MV Arctic Sunrise
Ironically, this ship was built in 1975 for commercial seal hunting, and then acquired by the French government as a supply vessel, for their Antarctic oil and mineral exploitation. Her first contact with Greenpeace was in 1986, in Hobart in Australia - when a volunteer scaled the mast, unfurled the Greenpeace flag and locked himself in the crow's nest.
When the entire continent of Antarctica was named a world park, the French had little use for the ship. So we bought her in 1995, renamed her the Arctic Sunrise, and since then she has been making up for past misdeeds!
Protesting against BNFL's plutonium transports, Takahama, Japan, 2002
The ice-breaker: With a rounded hull, and no keel, the MY Arctic Sunrise is designed to lift out of the ice instead of being crushed by it. So she has spent most of her life sailing the icy polar seas,
documenting the signs of climate change and
protesting against Japanese whaling in the Southern Oceans Sanctuary.
Filipino harvest giants welcome the ship - South East Asia Choose Positive Energy tour, 2002
Action! She has also been involved in actions to prevent the dumping of oil installations at sea, to stop
US Star Wars missile tests, to monitor toxic chemical levels in Latin America, to protest against clear-cutting in British Columbia's
Great Bear Rainforest. And, despite her suitability to travelling through the ice, the Arctic Sunrise has
toured the Eastern Caribbean and travelled the Amazon in Brazil, assisting with the
demarcation of traditional Deni lands...
