Sea Shepherd engages in conventional
protests and
direct actions to protect marine wildlife. Sea Shepherd operations have included interdiction against
commercial fishing,
shark poaching and
finning,
seal hunting, and
whaling. The group has been active in intervening against fishing and poaching in the
South Pacific, the
Mediterranean, and in waters around the
Galapagos Islands. In addition to their direct action campaigns, Sea Shepherd works on ocean issues such as
plastic pollution. Sea Shepherd chapters across the world organize
onshore cleanups throughout the year to pick up debris near oceans, streams, and rivers. In April 2018, Sea Shepherd released a
PSA that takes an artistic approach to telling target audiences that more than one million marine animals die every year from plastic debris. According to its mission statement, Sea Shepherd "uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas". In addition to the organization's role of documenting and reporting violations of
conservation laws, Sea Shepherd operations have utilized direct, non-lethal tactics including
scuttling and disabling whaling vessels at harbor, shining
laser light at whalers, throwing bottles of foul-smelling
butyric acid onto vessels at sea, boarding whaling vessels to protest while at sea, and seizing and destroying
drift nets at sea. Sea Shepherd argues that these tactics are necessary to uncover and impede actions that violate international laws protecting wildlife, as the international community has shown itself unwilling or unable to stop species-endangering whaling and fishing practices. Sea Shepherd staff and equipment have also been on the receiving end of physical violence by members of the fishing industry. In November 1998,
Makah seized an inflatable boat belonging to the group and threw rocks at the Sea Shepherd's
Sirenian in response to protests over their whale hunt. In 2005, 11 Sea Shepherd crew were involved in an altercation with sealers while on the ice. The sealers were not charged with any crime, but the activists were arrested and later convicted for approaching too close to the hunt. In 2008, fishermen in the French islands of
Saint Pierre and Miquelon cut the
mooring lines of the
Farley Mowat after hearing Watson make disparaging comments about the deaths of four seal hunters. In 2009, Paul Watson claimed the organization has sunk ten whaling ships while also destroying millions of dollars' worth of equipment. Their practice of attacking and sinking other ships has led to reports of injuries to other sailors as well as the Sea Shepherd crew, including concussions and complications from chemical attacks. Watson considers the actions of Sea Shepherd to be against criminal operations and has called the group an anti-poaching organization. while Watson has stated that Sea Shepherd believes that their actions constitute an attempt to enforce international conservation laws and international
maritime law under the
World Charter for Nature adopted by the
United Nations. Australia has declared Japan's hunt in the
Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to be illegal, and federal court judge Jim Allsop has stated "there is no practical mechanism by which orders of this court can be enforced". The lack of official enforcement mechanisms in that law prompted Sea Shepherd to adopt, without official sanction, what it sees as a law enforcement mission. A 2008 academic paper by researchers at
Monash University in
Melbourne,
Victoria, concluded that Sea Shepherd's approach could constitute
vigilantism, because its seeks to enforce a legal status quo in the face of the international community's "inabilities or unwillingness to do so".
Anti-whaling controversy Watson left
Greenpeace in 1977 after being voted off the
board over his confrontational methods. Since then, Greenpeace has criticized Sea Shepherd for the group's tactics, particularly regarding its interaction with
whaling ships while at sea. The rival environmental group maintains Sea Shepherd is a violent organization whose tactics may endanger the lives of fishermen and whalers, and has labelled Watson an extremist. Greenpeace has also stated: "By making it easy to paint
anti-whaling forces as dangerous,
piratical terrorists, Sea Shepherd could undermine the forces within Japan which could actually bring whaling to an end". In his 2009 book,
Whaling in Japan, Jun Morikawa stated that Sea Shepherd's confrontational tactics had strengthened Japan's resolve to continue with its whaling program by helping to rally domestic support from Japanese citizens who might otherwise have been ambivalent about the practice of hunting and eating whales. In March 2014 the
International Court of Justice ruled Japan's whaling program was not for scientific purposes. The Court ordered that Japan "revoke any extant authorization, permit or licence to kill, take or treat whales" and refrain from granting any further permits." In response to the court ruling, Japan cut its annual whaling quota from 915 to 333. The new quota included only
minke whales, and ended the hunting of
humpback whales and
fin whales. Paul Watson said: "I think we've done an amazing job reducing their quotas and saving whales," and claimed the actions of Sea Shepherd were a major factor behind Japan's decision. In 2017, Sea Shepherd said it would stop sending ships to the Antarctic Ocean in pursuit of Japanese whalers, citing Japan's increased use of military surveillance satellites and passage of
anti-terrorism laws specifically to thwart Sea Shepherd. Japan passed new anti-terrorism legislation in view of the coming
2020 Olympics, but among its elements, the new law declared the presence of eco-activist vessels near whalers a terrorist offence. The combined measures were deemed to make Sea Shepherd's Antarctic operations no longer productive, with Watson noting his organisation "cannot compete with their military-grade technology". ==Public relations==