Dolphin spotted in port of Amsterdam is reluctant to leave

DutchNews, May 3, 2020

A lone dolphin has followed a sailing boat carrying a cargo of fair trade coffee and rum from the French coast to Amsterdam’s port and seems reluctant to leave the ship, experts said on Sunday. 

The animal is fit and healthy but rescue organisation SOS Dolfijn said the brackish water is not good for the animal and it may not be able to find enough food. 

‘The animal seems to have developed a close connection with the ship and stayed swimming with it through the sluice gates and now it is in the port,’ said spokesman Eligius Everaarts. 

Attempts to lure the animal back to the open sea are being hindered by the fact that it will have to swim though the sluices at IJmuiden, which means the rescue operation can only happen when the gates are open. 

SOS Dolfijn tried to make the animal follow their boat but after a while it turned and went back to the ship. The schooner which it followed cannot be used to guide the animal back because it must be unloaded first. 

Catching the animal is not option either, the organisation said, because the port is a large area and the manoeuvre could put the animal’s life in danger. 

‘It may make it out on its own bit that will depend on the sluices,’ a spokesperson for the organisation said. 

The adult bottle nose dolphin has been identified as Zafar, a dolphin which has been spotted on the coast of France in 2018 where it was observed to interact with divers. 

The organisation said it will continue to monitor the situation. 

Update Sunday evening: According to broadcaster NOS, the dolphin was successfully encouraged to return to the sea on Sunday afternoon.

The dolphin next to the sailing ship on his way back to the ocean. Photo: Olaf Kraak ANP

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Amsterdam port’s dolphin follows sailing ship back to the sea

French aquarium sued over hammerhead shark deaths

Yahoo –AFP, April 29, 2019

Based in the northern French port town of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Nausicaa bills itself
as the largest public acquarium in Europe (AFP Photo/Ludovic MARIN)

Lille (France) (AFP) - An ocean conservation group said Monday it had filed suit against a French aquarium over the premature deaths of 30 endangered hammerhead sharks.

The move came after the Nausicaa aquarium in the northern French port city of Boulogne-sur-Mer said on Thursday that its last hammerhead, acquired in Australian waters eight years ago, had died from a fungus infection.

It had stopped feeding three weeks earlier and been placed under observation.

The shark died from the same fungus that caused the deaths of 29 other hammerheads at the aquarium since it acquired and began exhibiting them in 2011.

Nausicaa, which bills itself as the largest public aquarium in Europe, said it was still investigating the causes for the early deaths of a shark that scientists say can live 20 to 30 years in the wild.

But the international non-profit group Sea Shepherd on Monday called for an investigation into the techniques used to obtain the sharks and the conditions of their captivity.

"Only greed, coupled with incompetence and flagrant irresponsibility, can explain this slaughter," it said.

The distinctive shark, which can reach four metres in length, is on the Red List of endangered species at the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Nausicaa has defended its collection of the hammerheads, saying it is vital for protecting an animal at high risk of extinction.

"100 million (sharks) are killed each year for their fins," which are a prized delicacy in much of Asia, aquarium director Philippe Vallette said last week.

"If we want to increase our knowledge, we have to be able to observe them 24 hours a day. You can't do that in the ocean," he said.

The claim was dismissed by Sea Shepherd, which called on the authorities to investigate a site that gets millions of euros in public funding.

"If Nausicaa really wants to help protect the hammerhead... the three million euros of public funds spent on this project should have been invested in the fight against poaching," it said.

France reverses car tyre sea sanctuary -- an environmental flop

Yahoo – AFP, Vincent-Xavier MORVAN, September 23, 2018

Ten thousand tyres are set to be lifted out of the sea by the divers and boat crew
over the next few weeks, with the remaining 12,500 extracted in the second
quarter of 2019 (AFP Photo/VALERY HACHE)

Vallauris (France) (AFP) - What seemed a like a crazy idea turned out to be just that: a 1980s experiment that saw 25,000 car tyres dumped into the crystal-clear waters of the Mediterranean to create a sanctuary for sealife off the French coast is being cleaned up after it was found to be polluting.

Since the start of last week, divers and a specially equipped boat with lifting gear have been fishing out hundreds of the old loops of rubber about 500 metres (1,600 feet) from an exclusive coastline between the towns of Cannes and Antibes.

