good (or bad) the singing by the Esperanza crew was, but John Bowler has sent us a photo. He says:

"The Esperanza arrived today, Tuesday 9 January, at 1215 local time at Princes Wharf in Auckland, New Zealand (in the pouring rain I may add).

As soon as the Esperanza was tied up Greenpeace New Zealand performed a traditional Maori welcome. It was a very rousing and beautiful ceremony and the crew of the Esperanza responded with a song of their own.

We all (crew and welcoming committee of 40 as well as the media) went on board
the Esperanza for a wonderful lunch.

Everyone on board seems in good health and great spirit. "

If you're in Auckland, see below for the dates and times of Open Days when you can visit the ship!

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8 January 2007

New Zealand within sights

By Helena, onboard the Esperanza

I am still struggling to believe that tomorrow, after a month at sea, we will be on land. This week has passed by super quick, well… we lost Friday by crossing the international date line – went to bed Thursday and woke up Saturday, no complaints there. Today we were followed by an albatross, another sign we are close, and what a spectacular seabird that is. Seafarers once believed the albatross a bird of good omen, and to harm one was to bring bad luck. These days they are threatened with extinction due to longline fishing. Seeing the albatross reinforces the importance of protecting our oceans and life it sustains.

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Kia Ora from New Zealand!

By Sara, waiting patiently in the New Zealand office

Having travelled half way round the world and gone from the Northern winter to the Southern summer in just two days I am now happily sitting in Auckland, waiting for the Esperanza to sail into port tomorrow morning.

The office here is planning a big welcome - but I will keep the surprise a secret for now! I can tell you it was fun to watch the last minute practicing though. Stand by and I will send pictures tomorrow (if I can figure out how to work the video camera!).

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7 January 2007

Gavin Newman looks back on 2006

By Gavin Newman

Before we embark fully on 2007, the lovely Gavin Newman, camera, video and gadget man extraodinaire has gathered some of his favourite images from his time onboard the Espy in 2006 and recorded an audio track to accompany them. So our fourth photographers photo story is born - this one looks back on 2006 and forward to the Southern Ocean. Check it out on oceans.greenpeace.org.

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6 January 2007

Behind the scenes 3: Adele Major

By Adele, at the Greenpeace office in Stockholm

So, I'm the third victim of our "Behind the Scenes" series. You've probably seen my name at the top of many a Greenpeace blog, dotted amongst the comments, or heard it muttered angrily under the breath of onboard web editors (if you happen to be a crew member). But what exactly have I been doing for the last "year" which, in true Greenpeace style, is apparently now sixteen months long?

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5 January 2007

New Zealand: Ready and Waiting

By Carol, in the New Zealand office (holding the fort for web guru Nick)

When the Rainbow Warrior was bombed by the French in 1985, it tore a hole in our hearts, but it did not diminish our passion or stop us returning to the sea.

I wonder if there has ever been a time when there wasn’t a Kiwi aboard at least one of the Greenpeace ships, young and spirited, craving adventure, and with a fire in their belly to protect our environment and defend our oceans.

I’m looking forward to the Esperanza’s arrival. I’m also looking forward to seeing an old friend, Karli Thomas, who’s now leading the campaign team aboard the ship. We worked together a few years ago and now she is sailing home, for a brief stop, before taking on the Southern Ocean to stop whaling.

We already have so many heroes, the world does not need more villains. We love Japan, but whaling breaks our hearts.

Haere mai Esperanza – we’re ready.

Read Carol's full story on oceans.greenpeace.org where she reflects on the shared history of Greenpeace, New Zealand, and the oceans.

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3 January 2007

Letter to a whaling captain

By Helena, on board the Esperanza

One of our youngest supporters, Martina, has a good idea and a great New Year's Resolution for Captain Toyama of the Nisshin Maru - the leader of the Japanese whaling fleet.

