Dr. Russell Nelson Sunday night kidnapping

On Sunday night a large group of ICCAT delegates boarded a sightseeing vessel on the Seine in expectation of a slow cruise to view the lights of Paris. Shortly after arrival three inflatables motor craft and 4 inflatable kayaks emerged from the shadows manned by the valiant Greenpieces well fortified in survival suits. The pieces proceeded to entangle the props with a faux longline that they then surrounded the cruise vessel with in what became a successful attempt to again save the bluefin tuna by preventing delegates from seeing the lights of Paris. Paris police arrived on the water and a SWAT team stormed the docks to engage in a Keystone Cops episode of pursuit and avoidance.

The pieces were not successful at deploying a large banner on the cruise boat but they did manage to avoid arrest over a two hour period in which they courageously jumped into the water to force police divers to go after them and haul them into the police boats where they turned docile and sat politely awaiting the harvest of their peers. Eventually all the pieces and their craft were hauled out and carted away to gaol.

In a daring simultaneous operation another battalion of these brave warriors attacked five empty buses and succeeded in again pasting them over with posters. They also deployed a large banner from the bridge over the Seine and AGAIN verbally saved the bluefin before the police vans roared in , sirens blaring, and began chasing the land based pieces down. All in all most of the folks trapped on the immobile cruise boat took this exhibition of bravery on the part of the pieces with good humor and lots of picture taking. Of particular enjoyment was the response of the vessel crew who whole heartedly prevented pieces from boarding the craft by deploying a pair of fire hoses.

In the end the pieces were sequestered and hauled off and again they succeeded in saving bluefin tuna by turning a growing number of the members and their delegations against their position. If the Russians were a practical example of change in attitude one might expect ICCAT to leave any new conservation regulations in abeyance. The most curious part of all this is that while the pieces had their own photo crew to record the battle their was no local or international press around. The story of the daring assault against a docile sightseeing boat did not make it to the TVs and newspapers of the world.

Despite the silly pranks of these post-adolescent warriors demonstrating a 12 year old's sense of humor most conservationists inside the process continue to work positively to initiate new conservation regulations for bluefin.

Greenpeace video perspective: http://www.euronews.net/nocomment/2010/11/24/greenpeace-france-activists-block-pro-fishing-lobby-cruise/

more to come .........