Jim Bohlen | Greenpeace activist, 84

Jim Bohlen, 84, whose snap decision to sail to Amchitka Island, Alaska, to protest an underground nuclear test led to the creation of the environmental organization Greenpeace, died Monday in Comox, British Columbia. The cause was complications of Parkinson's disease, said his daughter, Margot Bradley of Philadelphia.

Mr. Bohlen was a founder of the Don't Make a Wave Committee, a group of Sierra Club members determined to oppose nuclear testing at Amchitka Island in the Aleutians, which had begun in 1969.

With a test scheduled for fall 1971, he complained to his wife, Marie, that the committee was deliberating too slowly.

As she offhandedly suggested that they sail a boat to the test site, a reporter for the Vancouver Sun called to check in on the committee's deliberations. Mr. Bohlen, caught off guard, said: "We hope to sail a boat to Amchitka to confront the bomb."

The committee made good on his pledge.

After Irving Stowe, a core member, organized a fund-raising concert in Vancouver with Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, and others, the group leased a fishing vessel and, after renaming it Greenpeace, sailed to Alaska.

Although the boat was intercepted by the Coast Guard, public outcry caused a delay in the test and the program was later abandoned. Amchitka Island became a bird sanctuary.

Today Greenpeace is an international organization with more than three million members that carries out environmental campaigns through its offices in 40 countries.

Mr. Bohlen and his wife stayed active in antiwar, antinuclear, and environmental causes over the years. He was a director of Greenpeace until retiring in 1993.

In addition to his daughter and wife, he leaves a son, Lance, of Seattle, and three grandchildren.

- N.Y. Times News Service