After attempting a peaceful protest to save the Arctic against oil drilling by Russian oil company Gazprom, Greenpeace activists were met with aggressive Russian authorities who seized the ship, the Arctic Sunrise, and 30 international activists. A Russian criminal court judge detained the activists on September 26th for two months during a pending piracy investigation.
Captain Peter Willcox, and American, was among the sentenced activists. A 30-year Greenpeace veteran, Willcox has sailed all around the world from the Gulf of Mexico investigated the BP spill to the Russian Arctic. Willcox was also a skipper of the originalRainbow Warrior when French agents blew it up in 1985.
Find out more about Willcox and watch footage of him below during his various ship tours.