She suggests .... "why don't you go back home take out all the harpoons and come back to the sanctuary full of tourists for whale watching"

Watch Martina's video on YouTube

Inspired? Share your ideas at whales.greenpeace.org

Not yet signed up as an Ocean Defender? well go on then

Read about our encounters with the Nisshin Maru last year -->

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1 January 2007

2006: The Year in Pictures

By Helena on the Esperanza, and Adele struggling after too much champagne in Stockholm

As another year passes by, and I try to catch up with it, Helena has been chatting with the crew about their involvement in Defending Our Oceans. For many this is the second or even third leg of the trip. There are a number of crew who are heading back down to the Southern Ocean, but some will be disembarking in New Zealand.

2006 was an amazing year. Having sailed across oceans and working on a number of campaigns; whaling, pirate fishing, tuna ranching, pollution, oil spills, marine debris and destructive coastal development. Here are some stunning pictures to reflect on the year behind us…and inspire some resolutions for the year ahead.

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29 December 2006

Behind the scenes 2: John Bowler

What DOO I doo? By John Bowler

Introducing another of our less public but very important Ocean Defenders, Irishman John Bowler. Not only was John the leader of our Southern Ocean Expedition back in 1999/2000 as well as 2005/6, but he was one of the people responsible for convincing Bono to don a radiation suit (and apparently ruin his boots) to protest against the building of a second reactor at Sellafield nuclear plant. Here's John's account of the last year Defending Our Oceans...

By now you all know about DOO (Defending Our Oceans) and the many people involved in the project especially those who have been on board one of the Greenpeace ships over the past year. But what doo I doo? What has been my role in this amazing year-long expedition.

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26 December 2006

Having a wonderful Christmas without Harrods and Wal-Mart

By Christian, onboard the Esperanza

Out here, in the South Pacific, as far away from anything as you can get, there are no shopping malls, mega stores or cute little Christmas shops. Here, in the best Christmas spirit, we taketh what we haveth, and make do. And do well.

It works like this: About a week before Christmas we all pull a piece of paper from a hat. On this paper there is a name, and that is the person you make a Christmas gift to. All of this is very secret and hush hush, so we lock our cabins and sneak around at night (sometimes freaking each other out), putting things together.

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25 December 2006

Christmas a world away

By Shane, back at Greenpeace HQ

The Esperanza crew is currently celebrating Christmas, and we thought we'd leave them in peace to digest their dinner. Much to the amazement of some of our guests, we here at Team Sweden called Captain Pete last night to wish him Merry Christmas (even though he's ignoring it) and the onboard crew sounded safe and well. We'll have updates from them tomorrow. Meanwhile, last year's expedition leader Shane has sent me his reflections on where he was a year ago. -- Adele

As we passed over the winter solstice and headed in to Christmas, I paused to think about how different it was last year. On 21 December 2005, I was in the Southern Ocean on the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, and we had just found the Japanese whaling fleet. Their deck was lined with the carcasses of whales that had been harpooned before we arrived. Over the next two days, we confronted the whalers, putting ourselves and our small boats in front of the harpoon in a desperate bid to defend these magnificent creatures. Back in the Greenpeace office in December 2006, that experience feels like it was from another world.

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23 December 2006

Behind the scenes: Rose Young

By Adele, at the Greenpeace outpost on a small Swedish island

It’s been a whole year Defending Our Oceans, and while we’re transiting to New Zealand (calm before the storm, I suppose!) we thought it would be nice for you to meet some of our deskbound warriors who comprise the Defending our Oceans: Behind the Scenes team. First cab off the rank is possibly the world’s coolest grandmother (to no less than seven grandchildren), Rose Young.

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22 December 2006

Leaving the Northern Hemisphere

By Helena, onboard the Esperanza

The blue skies and puffy clouds are back, the light ocean breeze implies we have now passed through the ITCZ – intertropical convergence zone, or for the more melodramatic amongst us, the ‘Doldrums’. This is a belt around the globe near the equator where the north and south tradewinds meet and get a little confused, it appears the only way is up or cancelling each other out, resulting in frustrating sailing conditions and depressed sailors. ( It was named the doldrums as sailors often had to wait for days on end for a breeze to blow them back into the tradewinds, getting hot and bothered in the meantime). Tomorrow we actually cross the Line.

