MESSAGE TO SHELL
Travel less, telecommute more, consume less, wear warmer cloths during winter, less heating, make less chemicals and suffocating plastics== thus, we need no more oil, stop destroying the pristine environments of the planet
JUNE 12, 2015
Two brave activists who had attached themselves to a barge in the Port
of Bellingham have ended their protest.
Two activists who had attached themselves to a barge in the
Port of Bellingham overnight came down voluntarily Friday morning after
speaking with police, according to the Coast Guard.
Petty Officer David Durso said the two women strapped
themselves to a chain on the American Trader sometime overnight to protest
Shell’s plans to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean.
At around 8:45 a.m., Bellingham police asked the Coast Guard
for a ride out to the barge in an effort to speak with the activists, Durso
said.
“Police spoke to them and they came down willingly,” he
said.
Durso said the women were taken to the police station but
were expected to be released.
Durso said the activists had been in hammocks, or cloth
slings. He estimated they had been strapped to the chain over the side of the
barge for about five hours.
The barge is a support vessel that is part of Shell’s plans
to drill for oil in the Chukchi Sea off northwestern Alaska.
Late last month, two protesters attached
themselves to a different Shell support ship for the better part of a
weekend. They voluntarily left their perch with the help of the Coast Guard.
The oil company’s proposal also has drawn protests in
Seattle, where hundreds of activists in kayaks swarmed Elliott Bay to protest
the arrival of a massive, floating drill rig.
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ShellNo activists in Bellingham attached themselves to the
anchor chain of a vessel belonging to the oil company Friday morning.
Western Washington University students Erika Osland and Sawyer
Joy spent the morning hanging from the chain in protest of Shell Oil's
intention to explore the Arctic for oil.
After a visit from the Coast Guard shorlty after 9 a.m., the
two young women decided to come down from the chain on their own accord.
The two women were then taken to the Bellingham Police
Department to be interviewed by officers, according to Rob Lewis with the
Backbone Campaign, an anti-Shell activists organization.
"About 3:30 a.m. two young women ascended the anchor
chain of the American Trader, which is a cargo vessel leased by Shell to
deliver anchors," Lewis said.
"They are suspended form the chain
using climbing gear"
Using hammocks and camping gear filled with supplies, Joy
and Osland remained hanging from the anchor chain all morning — just feet above
the water.
"These two young women, they are both college students,
they are young and they are looking at the future and feel like something has
to be done," Lewis said. "And our normal political channels are not
up to the task."
In a Backbone Campaign press release, Joy and Osland
explained their reason to hang out in Bellingham.
"People need to step up and put a stop to this
madness," Osland said. "If not us, who? If not now, when?"
Joy agreed.
"It's really very simple," Joy said. "The oil
needs to be left in the ground and the Arctic needs to be protected."
The barge is leased by Shell Oil and is used as a support
vessel for the oil drilling fleet. The barge is docked with tug boats in
Bellingham. A crane was recently installed on it, according to the Backbone
Campaign.
Lewis said that the Backbone Campaign believes the barge
will deliver anchors for the drilling fleet to use in the arctic.
"It's been determined that we can't burn the oil we
have already drilled because it will send the climate over the edge,"
Lewis said. "So why drill for more?"
/////////////---------------///////
Two activists protesting plans by Royal Dutch Shell to
resume drilling for oil in the Arctic dangled for several hours on Friday from
the anchor of one of the company's vessels in Washington state before coming
down voluntarily, the Coast Guard said.
The women used camping gear and hammocks to attach
themselves to the massive chain on the barge in Bellingham, Washington, north
of Seattle, the activist group ShellNo said.
They dangled from the vessel, the American Trader, for about
five hours after climbing on the anchor chain in the early morning, the Coast
Guard said.
Both are students at Western Washington University, KIRO-TV
reported.
The women reportedly came down of their own accord.
The U.S. Coast Guard assisted the protesters who were taken
to Coast Guard Station Bellingham where local Police officers placed them under
arrest.
