Solitaire flees Shell to Sea kayakers action

mayo | environment | news report

Friday June 26, 2009 11:17

by Rossport Solidarity Camp - Shell to Sea

300+ Gardai and navy outwitted as pipe-laying ship forced to scarper!

In a daring action by the Shell to Sea kayak team Shell's pipe-laying ship the Solitaire was forced to flee from activists late yesterday. Read on...

Five kayakers breached the Solitaire's unilaterally declared 500 metre exclusion zone yesterday evening (Thursday) in a daring offshore action. Despite the presence of Navy warships, Garda water units and private security vessels in Erris waters, the determined fishing boat approached the vessel. The kayakers made directly for the Solitaire, dodging Shell and safety boats, and came within 100 metres of the pipelaying ship which immediately left the area, roughly ten miles off the Mayo Coast. This was the culmination of a day of action against the Solitaire.

Jonathan O'Donnell, a local fisherman, spent last night in Castlerea prison following his arrest at sea yesterday where he was attending to his crab pots.

The preventative detention of O'Donnell and his father Pat, appears to be motivated by a government plan to shut down all protests against the Solitaire as it prepares to lay 84km of pipeline to advance the ill fated and unwanted Corrib gas project. Pat was also injured by Gardai, and sent to hospital, from where he has since been released.

Meanwhile Jonathan and Pat O'Donnell's boats remain impounded by Gardai as dozens of people arrived in the area to join local protestors launching a weekend of action to prevent the Solitaire's disastrous mission.

Shell To Sea spokesperson Maura Harrington praised the courage of the crew, saying, “it is actions like this which show that a small group of determined individuals can challenge corporate power and prevent Shell from bulldozing its way through a rural community."