The original vision, backed by local French authorities at the time and fishermen, was that the tyres would become populated by coral and other sea creatures in a conservation area where fishing was off limits.

In France, the idea of a "tyre reef" was tried only here, but a local academic working on the clean-up operation said authorities in other countries, particularly the United States, had tried the same failed idea.

"We hoped (back in the 1980s) that we could restore aquatic life there, but it didn't work," the deputy mayor of Antibes, Eric Duplay told AFP. "It turns out that the tyre reef was not a prolific place for biomass."

Denis Genovese, the head of an association of local fishermen, confirmed that most Mediterranean lifeforms had shunned the idea of living inside mad-made products manufactured out of rubber, resins, oil and other chemicals.

Divers and a specially equipped boat with lifting gear have been fishing out hundreds

 of the old rubber tyres 500 metres (1,600 feet) from an exclusive coastline between

the French resorts of Cannes and Antibes (AFP Photo/VALERY HACHE)

Leaking toxic chemicals

Sedentary creatures such as the local scorpion fish didn't use them, Genovese said, while "grouper fish, conger eels and sea bream swim around them, but no species really got used to it".

Worse, a study in 2005 by researchers at the University of Nice showed that the tyres were leaking toxic chemicals into the environment, including heavy metals, which are a threat to human life.

Authorities were also worried that the tyres could degrade further, nearly 40 years after they sank to the seabed, and break up into smaller pieces which would be a risk for nearby seagrass meadows.

In 2015, a first mission to remove 2,500 tyres was undertaken to show that they could be extracted safely, with the work underway at the moment a second and more important phase of the clean-up operation.

Around 10,000 are set to be lifted by the divers and boat crew over the next few weeks, with the remaining 12,500 extracted in the second quarter of 2019.

Regeneration hopes

AFP hopped aboard the vessel last week to watch the progress in action as dozens of a tyres were hauled from the sea, with the luxury holiday villas of the French Riviera visible on the coastline behind.

Local French authorities and fishermen hoped back in the 1980s that the tyres 

would become populated by coral and other sea creatures in a conservation area 

where fishing was off limits (AFP Photo/VALERY HACHE)

The Saudi royal family own a huge villa on a small stretch of beach opposite the site, which was the focus of a scandal in 2015 when King Salman tried to privatise the sand for his holiday and caused an uproar among locals.

The fine white sand is a problem for the clean-up team of divers, which struggle with low visibility as they find the tyres and thread them on to wire cables which are then lifted to the surface.

"In the morning, it's easy, the water's clear," crew member Morgan Postic on board the Ocea vessel said. "But as we stir it all up down at the bottom, you can't see anything and it gets much more complicated."

The tyres will be sent to the nearby city of Nice and then to recycling centres where they will be broken up into granules that can be used in construction projects.

"After that we'll leave the seabed to restore itself naturally and we'll continue to monitor with censors," said marine scientist Patrice Francour from the University of Nice, who is working on the issue.

Francour said the clean-up would end France's one and only experiment with a "tyre reef", but that other countries still had to deal with the legacy of the failed idea, notably the United States.

A million euros has been provided by the French state to finance the French clean-up, while French tyre company Michelin has contributed 200,000 euros (235,000 dollars).

Unfit for porpoise: Naughty dolphin causes French beach ban

Yahoo – AFP, August 27, 2018

Unfit for porpoise: Naughty dolphin causes French beach ban

Rennes (France) (AFP) - A love-lorn dolphin has prompted a French coastal town to ban bathing on its beaches, fearing people may be hurt by the antics of the over-excited mammal.

Roger Lars, mayor of Landevennec, on the western tip of Brittany, issued a ban on voluntarily approaching within 50 metres (yards) of the dolphin and outlawed bathing and diving from the district's beaches whenever the animal is spotted in local waters.

The move was made on the basis of advice from marine specialists after the visibly excited three-metre (10-foot) dolphin -- nicknamed Zafar -- bumped against boats and bathers, he said.

"I issued the decree to ensure safety... Several bathers were really afraid -- he even lifted up a woman bather with his snout," Lars told the local newspaper Ouest France.

