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• Ways to Give Form - Contains an explanation of SSCSUK and ways donors can maximize their donations to Seashepherd.
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Sticks and stones may break our bones, but we know how to splint them!!

Sea shepherd has always been proud to state that in the 30+ years of defending our oceans directly, not a single person has been killed or injured whilst on campaign. We have always been concerned about the safety of others, as well as ourselves at sea.

This weekend, 4 Sea Shepherd UK volunteers undertook an outdoor fieldwork first aid course in Birmingham, learning how to recognise the signs and symptoms of an injury whilst in the field (or at sea), and how to deal with it until help arrives. From splinting fractured bones to clotting a serious bleed, we were taught how to deal with an emergency situation in a calming manner.

The Collins English Dictionary defines first aid as: “immediate medical assistance given in an emergency”, and as our ships can sometimes be a few days from medical assistance, the ability to treat an injury before it becomes serious is always a positive thing. Our vessel carry a medical officer on every campaign, and their experience, knowledge and quick responses are paramount to keeping the crew safe.

Stuart Marshall of Marlin Training, who is an experienced first aider with qualifications in medical and biological sciences that fall of the page, ran the course. Stuart kindly offered this course to Sea Shepherd UK, being an avid supporter and a passionate conservationist.

Working in the healthcare environment myself, this course was perfect to teach you how to deal with a serious medical emergency with limited resources in an isolated environment.

I highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn first aid, especially if you plan to go on an expedition or trip. Not only is it a great medical course, but an excellent bonding and team building course too, idea for efficient ship work!

You can contact Stuart about this course by visiting http://www.marlintraining.co.uk.

Christopher Bie

Sea Shepherd-breaking news

15th December 2011.

All three Sea Shepherd ships depart from Australia today for the Southern Ocean. The Bob Barker from Hobart, Tasmania, the Steve Irwin from Albany, Western Australia and the Brigitte Bardot from Fremantle in Western Australia. Operation Divine Wind has begun.

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Sea Shepherd Art Sale

We'd like to say a huge thanks to Godmachine, Pete Fowler, Dan Mumford, Tom Newall and Tom Hovey of The Dead Sea Mob for creating such fantastic works of art, LIVE at our fundraiser on the HMS Belfast! And especially for donating the proceeds from their sale to Sea Shepherd!

The full range can be seen below, or on their ebay page.



Sea Shepherd UK Boat Sale

The Steve Irwin is selling two of its RIBs!

These boats have been used on Steve Irwin as action, rescue, dive and work boats for the past 2 years.  The VSR saw service on Operation Waltzing Matilda, Blue Rage 1, No Compromise, Blue Rage 2, Ferocious Isles. The Joker was first used on Secret Faroes campaign in 2010 to patrol the fjords and killing beaches, then was modified at sea on No Compromise and used as tender and action boat on that campaign. It also saw service in Blue Rage 2,and Ferocious Isles. Both have been surveyed and are in good working order with Sea Shepherd decals, lifting points, nav lights. Contact UK@seashepherd.org for details.

Sea Shepherd UK are proud to announce..

The Steve Irwin is coming to London!

(Volunteers needed)

August 21st 2011

Our infamous vessel, the Steve Irwin is free and coming to London!

From the 5th, to the 13th of September, our flagship the Steve Irwin, and its dedicated crew will be docked in the South Dock of London's historic West India Docklands next to Canary Wharf. Best of all, the ship will be open to the public who can take a tour of the ship!

For Sea Shepherd UK it's all hands on deck and we would like to call out to allvolunteers, both current and potential to please donate their time and energy in helping us supplying and securing the ship.

If you are avaulable to help, please get in touch with us here.

Further details on how you can help will be posted online in the coming days, so please keep an eye out here, and on our facebook page.

Sea Shepherd's Flagship Vessel the Steve Irwin is Free at Last!

August 1st 2011

Due to the generosity of our supporters around the world, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has raised over $735,000 to save the flagship Steve Irwin—less than two weeks after the launch of our SOS! - Save Our Ship fundraising campaign! Thank you to everyone who helped make it possible for us to fund a bond to release the vessel from detainment! Together, we will continue to make a difference.

As many of you are aware, on July 15, the Steve Irwin was detained in the Scottish Shetland Islands pending our ability to fund a bond we estimated to be in the amount of USD $1,411,692.87. The detainment was ordered by British courts due to a civil lawsuit brought against us by Maltese fishing company Fish & Fish Limited.

Thankfully, the bond was posted earlier today, and the Steve Irwin will soon depart to the Faeroes for Operation Ferocious Isles. The Steve Irwin will join the vessel Brigitte Bardot and her crew, who are already onsite defending pilot whales.

The British court set the bond today at 520,000 British pounds (approximately $846,290 USD). Once the exact amount was set, Sea Shepherd UK Director Darren Collis scrambled to the bank and set up the money transfer (to the court) with only one minute to spare—and the bond was posted!

