To many they are nothing better than marauding and badly behaved pirates practising bad seamanship. They have a history of un-seamanlike operations in the Southern Ocean which, among other things, have involved dramatic collisions with whaling vessels.
To others they are guardians of sea life and as such should be praised for Stopping Illegal Fishing in the Southern Ocean.
What ever your view The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have hit the big time when it comes to donations and are about to build their ideal ship and have used the derivative of the Amels Fast Shadow Support boat; Sea Axe as the basis.
Sea Shepherd who list actress Pamela Anderson as a member of their board of advisors received 8.3 million euros from postcode lotteries in the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom bring the total lottery donation received by Sea Shepherd since 2007 to 15.5 million Euros
Sea Shepherd CEO Alex Cornelissen says they “will now be able to have a custom-designed ship built, capable of achieving speeds that far exceed any of the vessels in our current fleet. We are now able to proceed with the purchase of our dream ship and lift our conservation efforts to protect the Southern Ocean from illegal exploitation to the next level.“
After researching possible ship builders for the last two years, negotiations with Dutch ship builder Damen has now resulted in them winning the order