Presented by wildlife filmmaker, zoologist and broadcaster Hannah Stitfall, Oceans: Life Under Water is podcast from Greenpeace UK all about the oceans and the mind-blowing life within them.
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Below is a transcript from this episode. It has not been fully edited for grammar, punctuation or spelling.
Hannah Stitfall 0:01
I’m Hannah Stitfall I’m a zoologist, wildlife filmmaker and broadcaster. I’m bringing you with me on an adventure across the waves in one of the most beautiful and most threatened places on Earth.
Jason Roberts 0:12
The climate change is affecting somewhere like Svalbard, but it’s not being created on Svalbard up
Christian Aslund 0:17
here in Svalbard, when people see it, how bad it is up here, that would be a reminder that it is we’re living in a crisis, but
Hannah Stitfall 0:26
there is still hope. I’m here to meet some of the incredible people who are dedicating their work to saving our seas. I
Dr Laura 0:34
have seen that when we come together and we demand change and we don’t accept the business as usual, and the political realities and the inertia that is inherent in there, we have the power to change things.
Jason Roberts 0:48
Even in the 30 years since I come here, the amount of reindeer around town, the amount of geese and birds and everything has exploded. The amount of belugas in the fjord, and larger whales and the fjord mouse have all exploded back to we’re still not back to original numbers. A lot of species, especially the species that live a longer recycling or re breeding cycle, walrus abounding back in numbers, yet the big whales will take much longer, of course, to come back.
Hannah Stitfall 1:13
Join me on board as we set sail across the ocean on this beautiful ship, and hear some of the most mind blowing stories about our seas and the work that goes into protecting them. There’s a
Daniela 1:24
bit tricky, because there are actually polar bears out there, so they need to, like, have a polar guide with them, and just a certain amount of people allowed to go on land and hopefully won’t be disturbed by a polar bear.
Anna 1:35
Today, my job is doing a projection on a glacier together with my colleague, Lucas.
Hannah Stitfall 1:40
Hang on. We’ve just, we’ve just got to go back to that a projection onto a glacier. This is Ocean’s life underwater.
Now this episode feels very special, as most of it was recorded in the Arctic. Last year, I was invited by Greenpeace to join them on board the Arctic Sunrise, and I was joined by my producer, Vicky. Hi, Vicky. Hi, Hannah. So Vicky, can you remember when we first met
Vicky Wright 2:13
in that hotel in Oslo? What a time you pounded on the door. I’ve got a text from you that had about 20 emojis on it all, like snowflakes, polar bears, penguins, there’s no penguins in the Arctic. Didn’t matter. Still sent them. And then you were like, I’m at the hotel. I’m coming up. Hope you came. Banged on the door. And then two minutes later, we were best friends, discussing the entire like, state of the world. And 24 hours later, in the Arctic. How was that for you? It
Hannah Stitfall 2:43
was, it was wild, wasn’t it? It was a wild time, because obviously the Arctic Sunrise was there in Svalbard to campaign against deep sea mining, and we were already making season two. So it’s, it was kind of, it was a last minute decision by Greenpeace to get us out there to record stuff on the boat for the podcast. So it was quite quick. We only had about two weeks to get everything up together to go. Is that
Chris 3:11
when you found out you were going, it was two weeks in advance. Yeah, it was two weeks in advance. How did you prepare for that?
Hannah Stitfall 3:16
To be honest, in this line of work, I’m used to it to be honest, but obviously I jumped at the chance, because it’s somewhere that I’d always wanted to go, because we we arrived there, and I kind of knew we weren’t going off on a wildlife tour like you know when you see people go to Svalbard and they get on these boats and they sail around the archipelago looking for wildlife. I knew we weren’t doing that because we were going on board the Arctic Sunrise to document the Greenpeace activists doing their work. And that was, I mean, I’m sure we’ll get onto it in a minute, but that was, it was crazy. It was crazy few days, wasn’t
Chris 3:52
it? Yeah, what were you expecting Svalbard to look like? I know
Hannah Stitfall 3:56
we went in September, so it was autumn, but I was expecting there to be a lot more snow. And when you looked out over these kind of these towering prehistoric mountains that there were, as far as the eye could see, it looked very much like the Scottish Highlands in summer, but no trees, no there were no trees. It was just bare, barren Brown, and there was a little bit of snow up on the tops. And the only way you kind of knew it was felt, I mean, you knew you were somewhere completely different, like at the end of the earth, but looking out over to the glaciers, that’s when you were like, Oh yeah, I’m I’m in the Arctic.
