The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is a non-profit, marine conservation activism organization based in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Washington, in the United States. Sea Shepherd employs direct action tactics to achieve its goals, most famously by deploying its fleet of ships to track, report on and actively impede the work of fishing vessels believed to be engaged in illegal and unregulated activities causing the unsustainable exploitation of marine life.
Paul Franklin Watson is a Canadian-American environmental, conservation and animal rights activist, who founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-poaching and direct action group focused on marine conservation activism. The tactics used by Sea Shepherd have attracted opposition, with the group accused of eco-terrorism by both the Japanese government and Greenpeace. Watson is a citizen of Canada and the United States.
RV Farley Mowat was a long-range, ice class ship. Originally built as a Norwegian fisheries research and enforcement vessel, she was purchased by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in Edinburgh, Scotland, in August 1996. Originally named Sea Shepherd III, the name was changed in 1999 to Ocean Warrior, before eventually being renamed in 2002 after Canadian writer Farley Mowat.
The Island-class patrol boat is a class of cutters of the United States Coast Guard. 49 cutters of the class were built, of which 3 remain in commission. Their hull numbers are WPB-1301 through WPB-1349.
Neptune's Navy is the name that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society uses to refer to the ships it operates.
John Paul Jones DeJoria is an American entrepreneur, self-made billionaire, and philanthropist best known as a co-founder of the Paul Mitchell line of hair products and The Patrón Spirits Company. DeJoria has been described as a living example of the American Dream due to his rise from homelessness to success in business.
The MV Steve Irwin was the 59-metre (194 ft) flagship of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and was used in their direct action campaigns against whaling and against illegal fisheries activities. The vessel was built in 1975 and formerly served as a Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency conservation enforcement patrol boat, the FPV Westra, for 28 years.
Merida is a high-tech 35 m (115 ft) stabilized monohull twin diesel engine powered vessel designed by Nigel Irens. Construction of the vessel began in June 1997 and she was launched on 16 March 1998. The official naming ceremony took place on 3 April 1998 in London's West India Dock. In 2021, the vessel was sold to a private owner.
Canada's 2008 annual commercial seal hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and around Newfoundland, Quebec and Nova Scotia began on March 28. The hunting season lasts from mid-November to mid-May, but the hunt mainly occurs in March and April. Canada's seal hunt is the world's largest hunt for marine mammals.
Whale Wars was a weekly American documentary-style reality television series that premiered on November 7, 2008 on the Animal Planet cable channel. The program follows Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, as he and the crew aboard their various vessels attempted to stop the killing of whales by Japanese vessels (whalers) off the coast of Antarctica.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society engages in various demonstrations, campaigns, and tactical operations at sea and elsewhere, including conventional protests and direct actions to protect marine wildlife. Sea Shepherd operations have included interdiction against commercial fishing, shark poaching and finning, seal hunting and whaling. Many of their activities have been called piracy or terrorism by their targets and by the ICRW. Sea Shepherd says that they have taken more than 4,000 volunteers on operations over a period of 30 years.
Sea Shepherd I was a former fishing trawler owned by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. She was British-registered and acquired in 1978 with a grant from the Fund for Animals. This was the first ship that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society bought. Her major action was ramming into the whaler MV Sierra and she later was scuttled by the captain, Paul Watson.
At the Edge of the World is a 2008 documentary which chronicles the efforts of animal rights activist Paul Watson and 45 other volunteers, who set out in two Sea Shepherd ships to hinder the Japanese whaling fleet in the waters around Antarctica. The film won Best Environmental Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Director and Producer Dan Stone would later produce the first season of Whale Wars. It depicts what actually went on during this excursion, with clips of beautiful scenery, news clips, whaling in action, and life on the ship.
Eco-Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson is a 2011 documentary film directed by Trish Dolman and produced by Kevin Eastwood. It follows radical conservationist Paul Watson during anti-whaling campaigns in the Antarctic in 2009 and 2010, and recounts his history and controversial methods as an activist and media personality. It premiered May 1, 2011 at the Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival.
The Bandit 6 was a group of six vessels which were illegally fishing Patagonian toothfish in the Southern Ocean. Actions by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and national governments resulted in all six vessels being detained or sunk.
MYFarley Mowat is a cutter owned and operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. She is being used in their direct action campaigns against whaling and against illegal fisheries activities.
The MV Sharpie is a vessel owned and operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society since December 2017. She is being used in their direct action campaigns against illegal fisheries activities.
Vladivostok 2000 (ex-Damanzaihao) is the world's largest fish factory ship with a mass of 49,367 tons and 228 metres in length.
The MV White Holly was a 421-ton vessel owned and operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society since September 2018.
MY Alchemy is a luxury yacht currently owned and operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society since March 2018.
United States