The ban took effect on August 20.

Sami Hassani, a specialist in marine mammals at the Oceanopolis sea park, said the dolphin could accidentally cause "serious injuries" with its tail fin.

But the ban has run into legal problems.

Lawyer Erwan Le Cornec told AFP he plans to file a petition to overturn the restrictions on the grounds of administrative over-reach.

"How many accidents involving a dolphin and a human have occurred in the region of Finistere since the two species have lived side-by-side?" he asked scornfully. "None."

"With this decree the mayor is trying to make out that the dolphin is almost like a ferocious beast, something that is completely unpredictable, able to drown people."

The mayor, he said, "will overturn the rightly positive approach that people have towards dolphins into a fear of these intelligent animals."

Around the world in 42 days: French sailor smashes solo record

Yahoo – AFP, December 17, 2017

Francois Gabart's MACIF trimaran nearing the finish line on Saturday (AFP Photo/HO)

Brest (France) (AFP) - Frenchman Francois Gabart smashed the world record for the fastest non-stop solo navigation of the globe on Sunday, completing the mammoth feat in 42 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes and 35 seconds.

The 34-year-old sailor crossed a virtual finish line drawn between the island of Ushant off France's northwest tip and Lizard Point in southwest England at 0145 GMT, comfortably beating the previous record set by compatriot Thomas Coville last year by six days and 10 hours.

The race time was announced by an observer from the World Sailing Speed Council but will be subject to checks of the boat's black box and its GPS data before final confirmation.

Father-of-two Gabart becomes just the fourth title-holder for a world record of sailing the globe solo without stopping.

Since the record was first set in 2004, nearly 30 days have been shaved off.

French sailor Francois Gabart has become just the fourth title-holder for a world 

record of sailing the globe solo since it was first set in 2004 (AFP Photo/DON EMMERT)

The debut record holder was Frenchman Francis Joyon who completed the odyssey in 72 days and 22 hours.

British female sailor Ellen MacArthur took to the seas a year later, racing against the clock to break that record by just a day and a half (71 days, 14 hours).

She remained undefeated until 2016 when Coville set a new record of 49 days and three hours which many predicted would be difficult to topple.

Gabart's 30 metre (98 foot) long new generation maxi-trimaran was helped by good weather throughout much of the voyage, particularly during the long and arduous Pacific section.

He set a number of new solo race records along the way, including the fastest navigation of the Pacific (7 days, 15 hours, 15 minutes) and the longest distance covered in 24 hours (851 miles or 1,576 kilometres).

French sailor François Gabart shatters the around the world record pic.twitter.com/cV8CadFbkJ

— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 17, 2017

Green-powered boat readies for round-the-world voyage

Yahoo – AFP, Helene Duvigneau, September 12, 2016

Labourers work on on the hull of an under-construction self energy producer,
multihull 'Energy Observer', in Saint-Malo, western France (AFP Photo/Loic Venance)

Saint-Malo (France) (AFP) - Dubbed the "Solar Impulse of the Seas," the first boat to be powered solely by renewable energies and hydrogen hopes to make its own historic trip around the world.

A water-borne answer to the Solar Impulse -- the plane that completed its round-the-globe trip using only solar energy in July -- the Energy Observer will be powered by the Sun, the wind and self-generated hydrogen when it sets sail in February as scheduled.

The multi-hulled catamaran is in a shipyard at Saint-Malo on France's west coast, awaiting the installation of solar panels, wind turbines and electrolysis equipment, which breaks down water to produce its component elements, hydrogen and oxygen.

"We are going to be the first boat with an autonomous means of producing hydrogen," says Frenchman Victorien Erussard, who is behind the project -- confidential until now -- with compatriot Jacques Delafosse, a documentary filmmaker and professional scuba diver.

Sun, wind, hydrogen

The plan is for the boat's batteries, which will feed the electric motors, to be powered in good weather by solar and wind energy, explains the 37-year-old merchant navy officer with a smile.

"If there's no Sun or wind, or if it's night, stored hydrogen -- generated by electrolysis powered by the solar panels and two wind turbines -- will take over," he says.

As a result, the vessel's trip will not use any carbon-emitting fossil fuels, as is the case for 96 percent of boats today.

The vessel itself has a storied past.

