Greenpeace blocks Brazil oil company office to protest exploration in whale breeding territory

[The Northerner]

RIO DE JANEIRO — Greenpeace activists dressed as oil-covered humpback whales shut down a petroleum services company on Wednesday to protest oil exploration near a Brazilian marine national park.

Two groups of activists took part: those dressed as whales and others dressed in suits and masks that resembled the face of Eike Batista, the Brazilian billionaire who controls the oil-services and shipbuilding company OGX Brasil. The Batista look-alikes dumped oil on top of the protesters dressed as whales in front of OGX’s headquarters.

Humpback whales breed near Abrolhos, an archipelago off the coast of the northeastern state of Bahia that is home to the Abrolhos Marine National Park.

Greenpeace wants oil companies to agree to a 20-year moratorium on oil exploration near the islands, so the whales have time to reproduce and increase their population, said Ricardo Baitelo, the international organization’s energy-campaign coordinator for Brazil.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/greenpeace-blocks-brazil-oil-company-office-to-protest-exploration-in-whale-breeding-territory/2011/08/31/gIQAmuRisJ_story.html