Greenpeace Activists Have Barnacled Themselves to a Shell Oil Drilling Rig Bound for Seattle

Guess we now know why many of those attractive activists ("attractivists," as coined by The Stranger's Mike Force) have backgrounds in extreme sports. Greenpeace reports that this morning, six activists from the Esperanza—the Greenpeace vessel tracking a Shell oil drilling platform called the Polar Pioneer as it travels across the Pacific Ocean—managed to scale the rig and affix themselves to the underside of the main deck. The six are now tweeting from the rig, located 750 miles northwest of Hawaii.  In 2012, Shell won an injunction that kept Greenpeace activists away from its rigs. This drilling season, Seattle-based activists are also planning to greet the rigs with a flotilla of kayaks in Elliott Bay. The Polar Pioneer is due to arrive in Port Angeles on April 12, according to Marinetraffic.com, and activists expect it to pull into Seattle a few days later...more