Chris 4:37
The barrenness as well, I think, made everything seem you didn’t know how big things were. It gives you no sense of scale and perspective, because you couldn’t see a tree. And then translate that means this is X tall, yeah, it’s mad, yeah, and yeah. And you called it. You called it very, like prehistoric, you like looks very Jurassic. And then literally, the next day, Jason, who we will get to, described. All of the dinosaurs that used to live there. Yeah. And what did you when you found out that you were going, what did you
Hannah Stitfall 5:05
pack? What did I pack? Oh, I packed all of my thermal leggings, my normal leggings, two big coats, jumpers, toothbrush, obviously. But yeah, I didn’t really know what to expect, so I definitely over packed because I assumed it would be a lot colder. But you know, it’s like when you go somewhere new, you always over pack, and then you end up wearing the same thing for the entire time you’re there. Don’t you like the same jacket? I took everything with me, lots of warm clothes, so we went off the back of it being the warmest summer that Svalbard has had on record. So of course, in my mind, and everything we you know you see on the TV, expected there to be more snow, but it was. It was barren. It was warm, warmer than it should have been. So of course, it was. It was incredible to be there, and what an opportunity to go to the Arctic. But it was also tinged with with a heavy dose of concern, you know, being there for the reason to report on the issues to do with climate change and with Greenpeace activists campaigning against deep sea mining. I never in a million years thought that my first trip to Svalbard would be under those circumstances. I always thought it would be off to try and find the polar bears and film them and kind of have a more of a nice time. So it was tinged with the hint of worry. And
Chris 6:37
I think that Christian aslund as well said something to us when we were on the boat that I really remember where he said that he felt really, like guilty for being there, because really we we shouldn’t be there. Like, yeah, that shouldn’t be a place where people are really, yeah. But obviously, we were following a very important campaign that’s there in order to protect the area. It’s a very weird, like situation to be in, isn’t it?
Hannah Stitfall 7:01
Yeah, I get that a lot with my job going abroad and to film wildlife and to do series, but it’s kind of like this is the job that you do as journalists or TV makers or podcast makers. You know you you have to sometimes go to these areas to report on the stories. So yeah, it did feel strange being there. Tell us
Chris 7:30
about getting on board the boat, because that was an experience, weren’t
Hannah Stitfall 7:35
it, the boat, I still don’t feel I’ve got my full sea legs after, uh, after the Arctic Sunrise experience. Look, I mean, it was grey and raining that morning. We drove down to the dock, and it was a bustling metropolis of people running around. And obviously, when you get onto a boat, there is a hierarchy, isn’t there, and it’s a very set hierarchy. We just felt like we were getting in the way all the time. So getting trying to get onto the boat eventually, when we got on it, and it was this, it’s huge, very industrial inside, isn’t it? I’d never been on a ship like it before, and obviously we were there to interview people and document everything. But we just felt too like It was so scary going up and asking people like, sorry, can we we were those annoying people. Like, oh, sorry. Can we have a chat?
Chris 8:23
But then, obviously, like, whenever we went up to actually speak to them and interview them, oh,
Hannah Stitfall 8:27
they were so nice. They were so so lovely, every single person on that boat. And do you know what I really liked about it, they were all different nationalities from around the world, weren’t they? Yeah, like everybody, like, it was almost like, you know, kind of this coming together of all of these different people from all of these different nationalities, all wanting the same end goal and all fighting for the same thing. It it was beautiful. It really was beautiful. I would have liked it. I mean, if we could have stayed there longer to be honest, to find out more about every single person’s story and how they ended up doing what they’re doing, because they stay on the boat for, you know, weeks and sometimes months at a time, but they all have the same goal at the end of it, and it’s it’s incredible to see it in action. So
Chris 9:20
one of the first people that met us on the boat was Chris, the third mate. Do you remember how Chris made you feel?
Hannah Stitfall 9:26
Chris was just awesome. She had this air of being the Queen about us. She really was, but she just made us feel so safe. She did the health and safety briefing with us, and you just knew that you were really in incredibly safe hands. And if anything were to happen, you know, you would be looked after. And she she was great. She was really great. Can we hear the chat that I had with Chris, actually, Vicky, i.
Chris 10:00
On. So I’m Chris. My full name is Christine. My nickname here is Chris. I’m the third maid on the ship. And yeah, so I’m most of the time on the bridge.
Hannah Stitfall 10:09
What is the bridge? Yeah,
Chris 10:13
it’s funny, because it’s not actually a bridge. That is the part of the ship where you have, where you do the navigation. You have all the instruments you can Yeah, you can speed up, you can slow down. You, you know, like, it’s kind of the driving console, really big driving console, the control centre. Yeah, exactly like the brain, maybe, yeah. Tell us
Hannah Stitfall 10:39
about the Arctic Sunrise and its mission here. Okay,
Chris 10:43
yeah, we are now in the Arctic where we try to do a lot of stuff. We arrived. Maybe I kind of also missing dates right now, because I’m already six weeks on the ship and kind of things getting a little bit I mix things up yesterday. I already know, like, sometimes it’s like, weird. We started yesterday with recording on on this ice shelf we are, we are now in front of a really nice glacier. So we did a music recording, which was amazing. Now today we want to make a projection on a glacier. So now we try to find a good spot where we can actually be stable as we can for the projection, which is a little bit tricky because we are in an uncharted area. That means we don’t have any depths. So we kind of circling now, like, really careful around the coastline to figure out where it’s still deep enough, and if it’s that is the reason why I’m also, like, always one eye on these instruments. Yeah, yeah. Now we try to find a good spot that we can make a projection from the ship. If not, we have a plan B, but it’s like will take much more effort and much more work, and we will, yeah, anyway, we will work the whole night. But it’s kind of different. If you are working on a ship where you can go inside for a cup of tea, or you have to dress for being in the boat for seven hours, it’s a huge difference. Can
Hannah Stitfall 12:18
you tell us some secrets about the boat or life on the boat that people might not think of,
Chris 12:28
wow, secrets. So I’m not sure if I’m allowed to tell no. I think one funny story is that she was working for a support vessel for seal hunting in your previous life, before she came to Greenpeace. Yeah, and actually, Greenpeace did an action on her so and then they figured out, oh, it’s actually a quite good ship.
