Forty years ago today, on 1/24/81, Kay Treakle led what was arguably the most successful protest organized by Greenpeace Seattle. She was arrested by the Coast Guard, and jailed for blockading a supertanker in the Strait of Juan De Fuca, between the Olympic Peninsula and Vancouver Island.
The Alaska Pipeline, built to bring crude oil from the North Slope on the Arctic Ocean to coastal waters in the south, was nearing completion. There were plans to ship much of the crude on massive supertankers, through the Strait, to refineries here, to pipelines under Puget Sound, and to on-shore destinations as far away as Minnesota. Though tankers already brought oil through local waters, they were smaller, more maneuverable, and the volume of traffic was vastly smaller than the number of supertankers the Alaskan oil would bring. And of course any tanker accident or spills would be disastrous for the confined waters of the Salish Sea.
So to allay concerns, the Coast Guard staged a stunt. They scheduled a “maneuverability trial” to demonstrate that supertankers were safe in our waters. We turned it into a circus.
That’s Kay, in the middle, on the inflatable. They were circling the tanker, after parking under the bow, which forced the behemoth to stop. A Coast Guard cutter had chased them away, so they went around the vessel for another go at it. The dance went on for a couple of hours, together with two other GP inflatables, forcing the tanker to halt, and the Coast Guard to chase the protesters, all the way up to the Canadian border and back. It drew press attention.
Greenpeace Vancouver had already disrupted the Coast Guard’s stunt the day before, so there was a ton of media in boats and planes to cover the Seattle office’s confrontation on the 24th. Our intent was to publicize the oil industry’s plans to bring crude into the Salish Sea, and to rally local opposition.
It worked. The governor received 700 hand-written letters opposing the traffic, which was a lot, back in the rotary-dial phone days. Governor Spellman subsequently denied a permit for a superport for Alaskan oil on the Peninsula, including a 50-mile pipeline under the Sound to existing refineries. Washington Senator Warren Magnuson sponsored federal legislation which banned supertankers from our waters. This success primarily derived from years of work by local groups and tribes, educating and lobbying authorities at the city, county, state, and national levels. But the visibility of the action pushed some decision-makers to choose protecting the environment, rather than oil. Bottom line: eight years later, the supertanker Exxon Valdez tragically spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaskan waters, not here.
But Kay. I said she led the tanker action. Well yes, and no. She was never The Boss. Didn’t want to be. But she recruited participation. She did research. She facilitated decision-making, both in Seattle and on the Peninsula, strategically, and immediately before the action. She did logistics. Her clarity, energy, and humor inspired everyone. You know what I’m talking about.
And she was in the boat. On the water. In prep runs on Lake Washington, at the helm of the zodiac, she beamed and exclaimed “this is fun!” She liked the speed, and the control. Said she felt like she was driving the Millennium Falcon. Yeah. That’s when I took this picture.
Fun is being more maneuverable than the 42-foot cutters chasing you. They were WAY faster, but the zodes could turn on a dime. The cutters couldn’t. The Coast Guard threw out life preservers, trying to foul the propellers on the outboard. Didn’t work.
The only role Kay never liked was doing media. I don’t think she felt she was formidable enough for that job. Hah! And yet during her arrest, she got the best line of the action, which of course, drew more coverage.
As she was being taken away by the guy on the left, a TV reporter asked her “What’s next?!?” She held up her manacled hands, pointed at the sheriff, and said “Ask him!” Of course they ran the snarky comment on TV. Her dad saw it on the news that night, and smiled with pride.