Direct Actions

Taking action - and taking blows - to protect bluefin tuna

Posted by Willie — 5 June 2010 at 1:09pm - Comments

Greenpeace took action in the Mediterranean yesterday to stop some French purse-seiners catching bluefin tuna. And it's fair to say, things kicked off a bit.

At long last, the weather had calmed down and the sea had warmed, and whilst the seas here certainly are not brimming with bluefin, we knew the seiners were sniffing some potential catch. When we saw them coming together at lunchtime we raced to the scene with both the Rainbow Warrior along with the Arctic Sunrise, our not-so-secret second ship in the Mediterranean.

When we got to the scene we quickly worked out that there was a net with some fish, so we deployed immediately to set about freeing the tuna. We knew it would be complicated, there were seven fairly big purse seiners, some support vessels and a whole heap of skiffs and inflatables working with the seiners. The smaller boats were holding the net open whislt the bigger boats were circling to try and protect the catch. Meanwhile a transport cage was being towed towards the scene for the tuna to be moved into. We knew we had to act fast.

Article tagged as: activism, bluefin, direct actions, mediterranean, oceans, purse-seining, tuna

Greenpeace activist injured and boats sunk in attempt to halt bluefin tuna fishing

Posted by jamie — 4 June 2010 at 3:34pm - Comments

Activists are pulled from the sea as one of our inflatables sinks © Parsons/Greenpeace

Some disturbing news is coming in from the Mediterranean where, for the past two weeks, the Rainbow Warrior and the Arctic Sunrise have been waiting for the bluefin tuna fishing season to begin. As Willie (who's on board the Arctic Sunrise) reported earlier in the week, they've been waiting along with the fishing fleet for the bad weather to subside and the tuna to arrive.

It's been a long, frustrating wait for the crew but finally, this afternoon the waiting was over. Having found a fishing vessel - the Jean Marie Christian 6 - towing a purse-seine net, both ships launched inflatables with the intention of submerging one side of the net to free the tuna trapped within, but the crews of other fishing vessels intervened in a manner which can only be described as the direct opposite of peaceful and proportional.

One of the UK activists has been injured by (and I'm wincing as I type) a grappling hook through the leg. He's being evacuated to hospital but I'm told he'll be okay. We've also lost two inflatables which were slashed with knives then sunk when the fishing vessels ran over them.

A difficult start then but our two ships in the Med are going to keep taking action to shut down the bluefin fishing operations.

More updates soon.

Article tagged as: activism, bluefin, direct actions, mediterranean, oceans, ships, tuna

Climate Defenders in Indonesia strike again

Posted by jamie — 25 November 2009 at 6:18pm - Comments

sml_GIT3233.jpg

Just hanging around... our activists shut down a paper mill that was busy pulping the rainforest.

After building dams and shutting down bulldozers to prevent further deforestation, the team at the Climate Defenders Camp in Indonesia has swung into action once more. At dawn, climbers entered a huge pulp and paper mill in Sumatra and scaled the massive loading cranes, blocking operations at the mill.

As I write, the latest reports are that three teams of climbers have been removed and detained, while a fourth remains in place on one of the cranes. In keeping with earlier reactions to the Climate Defenders, they've been threatened and intimidated but they're still holding out.

Article tagged as: APP, climate defenders camp, direct actions, forests, indonesia

Update: Canadian tar sands action wraps up

Posted by jamie — 1 October 2009 at 11:10am - Comments

Yesterday's fantastic direct action at Suncor's tar sands complex in Alberta is over. Two giant conveyor belts were blockaded for 10 hours and a giant banner was floated on the nearby Athabasca river. You can still catch some of the footage from the live video feeds and there are some great images in the slideshow above.

Article tagged as: canada, climate change, direct actions, energy, oil, tar sands

Video: why six Indians went to jail over climate change

Posted by jamie — 19 August 2009 at 3:49pm - Comments

It's not just on this country that people get so riled about climate change that they're driven into taking drastic action, action such as, oh I don't know, climbing a chimney stack in a coal-fired power station.

A new series of videos from our Indian office (compiled into one above) showcases six activists who explain why they climbed the chimney at Kolaghat power station in October 2007 and spent a few days in jail after their arrest.

Article tagged as: activism, climate change, coal, direct actions, energy, green idol, india, videos

Coal favoured over future of Pacific islands

Posted by jamie — 10 August 2009 at 3:45pm - Comments

Last week saw some high-flying direct action from our Australia Pacific colleagues. Coal export facilities in Queensland were occupied for days by climbers hanging like fruit bats from the rigging, and our ship the Esperanza was on hand to help enforce the blockade.

Meanwhile, politicians from Pacific nations were in Cairns to debate strategies for tackling climate change - but the outcome of their meeting was anything but positive.

Article tagged as: australia, climate change, coal, direct actions, energy, pacific islands forum

Exposing climate fugitives in Hong Kong

Posted by jamie — 24 June 2009 at 12:36pm - Comments

Greenpeace volunteers in Hong Kong have been protesting about the lack of effort the territory's government has put into tackling climate change. On Monday, a team dropped a huge, seven-storey banner down the front of a government office building marking out chief executive Donald Tsang as a 'climate fugitive'.

Article tagged as: china, climate change, copenhagen, direct actions, hong kong

Climate and people first

Posted by jossc — 2 April 2009 at 10:48am - Comments

Greenpeace action in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

We've got a message for the leaders of the richest nations in the world who are gathering here in London for the G20 meeting to discuss the global economic crisis - put the climate and people first.

15 activists unfurled this 50m x 30m banner from the bridge at the Guanabara bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Article tagged as: brazil, climate change, direct actions, G20, south america

Greenpeace podcast: A tale of two ships

Posted by jamie — 18 December 2008 at 4:03pm - Comments

Our podcast has skipped a month, but then with the Rainbow Warrior gracing our shores things have been a tad busy around here of late. As you may know, she was here in October as part of the international Quit Coal tour, and we went to meet some of the Greenpeace supporters who came to have a look round during the open boat days.

Also on our radar was the recent Indonesia tour undertaken by that other Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza. I was lucky enough to be there and while the crew were busy painting and blockading palm oil tankers in Sumatra, I was able to talk to them about what it's like being in the middle of a major piece of direct action.

And you'll have to excuse my froggy throat in the introduction, there's a cold going around the office.

Download this podcast

You can also listen to it right now - just click the play button below.

Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes | Google Reader | My Yahoo!

You can also subscribe by email to receive an alert when a new episode is published.

Article tagged as: climate change, coal, direct actions, esperanza, indonesia, palm oil, podcasts, rainbow warrior
Syndicate content

Follow Greenpeace UK