Judge issues Greenpeace restraining order

On April 11 Judge Sharon Gleason from the federal District Court in Alaska issued a temporary restraining order against Greenpeace, banning protesters from the environmental organization from boarding or otherwise interfering with the operation of drilling vessels under charter to Shell for the company’s planned exploration drilling in the Chukchi Sea.

One of the vessels, the semi-submersible Polar Pioneer, is being carried across the Pacific Ocean by heavy lift vessel, the Blue Marlin, en-route to the U.S. West Coast, prior to transiting north to Alaska. The Greenpeace ship the Esperanza has been tracking the Polar Pioneer across the Pacific in protest against Shell’s Chukchi drilling plans.

On April 6 a team of six Greenpeace activists climbed aboard the Polar Pioneer from a small inflatable boat using climbing ropes, before setting up camp on the drilling vessel. The following day Shell filed a complaint in District Court, seeking an injunction against the boarding and against future Greenpeace interference with vessels operated by Shell in its Alaska drilling program. According to an Associate Press report the Greenpeace protesters disembarked from the Polar Pioneer on April 11, with Greenpeace saying that safety concerns arising from rough seas had triggered the evacuation.

Shell, in its complaint to the District Court, claimed that Greenpeace, by boarding the Polar Pioneer, had violated international maritime regulations and trespassed on private property. Shell also claimed that, in interfering with Shell’s operations, Greenpeace is liable for private nuisance as a consequence of conducting a civil conspiracy. In her April 11 order Judge Gleason found that the uninvited protestors on board the Polar Pioneer would likely cause irreparable harm to Shell, thus justifying the issuing of a temporary restraining order. However, having heard oral arguments in the case that Shell had raised, the judge said that Shell needs to provide further arguments justifying an injunction covering all of the vessels engaged in its Chukchi exploration project - the judge set a date of April 28 for a hearing in the case.

- Alan Bailey