Hannah Stitfall 12:57
That’s incredible. So this ship used to hunt seals, but now it’s conservation in action. Yeah, I like that story, right?
Chris 13:09
Life change experience, yeah.
Hannah Stitfall 13:12
And how long have you been working and doing this for Greenpeace? Then,
Chris 13:16
oh, I started to engage with Greenpeace 2003 in Hamburg, Germany, yeah. So in the warehouse I started to work there. Actually, I started as a photographer. So quite different now, and on the ships I’ve been since 2014 so 10 years today, wow. Oh, not today this year.
Hannah Stitfall 13:38
Wow. And what is your day to day life on the ship, because I can see here for our listeners, Chris is currently stood in front of all of these screens and all of these buttons that I’m not going to touch any of. So you know, this is quite important stuff you do, isn’t it?
Chris 13:55
Yeah. So as a third mate, you have the eight to 12 watch. That means you are from eight to 12 in the morning and eight to 12 in the evening or night. You are on the bridge, and you steer the ship and do the navigation. But also, like, because we are Greenpeace, are we doing, like a lot of other things in merchant ships don’t do? So we will also work a lot of deck on deck. So I will launch boats and use the cranes a frames.
Hannah Stitfall 14:22
What is the most interesting thing you’ve ever seen when you’ve been on board a Green Peace ship?
Chris 14:28
Wow, it actually, I don’t want to make people jealous, but it’s a lot, lot of things I really found incredible, right? Like, I going up the Congo River with, like, a lot of current, like sliding through the river. It was amazing. But I have to say, the most incredible thing I ever saw was actually on my first trip on the Rainbow Warrior. So we had this luminescent in the water, like when the water sparkled, you know, and then we went to the bow. Said, Oh, my God, oh my god, the water is sparkling. We were super happy. And then immediately, actually, the captain, now he was there as well. He showed up and looked and said, like, Yeah, but it’s much more nicer when dolphins are inside and we like, yeah, right. Like, you are spoiled. And then at this moment, a lot of the huge school of dolphins came and were like, playing in the bow, and they were sparkling. And I started crying. And I tried to not cry because I couldn’t see anymore. I was like, Oh no, that was the most like, like, really, it was incredible. It’s like watching an avatar movie. Or, you know, like you what now? Have you ever
Hannah Stitfall 15:39
had any scary moments on a ship?
Chris 15:43
Not really scary, I would say. So weather is always a thing, especially on this ship, the ship is moving a lot. I trust her. She’s really solid. It’s more that I getting weak and kind of like, oh, getting a little bit dizzy and everything.
Hannah Stitfall 15:57
So why are the ships so important for Greenpeace campaigns?
Chris 16:03
I think the ships are a little bit the hard the other parts are not, like, super special and like, you know, but it is where Greenpeace started, kind of and also that this is extra, what we can do as an organisation. So we are the working platform. We are. We are a floating action unit. We can go in areas where no Greenpeace offices is, and we can say, okay, you can make an action. We are here. We are your platform. You can invite people. You can build stuff. You can make banners. You can use us as a tool. And we can go to areas where other people, maybe not can go. So it’s so that I think makes the ship so special. Yes, yeah,
Hannah Stitfall 16:45
in your time working on Greenpeace ships, have you personally seen the oceans change? So
Chris 16:53
I remember, I was here five years ago, exactly a Longy boon, and this looks totally different, ice wise. I talked also, like this locals here, and they said, like, yeah, it’s like the warmest summer. Like, it’s getting warmer and warmer. When I was in Antarctica. There were also, like, two years between, and I really that was the same time. I actually arrived both times in February. And so I saw a glacier, and I took a picture. And two years later, I took a picture from the same glacier, and it was kind of something missing here. And for sure, what I see, or what I realise, if we’re doing fishering campaigns, or we are close to, let’s say, West Coast Africa, that the small boats have to come more and more out to actually catch fish. And then you are there in the ocean, no land around it, and then you see these small boats, and you think, like, oh my god, like they’ve come out really far. They’ve come really far, and they have to and it’s kind of heartbreaking. Yeah,
Hannah Stitfall 17:48
really is Well, thank you, yeah. Thank you so much for talking to us. So we’ve been travelling on the Arctic Sunrise now for a few hours, and we’ve just reached the glacier here in Svalbard, and it’s the first one that I’ve ever seen. And I can’t put it into words. It’s simply incredible. The size of it, it is ginormous. And occasionally you can hear in the background these huge bangs, and that is actually parts of the ice falling off the glacier as we’re here right now.
