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Labor is the only variable cost in industrial fishing, and in the hunt for shark fins that human cost is paid by some of the world’s most vulnerable workers: migrant fishers. Commentary by Captain Peter Hammarstedt, Sea Shepherd Global Director of Campaigns.
As governments around the world are finally recognizing the serious threat we’re facing from illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, it is encouraging to see more and more people taking action to help save the oceans. The support that Sea Shepherd has and continues to get from donors and partners like the Dutch Postcode Lottery is a clear sign of what can be achieved when we combine our resources to fight international poaching operations. Commentary by Gary Stokes, Sea Shepherd Asia Director.
Read more: Sea Shepherd partners help shut down IUU fishing from Galapagos to Southeast Asia
The Japanese whaling fleet has left from Japan bound for the waters of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Sea Shepherd Founder, Captain Paul Watson, explains why we will not be sending our ships to Antarctica this season.
Read more: Sea Shepherd and Japanese Whaling: A Message from Captain Paul Watson
Commentary by Captain Paul Watson
Since the early Sixties, an insidious trade of intelligent, self-aware, sentient beings has been growing like a malignant cancer within human society. It is a slave trade that has been the cause of unimaginable misery and has claimed the lives of thousands of dolphins. This cruel industry has spread across Europe and Asia with hundreds of marine aquariums operating, many of them with grossly inadequate facilities.
Sea Shepherd has been documenting and opposing the dreadful slaughter and capture of dolphins in Taiji, Japan since 2003. In the beginning Sea Shepherd cut nets and freed 16 pilot whales back in October 2003, an action that sent two volunteers to jail for over a month. Sea Shepherd brought the story to the world’s media with headline stories and coverage on CNN...but the killing continued.
Read more: Sea Shepherd must adapt to more effectively defend Dolphins
Commentary by Captain Paul Watson
Sea Shepherd has accomplished something absolutely remarkable over the last 12 years.
In 2005 we set out to tackle the world’s largest and most destructive whaling fleet. We were told it was impossible by some governments and a few NGO’s.
Hardly anyone even knew about Japan’s illegal slaughter in the Southern Ocean. It was out of sight and out of mind. They were targeting 1,035 whales a year including a yearly quota of 50 endangered Humpbacks and 50 endangered Fin whales.
We had few resources but we took our one battered and slow vessel, the Farley Mowat and we chased the whalers across the Southern Ocean, catching them only for a few hours at a time until they sped away from us.
by Robert Read – Chief Operating Officer at Sea Shepherd UK
The grindadráp of the 21st May 2017 was also the first hunt since the extraordinary court trial on the 24th November 2016 of Sea Shepherd captain Jessie Treverton (UK). The Faroese prosecutor in Tórshavn put Jessie Treverton on trial for breaching Faroese animal welfare laws by causing 'unnecessary suffering' to a pod of dolphins. This followed an action by Jessie Treverton and two other female crew members from France on the 17th September 2014 where Jessie successfully protected a pod of over 200 protected Atlantic white-sided dolphins from a potential grindadráp by driving them away from the islands using the Sea Shepherd boat MV Spitfire. Afterwards MV Spitfire was chased and boarded by Danish armed forces in a military RIB resulting in Spitfire being confiscated and the three women arrested by Faroese police.
by Robert Read – Chief Operating Officer at Sea Shepherd UK
On the evening of 21st May the first pilot whale drive hunt (grindadráp) of 2017 took place on the Danish Faroe Islands at the killing bay at Bøur, near the town of Sørvágur.
The Pod of long finned pilot whales was driven for almost four hours by at first three boats, then five (including at least two RIBs) then by over 20 Faroese boats of various types including small sports fishing boats, speed boats and a large RHIB from the Faroese Government patrol vessel ‘Brimil’.
During the drive hunt images were being uploaded to Faroese online news websites taken from at least one of the participating small boats while at least three local journalists and/or photographers were waiting with cameras at the killing bay at Bøur.
By Captain Peter Hammarstedt
After almost 12 weeks of patrolling, the border areas between Liberia and her neighboring countries are unusually silent.
Lightning flashes briefly light up distant waters, appearing like specters of the industrial fishing trawlers that used to make nightly incursions in Liberian waters.
After having made five arrests since the start of Operation Sola Stella, the news has finally spread - these waters are protected.
We could say that we assisted the Liberian Coastguard to shutdown illegal fishing in Liberia, and although that’s true of tonight, we know that the poachers are not coming in anymore because we are here… and the Bob Barker cannot remain in Liberia forever.
