Introducing Chad Jacobs, New Director of Philanthropy

By Chad Jacobs, Sea Shepherd Director of Philanthropy

Recently, I was fortunate to be able to spend time as a crew member aboard the MV Sharkwater, Sea Shepherd’s 141 foot flagship vessel in the Upper Gulf of Mexico. On this deployment the Sea Shepherd Crew patrols around the Mexican national park established at Alacranes Reef 70 miles off of the northern coast of Yucatán, Mexico. I was able to live and work alongside the Sea Shepherd crew and also members of the Mexican Navy and national park service conducting daily patrols, inspections, and interceptions of poachers.

At Alacranes Reef, our mission is to maintain a presence 24/7/365 to stop illegal fishing within this extraordinarily rich and fragile habitat. Every day I observed Sea Shepherd crew launch surveillance drones, perform patrols, and coordinate vessel inspections alongside our Mexican counterparts. Each day spent at the reef is another day illegal fishing is stopped.

I saw first hand how the work happens—by Sea Shepherd’s crew showing up, on the water, putting themselves on the frontlines, consistently.

My time at sea once again demonstrated to me what is so different about Sea Shepherd.

I saw with my own eyes that Sea Shepherd’s new direct action strategy works. Deploy ships, provide crews, provide technology, work alongside government partners, document, investigate, and confront illegal activity where it happens—pairing direct action with legal collaboration to create lasting protection for vulnerable species and ecosystems.

The demand for our work is growing.

I understand the constraint is not our ability to act.

It’s the resources required to sustain and scale this action.

Every mission depends on ships, crews, fuel, equipment and so many other costs. Without funding deployments don’t happen, and vulnerable marine life goes unprotected.

I’ve spent the last decade working alongside founders and operators in venture-backed businesses, building teams, scaling revenue, and turning strategy into measurable outcomes. I’m bringing that same approach to Sea Shepherd: aligning funding with execution and building relationships that can sustain Sea Shepherd’s long-term direct action operations.

My responsibility as the new Director of Philanthropy at Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is to work with the existing team at Sea Shepherd, to work with contributors like you and all of the funders who have supported Sea Shepherd over the last 50 years to create a new pathway for sustaining Sea Shepherd and its critical work, for the next 50 years.

If this resonates with you, I’d welcome and invite the opportunity to connect, because protecting the ocean doesn’t happen from the sidelines, it happens through action—and the people who make that action possible.

For the oceans,

Chad Jacobs
Director of Philanthropy
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society