On my return flight from Seoul last
Thursday night, I ended up conversing with the passenger sitting next to me.
The gentleman, from Amsterdam in the Netherlands, was on his way to join the
Greenpeace ship “Esperanza” which had recently docked in the Suva harbour.
Being a supporter of the work of Greenpeace, having been studying in Auckland
when the famous Rainbow Warrior was sunk in 1985, and having visited the Rainbow
Warrior II during its stopover Suva in 1995 on its way to protest the
resumption of French nuclear testing on Moruroa, in Tuamotu Maohi Nui (French
Polynesia) as part of the Suva-based anti-Nuclear protest group - I was
obviously interested in my co-passenger’s story.
Over the next 10 hours, interspersed
with naps and the odd meal break, my co-passenger shared with me that normally
he is a crew member onboard the Greenpeace ship “Arctic Sunrise”. At the moment
the Arctic Sunrise, its crew of twenty-eight and two journalists are in the
custody of the Russian authorities. It was only because my co-passenger was on
leave at the time that he avoided joining his colleagues in a Russian jail.
The Arctic 30, as they have come to be
known, were involved in a protest against the Gazprom Arctic drilling platform
Prirazlomnaya on September 18th. Two of the activists tried to climb the side
of the platform to hang a banner. One day later, Russian security services
descended from a helicopter onto the deck of the Greenpeace ship Arctic
Sunrise, seized the ship at gunpoint and detained the entire crew.
According to Greenpeace, the activists,
crew and journalists were at the Gazprom rig because they felt compelled to
bear witness to the slow, unrelenting destruction of the Arctic. As the ice is
retreating, oil companies are moving north to drill for the fuels that drive
that melting. “The Arctic 30 are people who care enough about the world we live
in to take a stand and protect it. The Arctic is a stunning place, home to
unique species including polar bears and Arctic foxes. Drilling for oil there
is an appalling act that threatens this extraordinary environment, and the
world’s climate.”
I was able to learn more about the
Arctic 30 when I accompanied my children to visit the Esperanza on Saturday as
Greenpeace organised free tours for the public. Onboard, captain of the
Esperanza, Mike Fincken, shared more on the Arctic 30.
Energy and petroleum companies are eying the Arctic as the
next oil frontier with
a potential 90 billion barrels of oil. While that maybe a lot of money, the
reality is that it is only enough to supply the world with oil for three years.
To
drill in the Arctic, oil companies have to drag icebergs out the way of their
rigs and use giant hoses to melt floating ice with warm water. Considering that
melting ice leads to sea-level rise, this is the last thing the Pacific needs.
Captain Fincken, said that given the Arctic environment, dealing with oil
spills in the freezing waters is “almost impossible”. Any accident would
shatter the fragile Arctic environment. Given the environmental catastrophes
caused by the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon (BP oil) disasters, a
catastrophic oil spill in the Arctic would be just a matter of time.
Recently
three Russians who are part of the Arctic 30 were released on bail and
negotiations are continuing for the release of the non-Russians.
Greenpeace
is hopeful that the International Tribunal for the Law
of the Sea will order their release when they adjudicate on Friday. However, Russia
is not attending the UN tribunal hearing in Hamburg, as it is not party to some
UN Law of the Sea dispute procedures.
If Russia keeps the activists in jail for another three
months they will remain there during the February 2014 Winter Olympics hosted
by Russia in Sochi.
Visit http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/arctic-impacts/Peace-Dove/Arctic-30/
for more on the Arctic 30.
While the Esperanza was not in the
Pacific on something as dramatic as the Arctic Sunrise, it was doing some very
important work which impacts the Pacific Ocean and its people. According to
Captain Fincken, the bulk of their work is research and data compilation. The
Esperanza docked in Fiji after close to nine weeks at sea documenting albacore
tuna fishing between Fiji and Vanuatu.
The work of the Esperanza echoes the
report by Greenpeace, released this week that calls for wide scale measures to
be put in place urgently to “reduce fishing capacity to save the region’s tuna
fisheries”.
According to Greenpeace Australia, in
2012 there was a record tuna catch and record number of vessels in the purse
seine fishery. There are already almost 300 purse seine vessels and around 3000
longline vessels fishing in the Pacific; while another 45 purse seine vessels
are under construction in Asian shipyards – destined for the Pacific. It is
basically a case of are too many boats chasing too few fish in the Pacific.
Over 2 million tonnes of tuna was taken
from the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) last year.
The Greenpeace report – titled Fewer
boats, more fish: Towards comprehensive fishing capacity management in the
Western and Central Pacific Tuna Fisheries – calls for the urgent introduction
of capacity and effort management in tuna fisheries in the WCPO to protect tuna
stocks, improve environmental performance generally and to contribute more to
island states and local communities.
“Greenpeace also urges the Commission to
develop a plan and timeline to assess and eliminate the overcapacity in the
WCPO that takes into consideration the social and ecological criteria set out
by Greenpeace for reducing overcapacity in tuna fisheries.”
The full report can be found here: www.greenpeace.org/australia/Pacific-fishing-capacity
We of the liquid continent, who rely on
the sea for so much need to pay attention to the “writing on the wall” and
think not just in terms of the gains to be made today but the legacy we leave
for our children. Pacific Islanders must identify the best forms of fishing to
support our environment, economies and livelihoods. From the perspective of
Greenpeace, this means preference must be given to local, sustainable 'ocean
friendly' fishing.
Too often we take the abundance of
natural resources that the Creator has placed around us, for granted as our
God-given right. We need to remember that we have also God-given responsibility
for the stewardship and care of creation.
“Simplicity, Serenity, Spontaneity”
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