Greenpeace’s ship will not be allowed to enter the port of Nice during the United Nations Ocean Conference and will not participate in a major maritime parade.
The Greenpeace vessel, which was supposed to join about thirty scientific NGO ships invited to Nice (Alpes-Maritimes) alongside the UN Ocean Summit, will ultimately be barred from entering the port. The Arctic Sunrise, a ship from Greenpeace’s international fleet, was scheduled to remain docked for three days starting Wednesday.
Ships such as the Thalassa or Tethys II from Ifremer, the German Meteor, the Spanish Odon de Buen, the Italian Gaia Blu, Ray Dalio’s Ocean Explorer, the schooner Tara, Jean-Louis Étienne’s Persévérance, and the WWF’s Blue Panda are expected to rotate through the port to welcome the public until Thursday and then summit delegations.
However, a decree issued—according to the city hall, in consultation with the prefecture and at the request of the Minister of Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher—has canceled Greenpeace’s ship participation. For Greenpeace’s captain, Mads Christensen, this is “a political decision (…) absolutely unacceptable.”
Accused of a Sea Protest
Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher reproaches Greenpeace for dumping about fifteen rocks into a protected Mediterranean marine area on May 21 from the Arctic Sunrise to prevent bottom trawling. “More than ten tons of rubble in a marine protected area, under the pretext of campaigning against bottom trawling in a place where trawls do not enter, is deeply shocking,” she declared. Greenpeace responded that the action was precisely to stop an ongoing activity.
On Saturday, the Arctic Sunrise had already been banned from the parade of dozens of ships planned for World Oceans Day, held the day before the UN conference. “It’s simply absurd. For over 50 years, we have defended the oceans, especially aboard our ships (…) and now we cannot participate in an event for the oceans?” protested Jean-François Julliard, director general of Greenpeace France.
The parade organizer in the harbor of Villefranche-sur-Mer and the Bay of Angels in Nice, Yvan Griboval, explained to Greenpeace that he did not want to risk a protest action during the parade. He assured AFP that it was a personal decision, with “no political connotation.”
Source: lefigaro
