(Fwd) GP Med press release - Med ship tour of the Sirius

["Greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org>]

GREENPEACE SHIP "SIRIUS" TO TOUR MEDITERRANEAN 

Campaign focus on energy, waste management and industrial pollution 

Beirut, 25 March 1997 - The Greenpeace ship 
"Sirius" is assigned to the Mediterranean region this 
year for the period from April until August. The 
campaign focus will be energy, waste management 
and industrial pollution. 

 
This was announced today in Beirut by Dr. Mario 
Damato, the Executive Director of the Greenpeace 
Mediterranean Office. The announcement came 
hours after Lebanese Environment Minister Akram 
Shouhayeb welcomed the "Sirius" to Lebanon. (1) 
 
Local activists and the international crew of the 
"Sirius" will launch a solar energy push to dissuade 
countries like Turkey from dangerous and polluting 
energy sources. Turkey is close to signing contracts 
for the purchase of nuclear reactors and hardly uses 

any of the natural clean resources easily available to 
it.  
 
"One of the biggest threats the Mediterranean is 
presently facing is the ever-mounting amount of toxic 
pollutants. These come in the form of factory 
effluents or waste which is either dumped or burned," 
said Dr. Damato at a press conference in Beirut.  
 
The marine pollution analysed by Greenpeace in 
Izmir, Turkey, is very serious. Even more serious is 
the fact that the authorities in that country are still 
not taking proper concrete measures to combat the 
situation. Haifa in Israel is another marine trouble 
spot Greenpeace has long worked on. A clean Haifa 

Bay is what Greenpeace is working for together with 
the local population and environmental groups. 
 
"In most Mediterranean countries the waste 
management issue is definitely one of the biggest 
problems facing the relevant governments. In their 
panic governments like in Beirut and Tel Aviv are 
looking at incineration and landfilling. This is 
unfortunately no solution," Dr. Damato said. 
 
In the area of bio-diversity, Greenpeace is still 
fighting hotel developments in Cyprus where the last 
Green Turtles are known to breed in the Akamas 
Peninsula. 
 
In Lebanon, the "Sirius" will visit the port cities of 
Tripoli, Junieh and Saida next July.   
"Lebanon is in a waste crisis. Two polluting waste 
incinerators are operating in Beirut, and waste dumps 
contaminate the coastline or groundwater reservoirs 
in the mountains and the Beqaa valley," said Fouad 
Hamdan, Lebanon campaigner of the Greenpeace 
Mediterranean Office.  
 
"Our role is to convince the authorities to formulate 
and implement a national waste management strategy 
based on waste reduction, reuse and then recycling. 
The two polluting waste incinerators in Beirut 
(Amrusieh and Qarantina) must be closed and plans 
for landfills must be scrapped," he said. 
 
Greenpeace is holding an ongoing dialogue with the 
Council for Development and Reconstruction 
(CDR), the Environment Ministry, the waste 
management company Sukleen and the Association 
of Lebanese Industrialists on the issues of waste 
management and industrial pollution.(2) 
 
Dr. Damato concluded: "Our campaigns in Cyprus, 
Israel, Lebanon, Malta and Turkey have one aim: 
clean air, sweet water and clean soils. We need the 
help and support of the Lebanese and all other 
Mediterranean peoples to achieve this." 
 
Greenpeace Mediterranean is a multinational office 

responsible for campaigns in the eastern and southern 
basin, except in Tunisia where the international 
environment organisation has an independent office. 
Greenpeace is financed only by individuals and does 
not accept any funding from governments, parties, 
politicians or polluting businesses. The organisation 
also relies on the work of volunteers. 
 
For additional information please call in Beirut Dr. 
Mario Damato or Fouad Hamdan, ++961-1-785665 
or ++961-3-756429.  email: gp.med@cyberia.net.lb 
 

NOTES: 
(1) Dr. Damato and Hamdan met this morning with 
Mr. Shuhayeb to inform him about the ship tour. Mr. 
Shuhayeb promised to facilitate its visit to Lebanon. 
Mr. Shuhayeb's predecessor, Pierre Pharaon, banned 
Greenpeace ships from visiting Lebanon in 1995 and 
in 1996 to prevent us from working on the issue of 
toxic trade. 
 
(2) Greenpeace regards the waste management plan 
of the government, which was passed last January,  
as a first step in the right direction because it would 
end the current state of chaos and start separating 
some of the recyclable materials and organic waste to 
be composted for the agriculture sector. However, 
the plan focuses only on closing down the huge 
coastal waste dump in Beirut's Borj-Hammud area 
next June and omits to address a national waste 
management strategy based on reducing, reusing and 
then recycling waste. The plan does not say when the 
two polluting waste incinerators in Amrusieh and 
Qarantina will be closed. It considers landfilling 
waste. 
 
About 4,000 tons of household waste are generated 
every day in Lebanon. An additional of at least 

326,000 tons of industrial wastes are generated every 
year - an undefined number of it is toxic. Industrial 
growth is expected to lead to an output of about one 
million tons yearly by 2010. All this industrial waste 
is being dumped in the Mediterranean Sea, in rivers, 
into the ground or in dozens of dumps all over the 
country.  
 
BACKGROUND INFORMATION  
 
THE GREENPEACE SHIP "SIRIUS" 
 
Greenpeace purchased the "Sirius" in 1981. It was 
built in 1950 as a pilot vessel to assist in bringing 
large cargo merchant boats into port. It is 46 metres 
long, eight metres wide and can carry a maximum of 
32 crew. It weighs 439 gross tons and its cruising 
speed is nine knots an hour (max. 13). It is registered 
in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 
 
The "Sirius" has a reputation of an action and 
information ship. Early actions in 1981/82 were for 
the anti-nuclear campaign, trying to prevent a 
freighter from dumping low- and mid-level 
radioactive waste in the Atlantic Ocean. From 1988 
to 1992 the "Sirius" operated primarily in the 
Mediterranean. It figured prominently in the 
Mediterranean campaigns against pollution in Spain 
and Italy. It's crew was the first to introduce North 
Africa and Turkey to Greenpeace. The exploits of 
activists on board the "Sirius"  
against the nuclear navies of the US and former 
Soviet Union in the sea  areas close to Spain, Tunisia 
and Greece were instrumental in winning the 
Greenpeace nuclear free seas campaign. The ship 
also carried out work for the protection of the 
region's bio-diversity from coral reefs to dolphins and 
turtles.  
 
During 1993, the "Sirius" was decommissioned as a 
campaign vessel and berthed in Amsterdam. 

However, its retirement didn't last long. In June 
1994, it took off for Norway to confront whalers 
who had resumed their hunting. During this action 
the "Sirius" was arrested and released twice.  For the 
rest of 1994 and 1995 the "Sirius" did 
information tours off the Netherlands and Belgium. It 
then came to rest at the maritime museum in 
Amsterdam. In 1996, Greenpeace used the vessel for 
an action against industrial overfishing in the North 
sea.


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