Amid a lot of controversy, the Royal Dutch Shell oil rig Polar Pioneer docked recently at Terminal 5 in Seattle to be fitted and supplied for oil exploration in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest coast. When the 400-foot-long vessel arrived after a 12-hour journey from Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula, it was met by by environmental activists in kayaks and on shore protesting the proposed drilling in the Arctic ecosystem in general, and more specifically, the presence of the oil rig in Seattle.