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.
Fishing (1987–present)
Anti-driftnet campaigns (1987–present) Sea Shepherd engaged in a multi-year campaign against driftnetting practices, which it calls a way of strip mining the ocean's wildlife. Sea Shepherd's Divine Wind vessel investigated suspected driftnet fleets and collected ghost nets in 1987 along the coast of southern Alaska. In 1990, Sea Shepherd consulted with a physicist and found a successful way of sinking driftnets without causing ecological damage. In 1990, Sea Shepherd travelled to the North Pacific with the intent of bringing driftnetting to public attention. While there, they found two Taiwanese driftnetters, which they filmed catching seabirds and dolphins in their nets. They rammed the power blocks, used to retrieve the nets. The ships were forced to head home, and no charges were brought against Sea Shepherd for the incident. In 1991, Sea Shepherd learned that driftnetters were destroying the seabird and fish populations off of the coasts of Trinidad and Tobago. They travelled there and patrolled the area near the mouth of the Amazon. They encountered a driftnetting ship and threw stink bombs on its deck. The ship rammed the Sea Shepherd II, and they rammed the driftnetter back, leading to a confrontation that severely damaged both ships. Back in Trinidad, Sea Shepherd revealed that corrupt officials were taking bribes to turn a blind eye to driftnetting in the area, and the corrupt officials were removed from office. Sea Shepherd later donated four assault rifles to help the Coast Guard chase driftnetters. In 1992, Sea Shepherd returned to fight driftnetters in the North Pacific. They encountered a fleet of Japanese driftnetters. They chased one away, and fired air cannons and fire crackers at another to slow it down. However, no ramming took place because the fishermen on deck would not move. They did manage to retrieve a cargo hold of driftnet and create an international incident. In 1992, Sea Shepherd agent Dwight Worker covertly entered Taiwan. While there, he sank the driftnetting ship Jiang Hai in harbor. He also documented thousands of miles of driftnet being added to 43 driftnetting vessels, despite a ban on ships being outfitted with new net. Shepherd only reduced their campaign activities after the United Nations in 1992 banned driftnetting, but they did not stop their campaigns. In 1995, Sea Shepherd convinced the government of Ireland to disallow driftnetting in their territorial waters. In 1997, Sea Shepherd announced a campaign to fight driftnetting in the Mediterranean. Italy's driftnetters, the primary suspects, immediately halted the practice. Sea Shepherd in 2006 noted that drift netting had again gained prominence, due to the reduction of fish stocks tempting commercial fisheries to again use the method to keep up their catch volumes. In March 2016, Sea Shepherd announced the launch of Operation Driftnet, to combat illegal fishing in the Indian Ocean and subsequently employ direct-action techniques to shut-down their operations. They found and engaged a fleet of 6 driftnetters, and 3 of the ships were arrested for illegal fishing.
Tuna boat killing of dolphins (1988–1989, 1991–1992) In 1988, Sea Shepherd released footage of dolphins being killed by an American-owned tuna seiner. The film was edited by Peter Brown. The footage scandalized the tuna industry and led to a ban on dolphin killing by U.S. tuna companies. In 1989, Sea Shepherd travelled to Costa Rica to ram a tuna seiner and bring the issue to public attention. They found a tuna seiner called the Pan Pacific, which they confirmed had been illegally killing dolphins. The ramming was eventually called off due to a dispute between Paul Watson and Scott Trimmingham. Scott said that ramming would upset his negotiations to have tuna fishing banned in Costa Rica, to which Watson replied that they created international incidents—they didn't negotiate. In the end, they boarded the Pan Pacific and inspected the logbook, which revealed locations where dolphins were being killed. Using the information, they travelled along the Mexican coast and stopped several tuna seiners from various Latin American countries from killing dolphins. In February 1991, representatives of a tuna boat in the Pacific south of Mexico said that they had been rammed by Sea Shepherd II. Sea Shepherd accused it of catching and killing dolphins in its tuna nets and confirmed its ship had dealt the tuna boat a "glancing blow." They had originally planned to destroy the fishermen's small boat used to lay nets, but called the plan off because the fishermen were too close. They also turned a fire hose on the fishermen's helicopter (used to herd the dolphins) in order to ensure costly repairs. In 1992, Sea Shepherd launched another campaign to stop tuna seiners from killing dolphins. They stopped in Mexico to repair their ship, Sea Shepherd II. Despite warnings from the Mexican navy that they would be arrested due to the incident the previous year, they entered the country and covertly did repairs with no incident. They later stopped a tuna seiner from killing a pod of dolphins off of Mexico.
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