Date: Wednesday 7th June. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GREENPEACE BOARDS BRENT SPAR AGAIN; OCCUPIES TOW TUG

Scotland--07 June 1995--Shell's plans to dump the Brent Spar have been thwarted again by Greenpeace activists who, over the past 12 hours, have both climbed the oil installation in the North Sea and blocked the tug in Aberdeen which is supposed to tow the Spar.

80KB GIF or 26KB JPG. ©Greenpeace/Steve Cox.

In the early hours of this morning, five activists from Greenpeace vessel Moby Dick, out in the North Sea, climbed the Spar and hung a banner reading "Save Our Seas" from the walkway. They attempted to paint the side of the Spar, but were knocked back by water cannons from the nearby Shell supply vessel the Rembas.

Around 10.30 a.m. the climbers got back onto the Moby Dick, after spending hours at the mercy of the hoses. As the last three climbers came off, the water cannons were turned on them again and one woman, was sprayed with the water cannon for a constant 20 minutes while she was dangling on a rope. Shell has denied this, saying they were "testing equipment."

"Shell seems to have the same disregard for the safety of people as it does for the safety of the environment. This is appalling behaviour," said Martijn Lodewijks aboard the Moby Dick.

Meanwhile in Aberdeen Harbour late last night, Greenpeace climbers locked themselves to mooring ropes and the superstructure of the Smit Singapore, the tug that is to tow the Brent Spar to the North East Atlantic where Shell plans to dump it. Two divers disabled the propellor. Ten people were arrested, so far without charge, but two climbers were up the mast of the ocean-going tug for 12 hours, delaying the dumping for over 12 hours.

82KB GIF or 34KB JPG. ©Greenpeace/Steve Cox.

Greenpeace understands that Shell is proceeding with its plans to dump the Brent Spar as soon as possible -- indeed it seems that Shell wants to start towing the Spar at exactly the same time as Environment Ministers from around Europe discuss the pollution of the North Sea at a meeting in Denmark.

"On the day North Sea states are discussing discharges of hazardous substances into the sea, it is disgusting that Shell and the UK Government are going ahead with dumping the toxic-laden Brent Spar. The North Sea states put their environmental credentials to the test this week -- they can agree zeroemissions as soon as possible or allow the seas to be used as a dumping ground," said Chris Rose in Aberdeen.

The latest country to protest the Spar's dumping is Ireland, where the Irish Minister of State at the Dept of the Marine, Eamon Gilmore, has asked the UK Government to postpone the dumping until the end of June to allow the Oslo Commission to review the conditions governing the dumping of offshore installations at sea.

In northern Denmark, Greenpeace activists this morning have blockaded a pesticides plant - Cheminova - which manufactures pesticides so hazardous that they are not able to be sold in Denmark. The plant is Denmark's largest single direct industrial source of hazardous substances to the North Sea.

Contact:
Cindy Baxter Greenpeace Communications: ++ 44 171 833 0600;
Martijn Lodewijks on Moby Dick: ++ 871 130 2403;
Chris Rose in Aberdeen:++ 49 172 381 8145/8
Sue Cooper in Esjberg Denmark ++ 45 75 45 33 64

*"The North Sea - A Dirty Story" -- for copies, contact the numbers above.