The catamaran won the Jules Verne trophy, for a team sailing non-stop round the world, in 1994. It was bought for 500,000 euros ($562,000) and extended by a whopping six metres, to 30.5 metres (100 feet), for the project.

One of the backers of the endeavour is well-known French environmentalist Nicolas Hulot.

"I support it because it's the first project of this kind to actually be undertaken, it's ambitious and looking toward the future," Hulot, a former special envoy on environmental protection to President Francois Hollande, told AFP.

"It's very promising for marine transport," Hulot added. "The Energy Observer is going to demonstrate that you can have great autonomy (at sea) and you can store and find energy when there isn't any more wind or sun."

Victorien Erussard, French skipper of 'Energy Observer', the first boat to be powered

 solely by renewable energies and hydrogen, poses for a photo in Saint-Malo, on

September 6, 2016 (AFP Photo/Loic Venance)

'Great challenge'

The Energy Observer was designed in partnership with a team of naval architects and the CEA-Liten research institute in the French city of Grenoble, which is dedicated to renewable energy technologies.

At a total cost of 4.2 million euros ($4.72 million), the green energy boat will be fitted with sensors to act as veritable moving laboratory for CEA-Liten, whose director Florence Lambert describes the project as a "great challenge" to take on.

"Energy Observer is emblematic of what will be the energy networks of tomorrow, with solutions that could even be used within five years," says Lambert.

"For example, the houses of tomorrow could incorporate a system of hydrogen storage, which is produced during the summer months and then used in the winter."

The head of the project at CEA-Liten, Didier Bouix, adds that hydrogen can store "20 times more energy" than conventional batteries.

Six-year world tour

Energy Observer's world tour is expected to take six years. After a careful crossing of the Mediterranean, the catamaran will venture out into the Atlantic and then Pacific oceans.

In all, 101 stopovers are planned from Cuba to New Caledonia to Goa on India's west coast.

There are still hurdles to overcome, not least in funding: the Energy Observer's trip is expected to cost a minimum of four million euros a year, notably to develop a traveling exhibition.

But the team says it is confident of getting the funds.

And once again it finds inspiration from its airplane mentor Solar Impulse -- which flew around the world on renewable energy and accomplished "what everyone said was impossible," said Delafosse.

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"The Ecolution"

Putin tells navy in Mediterranean to work with French 'as allies'

Yahoo – AFP, 17 Nov 2015

Russian warship the BSF Saratov 150 sails through the Bosphorus off Istanbul
en route to the eastern Mediterranean in September (AFP Photo/Ozan Kose)

Moscow (AFP) - President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday ordered the Russian navy in the Mediterranean to establish contact with its French counterparts and work together "as allies" in a campaign against the Islamic State group in Syria

Putin instructed his military to work out a joint Russian-French action plan against IS militants as he pushes the idea of establishing a broad anti-IS coalition that would involve both Russia and the West.

"It's necessary to establish direct contact with the French and work with them as allies," Putin told the military top brass at a meeting after French President Francois Hollande said the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle would be deployed to the eastern Mediterranean.

"It's necessary to work out with them a plan of joint actions both at sea and in the air," Putin said, adding that both the chief of the general staff and the defence ministry had received orders to that effect.

The Kremlin said separately that Putin and Hollande had agreed in phone talks to ramp up cooperation and tackle "international terrorism" together.

"It has been agreed to ensure closer contact and coordination between the military and security service agencies of the two countries during operations against terrorist groups by Russia and France in Syria," the Kremlin said in a statement following the phone call between Putin and Hollande.

The two will further discuss the fight against terrorism in a meeting in Moscow on November 26, the Kremlin said.

Putin has been seeking to capitalise on shifting dynamics in the West following Friday's terror attacks in Paris and the bombing of a Russian passenger plane over Sinai in October, arguing that Russia and the West should unite against a common enemy.

Earlier Tuesday Russia announced that the Airbus A321 carrying 224 people, most of them Russian tourists, was knocked out of sky by a bomb and pledged vengeance.

On Tuesday, Russian strategic bombers hit Islamic State group targets in Syria's Raqa and Deir Ezzor provinces, defence minister Sergei Shoigu said.

