Greenpeace launched its crowdfunded boat ‘Taitu’ from Wellington to Napier and from there headed out to confront the world’s biggest seismic blasting ship.
Trump-backed oil giant Chevron and arctic driller Statoil are using the 125-metre long Amazon Warrior, dubbed “The Beast”, to search for oil off the Wairarapa Coast. Greenpeace New Zealand crowdfunded nearly $100,000 in just seven days to buy the newest member of its fleet, the 15-metre Taitu, and then crowdsourced its name. Whilst at sea, the crew flew kites inside the 500m non-interference zone around the ship and placed swimmers in the water to force the ship to change course, disrupting their data collection.