PORT ANGELES — Today’s early morning arrival of a huge semi-submersible offshore drilling rig from Asia will be met by a cadre of local, state and national environmental activists opposed to its use in the Arctic.
The exact time that the Polar Pioneer, a 400-foot-long rig owned by Transocean Ltd., is expected to anchor in Port Angeles Harbor to tower over the city for the next two weeks has not been specified, but a Shell Oil representative said it would be early in the morning.
When it does arrive and is placed at Anchorage Site Two in the western portion of the harbor, the rig — which is being transported on the MV Blue Marlin, a semi-submersible heavy-lift ship — will be greeted by protesters from Port Angeles, Port Townsend, Sequim and Seattle.
Greenpeace, an environmental group that had followed the Blue Marlin as it carried the Polar Pioneer from Malaysia, will be represented.
So will Olympic Climate Action, an environmental conservation group based on the North Olympic Peninsula; 350 Seattle, with protesters from Port Townsend and Seattle; and perhaps other groups.
“The main point of it is we don’t want Shell to think they can sneak their Arctic drilling fleet into Port Angeles, and then of course into Seattle in a few weeks, unnoticed,” said Cassidy Sharp, Greenpeace spokeswoman for the Arctic Works campaign.
“And we just want them to know that a broad coalition of groups are there to greet them,” Sharp said.
The Coast Guard has no plans to set up a “voluntary First Amendment area” in Port Angeles Harbor as it has done in Elliott Bay, said Lt. Dana Warr, public affairs officer for the Coast Guard’s 13th District, which includes Port Angeles and Seattle.
But it will enforce safety zones around the ship, Warr said.
The protesters oppose the resumption of exploratory oil drilling by the Polar Pioneer in Arctic waters off Alaska because they say exploration companies are ill-equipped in the event of a spill.
The Polar Pioneer is one of two drill rigs Shell hopes to use for exploratory drilling in the Chukchi Sea.
Six activists with Greenpeace boarded the Blue Marlin and Polar Pioneer in the Pacific Ocean about 750 miles from Hawaii last week.
They returned to a nearby Greenpeace ship just hours before a federal judge in Alaska ordered them off the Blue Marlin at the request of Royal Dutch Shell.
Once it is shed of the ship that is carrying it piggyback, the Polar Pioneer will remain floating in Port Angeles Harbor for at least two weeks for routine outfitting before it is towed to Seattle, according to Megan Baldino, Shell Oil Company spokeswoman.
“Port Angeles Harbor offers ideal protection and shelter for Blue Marlin during a heavy-lift operation — calm seas, not a lot of wind and deep water, [which is] ideal for the Blue Marlin,” she said.
Protesters other than those with Greenpeace “will probably be representative of the groups who are participating in the shellno.org stage of action” scheduled in Elliott Bay in a few weeks when the Polar Pioneer arrives there, Sharp said.
Shellno.org is a coalition of activists in the Seattle area. It includes such groups as Bayan USA, 350 Seattle, the Backbone Campaign, the Mosquito Fleet and Rising Tide Seattle.
Sharp did not know how many Greenpeace protesters would show up.
Emily Johnston, communications coordinator with 350 Seattle, estimated that about 36 protesters would come from Port Townsend and Seattle but added it might be more.
Ed Chadd of Port Angeles, who is with Olympic Climate Action, expects protesters from Port Angeles, Port Townsend and Sequim.
“There will be combined activity of folks from different groups,” he said.
He did not know how many would come or where they would meet.
Information about when and where to meet would be on the Olympic Climate Action website, www.olyclimate.org, sometime late Thursday or early today, he said.
“There will be some folks on the water, some folks on land,” Johnston said.
“There are going to be some folks who will be in the water by 6 a.m., which is about when the rig’s arrival is expected in town,” she said.
“Some folks will be coming at 8 or 9 a.m., so it will be a little spread-out.”
According to Sharp, Greenpeace also is going to employ small boats during its ongoing protests but will not approach closer than about 1,100 yards to the Polar Pioneer or Blue Marlin.
That distance restriction was imposed by Alaska U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason, who issued a temporary restraining order April 11 barring Greenpeace from interfering with the Blue Marlin and the Polar Pioneer.
“Obviously, we have respect for the security zones, and we are not planning on breaking those at all,” Sharp said.
“It will all be peaceful and nonviolent, but we do want to exercise our First Amendment rights to greet them and let them know that we are not thrilled with them moving into Seattle and of course what they plan to do in Alaska this summer.”
Other organizations will be able to come closer than Greenpeace can to the rig but will still have to stay 500 yards away while it is in motion and 100 yards away when it is stationary, according to the Coast Guard, which will enforce the buffer zone.
“We are not going to stop you,” Warr said. “However, those safety zones are no-entry zones up to the 500- and 100-yard marks.
“We will enforce the safety zones around those ships.”
Olympic Climate Action protesters do not intend to breach the barrier if they enter the water.
“Nobody in our group has plans to get arrested,” Chadd said.
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
