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Sea Shepherd’s 31 Marine Conservation Campaigns in 2018

Saturday, 05 Jan, 2019

Thanks to our generous supporters, passionate volunteers, and hard-working crew, in 2018 Sea Shepherd conducted 31 direct-action marine conservation campaigns around the world! Since Sea Shepherd was founded by Captain Paul Watson in 1977, the movement to defend, conserve, and protect our seas and marine wildlife just keeps growing. Photo by Emanuela Giurano/ Sea Shepherd.

From Australia's Great Barrier Reef and Tanzania's East African waters, to Europe's coastlines and Mexico's Sea of Cortez, our worldwide fleet of eleven ships worked in partnership with local authorities to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, removed hundreds of kilometers of deadly fishing nets, and gathered evidence to help bring poachers to justice. Our on-shore campaigns protected endangered sea turtles and their nests, helped expose the slaughter of whales in Iceland, and removed tons of dangerous marine debris from beaches around the world. Ongoing operations were conducted to fight the culling of sharks in Australia, shut down the salmon farms contaminating British Colombian waters, and protect the critically-endangered vaquita porpoise. 

Click on the links below to learn more about each campaign:

OPERATION APEX HARMONY – Ongoing shark defense campaign in Australia and SE Asia (On-Shore, small boats)

OPERATION ALBACORE – Ongoing campaign to Stop Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing in Gabon, West Africa (M/Y Bob Barker)

OPERATION AMELEN – Shark protection campaign in New Caledonia, a French territory in the South Pacific (On-Shore)

OPERATION BLOODY FJORDS – Ongoing Pilot Whale and Dolphin Defense Campaign in the Danish Faroe Islands (On-Shore)

OPERATION CLEAN WAVES – Ongoing campaign to protect the reef health and drinking water of the Fanning Atoll and other South Pacific island nations from plastic debris and other ocean pollution (R/V Martin Sheen).

COVE GUARDIAN CAMPAIGN – Ongoing campaign to document the capture and slaughter of dolphins in Japan (On-Shore).

OPERATION DIVINA GUADALUPE – Ongoing beaked whale research project in Guadalupe Island, Mexico (R/V Martin Sheen).

OPERATION DOLPHIN BYCATCH – Campaign to document the unreported slaughter of dolphins by fishing trawlers on France’s Atlantic coast (M/Y Bob Barker) (new)

OPERATION DUWA – Campaign to stop the slaughter of sea lions in the Puget Sound, Washington State (On-Shore)

GALAPAGOS CAMPAIGN - Ongoing campaign to protect the Galapagos Marine Reserve (On-Shore)

GHOSTNET CAMPAIGN – Campaign to remove hazardous ghostnets and other lost fishing gear from coastal areas around England, Scotland and Wales (On-Shore, small boats) (new)

HUMBOLT NATIONAL CAMPAIGN – Ongoing campaign to defend the National Parks in Chile (On-Shore)

OPERATION JAIRO – Ongoing campaign to protect endangered sea turtles along the shores of Nicaragua, Antigua and Barbuda (M/Y Brigitte Bardot and On-Shore)

OPERATION JEEDARA - Ongoing campaign to protect the Great Australian Bight (M/Y Steve Irwin)

OPERATION JODARI – Sea Shepherd Global’s new partnership to Stop Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing in Tanzania, East Africa (M/Y Ocean Warrior) (new)

OPERATION MAMACOCHA - Campaign addressing Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor: Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, including the Galápagos Marine Reserve, Cocos Island, Malpelo Island, and Coiba National Park (M/Y Brigitte Bardot) (new)

OPERATION MJOLNIR – Campaign to document commercial whale hunting in Iceland (On-Shore) (new)

MARINE DEBRIS CAMPAIGN – Ongoing worldwide campaign to reduce and remove marine debris from the oceans and shores (On-Shore)

OPERATION MILAGRO – Ongoing campaign to protect the critically endangered vaquita in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico (M/Y Farley Mowat)

OPERATION NYAMBA Ongoing campaign to protect sea turtles on the French island of Mayotte, Indian Ocean (On-Shore)

ORESUND CAMPAIGN – Campaign to document illegal trawling and damage to the seabed in the Sound between Denmark and Sweden (M/Y Emanuel Bronner) (new)

PERKUNAS CAMPAIGN – Ongoing campaign to protect harbor porpoises in the Baltic Sea (M/Y Emanuel Bronner)

OPERATION PAHU – Ongoing campaign to defend Hector's Dolphins in New Zealand (On-Shore)

OPERATION REEF DEFENSE – Coalition campaign to protect the Great Barrier Reef, Australia (M/Y Steve Irwin) (new)

RITOQUE CAMPAIGN – Campaign to protect the wildlife of the Ritoque ecosystem in the Valparaiso region, Central Chile (On-Shore) (new)

OPERATION SISO – Campaign to stop Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing in the Aeolian Archipelago, Italy (M/Y Sam Simon) (new)

OPERATION SOLA STELLA Ongoing campaign to stop Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing in Liberia, West Africa (M/Y Sam Simon)

OPERATION SIRACUSA – Ongoing campaign to stop poachers in the Plemmirio Marine Reserve, Italy (On-Shore).

OPERATION TREASURED ISLANDS – Ongoing research and shark defense campaign in the Revillagigedo Archipelago, Mexico (M/Y Sharpie)

OPERATION VIRUS HUNTER – Ongoing campaign to stop fish farms from contaminating wild salmon populations in waters in the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, Canada (R/V Martin Sheen)

OPERATION 404 – Ongoing campaign to end marine mammal captivity worldwide (On-Shore)

Help us make 2019 an even better year for the oceans, donate now to support our campaigns!

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