Later on this evening, we’re going to shine a projection onto this glacier, either from this ship or from some sort of platform. Now, shortly, they’re going to send out a small dinghy to assess the area, assess the safety, and to work out where we can put the projection out from. But I tell you what this is, the first time I’ve ever been to the Arctic. Ever seen a glacier? It is unreal. While I’m on board the Arctic Sunrise, there will be a huge anti deep sea mining campaign. The team here will be shining a projection onto a beautiful glacier. I spoke to some of the campaign team to find out how they come up with their ideas and what is in store tonight. Hello, ladies, thank you for coming and talking to us today. I know it’s a very hectic day aboard the Arctic Sunrise. Can you both for the listeners at home, just introduce yourselves and what you do here. So starting off with you, Daniela,
Daniela 19:32
hi, Daniela, I’m from Greenpeace, Germany. I’m working as oceans campaigner, so I’m actually focusing on many topics, but right now we are working on our stop deep sea mining campaign, fabulous. And
Hannah Stitfall 19:45
what do you do? Modelling?
Daniela 19:46
Yeah, hi. I’m Christine. I’m also working in the German office. So my title is digital campaigner. Long story short, I make sure we find all the footage that we need to send this message out on our online channels to make it easy. Easy and understandable for
Hannah Stitfall 20:01
everyone. Is this your first time in the Arctic? Have you been here before? It’s my first time
Daniela 20:06
in the Arctic, but I’ve been to the Antarctic cool. So it’s like, I haven’t seen a polar bear, but I’ve seen many penguins.
Hannah Stitfall 20:15
And how is it different here to say Antarctica? So
Daniela 20:20
until now, after the second day, I would say, in the Antarctica, what a bit, what is a bit more vibrant in terms of animals. So you see penguins everywhere, like ducks, like jumping around, like, it’s like crazy. And also, yeah, it was a bit more vibrant in terms of animals and a bit more ice, yeah. But it also depends, like, maybe after a few days, I will say, Oh, I saw 10 sperm whales, but until now, yeah, I would say ice. And the amount of penguins, of course, and amount of animals in general.
Hannah Stitfall 20:51
And how about you, Daniela, is this your first time in the Arctic? Yes, it’s my very first time in Arctic. And how did you feel when, when we arrived here for the first time, and you looked out, oh, we
Daniela 21:02
just saw the glacier. It was really magical for me, like I saw this in movies. And I always thought like, oh, people pretend like it’s so special. But I had just this feeling in my whole body, and I was just thinking like, well, this is really special to see this beauty and this landscape wonderful. It gave
Hannah Stitfall 21:22
me goosebumps. And that’s not because it’s cold outside. It was actually that feeling, wasn’t it like, Oh, wow. It’s just incredible. But unfortunately, we are here because you’re campaigning to try and put a stop to deep sea mining, which, well, going ahead, which obviously would affect the entire ecosystem here in the Arctic, wouldn’t it? Can you explain a little bit more for our listeners about what deep sea mining is and why it threatens ecosystems so much. Deep sea
Daniela 21:52
mining is an arising industry. So the industry wants to use big machines and to put them down onto the sea floor, and there they should mine for minerals, for example, for methosulfides and for manganese crusts here in the Arctic. And therefore they would destroy habitats and ecosystems. So we could imagine like octopus living there, and they would take away their habitats. Or we can also imagine, like different Yeah, and the sea mounds we see sponges and corals, and these are really, really important for the whole ecosystem, for the food web. So we have to imagine we are not only talking about the deep sea, we are talking about the ecosystem also above. So taking away the habitats, taking away species would affect the water column. Would affect other species. You go up and you land with the whales, for example. And furthermore, deep sea mining is just like, really noisy in this tree, like it will produce big sound, and this will, like, distract whales in their echoloting so in their way of behaviour. And therefore it’s not threatening only the seafa, but the whole oceans.
Hannah Stitfall 23:11
And I know there’s a lot of pushback from a lot of countries about it that they don’t want to do it. Why is Norway so keen to start it? Norway
Daniela 23:21
has a lot of knowledge on the data in the oceans, when you talk about, for example, bathymetry, so they know the sea floor. It’s because Norway has a long history in oil and gas industry, and they also have a lot of technologies with this. And therefore they now think that this is the new industry that they will go to in future, and therefore they want to use the knowledge they have, but they might know about technologies, but they don’t know about the biodiversity in the Arctic. That’s the knowledge they lack. That’s the research that has to be done. And what Norway is now planning with Sargent deep sea mining is so dangerous because they would not know what they want to destroy now,
Hannah Stitfall 24:06
and I know there’s very limited science on it at the moment, but what do we know about what could happen if it went ahead?
Daniela 24:15
So what we know is that we are taking away deposits. There’s been, like, grown there for decades, for 1000s of years, sometimes depending on what you’re talking about. In the Arctic, we are talking about these manganese crust they grew in 1000s of years. If you would look into the Pacific, we are talking about manganese nodules. And it would even take millions of years so they grow. So you would take away, like things from the deep sea. You would take away habitats that’s just been there kind of forever. And being honest, like in our time, when we live, they will not come back. They will not come back for the next generations. So we would destroy the future. Are of the coming generations.
