Sea Shepherd - Whale Wars

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is a non-profit environmental organization based in Friday Harbor, Washington in the United States and in Melbourne, Australia for its Southern Hemisphere operations. Established in 1977, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization. The society was founded in 1977 by Paul Watson, an early member of Greenpeace, after a dispute with that organization over their lack of intervention.

It operated vessels it called Neptunes Navy, but after the seizure of the RV Farley Mowat by the Canadian government, currently operates the MV Steve Irwin, the Yoshka, and the Ady Gil. The Ady Gil is the newest ship in the fleet. The group has received support for its direct actions against fishing, whaling, and seal hunting, while critics have condemned the violent nature of the actions. Operations have included scuttling and disabling commercial whaling vessels at harbour, intervening in Canadian seal hunts, ramming other vessels, throwing glass bottles of foul smelling butyric acid on the decks of vessels at sea, boarding of a whaling vessel while at sea, and seizure and destruction of drift nets at sea. In 2008, Animal Planet began filming the weekly series Whale Wars based on the groups encounters with the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean.

Paul Franklin Watson, (born December 2, 1950) is a controversial and outspoken Canadian animal rights and environmental activist,

who founded and is president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a direct action group devoted to marine conservation.

The Toronto native joined a Sierra Club protest against nuclear testing in 1969. He was an early, influential, and outspoken member of Greenpeace, crewed and skippered for it, and later was a board member. Watson argued for a strategy of "direct action" which conflicted with the Greenpeace interpretation of nonviolence, was ousted from the board in 1977, and subsequently left the organization. That same year, he formed Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The group is the subject of a reality show, Whale Wars, and pursues a direct action strategy that has led to controversy.

Greenpeace is a non-governmental organization for the protection and conservation of the environment. Greenpeace uses direct action, lobbying and research to achieve its goals. Greenpeace has a worldwide presence with national and regional offices in 46 countries, which are affiliated to the Amsterdam-based Greenpeace International. The global organization receives its income through the individual contributions of almost 3 million financial supporters.

Greenpeace evolved from the peace movement and anti-nuclear protests in Vancouver, British Columbia in the early 1970's.Waves of Compassion. The founding of Greenpeace. by Rex Weyler p.19. Retrieved on December 1, 2009 On September 15, 1971, the Don't Make a Wave Committee sent the eighty foot halibut seiner Phyllis Cormack, renamed Greenpeace for the protest, from Vancouver, to oppose United States testing of nuclear devices in Amchitka, Alaska.Greenpeace to Amchitka, An Environmental Odyssey by Robert Hunter. While the boat never reached its destination and was turned back by the US military, this campaign was deemed the first using the name Greenpeace.Greenpeace to Amchitka by Robert Hunter The organisation itself dates its birth to the first protest.Greenpeace International: The History of Greenpeace The focus of the organization later turned from anti-nuclear protest to other environmental issues: whaling, bottom trawling, global warming, old growth, nuclear power, and genetically modified organisms.

Campaigns of Greenpeace have raised environmental issues to public knowledgeEUbusiness 28 September 2006: EU commissioner hails blockade on waste shipMarc Mormont & Christine Dasnoy; Source strategies and the mediatization of climate change. Media, Culture & Society, Vol. 17, No. 1, 49-64 (1995)The Independent Wednesday, 18 February 2009: Dumped in Africa: Britain's toxic waste and influenced both the private and the public sectorhttp://www.unep.org/PDF/OurPlanet/2007/sept/EN/ARTICLE8.pdf UNEP: Our Planet: Celebrating 20 Years of Montreal Protocolhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/5970141/Adidas-Clarks-Nike-and-Timberland-agree-moratorium-on-illegal-Amazon-leather.html Telegraph 04 Aug 2009: Adidas, Clarks, Nike and Timberland agree moratorium on illegal Amazon leatherYle 27.10. 2009: Metsä-Lapin metsäkiista on sovittu, but the organisation has also received criticism for its methods and motives.Top Secret: Greenpeace Report Misleading and Incompetent

On its official website, Greenpeace defines its mission as the following: