While enough protesters had been cleared from the St. Johns Bridge for it to pass, kayakers, dubbed kayaktivists, filled the waterways to again block the ship.
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Officials spent the afternoon removing environmental activists with Greenpeace USA who were hanging from Portland’s St. Johns Bridge.
The Fennica headed out Thursday after authorities forced protesters in kayaks from a river and removed others dangling from a bridge.
Zamora says that the shipyard where Fennica is docked, Vigor Industrial, needs to be targeted for non-violent resistance to stop repairs.
The ship set out early Thursday morning local time with police escorts.
The company now has until September 28 to drill the top portions of up to two wells at its Burger prospect about 70 miles northwest of the Alaska coastline, but after fixing a damaged icebreaker is hoping to convince regulators to let it go deeper this year. It protects Shell’s fleet from ice and carries equipment that can stop gushing oil.
“We remain committed to operating safely and responsibly and adding to Shell’s long history of exploration offshore Alaska”.
The icebreaker’s departure on Thursday triggered a chaotic waterborne tussle between law enforcement boats and obstinate activist kayakers who took to the river again after originally being moved to the side by police using loudspeakers.
There was no sign that the protesters were going to abandon the blockade in Portland after the ruling in Anchorage by U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason that Greenpeace is in civil contempt. It would jump to $5,000 an hour on Friday, $7,500 an hour on Saturday, and $10,000 an hour on Sunday.
The 380-foot-long icebreaker came to Portland for fix of a 39-inch gash in its hull, after hitting an uncharted shoal in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.
The Transocean Polar Pioneer is one of the two rigs Shell contracted to do its Chukchi work, Baldino said. “The staging of protesters in Portland was not safe nor was it lawful”.
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The demonstrators have yet to move from the St. Johns Bridge, which was closed to traffic as police arrived. By that time, they hoped the Obama administration would have a change of heart on the issue. It was reopened shortly after the icebreaker reversed course. Mary Nicol, a spokesperson for Greenpeace, reported yesterday that the rappellers have several days worth of supplies with them and plan to block the Fennica from leaving Portland for as long as they can. They also have their phones to stay in the social-media loop.
