'Arctic Sunrise' a glow on the ocean
'Arctic Sunrise' a glow on the ocean
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali
It was a hot morning at Benoa Harbor, some 25 kilometers south of Denpasar. The air was stark and fresh and the sea was an unbelievable dark blue.
In the quiet part of the harbor, the grass-green colored Arctic Sunrise, which belongs to the militant environmentalist movement Greenpeace, stood regally beside the white Australian vessels docked nearby.
The Arctic Sunrise ship, one of the bases used by the organization to campaign and to fight for its goals, is far from threatening to look at.
The flying dove followed by a rainbow painted on the side of the ship, and whales and dolphins painted on the helm hardly reflect the many times the ship has struck fear in the hearts of environmental violators.
"It is named Arctic because it is an ice-breaker used in Arctic seas. I don't know about the Sunrise, maybe because it's a beautiful name," said Richard Watson from the Greenpeace United Kingdom office.
The Arctic Sunrise is a medium-sized vessel, weighing 949 gross tons. It is 49.62 meters long and 11.50 meters wide, and sits about 5.30 meters above the water. The ship can only accommodate around 30 people.
On Oct. 22, 1984, Greenpeace activists first used the ship to protest oil and mineral exploitation in the Antarctica. The French government had chartered the ship, at the time named the Polarbjorn, to deliver heavy equipment for an airstrip that would go through a penguin habitat on the Arctic continent. The ship was later acquired by Greenpeace, which renamed it the Arctic Sunrise in 1995.
Since then the Arctic Sunrise has been used by the organization in its campaigns, including in the investigation of pollution from oil rigs in the North Sea, a toxic waste case in the Mediterranean, the impact of climatic change in the Antarctica and in a campaign to save the overfished Southern Bluefin Tuna near New Zealand.
Before heading to Bali, Greenpeace was on a mission in Papua New Guinea to protest illegal logging. During the last two weeks, members of Greenpeace have joined local and international non- governmental organizations in the PrepCom IV meeting to fight for sustainable development preceding the upcoming World Summit in Johannesburg next August.
In Bali, the ship became a major base for Indonesian and international NGOs to voice their objections to various grievances, including debt writeoffs for developing countries.
Four speedboats are latched tightly onto the Arctic Sunrise for sea actions that require agility and speed, and a small orange helicopter named Tweety is on board.
Tweety is usually stored in the hull and only taken out through an opening on deck when needed.
More than a campaign base for numerous NGOs, the Arctic Sunrise is also home to Greenpeace's more than 20 crew members that joined the ship for the trip to Indonesia. Each crew is on duty at sea for four months.
"Only a special type of person can do it (stay on board that long)," Watson said.
Working for Greenpeace has been so satisfying, he said. People can do something they believe in and, at the same time, have a great time doing it.
Sailing on a ship for four months can be boring and tiring, but the Arctic Sunrise has comfortable cabins. In addition to personal cabins for crew members, the three-deck ship has a common room equipped with recreational equipment such as games, television, videos, a shelf full of books and a small bar, all of which are latched down in case the ship runs into heavy weather.
The ship also has a fully stocked kitchen and pantry, and the services of a professional chef, a darkroom for photography processing, a multimedia room for sending footage or releases of activities throughout the world and, most importantly, a laundry.
All crew members are professionals; with those coming in already with special training for the sea, or those trained after they join Greenpeace, he said.
Also, the number of women working on the ship is surprisingly high, about 50 percent of the entire crew. Clad in dirty overalls and scruffy caps, the women join the men in doing various ship duties, including lowering or raising the sail and machinery work.
Watson joined Greenpeace in 1988 with a job description as wide-ranging as professional climber, metalworker and welder.
"Most importantly is you've got to have passion," he asserted as one of the main criteria in joining Greenpeace's fights against unsustainable development.
The Arctic Sunrise said goodbye to Bali as it left Benoa Harbor on Friday afternoon and headed for Hong Kong.