July 6, 2005

Dear Friend of Sea Shepherd,

Our flagship, the Farley Mowat, is docked in Jacksonville, Florida, where we need crew to get her ready for the upcoming priority campaign to save the whales. After final preparations, we will leave in early August for the Antarctic to intercept the Japanese Whaling Fleet and protect the minke, humpback, and fin whales they have targeted for slaughter in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary. We need crew: right now to get the ship ready; then in August for the voyage from Florida to Australia via the Panama Canal and the islands of Malpelo and Galapagos; and finally, in December, to go on from Australia to intercept the Japanese whaling fleet in the Antarctic Ocean. If you are interested, please read about it here, and sign up early to be sure of your place on the Farley Mowat.

Not only have the Japanese announced an increase in illegal waling activities, Iceland has also announced plans to illegally slaughter 39 minke whales. There is no justification for this whaling and the Icelandic Tourism Association and whale watching operators have made it clear that whaling damages the reputation of the country and has a negative impact on tourism. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is supporting an international boycott of tourism to Iceland and a boycott of all Icelandic products in order to pressure the government to stop this barbaric slaughter.

The pressure on Disney has succeeded. Disney has agreed to remove shark fin soup from their Disneyland Hong Kong restaurant. That pressure came in large part from the T-shirts envisioned by Captain Paul Watson and created for Sea Shepherd by our former crew member, artist Geert Vons. This is a great victory for the sharks because it sends a message loud and clear that shark finning is a destructive practice that is contributing to the demise of shark populations worldwide. Please contact Disney and thank them for their decision to keep Hong Kong Disney a Shark Fin Free Zone. Although this is great news, there are still millions of sharks being killed for their fins. Michael Aw, who heads a “Say No” to shark's fin campaign in Singapore and Malaysia, believes that education of the youth is key to winning the battle (read the article from the Taipei Times here). To learn more about shark finning, please visit our Shark Finning webpage.

On June 25th, the Red Lobster Day of Action, many of you rallied in front of Red Lobster restaurants, distributing educational leaflets asking Red Lobster to join the Boycott of Canadian Seafood. There was a tremendous turnout and I encourage you to read the Protest Reports on our website. Red Lobster restaurant chain is the world’s largest purchaser of Canadian seafood, and can do more to end the Canadian seal slaughter than any other company. We will continue to rally and put pressure Red Lobster, and other seafood distributors and wholesalers, to join the boycott. If you would like to organize a rally and would like Sea Shepherd materials to distribute, please contact our office.

This weekend, July 7th to 11th, the Animal Rights 2005 National Conference will be taking place in Los Angeles. I will be participating in many of the workshops and hope to see you at the Sea Shepherd booth. You can visit our Events and Appearances page to find out about this and other events where Sea Shepherd is present.

Thank you for your continued support.
Captain Paul Watson
Support Sea Shepherd
Join and Donate Now
******************************************************************************

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization in the U.S. Founded in 1977 by Captain Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd’s mission is to defend, conserve, and protect marine wildlife and their habitats.

Visit our Online Store for harp seal T-shirts, pins, and autographed copies of “Seal Wars”

Volunteer with Sea Shepherd – on ship or on shore!

Become a Sky Shepherd – donate your unused frequent flier miles!

Join the Direct Action Plan and donate automatically every month. It is easy for you and it keeps our administrative costs down, allows us to budget for our campaigns better, and puts your contributions directly and quickly to good use.

********************************************************************************

Thank you for your ongoing support of Sea Shepherd! Working together we will succeed.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
PO Box 2616
Friday Harbor, WA 98250
USA
Phone: (360) 370-5650
Fax: (360) 370-5651
Website: http://www.seashepherd.org/
Email: info@seashepherd.org