SEATTLE -- Six Greenpeace activists opposed to offshore drilling in the Arctic have abandoned a Seattle-bound drill rig they boarded in the Pacific Ocean six days ago, the organization said Saturday.
The move came just hours before an Anchorage U.S. District Court judge granted a temporary restraining order requiring Greenpeace activists and their boats to stay away from Shell's Arctic drill rigs and a transport ship.
Rough seas prompted the decision, Greenpeace said in an email. The protesters rappelled off the rig and got into inflatable boats before returning to a Greenpeace ship stationed nearby.
The six climbed on the Polar Pioneer, a 400-foot rig owned by Transocean Ltd., about 750 miles northwest of Hawaii on Monday. A heavy-lift vessel called the Blue Marlin is transporting the rig to Seattle for staging.
Royal Dutch Shell, which leased the rig, hopes to use it for exploratory drilling during the summer open water season in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast if it can obtain all necessary permits.
Shell sued in U.S. District Court in Anchorage last week seeking a court order to remove the protesters. A judge heard arguments on Friday and said she would rule in a day or two, but the worsening ocean conditions made the legal maneuvering moot. Greenpeace said swells of up to 23 feet were expected.
"Boarding a moving vessel on the high seas is extremely dangerous and jeopardizes the safety of all concerned, including the people working aboard and the protesters themselves," Shell spokeswoman Kelly Op De Weegh said in an email. "We recognize the right to voice an objection to our Alaska exploration program, but we can't condone Greenpeace's unlawful and unsafe tactics."
Many conservationists bitterly oppose Arctic offshore drilling. They say oil companies have not demonstrated they can clean up a major spill in ocean water choked with ice, and they argue that the drilling takes place far from infrastructure such as Coast Guard bases, deep-water ports, major airports and other resources that could be of use in a spill.
"We're coming down for safety -- something we value," one of the protesters, Zoe Buckley Lennox, wrote on Twitter. "Shell's reckless plans speak volumes about their disregard for it."
Shell has also asked the U.S. court for an injunction against further Greenpeace actions on Shell ships bound for or already in the Arctic. The court issued a similar order in 2012, the last time Shell conducted exploratory drilling in the Arctic.
"Greenpeace USA has now resumed its reckless behavior towards Shell," the company wrote in a court filing Wednesday. "As soon as Shell announced its intention to return to the Arctic for the summer of 2015, Greenpeace USA immediately reinitiated its campaign to stop Shell."
The company Shell hired that year to drill on petroleum leases in the Chukchi Sea -- Sugarland, Texas-based Noble Drilling U.S. LLC -- agreed to pay $12.2 million in December after pleading guilty to eight felony environmental and maritime crimes on board the Noble Discoverer. That rig is the second one Shell intends to use this year if it obtains the necessary permits.
Although the activists had already left the rig, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason on Saturday issued a temporary restraining order requiring Greenpeace activists and their vessels to stay 1,000 meters away from the Polar Pioneer, the ship that is transporting it and Shell's other contracted drill ship. That applies in waters from the high seas to the shore, Gleason said in her restraining order.
Though jurisdiction has been debated, the federal court does have some authority over the case, even though the ship boarding took place in international waters and even though the six activists are of mixed nationalities, Gleason said in her order. Greenpeace USA, the U.S. branch of the international environmental organization, is involved in the protest in at least a supporting role, and the court's jurisdiction over Greenpeace USA is undisputed, she said in her order.
The Greenpeace protest threatens navigational safety and the safety of the activists themselves, Gleason said. Shell has also demonstrated that its economic interests are at sufficient risk to justify the temporary restraining order, she said.
"Individuals that have climbed on to a vessel in the middle of the ocean with the express intention to stop Arctic drilling would appear likely to cause disruption and delay of the vessels intended for the summer drilling program," she said.
But Gleason declined to extend the temporary restraining order to all of the ships in Shell's Alaska drilling fleet, as the company had requested. Shell has not made a convincing showing that those ships are in danger, she said.
The restraining order is written narrowly because Greenpeace's interests in protesting and monitoring drilling activities are valid, Gleason said, though "not its interests in conducting illegal or tortious activities."
The temporary restraining order is in effect until April 28, when a hearing is scheduled on Shell's request for a longer-lasting injunction.
The order was signed at 3:21 p.m. Alaska time. By then, the six activists were back on the Greenpeace ship Esperanza and celebrating their return from the Polar Pioneer, according to the tweets sent by various branches of the environmental organization.
"The 6 are on board, finally with good internet. They're looking at all of the messages from family and millions of new friends!" said a message on the Greenpeace Esperanza Twitter feed.