Tag Archives: Bering Sea

Greenpeace calls for Bering Sea protection with thermal airship

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Greenpeace's thermal airship, A.E. Bates, flies over Seattle, a fishing industry hub, to call attention for Bering Sea protection.

Greenpeace’s thermal airship, A.E. Bates, flies over Seattle, a fishing industry hub, to call attention for Bering Sea protection.

Greenpeace will fly its thermal airship over the Seattle area all week with a 75 foot whale-themed banner urging Washington residents to help protect the “Grand Canyons of the Sea.”

Watch news coverage of the airship’s flight, and hear from Greenpeace’s Bering Sea campaigner on just why this area is so important.

Greenpeace and Mission Blue will host an “Evening of Hope” at the Seattle Aquarium to celebrate Alaska’s Bering Sea, a unique ecosystem currently threatened by a billion dollar fishing industry. Continue reading →

William Shatner teams with Greenpeace to protect the Bering Sea

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Today, Greenpeace launched a new video featuring the voice of William Shatner calling for the North Pacific Marine Fisheries Council to protect the Bering Sea canyons from industrial fishing.

Save Kipper features a happy menagerie of domesticated animals–a fish named Kipper, a dog named Sparky, a bird named Boozer, and a cat named Fluffy–all of which have their homes shockingly destroyed by methods ranging from fire to a power saw.

TAKE ACTION NOW TO PROTECT THE BERING SEA! Continue reading →

Time is Running Out on the Grand Canyons of the Bering Sea

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Fur Seals on St. George Island in the Bering Sea

On February 5 in Portland, Oregon the fishery honchos holding the fate of the Bering Sea canyons in their hands will get their first look at the scientific evidence Greenpeace has gathered from its submarine expeditions into the amazing Grand Canyons of the Sea.

These remarkable, life-rich canyons are under serious threat from industrial fishing fleets whose massive trawling operations rip this delicate ecosystem apart from the seafloor up.  Greenpeace has been working night and day to protect these canyons, and now, after years of work, two submarine research expeditions, multiple scientific publications, and support from an unprecedented alliance of indigenous stakeholders, environmental groups, scientists, and even seafood businesses, it’s all coming to a head in June. Continue reading →

As other indigenous peoples around the world joined efforts, so must we, the people of the Bering Sea

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Community Meeting on St. George Island, Bering Sea Alaska

George Pletnikoff speaks at a community meeting on St. George Island, Bering Sea Alaska. Photo: Greenpeace/Jiri Rezac

For thousands of years, the Aleut People have survived on the bounty of the Bering Sea. By some standards, archaeologists have agreed that the Aleuts are perhaps a unique group of people in that we have lived the longest in one location than any other indigenous group in the world without leaving or migrating, such was the abundance of food. Continue reading →

Truck-sized jellyfish and submarine dives

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Biologist Kirk Sato embarks on submarine dives in the Arctic

Watching the Esperanza move across the horizon of the Bering Sea, I realized I was about to embark on an experience of a lifetime. However, my training at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and more recently the research cruise, San Diego Coastal Expedition, prepared me for the field research I was about to conduct with Greenpeace in Pribilof Canyon.

In 2007, a research team led by John Hocevar (Greenpeace) set out to explore Zemchung and Pribilof Canyons for the first time with submersible technology. During these scientific dives, video recordings and collected samples were analyzed by expert biologists around the world. This process was repeated at 36 sites, a new species of sponge was discovered, and new ecological associations were found. Video footage of habitats rich with biodiversity and of unremarkable complexity were documented. We are now exploring the sites missed in 2007 to get a more complete picture of the canyon’s gems. Continue reading →

Our campaign to save the Arctic is just beginning

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The crew of the Greenpeace ship Esperanza in the Bering Sea

As the Esperanza’s tour ends (see our summary and video below), our campaign to save the Arctic is just beginning. Activists around the world have challenged Shell, from its corporate headquarters in the Hague and Houston to gas stations in London and beyond. Supporters all around the world are using social media to expose Shell’s multi-billion dollar Arctic hoax.

Listen to our podcast: Save the Arctic from Shell Oil

This is a global challenge, as the oil industry’s record in the Russian Arctic makes clear; tons of oil are spilled on land each year, and every 18 months more than four million barrels spews into the Arctic Ocean – nearly as much as BP spilled in the Gulf of Mexico. As other oil companies seek to exploit the melting sea ice and begin drilling in Arctic waters, we know we need a global movement to draw a line in the ice and protect this fragile region. More than a million people have come together calling for a global sanctuary in the high Arctic, and a ban on offshore drilling and unsustainable fishing in Arctic waters, and more are joining every day.

Be one of them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNLDDaTslH0&feature=youtu.be

Discovering abundant corals at Shell’s Arctic drill site

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Sea ice in the Chukchi Sea at Shell’s proposed Arctic drill site © Jiri Rezac / Greenpeace

Some of the support vessels for Shell’s drilling program have begun to move into the Arctic to exploit the melting sea ice, despite the fact that the company does not have final permits needed to begin drilling, its oil spill response barge has not been certified, and it can’t meet required clean air standards for its drill rig, the 46 year old converted log carrier known as the “Noble Discoverer.” With the threat of Arctic drilling looming, marine biologist John Hocevar took a small research submarine down to the site where Shell hopes to drill this summer, and discovered abundant corals known as “sea raspberry.”

Continue reading →

A freeway through a playground

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Guest blog by Kelly Newman, acoustician at University of Alaska

Listen to the calls of a killer whale and join us to save the Arctic.

I have been staring out at the Chukchi Sea for days, looking for a blow, a flip, a jump, anything that moves. I am hoping to find whales and seals while Greenpeace marine biologist John Hocevar and his co-pilots survey the seafloor with a small two-person research submarine in the Shell’s proposed drill sites. Continue reading →

Exploring the Largest Underwater Canyons in the World

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New findings strengthen the case for protecting the Bering Sea Canyons

Building on the research we did in the Bering Sea Canyons in 2007, Greenpeace completed 14 successful submarine dives in July 2012. Explorers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Waitt Institute, and Greenpeace conducted video surveys in Zhemchug and Pribilof canyons, collecting valuable data on the marine life in these unique areas. Continue reading →