He added that cruise missile strikes had also hit Aleppo and Idlib provinces.

The strikes are the first time that Russia has deployed its strategic long-range bombers during its air campaign in Syria and came as Shoigu said Moscow had doubled the number of combat sorties it flew over the country.

In total, Shoigu said that Russian forces hit 206 "terrorist" targets in Syria in the latest wave of strikes.

Apart from a spate of missiles fired from its Caspian Sea fleet in October, up until now Moscow has mainly relied on smaller fighter jets to hit targets in Syria but has now deployed the more powerful long-range bombers from Russian territory.

French agent apologises for 1985 sinking of the Rainbow Warrior

Yahoo – AFP, Guy Jackson, 6 Sep 2015

The Greenpeace boat "Rainbow Warrior" lies half sunk following an attack by the

French secret service in Auckland, August 14, 1985 (AFP Photo/Patrick Riviere)

Paris (AFP) - The French secret service frogman who attached the mines which sank the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand 30 years ago apologised for his actions in an interview Sunday with investigative website Mediapart.

Jean-Luc Kister, whose face was not covered in the hour-long video interview, said he believed it was now the right time to say sorry to the family of Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira, who was killed in the explosion, to Greenpeace and to the people of New Zealand.

"Thirty years after the event, now that emotions have subsided and also with the distance I now have from my professional life, I thought it was the right time for me to express both my deepest regret and my apologies," Kister said.

The bombed hull of the Greenpeace 

flagship Rainbow Warrior, following its 

sabotage by the French secret service

 is shown in Auckland port on August 1,

1985 (AFP Photo/Ross White)

On July 10, 1985, the Rainbow Warrior was docked in Auckland on its way to protest against French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll, about 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) southeast of Tahiti.

Kister was working for France's spy agency, the DGSE, which carried out an unprecedented mission to stop Greenpeace by bombing a peaceful protest ship without warning in the waters of a friendly nation.

He was part of the so-called "third team", whose mission was to attach two large limpet mines to the hull of the converted trawler, working with fellow frogman Jean Camas.

A third member of the team, Gerard Royal, a brother of France's current environment minister and former presidential candidate Segolene Royal, picked up the two men in a dinghy after the covert operation.

"I have the blood of an innocent man on my conscience, and that weighs on me," a visibly emotional Kister said in the interview. "We are not cold-blooded killers. My conscience led me to apologise and explain myself."

He said the mission that the 12-strong unit were ordered to carry out by then French defence minister Charles Hernu was "disproportionate" and he claimed that other less drastic ways of damaging the ship, such as breaking the propeller shaft to prevent it from taking to sea, were rejected by the government.

Name was leaked

"There was a willingness at a high level to say: this has to end once and for all, we need to take radical measures. We were told we had to sink it. Well, it's simple to sink a boat, you have to put a hole in it."

Kister's name was leaked to the media soon after the bombing, albeit with a spelling mistake as Kyster. He said he considered his unmasking to be an act of "high treason".

"I'm not angry at the journalists, it's the political powers I blame. If it had been in the United States, other heads would have rolled."

Two days after the bombing, two of the agents who took part -- Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur, who had posed as a couple of Swiss tourists -- were arrested by New Zealand police and their identities revealed. Hernu, the defence minister, was forced to resign two months later.

The Zodiac used by French Secret Services

 in the sinking of the Greenpeace boat

"Rainbow Warrior, in July 1985 (AFP Photo)

Mafart and Prieur were charged with murder, eventually pleading guilty to manslaughter and receiving 10-year jail terms, but they were freed within months under a deal that sparked almost as much anger in New Zealand as the bombing, involving France threatening to block trade access to European markets unless Wellington handed over the agents.

France has since made an official apology for the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior and paid damages. In 1996 it halted the nuclear testing that had prompted the Greenpeace protest.

The interview was carried out by French journalist and Mediapart founder Edwy Plenel, who in September 1985 revealed in a Le Monde newspaper report the involvement of the DGSE frogman in planting the explosives.

Plenel says one aspect of the infamous bombing remains unexplained to this day -- how much then president Francois Mitterrand knew about the operation.

Although Mitterrand was aware that it was going to take place, "at which point did he know the operation was going to be so violent?", Plenel asked.

