Friday, October 03, 2014

ARCTIC SUNRISE

Arctic SunriseThe Arctic Sunrise (IMO: 7382902, Port of Registry: Amsterdam, The Netherlands) is an ice-class vessel owned by Greenpeace. Ironically, before Greenpeace chartered the Arctic Sunrise it was once a seal hunting vessel. The Arctic Sunrise was built in 1975 by AS Vaagen Verft, Sweden as the Polarbjorn. She entered Greenpeace's fleet in 1996. At the end of 1996, Greenpeace had prepared the Arctic Sunrise for the icy conditions of Antarctica. The vessel is 50 metres long, 12 metres wide and has a gross tonnage of 949.
The Arctic Sunrise began its Greenpeace life during the Brent Spar campaign where it was used to prevent dumping oil installations at sea. In 1997 it became the first ship to circumnavigate James Ross Island in the Antarctic, which previously was an impossible journey until a 200m thick ice shelf connecting the island to the Antarctic continent collapsed. This was just one of the many signs of climate change which the Arctic Sunrise has helped document. In September 2013, Arctic Sunrise participated in Greenpeace protests against oil drilling activities by the Russian energy company Gazprom at the Prirazlomnaya oil rig in the Pechora Sea. On 18 September, the crew of Arctic Sunrise circled the Prirazlomnaya oil rig, while three crew attempted to board the platform. In response, the Russian Coast Guard seized control of the ship and detained the activists. The ship was later towed by a coast guard vessel to the Russian Arctic port of Murmansk where the Russian government intended to charge the Greenpeace activists with piracy. The 30 activists were all released from prison after three months of international protests, but the ship remained in Murmansk pending a decision by the Russian investigative committee until June 2014 from where she left in August 2014 (source: Wikipedia).

The Arctic Sunrise is currently sailing offshore Rotterdam awaiting the Russian tanker Mikhail Ulyanov, which is transporting a cargo of crude oil which was extracted from the Arctic Sea for Russian oilcompany Gazprom. The Mikail Ulyanov is expected to arrive at the pilotstation around midnight.

Click here for the current position of the Arctic Sunrise

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