The first time Greenpeace came in contact with the Arctic Sunrise, it was actually confronting the ship as the French government was using it to build an air strip through a penguin habitat.
Since then it has worked everywhere from within 450 miles of the North Pole, to Antarcticas Ross Sea, and has navigated both the Congo and the Amazon. It’s latest activity to protest against environmental destruction, including Gazprom’s reckless oil drilling in the Arctic, left it in the hands of Russian authorities along with 28 international activists and two independent journalists.
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Designed as an icebreaker, its rounded, keelless hull allows it to navigate through sea ice – but also makes life rather interesting in rolling seas. In 1997, The Arctic Sunrise became the first ship to circumnavigate James Ross Island in the Antarctic, a previously 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.
17.The ship journeys through the Tongass National Forest en route to Juneau, Alaska.
16. The Arctic Sunrise traveled tothe Dry Tortugas with several teams of independent scientists to conduct a series of scientific research programs to further understand the impacts of both oil and chemical dispersants on the Gulf ecosystem in the aftermath of the BP Deepwater oil spill.
15. Greenpeace activists from the Arctic Sunrise attach floating devices to the cables of a Spanish fishing trawler, forcing her to haul her nets empty, less than an hour after starting the trawl. The trawler is fishing at 450 meters deep, 170 km off the west coast of Ireland in the north east Atlantic ocean destroying the fish habitats of over exploited stocks.
14. A team of six Greenpeace activists including Executive Director of Greenpeace International, Kumi Naidoo, board energy giant Gazprom’s Arctic oil platform Prirazlomnaya off the North-eastern coast of Russia in the Pechora Sea.
13.A researcher writes in the dive log of the Dual Deep Worker submarine on an inflatable boat near the Greenpeace ship MY Arctic Sunrise in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP oil spill of 2010.
12. In 1997, The Arctic Sunrise became the first ship to circumnavigate James Ross Island in the Antarctic, a previously impossible journey until a 200 meter thick ice shelf connecting the island to the Antarctic continent collapsed.
11.Greenpeace protests against the ship “Front Driver” loaded with 153.000 tons of coal, 15 miles outside Valencia. The “Front Driver” is heading towards Tarragona. The protest is to denounce the Spanish energy policy that still relies heavily in fossil fuels.
10. Two Greenpeace ships, the Rainbow Warrior and the Arctic Sunrise sail together in the Mediterranean Sea in 2012 to action against the bluefin tuna fishing fleets and to promote marine reserves.
9. The crew of the Arctic Sunrise construct a ‘heart, with the flags of the 193 country members of the United Nations on an ice floe north of the Arctic Circle.
8. The shipdisplays a banner reading “Still Yearning To Breathe Free. Quit Coal” as it passes in front of the Statue of Liberty during the ship’s arrival in New York.
7.The ship’s crew and a team of independent scientists sail to remote northeast Greenland, to study the effects of climate change in the Arctic in 2009.
6. Crews of the MY Arctic Sunrise and the MY Esperanza use their bodies to write “Help End Whaling!” on the ice of Antarctica, after completing a two month campaign against the whaling fleet of Japan.
5. Ice accumulates in the strong winds that cross the starboard side of the Arctic Sunrise during a 2011 tour in Norway.
4. The ship Arctic Sunrise blocks the path of the smaller Cargill ship containing Amazonian soya to prevent it from exiting in 2006. Cargill is responsible for exporting soya grown in deforested areas of the rainforest where huge areas are destroyed to accommodate agricultural demand.
3.Politicians and celebrities board the Arctic Sunrise to say ‘NO’ to Trident and explain why they don’t want the UK to spend up to 76 billion on outdated, unnecessary and dangerous weapons of mass destruction in 2007. The Arctic Sunrise has recently returned from an action at the Faslane nuclear base in Scotland, where it blockaded the port for an entire day in protest at the UK government’s rush to a new generation of nuclear weapons.
2. TheArctic Sunrise with “SOS” signs held in between two inflatables in front of Sugar Loaf Mountain in Rio de Janerio in 2001.
1. The Greenpeace ship, Arctic Sunrise is towed into Murmansk port by a Russian Coast Guard vessel. The activists onboard are detained with piracy charges for a protest against Arctic oil drilling by Russian company Gazprom in the Pechora Sea. The ‘Arctic 30’ include 28 Greenpeace International activists, as well as a freelance photographer and a freelance videographer.
