Arctic Sunrise has been involved in various campaigns including anti-
whaling campaigns in the
Southern Ocean. She is registered as a Motor Yacht (MY). On 21 December 1999
Arctic Sunrise and
Nisshin Maru, a
Japanese
whaling ship, collided. The same ships collided again in January 2006; both ships claimed to have been rammed by the other. The
ICR posted video footage to support its version of the incident. Greenpeace responded that the waves emanating from
Arctic Sunrise in the video support Greenpeace's contention that its vessel had its engines in reverse; Greenpeace also claimed the location of cloud formations in the background of the ICR video indicate
Nisshin Maru was turning into the Greenpeace ship at the time of collision. Greenpeace's protests were discussed at the same IWC meeting with agenda item IWC/58/3, relating to their protest actions against Japanese whaling in the Southern ocean in December 2005 / January 2006, during which a Japanese whaling ship and a Greenpeace ship collided, resulting in this resolution from the IWC. On 30 August 2007,
Arctic Sunrise was involved in a protest against the Canadian laker
Algomarine off of
Nanticoke, Ontario where she was attempting to enter harbor with a load of coal for the power station. A
RHIB came alongside and activists painted the hull of the laker with "No Coal. No Nuclear. Clean Energy." Two activists then boarded
Algomarine and chained themselves to the self-unloading boom. A third activist suspended herself with a climbing harness from the rudder of
Algomarine, effectively halting it. The
Canadian Coast Guard was called in to remove the protesters. In early February 2007 the ship was moored in Leith docks, in Edinburgh. On 23 February 2007, she took part in a blockade of
Faslane Naval Base and was subsequently impounded by the
MoD police but after weeks of the ship being impounded and campaigning the vessel was released.
2013 incident In September 2013,
Arctic Sunrise participated in
Greenpeace protests against oil drilling activities by the Russian energy company
Gazprom at the
Prirazlomnaya oil rig in the
Pechora Sea. Greenpeace opposes oil drilling in the Arctic on the grounds that oil drilling damages the Arctic ecosystem, and that no safety plans are in place to prevent oil spills. Earlier in August 2012, Greenpeace staged similar protests against the same oil rig. On 18 September, the crew of
Arctic Sunrise circled the Prirazlomnaya oil rig, while three crew attempted to board the platform. In response, the
Russian Coast Guard seized control of the ship and detained the activists. The ship was later towed by a coast guard vessel to the Russian Arctic port of
Murmansk. The
Arctic Sunrise crew consisted of 30 members from 16 nationalities. The Russian government intended to charge the Greenpeace activists with piracy, which carries a maximum penalty of fifteen years of imprisonment, Putin distanced himself from the case and indicated that the independent Russian judiciary would continue with the investigation. On 23 October 2013 the Russian prosecution altered the charges against the activists, rescinding the piracy allegation and charging them instead with hooliganism. A conviction of hooliganism in Russia can result in costly fines and up to seven years in prison. According to
Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace in the U.S. at the time, the reaction of the Russian coast guard and courts was the "stiffest response that Greenpeace has encountered from a government since the
bombing of the
Rainbow Warrior in 1985." The Netherlands asked the
International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to order Russia to release a Greenpeace ship and the activists who were on board. Russia subsequently indicated that it would not participate in the tribunal since the matter was an issue of internal Russian law involving criminal acts against Russian property. Despite the non-appearance, the Tribunal granted provisional measures releasing the entire crew and the ship on a financial bond. The ship was boarded by the Russian coast guard and towed 500 miles from the Pechora Sea to the northern Russian port of Murmansk in September 2013. The 30 activists were all released from prison due to an amnesty in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Russia's post-Soviet constitution, but the ship remained in Russian port pending a decision by the Russian investigative committee (IC) until June 2014. Russia was ordered to pay damages on 24 August 2015 to the Netherlands over its seizure. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague said the amount of damages would be decided at a later date. ==See also==