Seattle activists opposed to Arctic drilling have vowed to launch a kayak blockade to prevent the departure of Shell’s drilling rig, and said they have hundreds of protesters standing to hit the water as soon as the Polar Pioneer departs.
“Our effort is to create as large a flotilla as we can to make it impossible for them to get permission to leave,” Bill Moyer, executive director of the Backbone Campaign, an environmental justice organization, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday.
Although Shell has not announced a departure date, activists with ShellNo said on its website that the rig could leave for Alaskan waters as early as Wednesday. There it will drill exploratory wells approved by the U.S. government last month.
”Work continues as planned in preparation for the Polar Pioneer's departure to Alaska,” Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said in an email. “The rig and its crew will depart Puget Sound when the ongoing load-out is complete.”
The U.S. Coast Guard has said it will enforce a mandatory safety zone to keep watercraft at least 100 yards from the rig, which will be expanded to 500 yards after it departs to the Puget Sound.
Activists oppose drilling in the Arctic, where as much as one-third of undiscovered oil reserves may exist. They say drilling would exacerbate climate change.
“We can, in Seattle, help make a pivot away from not just Arctic drilling, but further endangerment of the planet through the use of fossil fuels,” Moyer said.
Over 300 Seattle protesters have been trained in kayak safety and skills in the lead up to the blockade, Moyer said. When the rig departs, hundreds of people on a text message loop will be alerted and will head out on the water in an attempt to block the Polar Pioneer, he added.
On Tuesday, activists attempted to stop workers from preparing the rig for its departure by blocking entrances to Terminal 5 in the Port of Seattle, where it is docked.
“We mobilized people who were willing to get arrested,” Afrin Sopariwala, one of the protest organizers, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday. “We do know that we disrupted them for some time.”
Six women were detained by Seattle police on Tuesday after attempting to block the workers from entering the terminal, authorities said. The six, members of an activist group known as the Seattle Raging Grannies, the local chapter of an international nonviolent activist network, were questioned and released by police after locking in to railroad tracks near the Port of Seattle, police spokesman Patrick Michaud said.
About two dozen other protesters had left their positions blocking another terminal entrance when police officers arrived.
Shell’s drilling rig in Seattle sparked controversy when it arrived last month, and hundreds of protesters went out on the water days later on May 16 in kayaks and small boats to show their opposition to the planned drilling.
Environmental groups say drilling in the Arctic could lead to a catastrophic spill that would be difficult to control in the unpredictable weather conditions. Shell has not drilled in the Arctic since a mishap-filled 2012 season, when it was forced to evacuate its Kulluk drill rig, which eventually ran aground.
MEANWHILE, Alex Garland writes on The Dignity Virus that Seattle’s Raging Grannies were arrested this week after blocking Shell workers from access to the Arctic drilling rig:
The Seattle Police Department (SPD) rose early Tuesday morning, wooed by a swarm of Raging Grannies and other protesters who had gathered at the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 5 bridge and Chelan Avenue South. Protesters attempted to prevent workers from boarding Royal Dutch Shell’s Arctic oil-drilling rig, the Polar Pioneer. For a few hours, they succeeded.
The Polar Pioneer, has seen its share of protests since it’s arrival in Puget Sound on May 14. Demonstrators have been protesting the rig both on land, and on water in kayaks in an attempt to bring attention to the possible devastation and a more than 75 percent chance of an oil spill on the rig once it reaches the Arctic, according to Alaska Public Media.
Three activists used concrete-filled, 50-gallon drums to blockade the workers’ entrance to the rig while attaching themselves to it via armholes. Activist Zarna Joshi, who had locked herself to a concrete barrel said, “I’m locking down today because the devastation of climate change is already upon us. From India’s recent heatwave to the Philippine’s Typhoon Haiyan, innocent lives are being destroyed all over the world. I can’t stand by and watch Shell, a reckless and selfish fossil fuel corporation, drill in the Arctic and make climate change even worse. The Arctic belongs to Mother Earth, and Shell can’t have it.”
Using a lockbox device for human blockades, two activists blocked a side road that could be used to get rig workers through. Another used an elbow shaped lockbox to attach themselves to a car at the Chelan Avenue South location. Activists blockading the bridge, side road and attached to the car decided to self-release in order to avoid jail. Rosie Daniels locked their arms to a car said, “All avenues which [someone] would go through to stop the rig have been exhausted and the people have made their voice loud and clear.”
The Raging Grannies continued their protest, causing SPD to bring out the power tools and begin clipping chains. The Grannies sat in rocking chairs, sipping tea and knitting, as more than 25 officers from both the Port of Seattle and SPD swarmed around them. Thick plastic sheets were draped over the Grannies as officers cut through the lockboxes. As the Grannies were led away, as demonstrators shouted “Stop Shell, not Grannies”. The goal of the protest was to “disrupt work on the rig to delay it’s (sic) departure from Seattle”. Protesters blocked the entrance to Terminal 5 for approximately three hours before workers found a way in. Five demonstrators were arrested but all were released by 1pm.
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