A court date has not been set for the civil case brought against Sea Shepherd by the Maltese bluefin tuna company Fish & Fish Limited. However, Sea Shepherd is ready to battle with this company that is contributing to the demise of the imperiled bluefin. We firmly believe we caught their boats red-handed, unlawfully taking bluefin tuna from Libyan waters. We have evidence, and we look forward to our day in court against these plunderers of the ocean.

Fish & Fish has a history of using the legal system to harass their opposition. In 2007, journalist Raphael Vassallo with the publication Malta Today began writing about local tuna companies. He pointed out alleged shortcomings in import-export data, fattening rates that appeared biologically impossible, and a case of illegally re-flagged vessels. Vassallo and his newspaper were later served with a civil suit in what he described as “a mass libel legal action by all five companies” on the island — Ta'Mattew Fish Farms, Fish & Fish Tuna Ranch, Malta Fish Farms, AJD Tuna, and Mare Blu Tuna Ranch. The companies accused Vassallo of being responsible for financial losses caused by his “libelous” and “defamatory” allegations.

The charges against Vassallo were eventually dropped but the tuna companies continue to sue the newspaper because the lawsuit functions to prevent the newspaper from reporting on the issue.

Fish & Fish are trying to intimidate Sea Shepherd as well, and hoping to cripple us financially, and thus reduce our ability to oppose tuna poaching in the Mediterranean.

“We will not be unsettled or bullied by their wealth and their reputation of using litigation to silence their opposition. The bluefin tuna is on the threshold of extinction,” said Sea Shepherd Founder and President Captain Paul Watson. “We owe it to this species to fight the poachers on the sea, in the media, and in the courts. We acted justly in intervening against their illegal operation. And win or lose, we believe that the bluefin tuna—an awesome, magnificent species on the brink of extinction—is worth whatever money and effort we can muster to save it.” Sea Shepherd’s mission Operation Blue Rage will continue to intervene against bluefin tuna poachers.

“There is no court, no corporation, and no government on earth that will convince us that it is wrong to prevent the extinction of these fish,” said Captain Watson. “The economics of extinction is what we are fighting. Diminishment drives up prices and as the populations of fish in the oceans plummet, the price of frozen fish in the warehouses increases and this, the most expensive fish in the world will become even more expensive. With extinction, the frozen corpses become priceless. This is greed at the height of depravity, showing no respect for nature or regard to future generations, and we will not stand by and allow the bluefin to slip into the oblivion of biological extinction. Whatever the cost, whatever the risk, we intend to defend the bluefin tuna.”

We sincerely thank everyone that donated to help Save Our Ship.  Your help enabled us to ‘Free the Steve’ and it will soon be on its way to the Faeroes.  However, despite everyone’s best efforts, we had to cut into our already scarce budget to meet the bond amount and ‘Free the Steve.’  We face the ongoing costs of Operation Ferocious Isles, the transit of our vessels from the northern hemisphere to the southern for Operation Divine Wind, and finally, the cost of that Antarctic campaign as well.  We are all on the same crew, despite our different roles and varying locations.  We all feel that inner drive to protect innocent lives and ecosystems, and I know many of you have given what you can— but please keep your donations coming in.  Without your help, we cannot continue this important work.

“We are in a war to save our oceans from ourselves,” said Captain Watson. “And if we lose, we all lose because if the oceans die, we all die – it’s as simple as that.”

Please continue to support us and keep our ships at sea, doing what they do best!

SOS – Save Our Ship the Steve Irwin!

Update and Continuing Appeal

Steve irwin detained in Lerwick Scotland. August 1st 2011

On behalf of Captain Watson and everyone at Sea Shepherd around the globe, I offer a heartfelt Thank You to all of you who have donated to help us Save Our Ship! However, the ship is still being detained in port in Lerwick, Scotland pending our ability to fund a bond we estimate to be in the amount of USD $1,411,692.87.

How did we get here? As some of you are aware, late on the afternoon of Friday, July 15, our vessel the Steve Irwin was detained in the Scottish Shetland Islands by the British courts due to a civil lawsuit brought against us by Maltese fishing company Fish and Fish Limited. They are claiming damages for the bluefin tuna we rescued from their nets in June 2010, fish that we believe were illegally caught after the season has closed, without an inspector onboard, or any paperwork documenting the legality of their catch.

Since our initial appeal just six days ago, those of you who love marine life have given us a record number of donations in this timeframe and we are deeply touched by your outpouring of support. As of Sunday, July 24, we have estimated donations at USD $442,279.37 – this is fantastic, but we are still far from our goal. 

The Westra, purchased in 2006I have worked with Sea Shepherd for 16 years now so I can’t help but get sentimental during this effort to Save Our Ship. I hope you share our love for this ship that has done so much to defend ocean wildlife. The 174-foot vessel Steve Irwin is very precious to us! In the fall of 2006, when we first found the ship in Scotland it was named the Westra – and had proudly served as a Scottish Fisheries Protection vessel. Sea Shepherd bought the ship with the help our generous supporters, renamed it the Robert Hunter (after Captain Watson’s good friend with whom he founded Greenpeace), and sailed to the Antarctic to surprise the illegal Japanese whalers! With the ability to sail at 16 knots, the Robert Hunter kept the whale killers on the run more successfully than we had done in the past.

