FOLLOWUP: First vessel to arrive as part of Shell’s Arctic fleet, Aiviq, now docked at Terminal 5; Polar Pioneer/Blue Marlin approaching Strait of Juan de Fuca

11:21 AM: Thanks to David Hutchinson for the photo, and to others for the tips: The first vessel in Shell‘s Arctic-drilling/support fleet has arrived in Seattle, and has docked at Terminal 5 (per MarineTraffic.com). It’s the Aiviq, mentioned here just last night in connection with the U.S. Coast Guard’s announcement of “safety zones” around the vessels expected here as part of Foss’s T-5 lease. The Aiviq is a three-year-old icebreaker that was among the Shell-related vessels that spent time here in 2012 before the company’s most-recent Arctic drilling attempts.

ADDED 11:52 AM: And for the first time in the weeks we’ve been watching for it, the Blue Marlin, carrying the drilling platform Polar Pioneer, is in MarineTraffic.com range, approaching the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca off the northwesternmost tip of Washington state, on schedule with its announced arrival in Port Angeles by tomorrow.

29 Replies to "FOLLOWUP: First vessel to arrive as part of Shell's Arctic fleet, Aiviq, now docked at Terminal 5; Polar Pioneer/Blue Marlin approaching Strait of Juan de Fuca"

  • Mike April 16, 2015 (11:44 am)

    Welcome!

  • Buck April 16, 2015 (12:10 pm)

    Where are all the neo-hippies in their kayaks?

  • G April 16, 2015 (1:33 pm)

    Poor hippies, everyone laughs at them. I admire the spirit of the original hippies who tried to live off the grid and believed in self-sufficiency; in a sense they were the true libertarians. Not sure there are any real hippies left.

  • Smitty April 16, 2015 (1:46 pm)

    Welcome to Seattle!

  • Grace April 16, 2015 (2:43 pm)

    Shell won’t have enough money to cover the impossible clean-up expense when disaster strikes.

  • sophista-tiki April 16, 2015 (3:10 pm)

    Shell won’t take responsibility when the inevitable disaster happens. They will find some way to make the tax payers pay for their mistake and the conservatives will find some way to blame the ” hippies” for it. What a bunch of greedy short sighted morons. So who will complain the loudest when this Shell operation makes it even MORE impossible to get in and out of WS? what ya wanna bet it wont be the ” hippies”. condescending much?

  • miws April 16, 2015 (3:54 pm)

    Oh, I’m sure they’ll have enough money, Grace.

    .

    They’ll just weasel out of paying it, like Exxon and BP did….

    .

    Mike

  • Jeff B. April 16, 2015 (5:00 pm)

    The Gulf and Valdez areas are still a horrible mess and will be forever. Jobs and life styles lost forever, not to mention the ecology will never be the same. So there really is no clean up, these places are lost forever to multi-billion dollar corporations and our Port Leadership supports this practice. Vote these clowns out next time around, we do have some power over these horrible decisions. We got rid of Bush and Cheney!

  • mary Brockman April 16, 2015 (5:27 pm)

    There is no aerable land left for the hippies . Go for a walk. See your world. It isn’t what you see on TV. Just shut off the internet and go for a walk for a day, a week, a month, whatever it takes for you to take back your soul, reclaim your spirit and heal your body. Your mnind will follow. Enjoy the journey. Learn to care again.

  • howdy April 16, 2015 (5:39 pm)

    FYI Jeff, Bush and Cheney served 2 full terms. Nobody got rid of them.

  • Smitty April 16, 2015 (5:45 pm)

    “We got rid of Bush and Cheney!”

    Ummmm….no you didn’t. Unless you wrote the 22nd amendment. I which case, cool, dude!

  • Danno April 16, 2015 (6:19 pm)

    Howdy,Smitty-
    Ssshhhhh….. You are harshing their buzz. The truth is just inconvenient to these people.

  • Bella April 16, 2015 (6:45 pm)

    I see both sides, yet I cannot object to their use of an unused space. I am dependent on oil and products that need oil. As a community, we gain even more from their use of the space, and I’d bet it helps those working on the boats. I just hope that the drilling continues to become safer with technology.

  • Marcus M April 16, 2015 (7:21 pm)

    I for one welcome any company that will speed up the release of methane from siberian permafrost. Runaway global warming until we’re all cooked, please!