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Paul Watson

By Shane, at Greenpeace HQ

Years ago a man called Paul Watson used to work for Greenpeace. He now runs an organisation called Sea Shepherd. He frequently makes less than flattering remarks about Greenpeace and the people who work for the organisation. Recently he asked if we would collaborate with him in the Southern Ocean. We said no. Some of you want to know why, so for the sake of transparency, here is the letter that explains our reasons. Once you have read it, I suggest you do what I did - forget about it and carry on working to stop whales being hunted in the Southern Ocean.

Shane Rattenbury
Oceans Team Leader

(We'd welcome your comments to this post at the Greenpeace Forum.)

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19 December 2006

What not to get Captain Pete for Christmas

By Adele, in the Stockholm office

A bizarre Christmas story... since we're heading to the Southern Ocean, we have been reading up on whales. While our whales guru John Frizell and our webbie Helena put together some in-depth whale facts for you, here's a little story about an unexpected Christmas present, and what has to be my absolute favourite quote of the entire year: "We don't keep a certified whale-vomit expert on staff." Ok it's funny, but it also goes to show how amazing these creatures really are.

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18 December 2006

Rainy Day, bring out the videos

If you have visited the webcam in the last few days you will have noticed a sudden change in the weather today. Instead of the usual blue skies, today is grey and it's raining. On rainy days like this I just want to read books watch videos. And it just so happens that the clever media team at Greenpeace have put together a new video, “Defending our oceans: the story so far” .

I love the whistling and whirring sounds the rain is bringing. As I look out the porthole I try to imagine what the view would have been like one year ago, when this ship and her crew braved the Southern Ocean. I ask my cabin mate Caterina what it was like, with her hands (she is Italian after all) in front of the porthole she demonstrates how the horizon would appear, rise, disappear, then come back down again. I then imagine the wind howling not whistling, and the waves thumping not splashing.

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17 December 2006

The power of a T-shirt

One of the joys of being onboard are the different stories you hear. It's almost one week since we left Puerto Vallarta and, where Christian had a interesting adventure. I thought we'd share it with you on this quiet Sunday.

Seemingly small things, like e.g. the t-shirt you choose to wear, can have enormous consequences. The Greenpeace t-shirt I chose to wear on our last day in Mexico in Puerto Vallarta led to this uncanny chain of events.

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16 December 2006

Pete ponders the pacifc

By Pete, onboard the Esperanza

We are now a few days into the trip and beginning to settle into the familiar shipboard routines. The numbers on board are somewhat reduced and this leaves us all more space and so the atmosphere tends to be a little more laid back. Watches, deck work, routine maintenance in the engine room, and meals with fresh vegetables and fruit from Mexico.

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15 December 2006

Catch of the day!

By Helena, onboard the Esperanza

Paul gives me the heads up, followed by Penny then Natasha. It's happening. 'Smoko' [morning tea] is over and we are nearing the critical 500 miles. I am not going to miss out this time. I grab the Nikon, entrusted to me by the lovely folk at Greenpeace headquarters, and run out to the 'poop deck' [lower back deck].

The crew gathers, and preparations begin. Meanwhile, I manage to mess up the camera settings so all my pictures are coming out blue. Not good. In my excitable state and fear of missing the days big 'event' I abandon the Nikon and grab Christian's compact camera. After a few practice photos - this obviously being my lucky day - the batteries die.

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14 December 2006

Aye, me did not know that Gar!

By Helena*, onboard the Esperanza

Over the next few weeks, we want to bring you some amazing facts about the oceans - and, to keep the geek stuff entertaining, we also want to bring you some some amazing piratical exclamations -- and pirate folk, like Raoul here. Ah, the fair Esperanza, where every day is Talk Like A Pirate Day (or Knit Like a Pirate Day, if you're that way inclined). During the transit of the Esperanza from Mexico we will continue to work hard Defending Our Oceans, albeit in a quieter way than has been the case for most of this voyage.

