SAMUT PRAKAN, June 26 — The Esperanza, the latest and largest vessel in the environmental activist organisation Greenpeace fleet has moored at Bangkok Port in Khlong Toei and will be open for public visits from tomorrow through Sunday.
More than 50 trawlers in Samut Prakan downriver from the Thai capital welcomed the environmental campaign ship which arrived from the southern province of Songkhla.
The ship was previously owned and used by the Russian Navy as a fire-fighting ship before being decommissioned. It was re-commissioned in 2000 and launched in 2002 after being named Esperanza or ‘hope’ in Spanish by visitors to the Greenpeace website.
It had undergone a major refit by Greenpeace to make it more environmentally friendly. A new helicopter deck and boat cranes were also added.
The Esperanza was in Bangkok for campaign and to hold activities to “revive the Thai sea with the Esperanza” to make Thais realise the importance of marine natural resources that have deteriorated due to human actions such as illegal fisheries that pose risks of damaging more than 85 per cent of coral.
Greenpeace also called on the government to improve policy and law related to marine natural resources so they are more effective.
