{"id":552,"date":"2015-05-15T22:53:25","date_gmt":"2015-05-16T05:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/creatures\/?p=552"},"modified":"2026-01-06T06:14:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T06:14:57","slug":"the-polar-pioneer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/?p=552","title":{"rendered":"The Polar Pioneer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday the\u00a0<em>Polar Pioneer,\u00a0<\/em>the massive drill rig that Shell plans to use to explore for oil in the Arctic, arrived in Elliott Bay, and we were there to meet it. The reception wasn&#8217;t entirely cordial, for many question the necessity, or the safety, of Arctic drilling, and the legitimacy of the operation at Terminal 5 in the heart of Seattle&#8217;s waterfront.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1607\" style=\"width: 2570px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/swarm-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1607\" class=\"wp-image-1607 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/swarm-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"729\" srcset=\"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/swarm-scaled.jpg 2560w, http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/swarm-300x85.jpg 300w, http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/swarm-1024x292.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/swarm-150x43.jpg 150w, http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/swarm-768x219.jpg 768w, http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/swarm-1536x437.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/swarm-2048x583.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1607\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dozen kayaktivists await the Polar Pioneer off Duwamish Head in Seattle.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>As the vessel proceeded south we were joined by a number of other paddlers, including a big traditional canoe with representatives of both the Duwamish and the Lummi tribes, the latter fighting their own battle against construction of a coal port they see as threatening the health of the Salish Sea.<a href=\"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Dragonboat-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1610\" src=\"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Dragonboat-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2042\" srcset=\"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Dragonboat-scaled.jpg 2560w, http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Dragonboat-300x239.jpg 300w, http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Dragonboat-1024x817.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Dragonboat-150x120.jpg 150w, http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Dragonboat-768x613.jpg 768w, http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Dragonboat-1536x1225.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Dragonboat-2048x1634.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/a>This was a gathering of rapid responders &#8212; a bigger flotilla is expected May 16, and protests on land after that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday the\u00a0Polar Pioneer,\u00a0the massive drill rig that Shell plans to use to explore for oil in the Arctic, arrived in Elliott Bay, and we were there to meet it. The reception wasn&#8217;t entirely cordial, for many question the necessity, or &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/?p=552\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=552"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1611,"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions\/1611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}