  • cj April 16, 2015 (7:50 pm)

    Yes go for a walk … see our world while you still can. As for the company … none of you know if they will do anything for us. If they play like oil companies typically do they will crap all over us then smugly walk away … because they can as this whole fiasco pretty much shows.

  • JC April 16, 2015 (8:03 pm)

    Sheez people, they are just docking their ships here, not drilling for oil…….

  • Fred April 16, 2015 (8:52 pm)

    “neo hippies”? Take a closer look at the kayak fleet. You’ll find software designers and start-up entrepreneurs, teachers, housepainters and health care workers. There are Seahawks fans and Rat City Rollergirls fans. In short, a pretty representative crowd. Wanting a clean, healthy ocean doesn’t make you a hippy. Being ready to take a stand, nonviolently, to protect our environment isn’t what the hippies were noted for. Indeed, it sounds pretty patriotic to me.

  • wb April 16, 2015 (9:10 pm)

    @Bella, try to be the change.

    @JC, keep telling yourself that.

    We are now sleeping with the wolf.

  • lincolnparkdude April 16, 2015 (9:16 pm)

    Says all the people using their computers, where do you think most of the stuff in your house came from? Nothing wrong with wanting people and companies to act responsibly but they drill because people want stuff and that stuff is usually made somewhere and hauled here and sometimes even made with petroleum products.

  • me April 16, 2015 (9:23 pm)

    I do not support supporting these garbage vessels.

  • blanchus April 16, 2015 (11:00 pm)

    we need to resist runaway growth both everywhere – try to use public transit, try to buy things that can be recycled when your use is complete, try and resist agents of that growth (the drilling ship).

    But if you do drive to work or live in a huge house – you can still do something to help.

    It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

  • G April 17, 2015 (8:33 am)

    We still need oil – lots of it – and we will need it for the foreseeable future; there is simply no debate about this, distasteful as it is for some people. It remains a proxy world currency and an integral part of economies around the world, including some that we think of as prosperous, liberal, countries. Part of this problem in this country is that the enviro’s have tried to scuttle nuclear power and they raise a cry every time a hydroelectric dam – a renewable energy source – is proposed. You can tilt at windmills all you want, but these sources, including solar, will remain a very small source of our energy for a long time, even with national initiatives to develop them.

  • Robert April 18, 2015 (8:18 am)

    just remember that the better job done in seattle by the shipyard workers ,the less chance of a major problem with the rig on the north slope. this is mainly preventive maintenance and preparing the rig for arctic service.. and all of the work has to be inspected by the coast guard, enviornmental protection authority, and shell risk management….

  • penny p abrams April 18, 2015 (9:38 am)

    We have ample oil. We need to learn to conserve, to use replenishable fuel (sun, wind and water). We didn’t get rid of bush/cheney…their terms were over. Ships just docked? For what if not to drill for oil? Try not to be so damned naïve and deal with what is at hand. Mind, the next wars will be over water. learn to conserve

  • Darrell April 19, 2015 (12:12 am)

    I’ve read a little about the plans for protest , and find them quite disingenuous. If I were at the meeting with the port, as protesters were, I would ask how did they get there? did they all walk? The answer would be they drove.
    I have worked in the office for oil business for many years. It is rare to see a spill of any sort, even a minimal one. If protesters had any real understanding of the procedures in place, you would realize that the vast majority of companies have VERY strict policies on environmental health and safety. If we were to do without petroleum products. Everything around you would fall apart your cars would fall apart, your microwave would fall apart, your cell phone would fall apart, your toiletries would dissolve and on and on and on. We can’t do without them

  • Chris Wilke April 19, 2015 (8:21 am)

    There are many reasons why drilling in the Arctic is a really dumb idea. Here is one that will make sense to those concerned with the business bottom line.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-14/fossil-fuels-just-lost-the-race-against-renewables

  • Chris Wilke April 19, 2015 (8:31 am)

    ^^Darrell’s post – takes on special meaning one day before the five year anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Disaster.^^

    Darrell: I am sure there are many dedicated safety professionals in the oil industry that take a lot of pride in their work – Hats off to you if you are one. However, the industry as a whole is reckless, driven by greed, and routinely corrupts the political and regulatory processes.

    There will probably always be a role for petroleum moving forward, but the days of being a primary energy source with a need for massive extraction on a global scale are numbered.

Sorry, comment time is over.