Xena the Non-State Maritime Princess

Activists, in all their forms, are an interesting sub-species of non-state maritime actors. We’ve discussed the Sea Shepherds here extensively, who have the closest thing to a fleet of any of the non-state maritime actors. Greenpeace, the Sea Shepherds' older, but slightly more docile sister organization, has also engaged in aggressive tactics throughout its history. Greenpeace's most recent campaign is designed to stop Arctic drilling. The involvement of Lucy Lawless, actress-turned-boarding officer, demonstrates how these direct action organizations have embraced celebrity endorsers to promote their cause, which is no different than many other political or environmental NGOs.



These deliberate acts are designed primarily to draw attention to a cause. In some cases, they are meant to invoke an intentional reaction, or better still, over-reaction, by corporate entities or maritime law enforcement agencies, coast guards, or navies. Here, a dozen or so Greenpeace small craft mix it up with a Deutsche Marine CB-90 and RHIBs at the 2007 G-8 Summit. (Edit: I've been corrected by a reader who notes that these craft were German Police, not Navy... Danke Herr Bruns.)



Given their fleets and scope of activities at sea, Greenpeace and Sea Shepherds might best be characterized as non-state navies.

At the other end of the maritime activists’ spectrum are less organized, ad-hoc demonstrators. Some of these are innocuous political protesters. Many years ago, I was caught in a such an event while on a ferry crossing Galveston Bay. A large group of shrimpers sortied their vessels to surround and block the Bolivar Ferry for several hours, in protest of new laws requiring turtle exclusion devices on their nets. At best, it was an inconvenience to those involved, but certainly not violent. Other protests at sea devolve into more lethal and chaotic events such as the May 2010 Gaza Flotillas. The ferry protest I experienced was a crude form of non-violent flash mob. As yet, we haven’t seen self-organizing violent or criminal flash mobs at sea like these on land or the more protracted Occupy movements. But it’s probably only a matter of time until we do. How would a navy or coast guard deal with such an event?

The opinions and views expressed in this post are those of the author alone and are presented in his personal capacity. They do not necessarily represent the views of U.S. Department of Defense, the US Navy, or any other agency. Note, the author does not endorse or otherwise support any of the organizations discussed in this post.