"Coast Guard personnel have an excellent working relationship
with our partner law enforcement agencies, and together we are committed to the
safety of life at sea," said Lt. Cmdr. Justin Noggle, chief of enforcement
at Sector Puget Sound. "We will continue to enforce those laws and
regulations necessary to ensure the safety of the maritime public."
The Coast Guard has established a 100-yard safety zone
around Arctic drilling and support vessels while moored or anchored, and a
500-yard safety zone while those vessels are transiting. Safety zone violations
can result in a maximum civil penalty of $40,000 for each entry into the zone
or day the individuals violated the zone.
Last month, activists chained themselves to a different
Shell vessel in Bellingham, the Arctic Challenger. That vessel, an oil spill
containment barge, pulled out of the port this week and was the first of the
Arctic drilling fleet headed to Alaska, a Shell spokeswoman said on Thursday.
Protesters around Washington have staged ongoing
demonstrations over Shell's intention to resume drilling for fossil fuel in the
Arctic, one of the most environmentally sensitive regions in the world, saying
a spill would be destructive to the ecosystem and extremely hard to clean up.
Shell maintains that it has a robust safety and cleanup plan
should a spill occur. This is what all cheapskate oil companies say.
Shell representatives did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
The oil giant, which is still awaiting several federal
permits before it can return to the Beaufort and Chukchi seas off Alaska, has
said it was continuing to prepare a drilling rig docked in Seattle for the trip
north this summer.
The rig has been an epicenter of protests both on land and
water, with demonstrators attempting to block workers from reaching the rig.
Last month, hundreds of people in small boats and kayaks surrounded the rig in
the Port of Seattle.
ShellNo and other groups have vowed to form a flotilla to
try to stop the rig from leaving Seattle's Elliott Bay in coming weeks.
//////////---------------///////////
Two more Bellingham Shell brave activists arrested
The Bellingham Herald
BELLINGHAM, WA
Two young and brave activists who tied themselves to the anchor chain of a
barge in Bellingham Bay were arrested Friday morning, June 12, according to the
Coast Guard.
Sawyer Joy and Erika Osland had put up slings to hold
themselves to the chain of the American Trader about 3:30 a.m. Friday. Shell
has contracted that ship to support its Arctic drilling operations.
About 9:30 a.m. Bellingham police officers and the Coast
Guard went out to the protesters. The two were taken aboard a Coast Guard
response boat and arrested. The brave Coast Guard said it intends to pursue fines
against these magnificent activists.
The protest was in part to call on President Obama to deny
remaining permits for Royal Dutch Shell’s plans to drill in the American
Arctic, according to a press release from protest organizers.
A similar protest May 22-24 on the Arctic
Challenger in the bay resulted in four people facing fines for entering a
safety zone around the ship. Five others got citations that carry about a $500
fine.
Fines for violating the 100-yard safety zone around moored
or anchored Arctic drilling or support vessels can be up to $40,000 per
violation.
Read more here:
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/crime/article23886178.html#storylink=cpy
///////---------------/////////
Coast Guard removes protesters from vessel in Bellingham,
Wash
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
A Coast Guard boatcrew assisted Bellingham Police Department
personnel in the removal of two activists who secured themselves to the chain
of the barge American Trader in Bellingham, Friday morning.
The protesters were taken to Coast Guard Station Bellingham
at about 9:30 a.m., aboard a 45-foot Response Boat-Medium, where Bellingham
Police officers placed them under arrest. Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound
investigating officers intend to issue a notice of violation.
“Coast Guard personnel have an excellent working
relationship with our partner law enforcement agencies, and together we are
committed to the safety of life at sea,” said Lt. Cmdr. Justin Noggle, chief of
enforcement at Sector Puget Sound. “We will continue to enforce those laws and
regulations necessary to ensure the safety of the maritime public.”
Watchstanders at Sector Puget Sound received a call around
4:50 a.m., from Station Bellingham personnel, reporting protesters had secured
themselves to the Shell-contracted vessel’s chain.
The Coast Guard established
a 100-yard safety zone in place around Arctic drilling and support vessels
while moored or anchored, and a 500-yard safety zone while those vessels are
transiting.
Safety zone violations can result in a maximum civil penalty
of $40,000 for each entry into the zone or day the individuals violated the
zone.
