Greenpeace New Zealand Weblog

Greenpeace receptionist Raechel Thomas had a nail-biting Saturday, wetsuit clad and on stand by to save a whale! Here’s her story…

When I heard that Project Jonah (a whales protection group) was running Marine Mammal Medic Courses, I jumped at the chance to get involved. The course was a one day intensive down at Long Bay Beach, designed to equip people to be able to assist in saving stranded whales. New Zealand has the highest number of strandings in the world, but it also has the highest rescue success rate - 95%. Besides illness and injury, whales strand because of landforms and the tide. Regular stranding points around the world all have the same characteristics - a thin wedge of land/sand, possibly hooked around. That coupled with incoming/outgoing tides churn the sand and therefore the whales’ sonar doesn’t read there is land behind it.

There was a theory component of the course which included things like the biology of whales and health and safety (of us humans too!). The hands- on component involved a life-size Minke whale, which, when filled with water, weighed 9 tonnes. From a distance it looks remarkably real; so real in fact that several people sprinted down the beach to get a look and try and help the poor stranded whale. Using the replica whale, we were taught how to place a whale on an inflatable pontoon; the rolling procedure for getting the pontoon under them, how to ensure their head and tail are the correct length with regards to overhang, and how to place the fins correctly.

Project Jonah is a world leader in stranding procedures and their pontoon is a world first. (The pontoon is like a sling with two inflatable pontoons either side - once the whale has been placed on there, you then inflate it).

At the end of my course, I felt ready to assist at a stranding, but secretly hoped it would never happen!!

Then on Saturday, just as I was contemplating what do to with my day, I got a text from Project Jonah. I was told there was Orca stranding not 5 kms from my home and that I was to stand by! I ran round in a slight panic getting my bag together and chucking on my wet suit. I was nervous as this would be my first stranding! An hour and a half later, I was still sitting in my wet suit and my ugh boots waiting for the call. I didn’t end up being required for the re-floating as it was too dangerous for her and us. She was instead transported to Takapuna beach for releasing.

So, I’ve had my official practice run for the real thing. Again, here’s hoping I never have to actually put my new-found skills to use!

An activist climbs down a ladder in a stairwell above the coal stockpile. © Greenpeace

Our colleagues across the Tasman have just pulled off an audacious action at the Eraring Power Station.

In a 5.5 hour blockade of the coal fired power station, they stopped more than 10,000 tonnes of greenhouse emissions.

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Target Climate

It struck me on a number of occasions in recent weeks that I perhaps I was mad. Perhaps I was completely crazy to have agreed to give two, hour-long school presentations to 600 primary school kids. As I sat late into the evenings, deskbound and furrow-browed over how to communicate global warming to 5 year olds (and could I really show that video clip of a seal pup getting clubbed?) I vowed never to put my hand up for such certain crucifixion again. The day dawned. Luckily, I had roped in Greenpeace Communications Manager Suzette and our French communications intern Francois as trusty side kicks. Also, I hasten to add, we had a polar bear suit (the best weapon in the fight against fidgeting).
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Greenpeace Japan says thank you!

Our activist friends Junichi and Toru are still behind bars. It’s been 13 days since they were arrested after exposing a whale meat smuggling scandal. Yeah, feel free to read that sentence again if you need to. It’s as crazy as it sounded the first time.

The Greenpeace Japan staff are hugely thankful to everyone who’s supported Junichi and Toru. Over 200,000 people have already written to Japan’s prime minister calling for the release of their co-workers. On the walls you can see photos of protests at Japanese embassies around the world supporting.

Help us get to our goal of a quarter million emails. Write to free Junichi and Toru. Help bring justice in Japan!

Commercial set netting and trawling in shallow waters is threatening Hector and Maui dolphins. Maui numbers have dropped as low as 100 on the North Island.

New Zealand’s Hector and Maui dolphins – the smallest and rarest dolphins in the world - are critically endangered.

In order to help protect the dolphins, zoologist Gemma McGrath founded Music 4 Maui’s in October 2007. The project fuses NZ music with marine conservation, and aims to both raise awareness of the dolphin’s plight, as well as raise funds to help them.

Gemma convinced a selection of talented kiwi musicians to donate songs for the dolphins, building up the Music 4 Maui’s album. The first compilation titled ’Songs to save a species’ was released on June 16th and includes artists such as Minuit, The Black Seeds, Sola Rosa and Ariana Tikao. Music reaches people and talks to their spirit, so these songs about the ocean and the dolphins, the fishing industry and extinction are good means to promote positive changes. Read more »

Organising chaos

Well, a couple of months after lodgement down at Auckland City Council, our building consent has finally been approved. This is a major step forward for the development at Akiraho St for Greenpeace. It gives us the green light to get moving on the plans and start to timeline when the organisation can expect to be in its new home.

Although we are running behind the original and very ambitious timeframe we had at the beginning of the year we’ve still managed to gain resource consent, building consent and be in possession of the full fitout drawings in a timeframe that would have pleased a professional developer. Not that it’s a competition of course but the faster we get in the less impact we’ll have on the organisation’s ability to campaign and minimise the budget, so this is a very important step.

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Greenpeace Australia ship tour website

The Esperanza has arrived in Australia and over the next 6 weeks Greenpeace will be travelling up the eastern seaboard of Australia, campaigning hard to get the federal government to acknowledge that renewables can do the job and that the time is up for fossil fuels.

So stay tuned - The Energy [R]evolution tour has begun! Check out the awesome website here

Whalebreak the game.

Two Greenpeace activists expose an embezzlement scandal involving whale meat which is costing Japanese taxpayers millions of yen. Forty cops swoop down on the Greenpeace offices to arrest the Greenpeace activists instead of the criminals.

A global storm follows: hundreds of thousand of supporters write to the Japanese government. Diplomatic protests are lodged by whale-friendly governments. Vigils and demonstrations are held outside Japanese embassies worldwide.

You can free them in whale break!

The last post from Dave at the IWC meeting…

At last… IWC60, also known as the 60th International Whaling Commission meeting, is now over.

I started writing blog in the press room yesterday, while listening to the incredible (and often entertaining) rhetoric emanating from the pro-whaling nations, especially those whose votes have been “purchased” by Japan. The matter at stake today was a proposed expansion of Greenland’s quota, to add 10 humpback whales to the quota of 200 minke, 19 fin and 2 bowhead whales already hunted annually. Alas, while Greenland’s hunt supposedly falls under the definition of aboriginal subsistence whaling, it’s becoming clear to Greenpeace - as well as other organisations like WSPA - that it’s anything but; Greenland clearly doesn’t need the whale meat it demands for local, subsistence use - much of it ends up in Greenland’s supermarkets, for commercial sale, which means it’s not fulfilling the IWC definition of “subsistence”.

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