Sea Shepherd ship, the Sam Simon, arrived into Auckland harbour after its journey from Melbourne on October 23.
The ship and its 25 crew from around the globe have come to New Zealand to source supplies and prepare for the upcoming Southern Ocean patrol mission, Operation Icefish.
If the Japanese whalers fail to return to the kill this year Sea Shepherd ships will conduct a new campaign targeting the illegal fishing of Patagonian and Antarctic Toothfish.
The poaching of toothfish has had a devastating effect on their populations of this rare and long lived icefish. Sea Shepherd will intervene where poachers are found, seizing their nets and working with authorities to have boats confiscated.
“Operation Icefish will be the first campaign of its kind, using innovative direct action tactics to fill a law enforcement void exploited by illegal toothfish operators.
The Bob Barker and the Sam Simon will leave Hobart, Australia and Wellington, New Zealand, respectively, to patrol the Antarctic. Illegal fishing operations will be documented, reported and confronted.
They will be physically obstructed from deploying their illegal gillnets and unlawful fishing gear will be confiscated and destroyed,” Peter Hammarstedt, Captain M/Y Bob Barker, Director of Ship Operations, said.
“In 2002, a single Sea Shepherd ship left Auckland on the very first Southern Ocean campaign to confront the outlaw whalers. Now 12 years later and thousands of whales saved, Sea Shepherd returns with the
latest addition to its fleet, the Sam Simon,” Captain Hammarstedt continued.
“Come down and welcome the ship and brave crew into our port,” Michael Lawry, of Sea Shepherd New Zealand, said.
Source: Sea Shepherd Australia
Ryan Fritz
Ryan Fritz started The Advocate in 2014 to provide not-for-profits and charities another media platform to tell their worthwhile hard news stories and opinion pieces effortlessly. In 2020, Ryan formed a team of volunteer journalists to help spread even more high-quality stories from the third sector. He also has over 10 years experience as a media and communications professional for not-for-profits and charities and currently works at Redkite, a childhood cancer charity.
