Blog: Oceans

The Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise is in the Gulf of Mexico to perform an independent assessment of he Gulf oil spill. Paul Horsman makes his last report from the ship. Photo © Todd Warshaw / Greenpeace

Today, as news of the discovery of a 22-mile plume of oil droplets is revealed in a report in the Journal, Science the first leg of the Greenpeace expedition on board the Arctic Sunrise ended.  The scientists, Drs. Jo Lopez and Chuck Messing from Nova University, have spent much time underwater collecting specimens of sponges and recording what they have found in the Dry Tortugas National Park off Florida.

Tata's port project could spell game over for a major turtle nesting site © Greenpeace

Guest blogger Ashish Fernandes, oceans campaigner from our New Delhi office, explains how corporate giant Tata is taking legal action against Greenpeace India over an online turtle game.

It's been five years since Greenpace India started its campaign against the Dhamra port project on the east coast of India which threatens a host of wild species including horseshoe crabs and crocodiles. The port happens to be a stone's throw away from one of the world's largest nesting sites for the olive ridley sea turtle and India's second largest mangrove forest, which is a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance to boot.

The port is nearly built, but it's clear that we're still a huge thorn in the side of the company behind this ecological disaster, the giant TATA Steel corporation, which is a 50-50 stakeholder in the project. In the UK, the TATAs are known for their takeovers of steelmaker Corus, Tetley Tea and the Jaguar and Land Rover brands.

As climate change causes the Arctic sea ice to recede, our ship Esperanza has sailed north of Svalbard to survey the poorly understood Arctic Ocean seabed. On the surface, the crew are observing and recording the diverse wildlife that has adapted to survive in this unique and harsh environment. Beneath the waves we are using a remote operated vehicle built and operated by top cameraman Gavin Newman to record the life on the sea bed in fine detail.

Greenpeace is calling for the area of the Arctic Ocean historically protected year round by sea ice to be closed to all industrial activity, including destructive fishing. Read more about the Arctic Under Pressure expedition.

Yesterday, a resolution was passed in the European Parliament welcoming Iceland's application to join the EU. Iceland's application raises some interesting questions, especially in the light of recent divisions within the EU on environmental issues.

On fishing, for example, Iceland famously has control over its own waters, would it be prepared to let other EU vessels have free access? It's gone to (cod) war over the issue before… and then there are whales. In the EU all cetacean species (that's whales, dolphins and porpoises) are protected species under the Habitats Directive. So it's a no brainer that whaling is 'not allowed' in the EU. Moreover, the EU member states take a common position and vote as a bloc when it comes to international bodies like the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and CITES.