aberdeen

"I've always wanted to meet someone from Greenpeace. Are you one of those nutters who climbs stuff?"

"Unfortunately not." I had to explain sheepishly to Paul – my newfound friend in Old Blackfriar's, an Aberdeen pub – that not all of us at Greenpeace are daring heroes who can nimble up Arctic oil rigs.

Behind those taking action in front of the camera, there are loads of others in the background: from cooks to deckhands, from radio operators to - in my case - web geeks.  Together, we're a veritable army of activists.

Last year, the Climate 9 stopped dangerous greenhouse gases reaching the atmosphere by disrupting operations at Aberdeen Airport.

After a two week trial the law found them guilty of breach of the peace but other charges were dropped, and in the court of international opinion they received overwhelming support, which was further legitimised by expert scientific testimony.

Follow the crew of the Arctic Sunrise on their campaign for Marine Reserves in our North Sea Tour blog

Since Tuesday morning, we've been docked in Aberdeen. The Arctic Sunrise is dwarfed amidst some of the other huge ships here. As we waited on the pilot to take us in, we had small groups of noisy arctic terns bouncing around the ship. Then, on our way into the harbour, just at the breakwater, we were treated to a pod of about seven bottlenose dolphins, lazily feeding (with an occasional show-off jump).