A huge dome is shown in 1980 covering a crater left by one of the 43

nuclear blasts on Runit Island, in the Marshall Islands, the fallout from

which is expected to last 25,000 years (US Defence Nuclear Agency/AFP)

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World's largest cruise ship takes to the water in France

Yahoo – AFP, 19 June 2015

Fishing boats pass by as the cruise ship "Harmony of the Seas" is towed by

 tug boats into its new moorings at the STX Shipyards in Saint-Nazaire, western

France on June 19, 2015 (AFP Photo/Georges Gobet)

Saint-Nazaire (France) (AFP) - The hulking shell of the world's largest cruise ship slid into the waters off western France on Friday, with workers aiming to have it ready for a 2016 inaugural trip.

The huge vessel, named "Harmony of the Seas", has been under construction since September 2013 in the shipyards in Saint-Nazaire.

When finished it will weigh some 227,000 tonnes and measure 362 metres (1,187 feet) in length, 50 metres longer than the height of the Eiffel Tower.

Harmony is also a metre wider than the current twin ocean-going monsters of the pleasure cruise world, which are also 362 metres long.

"Allure of the Seas" and "Oasis of the Seas", the world's biggest cruise ships in current service, are 65 metres wide and come in at 225,000 tonnes a piece. All three belong to Royal Caribbean International cruise lines.

Some 2,500 people are at work building Harmony, which will require 90,000 square metres (968,700 square feet) of carpet and 500,000 litres (132,000 gallons) of paint.

The test runs of the boat are presently set for mid-February 2016 and its first voyage is planned for May next year, a trip from Southampton in Britain to the Spanish city of Barcelona.

The ship will have room for some 6,360 passengers and 2,100 staff members.

'Tide of the century' swells around French landmark

Crowds of people have gathered at France's Mont Saint-Michel to see an unusually high spring tide caused by the current sun-moon configuration. Other locations will experience a similar phenomenon.

Deutsche Welle, 21 March 2015

The sun and the moon joined forces on Saturday morning to produce a remarkable natural spectacle at the Mont Saint-Michel abbey in northern France, with a tidal surge of around 14 meters (46 feet) that cut the rocky island off from the mainland.

Thousands gathered to see the tide, which reached a first high point during the night and is to reoccur on Saturday evening. The island will be lit by spotlights for the occasion.

The Naval Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (SHOM), situated in Brest, said the expected tidal coefficient - an indicator of the difference in height between consecutive high and low tides - is 119, the highest-ever reported level. The coefficient ranges between 20 and 120.

Britanny's St. Malo will also see
exceptional tides

Mont Saint-Michel already has some of the strongest tides in the world, but the current positions of the sun and moon relative to the earth are producing an effect that is seen about once every 18 years or so - giving the lie to the media billing as "tide of the century."

The "supertide" phenomenon will also be seen at other places around the world, with the Bay of Fundy on the Atlantic coast of Canada expected to experience a surge of up to 16 meters. The Bristol Channel in western England is likely to see a more than 14-meter difference between low and high tide levels.

The tidal phenomenon is linked to Friday's solar eclipse and to the current "supermoon," which occurs when the moon comes closer to the earth than normal.

tj/sms (AFP, dpa)

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Payouts promised to Fijian veterans of British nuclear testing

Fijian victims of British nuclear testing in 1958 are to get compensation, according to Fiji's government. Seventy military personnel were taken to Christmas Island, a test site in the Pacific, more than 50 years ago.

Deutsche Welle, 27 Jan 2015

Fiji's government said on Tuesday that military veterans exposed to radiation 56 years ago or their families are to get compensation for subsequent health problems, including cancer of the blood.

The Fiji Sun newspaper quoted the country's National Security and Defense Minister Timoci Natuva as saying Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama would outline compensation details on Friday.

Maleli Naigulegu, now aged 80 and one of the surviving veterans who has campaigned for decades for assistance, told the Fiji Sun it was "the greatest news."

"At last my group has been recognized," the former laboratory technician said.

During British Cold War nuclear testing in 1957 and 1958, some 70 Fijian military personnel were sent to Christmas Island on board New Zealand naval ships.

The island is now part of the Pacific nation of Kiribati.

