MARCH 4th 2018
COMMENTARY BY CAPTAIN LOCKY MACLEAN
SEA SHEPHERD MARINE OPERATIONS AND CAMPAIGNS DIRECTOR
Hornby Island, Strait of Georgia, BC, CANADA locky@seashepherd.org
The herring stocks of West Coast Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii, and Prince Rupert have already collapsed. The Federal Government’s recent closure of the Central Coast area, an already wiped out herring fishery, only takes attention away from the slaughter taking place right now in the Strait of Georgia.
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.
Commentary by Captain Paul Watson
Paul Watson in AntarcticaSea 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.
By Captain Paul Watson
Forty years ago on March 15th, 1977, French film star Brigitte Bardot traveled to the ice floes off the Eastern Coast of Canada to focus attention on the slaughter of baby whitecoat seals.
Her arrival was met with hostility by Newfoundland sealers and by the Canadian government, yet despite harassment and ugly threats she rode in my helicopter far offshore to meet the seals.
By Captain Paul Watson
Paul Watson and Kelly Slater. Photo: Deborah BassettWhat caused Kelly Slater to so radically change his views about sharks?
Or perhaps he did not change his views after all.
In 2014, Kelly was quoted in the Australian media saying in response to Premier Colin Barnett’s plan to kill sharks in Western Australia:
Make a difference this holiday season with give a gift that gives back. All proceeds from our online shop benefit Sea Shepherd’s annual campaigns to defend, conserve and protect our oceans. Holiday shopping deadlines are approaching fast so view our shipping deadlines below and purchase your eco-ethical gifts today! If you can’t make the deadline, please make a donation before the end of the year!
by Oona Layolle, Captain/Campaign Leader
In Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s latest scientific research campaign, we are studying the toxicology levels in whales in the Gulf of California. We are working with marine scientists from the Universidad de Baja California Sur, Italy and United State of America to conduct the first studies regarding the toxicology of microplastics and pollution in the Gulf of California.
My Week on the M/V Farley Mowat
by Les Stroud – Survivorman
Joining the Sea Shepherd on a campaign was never anything I took lightly. I realize that they have received some fame, along with some infamy, from the TV show ‘Whale Wars‘. But my instinct told me that the Sea Shepherd team was involved in some very powerful and effective activities meant to put a stop to at least some, if not all, of the atrocities occurring in our oceans today. As a man of action, this appeals to me– I don’t mind sending my dollars to help out. And I don’t mind voting in a direction that I think will make a difference. I enjoy debating the issues in groups of people. However, unless I can get actively involved I never quite feel like I am grasping and as a result, having an understanding of the full story.
By Captain Paul Watson, Founder and President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Paul Watson with the Nisshin Maru in the background. Photo: Barbara VeigaThe Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) may be collecting their 30 pieces of silver over the next five years.
The film Blackfish literally swept the profits from SeaWorld’s table and with their stock value plummeting, they had to find a way to put the profits back on the table. Joel Manby, the CEO of SeaWorld needed a champion. Last week he announced that he had found his Judas.
I am so sorry.
Words cannot even begin to express my sadness for you. I am sorry that you are dying, but even more sorry that you are dying in a concrete tank instead your ocean home off the coast of Iceland.
For more than thirty years, you have been held captive in one tiny pool or another, first in Sealand and now in SeaWorld. Of course, neither place resembles the sea where you were born. Your imprisonment spans nearly your entire life. You have been forced to perform tricks for food, forced to donate sperm, forced to endure isolation, and forced to live a shell of a life that in no way resembles the true nature of an orca. The pain you have suffered is simply incomprehensible.