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13 December 2006

The Wanderer (and we don't mean Johnny Cash)

by Helena, onboard the Esperanza and Adele, in the Stockholm office (blog jam!)

The name plankton is derived from the Greek word πλανκτος ("planktos"), meaning "wanderer" or "drifter". We can certainly relate to these little drifters - both Helena and Adele being part of the great Australian diaspora. At least it's decidedly more romantic than Plankton, the bad guy in Spongebob Squarepants (1% evil, 99% hot gas). Which isn't too far off (except for the evil bit): plankton are tiny organisms that are too weak or small to actually swim - actually some are plants - so they just kind of drift with ocean currents, and end up as dinner. (Not very comforting for us Wanderers. Maybe we should work on the 1% evil).

So, why are we telling you this? Well today The Esperanza launched the very technical CPR, otherwise known as the Continuous Plankton Recorder. Despite the fact that certain members of the Greenpeace clan have referred to this delicate piece of equipment as "toilet roll on a stick", this humble instrument is going to provide some very important information for our friends at the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS to you and me).

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12 December 2006

Starship Esperanza and the Plasma Cutter

By Helena, onboard the Esperanza

As I roam the corridors I keep hearing talk of an impending plasma cutter delivery. When I overhear Captain Pete and first mate Paul discussing the 'plasma cutter' I realise things are starting to resemble a Star Trek episode and I am now on the Starship Esperanza with Captain Pete Picard and Klingon Paul, and their trusty radio operator Spock. The plasma cutter might come in handy as we navigate through the upcoming Pacific asteroid field. Not only will it lead us through wormholes and warp space-time, it is really good for cutting steel. While the latter function excites the engineers, the former is the one I am holding my breath for. I mean who doesn't want to engage in some time travel?

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11 December 2006

I was there: how the Southern Ocean Sanctuary came to be

Over the next few weeks we'll be bringing you stories from the Esperanza as well as from some of our deskbound warriors. As we leave Puerta Vallarta in Mexico our resident whales guru John Frizell reflects on how the Southern Ocean Sanctuary was created when the International Whaling Commission (IWC) met in this very place in 1994.

It had been a long road to the 1994 IWC meeting in Puerto Vallarta. Two years before, when I raised the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary with one powerful delegation, I had promptly been put in my place. “Find me one country, just one, that’s backing this and I’ll listen to you.” A year later, when France proposed the Southern Ocean sanctuary, support was growing but it was not strong. When the IWC held a vote that could not approve the sanctuary, but could kill it off, we were lucky to survive.

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10 December 2006

Introducing Helena

By Helena, your new webby onboard the Esperanza

Hello. Hola. I am really here. So its time to bid farewell to wonderful webby Irene. I am still trying to find ways I can trick her into staying onboard. I’ve toyed with the idea of force – locking her in the storeroom but there’s no room as we just provisioned for our next leg at sea. Now I am working with the idea of persuasion - stringing up a hammock and offering free sunset cocktails. It seems to work for Puerto Vallarta – although I can’t really offer the beaches fringed with palm trees and nightclubs with blaring music.

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9 December 2006

Sanctuary under siege

by Karli, disembarking the Esperanza

It has been three weeks onboard the Esperanza in the Gulf of California, and as I pack up my cabin and do my laundry, it is sad to leave the ship.

At the end of our time in Mexico, we are in Puerto Vallarta and it feels right. It is a symbolic place to close this chapter of Defending Our Oceans and open the next - a return to the Southern Ocean to confront the whale hunters.

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All updates from the Southern Ocean whaling 2007 leg »
All updates from the Pacific transit »
All updates from the Mexico leg »
All updates from the Hawaii leg »
All updates from the Pacific leg »
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All updates from the India leg »
All updates from the Red Sea leg »
All updates from the Mediterranean leg »
All updates from the Azores leg »
All updates from the Pirate Fishing/Africa leg »
All updates from the Southern Ocean »

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