2003-08-26
This year Greenpeace embarks upon our 25th year of campaigning to save whales. Since the first Greenpeace vessel the Phyllis Cormack confronted a Soviet whaling ship off the coast of California in 1975, we have steadfastly pursued an end to commercial whaling through many forms of peaceful, and often dramatic, action.
1975: Greenpeace launches its campaign to save whales as its vessel Phyllis Cormack confronts the Soviet whaling ship Dalniy Vostok, 60 miles off the coast of Eureka, California. A Greenpeace inflatable Zodiac is positioned between the harpoon and a targeted whale. The gunner fires, narrowly missing the Zodiac, but the filmed record of the people risking their lives to protect whales helps launch a worldwide movement.
1976: With the 180-foot vessel, James Bay, Greenpeace again faces Soviet whalers, this time 1400 miles off the coast of California.
1977: In June, the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior is activated for her first campaign, by confronting Icelandic whalers.
In September, Greenpeace uses inflatable Zodiacs to confront Soviet whalers 50 miles off the coast of Western Australia.
1978: The Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior takes on Spanish whalers off the coast of Spain.
1979: The Rainbow Warrior is arrested by authorities during confrontations with Icelandic whalers.
1979-1980: Greenpeace investigators in Taiwan photograph and document a fleet of four pirate whalers as, one by one, they come into port to unload their catch to be smuggled to Japan. With publication of the evidence, the pirates are forced out of business.
1980: The Rainbow Warrior is arrested by the Spanish Navy as she stops Spanish catcher boats from pursuing whales. The Spanish authorities remove a vital part from the Rainbow Warrior's propulsion system, and place the ship under armed guard.
1981: A Greenpeace activist boards a Japanese catcher boat a quarter mile from the shore of Japan and chains herself to the harpoon, forcing the ship to return to port at the height of the whaling season.
Later the same year, Greenpeace celebrates the first legal victory of the whale campaign as the nations that comprise the International Whaling Commission (IWC) enact a moratorium on hunting sperm whales.
1982: On July 23, another legal milestone: the IWC votes overwhelmingly for a moratorium on all commercial whaling, to take effect in 1986.
In November, following Peru's objection to the IWC moratorium, the Rainbow Warrior confronts Peruvian whalers. Peru formally withdraws its objection in July 1983, ceases whaling, and leaves the IWC.
1983: The Rainbow Warrior enters Soviet waters to document a hunt of gray whales in July. The Greenpeace landing party is arrested and the Rainbow Warrior flees across the Bering Sea, escaping pursuit by Soviet gunships. After film footage of the operation is widely broadcast, Greenpeace landing party is released.
1985: In July, the Greenpeace vessel Sirius arrives at Bournemouth, England, to deliver one million signatures demanding an end to whaling to the IWC delegates at their annual meeting.
1986: In June, the Greenpeace ship Moby Dick is twice arrested by the Norwegian Coast Guard for stopping Norwegian whalers from hunting.
1987: Greenpeace activists in Germany intercept Icelandic whale meat being shipped illegally to Japan. The German authorities send the whale meat back to Iceland.
In December of 1987, Japan skirts the commercial whaling moratorium by starting to hunt whales under the guise of "scientific research." Six Greenpeace protesters and a 50-foot inflatable whale are taken into custody by Japanese police after a demonstration near a whaling ship about to depart for the Antarctic.
1989: Iceland stops their scientific whaling program due in large part to an international boycott of Icelandic fish led by Greenpeace and other environmental groups.
1990: The Greenpeace ship Gondwana intercepts Japan's "scientific" whaling fleet between Australia and New Zealand and volunteers jump from helicopters into the path of the factory ship in an effort to turn it around.
1991-1992: The MV Greenpeace repeatedly interferes with Japan's whaling fleet in the Antarctic, cutting into their catch of whales. Greenpeace activists occupy one of the Japanese ships to prevent loading of whales. The Japanese crew hooks a Greenpeace inflatable, lifting it into the air and dumping it back into the freezing water.
1993: In October, Greenpeace delivers two million signatures to the U.S. Government on a petition calling for a whale sanctuary in Antarctica's Southern Ocean. The IWC creates the Southern Ocean Sanctuary the following year, making 12 million square miles of ocean off limits to commercial whaling indefinitely.
1994: Two Greenpeace ships the Solo and the Sirius confront Norwegian whalers, following Norway's resumption of commercial whaling. After three weeks of confrontations, both ships are arrested by the Norwegian coast guard and taken into Norwegian ports.
1995: In February, the MV Greenpeace finds the Japanese whaling fleet as it enters the Ross Sea in Antarctica to hunt whales in the newly created Southern Ocean Sanctuary. A Greenpeace helicopter disrupts the hunt by hovering between a catcher boat's harpoon and a hunted whale.
Later that year, seven Greenpeace activists chain themselves to the whaling ship owned by the head of the Norwegian Whaling Association, Steiner Bastesen, delaying his departure to sea. Again, the world watches as Bastesen's reacts violently by beating some of the activists.
1998: On its way to Antarctica, a Japanese factory whaling ship catches fire 600 miles east of Noumea, New Caledonia and burns for seven days. After the factory ship is repaired in Noumea Harbor, Greenpeace blocks its departure for one day, renewing international attention to, and debate over Japan's alleged "scientific" whaling. Japan reacts by initiating a move to bar Greenpeace advocates, who have attended IWC annual meetings for over twenty years, from future meetings.