In 2007, we officially re-named the vessel the Steve Irwin, in honor of the late Australian conservationist. Just before his untimely death, Steve stated his intention to come to Antarctica with us to defend the whales alongside Captain Watson and our brave crew. Therefore, it was fitting that he should be able to join us in spirit with his name emblazoned on the fastest and most effective whale protection ship in the world.

In the short five years since its purchase, the ship has gone on over 30 voyages and carried hundreds of dedicated crewmembers to remote places where ocean wildlife needed defending. There are untold man-hours invested in the ship in the form of maintenance, repair, and improvements. In addition to the donated labor, there have been a myriad of material gifts brought to the ships by caring supporters including parts, tools, supplies, and food of all kinds (and remember, those edible treats are the stuff that fuels our crew to do what they do best!).

The Robert Hunter, on campaign in 2006 Because Captain Watson sails the Steve Irwin and leads our campaigns from it, we call her our flagship. “The Steve” serves as our command and control center during campaigns and is also the base for our helicopter.  Since our purchase of the Steve, we have built a special enclosure on the stern as well, to protect the delicate blades of the aircraft, and shelter the precision machine them the rust-inducing salt spray of the oceans – and the Japanese whaling fleet!.

That brings me back to our current dilemma! We need the Steve Irwin to be released from detention in Lerwick, Scotland so that the vessel can head to the Faeroe Islands for its next assignment. Our objective is to have the Steve connect with  our trimaran vessel Brigitte Bardot (formerly the Gojira) as soon as possible and get to work intervening against the cruel pilot whale slaughter the Faeroese call “The Grind.” Once our mission there in the North Atlantic is accomplished, this work-horse of a conservation vessel will head back down to the Southern Ocean Sanctuary to once again protect defenseless whales from the ruthless harpoons of the illegal Japanese whalers.

More than ever we need our support crew – YOU – to help us overcome adversity and carry on with the mission at hand.  If you can give please know that whatever amount you can afford will truly make a difference. If you have already given, thank you so much for helping us Save Our Ship. If you can’t give at this time, please consider sharing this posting with your friends, family, and circle of influence via Facebook, Twitter, and or e-mail. Your support to us is valuable in whatever form it takes – and we thank you too!

Free the Steve!

Thank you for helping us defend ocean wildlife worldwide,

Steve Roest - CEO Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Director Sea Shepherd UK

Sea Shepherd Victory in Antarctica

It’s official – the Japanese whaling fleet has called it quits in the Southern Ocean, at least for this season. And if they return next season, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will be ready to resume their efforts to obstruct and disable illegal Japanese whaling operations.

“The Nisshin Maru made a significant course change immediately after the Japanese government made it official that the whaling fleet has been recalled,” said Captain Alex Cornelissen from the Bob Barker. “She looks like she’s going home!”

The Sea Shepherd ship Bob Barker has been tailing the Japanese Nisshin Maru factory ship since February 9th making it impossible for the whalers to continue their illegal whaling operations.

“I have a crew of 88 very happy people from 23 different nations including Japan and they are absolutely thrilled that the whalers are heading home and the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is now indeed a real sanctuary,” said Captain Paul Watson.

The Sea Shepherd ships Steve Irwin, Bob Barker, and Gojira will remain in the Southern Ocean to escort the Japanese ships northward. “We will not leave the whale sanctuary until the last whaling ship has departed,” said Gojira captain Locky MacLean.

“This is a great victory for the whales,” said Captain Watson, “but we did not do this alone. Without the support of the people of Australia and New Zealand, we would not have been able to send voyages out for seven seasons from Australian and New Zealand ports. We are grateful to Senator Bob Brown and the Australian Greens Party. We are very grateful to Mr. Bob Barker for giving us the ship that turned the tide in our efforts to force the Japanese fleet from these waters. We are grateful to all our onshore staff and volunteers, supporting members and ship crews. We are grateful to the Chilean Navy and the government of France for their support. It is a very happy day for people everywhere who love whales and our oceans.”

It’s official – the killing of whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is over for this season and the whalers did not even take 10% of their quota. Sea Shepherd estimates that over 900 whales have been saved this year.

Ecotricity and Sea Shepherd working together to save the planet

Over 30% of all UK carbon emissions come from burning fossil fuels to generate electricity! The single biggest difference you can make to fight climate change is to switch to a genuinely green supplier.

Ecotricity, a supporter of Sea Shepherd, invests more per customer in building new green energy than all the other suppliers put together. Ecotricity will donate £25 to Sea Shepherd for every person that signs up.

Visit Ecotricity's Website

LUSH and Sea Shepherd Launch Global Anti-Shark-Finning Campaign

Alice Newstead Hung by Actual Shark Hooks in Protest of the Slaughter

Shoppers on Regents Street in central London likely got more than they bargained for. In a dramatic illustration of how sharks are caught and killed for their fins, Alice Newstead, performance artist, voluntarily had her skin pierced with actual de-barbed shark hooks and hung suspended from the ceiling in the window of one of LUSH's busiest shops for all to see.

Read the complete article