Hannah Stitfall 25:02
And of course, because it we, it hasn’t started before we we don’t know what the outcome of that would be. Do we, I mean, like, we know what happens when we cut down the Amazon? Yeah, we can see that it’s tangible. You know, the the rainforest areas that been cut down are now turning into almost desert wastelands, but because it’s the bottom of the ocean, it is very much out of sight, out of mind, isn’t it? Like we we still don’t know what’s down there. And I think that’s why the work that you’re doing is so important to try and highlight it, so that people can try and get that tangible God, this cannot happen. You know,
Daniela 25:41
yeah, in the comparison that you were just mentioning with deforestation in Amazon, we also use it as an image so that people can, yeah, have it. Can imagine what kind of is on stake if we, if you start mining the deep sea, yeah, and this, there is a chance to, don’t repeat those kind of mistakes, like with starting something like this. It also is a good comparison, because the ocean is, like, one of the biggest allies against climate crisis, in terms of like producing oxygen, like the Amazon rainforest is. So it’s a good it’s a good comparison, yeah.
Hannah Stitfall 26:17
So what are our hopes for for this evening, there’s going to be a big projection. We know of a video of lots of people’s voices that you know, because not many people can come here. How are the plans coming on for that so far? Now, someone’s going out on a boat to have a look at the land. What do we know what stage that’s at now? So
Daniela 26:39
there were two like options, like, we do the projection from the from the ship, or we go on land and do it from there. So the ship is a bit shaky, so it seems like it’s more it will look it will stable. Look better from from shore, from the ground. But there’s a bit tricky, because there are actually polar bears out there, so they need to, like, have a polar guy with them, and just a certain amount of people allowed to go on land, but they are there now there and are scouting, so we hope to get some details soon if they found a good spot to do the projection. Now it looks like they will do it from land, and hopefully won’t be disturbed by a polar bear.
Hannah Stitfall 27:20
Well, fingers crossed, that doesn’t happen. I’m sure it won’t go really well.
I spoke to Anna, who is a Greenpeace activist and rejectionist. She is part of the team working to pull off this massive project, Anna, thank you for coming and talking to us. I know you. I’ve just caught you outside now. You’ve got a very important job here today, haven’t you on the Arctic Sunrise for the listeners at home. Can you tell us who you are and what you’re doing here today? Okay,
Anna 27:57
yes, thank you for talking with me. My name is Anna. I’m from Germany. I’m an activist on the Arctic Sunrise. It’s my first time on this ship, and it’s really great being here today. My job is doing a projection on a glacier together with my colleague, Lucas.
Hannah Stitfall 28:14
Hang on. We’ve just, we’ve just got to go back to that, a projection onto a glacier. Yes. What does that entail? What does that mean? What’s gonna happen? So
Anna 28:26
we have a very huge projector, which is like your small Beamer at home, but just far, far more powerful. How big is it? It’s like 130 kilogrammes. I think you need four people to lift it.
Hannah Stitfall 28:42
Oh, my Goodness me. Yeah, that’s massive. Yeah, it is. Our
Anna 28:49
idea is to put it on a small boat on one of our rips, and to drive on land, take it down from the boat, and, yeah, do a project, turn on the glacier
Hannah Stitfall 29:01
and what is going to be projected onto the glacier. We have
Anna 29:05
a video which shows some supporters from all over the world, some activists of Greenpeace who can’t be here in person, so they took, like, little pictures or video clips, and we put them all together to a great video to bring them and their voices here into the Arctic.
Hannah Stitfall 29:24
And how did you get into doing the projections? Okay,
Anna 29:31
I’m an activist for Greenpeace since, I think 13 or 14 years now, usually I do different stuff on land or on boats, and I think it was last year, or the year before, we had a call from the German office who would be interested in learning how to do projections. And I was really interested in and so I started to learn it, and now I’m here doing it. So
Hannah Stitfall 29:55
have you done these types of huge campaigns? Injections before?
Anna 30:01
Yes, we did some before. The last one was last week in Hamburg, and we did a vertical dance, also in the subject of deep sea. I have been in Paris before in Berlin, so I did some. Yeah,
Hannah Stitfall 30:17
they’re all very different locations to the Arctic, though. I mean, that’s all quite safe places. I mean, you’re going out on a boat and you’re projecting onto a glacier. I mean, something that not many people could say they’ve done nothing’s gonna go wrong. But what could go wrong? There could be a polar bear.
Anna 30:40
Probably we could have trouble with the weather. If it’s rainy or very foggy, it might be hard to get a clear picture. It will be freezing cold, but we are prepared for this. It might be tough to find a good place where we can have a clear view to the glacier and where from where we are in the right distance because we have different lenses, and we just have a special range where we can be. I think most we worry about the weather. Yeah.
Hannah Stitfall 31:10
So is the projector going to be from the Arctic Sunrise, or is it going to be from a small boat? No,
Anna 31:19
at the moment, it’s on the Arctic Sunrise, but we’re gonna crane it on a small boat. And with this boat, we are driving on land and put it on a spot on land. So we have to take it out of the boat, which is gonna be a bit heavy and complicated, but we will manage to do it so
Hannah Stitfall 31:37
it so it’s gonna be craned off the big boat into a small boat. It’s a dinghy, isn’t it? It is. What happens if it falls in the water? Yeah, we have an assurance,
Anna 31:52
but hopefully it won’t fall. Yeah, it’s quite expensive. We do our very best to take care that nothing happens to it.