Naigulegu said the Fijian personnel were not briefed on the purpose of their deployment to the test zone.

Several Pacific test zones

Last year, a lawsuit was filed at the International Court of Justice by another Pacific nation, the Marshall Islands, where the US conducted 60 nuclear tests between 1946 and 1958.

The Marshalls, with a population of 70,000, became fully independent in 1986 after being administered in the past by the United States.

The lawsuit seeks to hold the US and eight other nuclear-weapon nations accountable for breaching or allowing violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Nuclear weapons have been used twice - at Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan by the US, near the close of World War Two in the Pacific region.

Several thousand tests

From 1946 until the 1990s nuclear powers conducted more than 2,000 nuclear tests worldwide.

A French 'test' over Mururoa in 1971

The United State's largest was at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific in 1954. The former Soviet Union's largest test "Tsar Bomba" took place in 1961.

France conducted tests in French Polynesia in the 1970s and 1990s, prompting strong protests from New Zealand, Australia and environmental rights group Greenpeace.

Last year, remote southern Australian land used by Britain to test atomic bombs in the 1950s and 1960s was handed back to its Aboriginal owners, the Maralinga Tjarutja, after attempts to decontaminate it.

Around 16,300 atomic bombs remain, held mainly by the US and Russia, despite the various versions of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

Some 70,000 to 80,000 had existed at the height of the Cold War.

ipj/jlw (AFP, IPS)

A huge dome is shown in 1980 covering a crater left by one of the 43

nuclear blasts on Runit Island, in the Marshall Islands, the fallout from

which is expected to last 25,000 years (US Defence Nuclear Agency/AFP)

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Total's purchase of Arctic oil shipment sparks row over offshore exploration

Greenpeace accuses oil giant of hypocrisy due to its previously stated position on not producing oil in the Arctic

theguardian.com, Carly Chynoweth, Wednesday 30 April 2014

Total's chief executive on dangers of drilling for oil in the Arctic - "oil
on Greenland would be a disaster". Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Total has purchased a shipment of Arctic oil from Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, in apparent contradiction to earlier statements made by the French company's chief executive about the potential dangers of offshore oil exploration in the region.

A spokesperson for Total said: "Total has bought this cargo to feed its European refining and trading system. Crude oil is an open international market and for many years we [have bought] crude oil from Russia."

In 2012 Christophe de Margerie told the Financial Times (paywall) that drilling for oil in Arctic waters was too risky, saying that "a leak would do too much damage to the image of the company" and that "oil on Greenland would be a disaster". However, he also said that offshore gas exploration in the region was much less dangerous; the company is not against Arctic exploration per se, and has onshore oil and gas operations in the region.

Greenpeace, however, has criticised the purchase: "Total's decision to buy this oil smacks of real hypocrisy," said Ben Ayliffe, a campaigner for the environmental group. "Its CEO has already pledged not to drill in the icy waters of the far north, and yet he is apparently happy to buy the stuff if Gazprom takes on the risk. Mr De Margerie cannot have his cake and eat it."

Total's spokesperson denied any inconsistency. She said: "This is not in contradiction with our position regarding the Arctic. In fact we stand [in] the same position about producing oil in the Arctic: we do not operate in the icepack and we focus primarily on natural gas projects."

Ayliffe also raised concerns about the political implications of buying Russian oil. "As this tanker nears Europe the controversy surrounding it increases by the day," he said. "Buying the first shipment of offshore Arctic oil increases our dependence on Russian energy firms and only serves to strengthen president Vladimir Putin's hand in the geopolitical game he's playing.

He added: "We must urgently shift away from fossil fuels towards more efficient, clean technologies. This is no longer a purely environmental imperative. It is increasingly crucial to our national security."

The oil comes from Gazprom's Prirazlomnaya platform in the Pechora Sea, which has been the target of several high-profile actions by Greenpeace, including one in 2012 that saw six campaigners occupy the rig, and one last year in which 28 campaigners and two journalists were arrested on charges of piracy and hooliganism.

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Russian oil tanker arrives in Rotterdam, protest by Greenpeace ships
Greenpeace sends new protest ship as first Russian Arctic oil arrives

Royal Dutch Shell halts Alaska exploration as profits fall

The word is out: Shell 'screwed up' in 2012