Public tours Greenpeace ship, hears crew’s tales as Arctic Sunrise drops anchor off Long Beach
The Arctic Sunrise – the Greenpeace ship that has sailed against whalers and polluters, onto newspaper pages and newscasts and into some of the environmental activists’ highest-profile, most embattled protests – was swarmed on Saturday.
Not by pirates. By curious tourists.
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The organization moored the iconic ship in Long Beach’s Rainbow Harbor as part of the environmental group’s assault on plastic pollution in the ocean and its crusade to persuade California to turn away from fossil fuels.
Free tours were offered of the ship, tied up at the Pine Avenue Pier on Saturday. The group’s leaders hope such tours will help spotlight their efforts to “campaign for a green and peaceful future for 40 years.”
“It was informational and interesting,” said Brandi Schmalreid of Long Beach, who was eager to tour the ship to see what it was all about. “It was nice because they didn’t push any agenda they just gave information.”
According to Greenpeace communications specialist Myriam Fallon, the ship was acquired in 1995 from a seal-hunting company and renovated for environmental use. The ship is staffed by a 16-member crew and can sleep up to 34. The smallest of the organization’s three ships, the Arctic Sunrise has traveled the world over multiple times, she said.
(Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
“It was extremely informative and the staff had fascinating personal stories,” Maryclair Buchanan said after touring the ship.”I also liked the information on upcoming campaigns and the global summit.”
Free tours to the public will continue Sunday, Aug. 5, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and again on Aug. 11-12.
The 163-foot-long icebreaker has been the centerpiece of several of the group’s most publicized events, including various efforts to stop Japanese whaling ship activities.
In 2013, the Russian government seized the Arctic Sunrise and its activist crew while they were protesting arctic oil drilling by the Russian company Gazprom.