By 4:30 p.m., the protesters began coming down from the bridge.
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And police carted off an undetermined number of protesters and other people in plastic handcuffs, with charges to be determined, probably Friday, police said.
Protesters started hanging from Portland’s St John’s Bridge on Wednesday. “Right now, it’s definitely kind of a holding pattern”.
The demonstrators are against arctic oil drilling.
After the ruling, Greenpeace was trying to determine its next move.
“The last two days have been a very emotional experience for all of us at Greenpeace, as well as all those who supported this action around the country and the world”.
“As our state faces a multi-billion dollar budget deficit, and an oil pipeline that is three-quarters empty, we would be foolish to turn away such a significant economic opportunity”, Walker said. “As of this moment, the 26 activists will stay in place”.
The activists are the latest group to stage demonstrations over the past three months, seeking to disrupt Shell ships from heading north from Pacific Northwest port areas.
A crowd of a few hundred people watched from the shore and from a wooden dock as authorities began to move against protesters on the water and dangling from the ropes.
Shortly before 6pm PT, the Fennica sailed through the wall of activists who were suspended from a bridge in Portland, Oregon. On Thursday it was revealed Shell’s profits had fallen as a result of Greenpeace’s protest in Portland.
Updated 2:38 p.m.: ODOT announced that the St. Johns Bridge is closed in both directions for all travelers. It attempted to leave earlier Thursday but turned around when activists dangling from the bridge refused to let it pass.
Meredith Cox is one of the protest organizers.
Then, “we ended up lowering ourselves down to where the protesters were”, he said. More than 10 were detained at a nearby Coast Guard station, leaving with citations. “That was the prerogative of the captain and the river pilots on board”, he said.
Greenpeace Protest on the St. Johns Bridge from Adam Simmons on Vimeo. The bridge remained open to cars.
“It’s pretty cool”, the 26-year-old said after coming ashore. They were brought down one by one. Scientists in Nature Magazine tell us that “all Arctic resources should be classified as unburnable”. Walker said he was pleased with the information provided to him during the tour and that with the technological advancements Shell has made to ensure their rigs are fit for Arctic waters. It was reopened shortly after the icebreaker reversed course.
It’s not clear if, or how, Portland police, Coast Guard and other agencies intend to remove protesters. This is not a simple trespass on somebody’s lawn… The Shell campaign can’t drill deep in oil zones until the Fennica is present because the ship carries a piece of equipment required in the event of a well blowout.
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Activists hang from the St. Johns bridge in an effort to block the Royal Dutch Shell PLC icebreaker Fennica from leaving for Alaska in Portland, Ore., Thursday, July 30, 2015. Wednesday to protest the icebreaker’s departure.