Hannah Stitfall 32:03
Is this your first time in in the Arctic? Yes, it is, yes. How did you feel when you when you first arrived? I’m
Anna 32:11
smiling since three days. It’s really nice. It’s it’s comparable to Iceland a bit, because there is not so much ice or snow here. I really wanted when I arrived, but people told me that it’s quite warm here because of climate change. I wonder how it had been like 10 or 20 years ago. At this time of the year, you see white tips on the mountains far away, and here we have this glacier, but in the city of Longyearbyen, there is no snow at all. And I really, really wondered about,
Hannah Stitfall 32:47
and what do you personally hope will be the outcome of this part of the protest, the projection,
Anna 32:57
I think that many people are not so aware about Deep Sea and the problems of deep sea mining. And I really hope that even though this is no direct crazy protest or action, we have done other things that are more visible in media, maybe. But I hope that even with this calmer kind of protest, people will be aware what’s happening here and what beautiful part of this earth we are destroying, maybe, or that we need to take care that it’s not going to be destroyed.
Hannah Stitfall 33:38
Well, listen, Anna, thank you. You’ve got a busy evening. How do you go and get some rest, if you can, before it all goes ahead, and we’ll look forward to seeing it later. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.
This week, more than ever, you’re going to want to head over to our social channels for all of the backstage photographs and videos of our time in Svalbard, it truly has to be seen to be believed. We’re at oceans pod on Instagram and Tiktok. Don’t forget that this series, we’re also offering listeners access to some very special bonus content. If you want to get an exclusive look behind the scenes, head over to action.greenpeace.org.uk forward slash oceans, dash podcast. This podcast doesn’t just explore our blue planet’s breathtaking beauty, but also exposes the dangers that threatens it. To find out more about Greenpeace’s work to protect the oceans and how you can support go to greenpeace.org, forward slash oceans.
Unknown Speaker 34:42
Da, hearing
Hannah Stitfall 34:53
all of those back. It just it just brings it all back, doesn’t it? Weren’t they just lovely. They were so. So lovely. I’ve got
Vicky Wright 35:01
a listener question for you, yeah, which I love. It’s the most asked question, actually, thing that I’ve got since getting back, and it’s coming from our listeners as well. What did you eat on board? Yeah,
Hannah Stitfall 35:11
I didn’t really know what to expect with the food on board. Not being a, you know, a sailor myself, I didn’t know what we were gonna get, but it was really, really delicious. They kind of you go up to, I forgot what’s it called, the little room. It’s next to the kitchen where the mess, the mess, that’s it. Thank you. So you go up to the mess, and that’s where the food tables are laid out, and there’s, you got your fridges, you’ve got your coffee, your tea and stuff that you can help yourself to. And there’s a little kitchen that the chefs were there, and they’re dedicated chefs on board the entire time. And it was really nice, wasn’t it? You kind of go up there’s a buffet, like you help yourself. So it was like all sorts of different salads and noodles and breads and pasta. It was really tasty.
Vicky Wright 35:58
So we weren’t there for very long. But do you feel like you got a real sense of what it’s like to be on a Greenpeace ship? I did,
Hannah Stitfall 36:06
yeah, and I have the utmost admiration for the people there and doing what they’re doing, because it’s tough. It’s tough, you know, and everything that, you know, the Greenpeace ships do, and the people on them some, well, a lot of the time it’s risky business. It’s risky what they do. And I just think, I just think they’re incredible people. It’s a long time away from home. I think I got a sense of it. Would would I be up for doing a longer stint? Yeah, I think, I think I would. Well,
Vicky Wright 36:44
a lot of the people that were on board with us were staying on, weren’t they for weeks, like, absolutely weeks after us? Yeah,
Hannah Stitfall 36:50
one of them said he he’d been on for like, three months or something. It’s a long time. But this is the thing, the work they do gets attention. It gets listened to. You know, if it wasn’t for them campaigning against deep sea mining in Norway, would it more likely have gone ahead? We don’t know. And I remember when we were on the boat, actually, one of the Greenpeace colleagues was saying, when we were on the boat this year, they were on that exact boat the Arctic Sunrise. Was it 10 or 20 years earlier? Yeah, 10, I think, 10 years earlier, with Emma Thompson campaigning against them drilling for oil in the exact same sea, and they stopped it. So I think they’re incredible people for doing what they’re doing. Did I get a sense of it? Yes, would I be up for going for a bit longer? Yes, not sure, about three months, but maybe a few weeks.
Vicky Wright 37:45
Well, I said to you, after the deep sea mining pause came in, like, wouldn’t you have just loved to have seen the team that pulled off all of the campaigns while we were there, oh, seen their reaction when that news came in. Oh,
Hannah Stitfall 37:57
Dr, Laura Miller, like she was. You’ve probably listened to her on the pod now, but she was such a lovely, lovely lady. Knew her stuff as well, clearly, you know, fingers on the pulse of everything to do with deep sea mining. And I would have loved to have seen her face when they found out that it’d been paused, you know, yeah,
throughout this episode, we’ve been hearing about the preparations taking place to prepare the projection. The team collected messages from people around the world who stand against deep sea mining. Their plan was to project these messages onto the glacier, sending a clear signal to the Norwegian government that they opposed the decision to start deep sea mining in their waters, but with only two hours of darkness per day in esvalbard during our visit, they were up against the clock, right? So we’re up on deck on the on the Arctic Sunrise, and they’re now launching one of the small boats that they’re gonna drive over to the mainland, where they’re going to put the projector on and try to project the video up onto the glacier. So I’m here with you, Flora. So flora, what’s what’s happening right now? Then the boat is going over the side as we speak, isn’t it?
