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 conservation and environmental 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.
Japanese whaling, in terms of active hunting of whales, is estimated by the Japan Whaling Association to have begun around the 12th century. However, Japanese whaling on an industrial scale began around the 1890s when Japan started to participate in the modern whaling industry, at that time an industry in which many countries participated. Japan resumed commercial whaling in July 2019, and since then whaling activities have been confined to its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone.
Neptune's Navy is the name that Captain Paul Watson uses to refer to the ships he operates. Most of these vessels are used to disrupt or hinder illegal and legal fishing, whaling or sealing operations.
MY Ady Gil was a 78-foot (24 m), wave-piercing trimaran originally created as part of a project to break the world record for circumnavigating the globe in a powerboat. Powered by biodiesel fuel, the vessel was also capable of running on regular diesel fuel. It used other eco-friendly materials such as vegetable oil lubricants, hemp composites, and non-toxic anti-fouling, and had features such as bilge-water filters.
The Nisshin Maru (日新丸) is the primary vessel of the Japanese whaling fleet and is the world's only whaler factory ship. It was the research base ship for the Institute of Cetacean Research for 2002 to 2007. It has a tonnage of 8,145 GT and is the largest member and flagship of the five-ship whaling fleet, headed by leader Shigetoshi Nishiwaki. The ship is based in Japan in Shimonoseki harbor and is owned by Tokyo-based Kyodo Senpaku, which is a subsidiary of the Institute of Cetacean Research.
The 8,725 ton Hiyo Maru (飛鷹丸) was the largest member of the Japanese whaling fleet; providing fuel, resources, and stock storage space for that fleet and its crew. In 1992, it was renamed and re-flagged to Panama as the Oriental Bluebird. According to Greenpeace, after a dispute with the Panamanian Government in 2008, it was de-flagged and re-registered to Japan. The Hiyo Maru served as the fuel tanker for Japan's whaling fleet, and was alleged by Greenpeace to also transport whale meat. In August 2010, the ship was sold to China to be scrapped.
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.
The Yūshin Maru No. 2 is a Japanese-registered whale catcher that undertakes whaling operations in the North Pacific Ocean and Southern Ocean. Along with other vessels of the Japanese whaling fleet, she has been featured on American television since 2008, in the documentary-style reality series Whale Wars.
MV Brigitte Bardot is a unique 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.
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 followed 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 Shōnan Maru 2 is a Japanese security vessel, operated by the Japanese Fisheries Agency.
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.
Anti-whaling refers to actions taken by those who seek to end whaling in various forms, whether locally or globally in the pursuit of marine conservation. Such activism is often a response to specific conflicts with pro-whaling countries and organizations that practice commercial whaling and/or research whaling, as well as with indigenous groups engaged in subsistence whaling. Some anti-whaling factions have received criticism and legal action for extreme methods including violent direct action. The term anti-whaling may also be used to describe beliefs and activities related to these actions.
Captain Peter James Bethune is a New Zealand ship's captain with 500 ton master licence, published author, producer of The Operatives TV show, and public speaker. He is the founder of Earthrace Conservation. He works assisting countries in Asia, Central America and Africa with fisheries enforcement and anti-poaching. He is the holder of the world record for circumnavigating the globe in his powerboat Earthrace, a wavepiercing trimaran powered with biofuels.
Ady Gil is an Israeli animal rights activist living in Hollywood, California, United States of America.
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.
MY Age of Union is a vessel of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society fleet, the ship was previously named after American television producer and writer Sam Simon, who donated the money to purchase the vessel. The ship's identity was kept secret, to be revealed when she met the Japanese whaling fleet in 2012, but was identified when her registration was discovered on the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's list of registered ships.
Sun Laurel is a South Korean-owned oil tanker built in 2008 and currently operating under the flag of Vanuatu.
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