Protesters from environmental activist group Greenpeace harassed an exploration vessel as it returned to Rarotonga Port in the Cook Islands on Tuesday, October 21.
The group claims the action was done "peacefully" in protest against, "the emerging threat of deep sea mining".
Four virtue-signalling activists in kayaks drew attention to themselves by manoeuvring dangerously alongside the exploration vessel Nautilus as the latter arrived in Rarotonga on Tuesday. The activists even held up a banner reading, "Don't mine the Moana!" in reference to the Cook Islands' Marae Moana marine protected area.
Greenpeace said the vessel recently spent three weeks on a US-funded research expedition visiting sites in the mineral exploration areas licensed by the Cook Islands authorities.
"This expedition comes just six months after President Donald Trump signed an executive order tasking the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to fast-track the licensing process for deep sea mining," Greenpeace said in a press release.
"The research being conducted on Nautilus is funded by NOAA’s Ocean Exploration Cooperation Institute."
"Seabed mining will lead to the destruction of our home environments and put our indigenous rights, cultural ways of living, and wellbeing at risk," said Louisa Castledine, Spokesperson for Cook Islands-based environmental activist collective Ocean Ancestors. "As indigenous peoples and custodians of the ocean we say 'no' to seabed mining."
[There is no logical explanation for anyone to get in a small boat and manoeuvre dangerously close to a much larger vessel as a form of protest. For one thing, the wake generated by a larger ship's propellers could result in hazardous conditions for any small boats nearby. Needless to say, whichever type of protest action people choose to engage in should not be done at the expense of safety, theirs and everyone else's. –Ed]