Flora Hevesi 39:15
Yes. So what’s happening is that with the crane, we are launching the first rib this boat, once it’s on water, the people who are going to be sitting on it, they’re going to go down on these stairs and use the so called pilot door that’s by the side of the ship to climb over into the rib, and then they’re going to set off to the glacier. And then we will do the same with the second boat, because we are sending two boats now,
Hannah Stitfall 39:42
okay, why are we sending two ribs over there now? Because we
Flora Hevesi 39:46
are sending two people who are in charge of projecting. We are sending two people who are who gonna be recording the projection. And we also need the polar guards, a lot of us will stay here on the ship. Older, we would love to go, but we can’t be all there because there is a certain number of polar guards per person. That is mandatory, and we only have two
Hannah Stitfall 40:09
polar guards. And the polar guards are there in case of polar bears, right? Yes,
Flora Hevesi 40:12
the polar guards job is to make sure that if first, to monitor if there are polar bears, and if they see one to make sure that everyone runs back to the rim and gets away.
Hannah Stitfall 40:24
Yeah. Okay, so how long is this process going to take? Then I think it’s going to be about an
Flora Hevesi 40:29
hour between now and by the time all people will be on the other side by the glacier, they’re going to start setting up the projector. First they’re going to wait for darkness to settle, which is not gonna happen within the next two hours, and then, depending on conditions, they’re gonna start projecting, because there
Hannah Stitfall 40:49
isn’t that much darkness now. I mean, I know we’re in September, but it’s only truly dark for a couple of hours at night, isn’t it?
Flora Hevesi 40:56
Yeah, it’s not that dark. But what’s very, very strange up here is how quickly days lengthen and shorten. So in continental Europe when it’s September, October, maybe once every week, you have a sense that, wow, days are getting shorter. But here, days are getting shorter by 20 minutes every day, so you really do sense it. So whatever we see today is not going to be true within a week. Yeah. And also,
Hannah Stitfall 41:27
I tell you what is quite we were talking about this earlier. Listeners, me and flora, so it seems like we’re quite close to the glacier, right? We’re not. We’re not, are we? No? How far would you say we are? Because it looks like I could reach out and touch you, but actually it’s quite a long way. I
Flora Hevesi 41:44
think, I think it’s at least three kilo kilometres. Is it really, though? Yeah, but, but somehow the Yeah, because it’s very hard to sense distances, because there is no vegetation, no trees, no houses, no nothing that your eye would normally, you know, Judge against, yeah, and we can’t even go closer to the glaciers, much closer with this big ship, because it would not be safe. The only way to to see how far away we are is when they’re gonna be there. Yeah, they’re gonna be like, tiny ants.
Hannah Stitfall 42:17
Tiny ants, yeah,
Flora Hevesi 42:19
then you then you understand how far we are. Yeah, because if there is how you call that in proper English, when a piece of ice breaks off craving, then when the big chunks of ice fall into the water, they can create some waves. Oh, that’s the reason why we can’t go closer, I see. And it’s very windy now.
Hannah Stitfall 42:40
It is very windy, but
Flora Hevesi 42:42
the water is not that rough, yeah? Like, yeah. Based on how windy it is up here, you would not, you would think that it’s gonna be like, super big waves. But as I understand, the wind is coming from the glaciers, yeah, and it’s called inland wind, so it’s going towards long European it would be probably much rougher if we were further away from land. Yeah. So this is where the wind is born. We are just at the birth canal of Nordic wind. I could feel it.
Hannah Stitfall 43:12
And for the listeners at home, I’ll just paint a picture for you. We are. There’s about, how many of us are there? 123456, there’s about, I’d say, 15 of us up on this deck at the moment. It’s almost it would feel like eight o’clock in the evening back in the UK. It’s still light here, but it is very cold. We’re all out here. We’ve got all of our layers on. Oh, they already set up. Oh, it’s on the sea. It’s on the sea. The first boat is in the water. It’s a Greenpeace rib. There’s two people on that one. There’s got a lot of equipment to get across to the mainland, so we’re just all going to stay on deck and wait for the action to happen.
Over there in the background, that is where they’re projecting onto the glacier the message from people around the world that are lobbying against deep sea mining. So crew members went over onto one of the beaches on the land, and they’re there with the projector and the crew making the magic happen. I’ll tell you what. It’s been a special, special night, and you can see the lengths that Greenpeace goes to to ensure that messages of ocean conservation reach wider people. And do you know what? It’s been a privilege to be here on this mission with them.
Good morning, Bianca. How are you? I’m doing. Okay. It was a bit of a late night last night, wasn’t it? Could
Unknown Speaker 44:47
say, or an early morning.
Hannah Stitfall 44:49
So for our listeners, can you just introduce yourself and a little bit about your role here on the boat? Sure.
