Fernando Pereira

Who was Fernando Pereira?

Fernando Pereira was a freelance Dutch photographer, of Portuguese origin, who drowned when French intelligence sabotaged and sank the Rainbow Warrior ship, owned by the environmental organisation Greenpeace on July 10, 1985.

The bombing of the boat had been designed to make the ship unsalvagable. The first smaller bomb bent the shaft, making repair uneconomic. Pereira stayed inside the boat to get his camera and other pieces of equipment. The second, more powerful explosion, designed to sink the boat, caused a huge inrush of seawater and drowned Fernando.

The Rainbow Warrior led a flotilla of yachts protesting against French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia and was about to depart Auckland for a campaign of legal demonstrations in international waters near the French military operational areas at Moruroa Atoll.