Crew Profiles Melanie Duchin , Campaigner Previous Index Next     Melanie Duchin is one of the campaigners on board. She is from the United States and has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from the University of Vermont. She first became involved with Greenpeace in 1987. The Nuclear Free Seas campaign was protesting the arrival of warships in her neighborhood of San Francisco Bay. She and half a dozen other people jumped out of inflatable "zodiacs" into the bay to try to block the warships from coming into port. They didn't stop the warships, but the experience of non-violent direct action with a global organization such as Greenpeace was very powerful. As a result she decided to volunteer in the San Francisco office. She was hired soon after to help out in the office, and in December of 1989 was hired to work on the Ozone Campaign. She's been a campaigner for Greenpeace ever since, working on ozone, toxics and nuclear issues out of the San Francisco and Seattle Greenpeace offices. She says she has "amazed my family and friends by working for Greenpeace so long". She now lives year-round in Alaska and works out of Greenpeace's office in Anchorage. This is her third summer onboard the mv Arctic Sunrise in Alaskan waters. She was onboard for protests against offshore oil drilling and seismic exploration in 1997 and 1998.