Greenpeace - direct action to protect whales
Last year, Greenpeace engaged in a number of non-violent direct actions against two Norwegian whalers, the Villduen and the Kato, to prevent them killing whales. These actions were transformed by the irresponsible and dangerous actions of, on one occasion, the Norwegian coastguard and on another by a Norwegian whaling captain.
On the 12th June 1999, a Norwegian coastguard vessel deliberately rammed a Greenpeace boat, catapulting activist, Mark Hardingham, into the water. As a result, Mark was seriously injured and was hospitalised for several months. A month later the captain of the whaling boat, Kato, fired three rifle shots at another Greenpeace inflatable. Luckily nobody was injured, but the boat's pontoon was punctured. Amazingly the Norwegian coastguard's reaction was to arrest several activists and impound Greenpeace's ship, the Sirius.
Not surprisingly, these actions received considerable media attention putting the spotlight firmly on Norway's continued defiance of the whaling ban. Most importantly, for the first time in Greenpeace's long-running campaign to stop Norwegian whaling, the Norwegian press began to include our arguments in their reports and in some articles and editorials even began to question whether Norway should continue whaling.