Bianca Vitale 44:55
So I’m Bianca Vitale and. And on board, I am the visuals lead. So that is a fancy way of saying that I manage all the photo, video content that we get on board, and yeah, try and make it happen and show what we’re doing. So it’s quite exciting role,
Hannah Stitfall 45:19
and you were one of the crew last night that went over onto the beach to do the projection. How did you feel when you first stepped off the rib? Because it’s like, this is somewhere that people just don’t go, you know,
Bianca Vitale 45:33
absolutely, it was quite crazy seeing what a beach looks like in the Arctic. Yes, stepping off the ribs into like the ice cold water, and carrying the gear and train our hardest not to drop it into the water, but just looking up and taking in the remoteness of this area, and also, yeah, the amount of safety that is involved because it is so remote, just made me realise this is so special. People don’t come here. Yeah, animals do.
Hannah Stitfall 46:10
And of course, it was, it was in the middle of the night as well. Yes,
Bianca Vitale 46:13
yes, the sunsets here last for hours, and we had half an hour of darkness, but it was only slightly darker than the rest of the Yeah, the light. So, yeah, incredibly bright, which made it logistically quite hard to not only do a projection, but film it. There was some complications that we had to work through. But the good thing about it actually being so bright is you could see in the video footage and in the photos that we got the epic location that we are in, so you could see the glacier, but then all these mountain peaks come in through the background. That is a nice silver lining, but it’s crazy to to witness that. So
Hannah Stitfall 47:04
you’ve got some photos and some footage, can we have a look? Yes, some of them. Yeah, have a look. Oh, wow, you can really see it.
Bianca Vitale 47:13
Yeah, I don’t know if you knew know the concept of this video and photos that we were doing. Please help, because we are a global organisation, we wanted to take all the voices from our supporters, the people that sign the petitions, that want change, want action, and we wanted to take their voices to the grand stage of the Arctic icebergs. And we thought this would get a lot of attention, so we brought a lot of messages, and also a lot of languages to represent the diversity of people that are behind us. So we had some messages in English, which, there’s this one that
Hannah Stitfall 47:56
looks sick, yeah, some photographs of the crew in action. Oh,
Bianca Vitale 48:01
yes, US freezing. How was General
Hannah Stitfall 48:04
morale on the beach?
Bianca Vitale 48:07
Do you know what? I was so impressed the fact that we were heading out with all of the boat gear, the projections, it’s all heavy. It’s all like wet. We got pretty soaked on the way in, and we had to find the best spot. The team was incredible. It was such a good, trusting environment, because we had the best of the best projection team. They do this. We got them here to do this exact thing. And we had our videographer, who also specialises in video in projections, but he would say that this is the most remote projection he’s ever done and the coolest place he’s ever done it in. And then we had logistics expert and myself, yeah, we had just such a qualified team, and everyone trusted each other to bring out the best product. So it was quite small. We had to keep numbers down because of, I guess, the risk in this. We also had a polar captain who keeps a watch out for polar bears at all times. She actually said at the end that she saw a seal, and I was so mad that I didn’t see it, but the morale was fantastic. Everyone was very patient and calm, and we just took our time to get through it. It was deceiving how long we were there for, I guess because the light never went down. It was a lovely experience. And seeing it in real life and taking in where we are was very special. Supporting each other, giving each other snacks or warm drinks when needed, really helped.
Hannah Stitfall 49:58
And for our listeners. I mean, it looks incredible. Where will they be able to see the final product of this? Where is the video and photos going? We
Bianca Vitale 50:10
will definitely have it on YouTube and Facebook, Instagram, all of our global social channels, so you’ll be able to find it there. Once we get the final products, we will have a video that is targeting the Norwegian government. And it’s very, very pointy and impactful, I would say, because it is really getting down to the key decision makers that could make change, and with that pressure, I believe this would work really well. But for our supporters, they can see their messages on YouTube, on Instagram and Facebook and all the global channels, and it’s quite cool, because we have asked our supporters to give their messages, and some of them, they’ll be able to see now on YouTube later on, once it’s up live. So definitely go check that out and spot yourself if you, if you donated your photos,
Hannah Stitfall 51:16
I think, I think you lot are just incredible and well done for last night. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I think you’re all a bit crazy, but I think it’s absolutely amazing. Thank you for speaking to us today, Bianca, we’ll let you go and have some more sleep. That was my day on board Greenpeace’s ship, the Arctic Sunrise, where I saw a projection onto a glacier. Next week, I’m back on land and exploring longibing svalbards primary town, and I’ll be chatting with the locals about life in such a remote location. It’s illegal to die here. You can’t get buried here, so there hasn’t been people buried here for I don’t know how many years, few
Jason Roberts 51:59
years ago, there’s a bear walk straight through town, rubbish around a few rubbish bins through town and out the other side, and no one saw it.
Hannah Stitfall 52:16
This episode was brought to you by Greenpeace and Crowd Network. It is hosted by me, wildlife filmmaker and broadcaster Hannah Stitfall. It is produced by Vicki Wright, Catalina Noguera, Robert Wallace, George Sampson, Kate Stevens, Steve Jones and Christina Irivnak. Sound design is by Crawford Blair. The music we use is from our partners, BMG, Production Music. The team at Greenpeace is James Hansen, Alex Yallop, Jeane Meyer, Marta of charik. Flora Hvesi, Becky Malone and Alice Lloyd Hunter, archive, courtesy of Greenpeace. Thanks for listening. See you next week.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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