Greenpeace maintains a small fleet of ships, which it employs for both scientific research and maritime protests. The protests are, at best, ethically questionable - they’re fond of blocking ports, boarding actions, spraying water at other ships to interefere with visibility, and so on. (I’m getting this from Greenpeace’s own website: Greenpeace USA: For People and Planet). Frankly, it sounds more like piracy than anything else.
So, here’s my question - what do maritime Dopers (merchant marines, sailors, Naval folks and the like) think of Greenpeace’s maritime activities? Do they actually have serious, skilled people running these ships? Does Greenpeace know what it’s doing at sea?
The maritime people I know (fishermen from Newfoundland, or more accurately, former fisherman, given the likely-to-be-permanent cod moratorium) have a very low opinion of Greenpeace and their operations, including their maritime operations. They have a low opinion of their seamanship, and an even lower opinion of Greenpeace itself.
They’d like to see every one of their boats sink with all hands, and they think it just might happen.
Why do they think it might happen?
I don’t know much about Greenpeace’s operations in particular, but from watching Whale Wars I can tell you that that group has dangerously poor seamanship. I suspect that Greenpeace is likely the same. First of all, I believe many of the Whale Wars people are former Greenpeace members who decided to “kick it up a notch.” Secondly, I imagine they both attract the same demographic: young, idealistic people who are passionate about the cause and hungry for adventure. Since there’s so much overlap between the two groups it stands to reason they’d have similar skill levels.
I have a master’s degree in marine science/biological oceanography, and have logged around 300 sea-days doing research on various vessels (from 24 to 300+ feet) in both the academic and private sectors. I don’t consider myself particularly “salty” compared to even your average deckhand, but I know enough that I can watch an episode of Whale Wars and come away with a laundry list of things they did wrong, even ignoring the fact that they’re essentially engaging in piracy. Things that spring to mind include fouling their props because they used sinking line instead of one that floats, and leaving the mothership in an inflatable zodiac IN DENSE FOG, with a POTENTIALLY MALFUNCTIONING RADIO and little to no navigational equipment. The former is a rookie mistake that just makes them look like amateurs, while the second shows an incredible lack of judgement and a general disregard for your own life.
Because they’re incompetent sailors.