Sea Shepherd

Sea Shepherd is best known for its frontline work protecting marine mammals but its broader mandate is to protect all ocean creatures. Styled on the more widely publicized organization Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd continued to grow teeth where Greenpeace lost them through inactivity. Sea Shepherd’s founder Captain Paul Watson has a reputation for pursuing illegal whalers and longliners, harassing seal cullers, organizing rallies, and generally irritating governments that would rather turn a blind eye, and infuriating fishing consortiums who would rather go about their illegal and often cruel practices unnoticed.

Sea Shepherd’s flag ship The Farley Mowat has harassed shark fishing boats in Costa Rican waters and sent sailors sprawling over their decks after being hit by The Marley Mowat’s water cannons.

Captain Watson also manages to fit a lecture circuit into his busy schedule, during which he educates anyone willing to listen on the plight of whales, dolphins, seals, and sharks.

Sea Shepherd’s second vessel is on permanent patrol in the Galapagos area where Park Rangers are virtually helpless against the Ecuadorian fishing boats that brazenly ignore the protection afforded to the park by its world heritage site status. Even with Sea Shepherd’s vigilant patrols the rangers are so out numbered that fishermen have an almost unimpeded run of the islands and the Galapagos Sharks that once schooled in vast numbers around Darwin Island have all but vanished.

This kind of hard line activism is not for everyone. The Sea Shepherd crew have been deported, locked up, threatened, and roughed up on many occasions. Violent confrontations at sea may not fit with your particular code of behavior or ethics but what makes you more uncomfortable: sponsoring Sea Shepherd’s activities that achieve direct results in the protection of endangered creatures, or lobbying deaf government officials while the wholesale slaughter of our oceans sharks and whales continues unchallenged?

If Sea Shepherd seems like a worthwhile organization with which to take a stand, you can help them in a variety of ways. Joining Sea Shepherd with a modest contribution, helps with the provisioning, fueling, and maintenance of their ships. As a member you may also have the chance to sign on as a volunteer for a tour of duty on one of their campaigns. On their website they list what skills they are looking for in new crew members but they also take unskilled deckhands that are willing to work hard.