Greenpeace activists board oil rig off Turkey

The 53,000 tonne rig belongs to the Scottish company Cairn Energy In a bid to prevent deep sea oil drilling in Arctic waters, 11 Greenpeace activists boarded an oil rig Friday as it was leaving Turkey for Greenland's Baffin Bay, the enviromental group said.
The international team of Greenpeace volunteers crawled to the top of the Leiv Eiriksson drilling derrick in the Sea of Marmara off Tekirdag province and unfurled a banner reading "Stop Arctic destruction," the organisation said.

The captain of the 53,000 tonne rig belonging to the Scottish company Cairn Energy did not stop, Joss Garman from Greenpeace said, adding that no Turkish coastguard vessels had appeared
The rig was now in the Dardanelles Straits, said Deniz Sozudogru, Greenpeace's press officer.
"We are going to stay here as long as this is a platform to communicate our message to the world," 24-year-old Helene Hansen, one of the activists on the rig, told AFP. Hansen said the activists had sleeping bags, food and water but she did not know how long they could hold out.

The volunteers who boarded the Leiv Eriksson from inflatable boats are from Turkey, Poland, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Slovakia and Austria, Garman said.
"Operated by the cowboy oil company Cairn Energy, the Leiv Eiriksson is the most dangerous rig in the world as it is the only one destined to begin new deep sea drilling in the Arctic," the organisation said in a statement.
"It poses a clear and present danger to the Arctic's pristine environment."
Subject to approvals from Greenland, Cairn is planning to drill up to four exploration wells offshore and conduct three shallow marine soil investigations, according to the company's website.