April: The Canadian Supreme Court upholds the ruling of the Quebec Court of Appeal. The Court orders the return of the Sea Shepherd II to Sea Shepherd. Captain Watson recruits a crew of volunteers to repair the ship and prepare her for a trans-Atlantic voyage to Europe.
May: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society files a damage suit against the Canadian government for damage caused to the Sea Shepherd II while held in “protective” custody for twenty-two months.
July: The Sea Shepherd II departs Halifax and stops in St. Pierre and Miquelon for additional repairs before departing for Iceland. In Iceland, the Sea Shepherd II delivers a warning to the Icelandic government to stop illegal whaling activities and to abide by International Whaling Commission regulations. When asked by an Icelandic newspaper what Sea Shepherd would do if Iceland did not comply, Captain Watson says that Sea Shepherd would “sink the Icelandic fleet.” The Sea Shepherd II is placed under police guard. The visit to Reykjavik is, however, a diversion, and the Sea Shepherd II crew is engaged in mapping out the harbor and locating the whale-processing factory at Hvalfjordur.
August: The Sea Shepherd II departs Iceland for the Danish protectorate of the Faeroe Islands to intervene against the slaughter of pilot whales. Captain Watson and his crew meet with the Prime Minister of the Faeroes and warn them that Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will be launching a campaign to oppose the illegal slaughter of pilot whales by the Faeroese.
September thru December: The Sea Shepherd II departs the Faeroe Islands for London, England. The ship is prepared for a relief voyage to Ethiopia in association with Band Aid. Captain Watson and Bob Geldof had worked together years before for the same alternative newspaper the Georgia Straight. With permission from the Board of Trade, the Sea Shepherd II is loaded with a cargo of barrels of diesel fuel to deliver to the relief trucks in Ethiopia.
December: After departing London, the Sea Shepherd II is ordered into the port of Brest, France, by the U.K. Board of Trade. The Board of Trade had changed its bureaucratic mind and a new ruling states that the Sea Shepherd II is not a registered cargo vessel and thus can not transport relief supplies. The ship is ordered to Plymouth to discharge the cargo. When Captain Watson asks the Board of Trade to make an exception for the purpose of providing humanitarian aid, the bureaucrat responsible said that exceptions were never granted. Captain Watson reminds the bureaucrat that the soldiers that were picked up at Dieppe during World War Two were taken back to Britain on vessels not registered to carry passengers. The bureaucrat answers that if he had been in charge, they would not have been allowed to transport passengers without the proper registration.
