(Updates with protesters voluntarily climbing off the barge)
SEATTLE, June 12 (Reuters) - Two activists protesting plansby Royal Dutch Shell to resume drilling for oil in theArctic dangled for several hours on Friday from the anchor ofone of the company's vessels in Washington state before comingdown voluntarily, the Coast Guard said.
The women used camping gear and hammocks to attachthemselves to the massive chain on the barge in Bellingham,Washington, north of Seattle, the activist group ShellNo said.
They dangled from the vessel, the American Trader, for aboutfive hours after climbing on the anchor chain in the earlymorning, the Coast Guard said.
The women came down from their perch on their own accord andwere not arrested, police said.
Both are students at Western Washington University, KIRO-TVreported.
Last month, activists chained themselves to a differentShell vessel in Bellingham, the Arctic Challenger. That vessel,an oil spill containment barge, pulled out of the port this weekand was the first of the Arctic drilling fleet headed to Alaska,a Shell spokeswoman said on Thursday.
Protesters around Washington have staged ongoingdemonstrations over Shell's intention to resume drilling forfossil fuel in the Arctic, one of the most environmentallysensitive regions in the world, saying a spill would bedestructive to the ecosystem and extremely hard to clean up.
Shell maintains that it has a robust safety and cleanup planshould a spill occur. Shell representatives did not immediatelyrespond to a request for comment.
The oil giant, which is still awaiting several federalpermits before it can return to the Beaufort and Chukchi seasoff Alaska, has said it was continuing to prepare a drilling rigdocked in Seattle for the trip north this summer.
The rig has been an epicenter of protests both on land andwater, with demonstrators attempting to block workers fromreaching the rig. Last month, hundreds of people in small boatsand kayaks surrounded the rig in the Port of Seattle.
ShellNo and other groups have vowed to form a flotilla totry to stop the rig from leaving Seattle's Elliott Bay in comingweeks. (Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Cynthia Johnstonand Eric Beech)
