Sea Shepherd: eco terrorists or the front line to protect social justice?

If you travelled to a small pier at the bottom of Ann Street in Williamstown, a bayside suburb of Melbourne, Australia, you would come across a small letterbox with the words "Sea Shepherd" painted over it. Next to the letterbox is an old shed that has seen much better times with an open gate leading to two ships, the Steve Irwin and Bob Barker moored and being outfitted for a future yet unknown maritime mission.

For a highly controversial direct action marine conservation society, best known for the direct action it has been taking against Japanese whaling ships in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, security is extremely lax on the pier. In fact tours are offered of the MV Bob Barker every week while it is having a major fit-out.

One thing that will strike anybody making the effort to take the tour is how well organized Sea Shepherd really is. Although the crew has attracted many people of different nations serving on one of the four Sea Shepherd ships, the members appear to be very highly motivated, coordinated, and ready to get into harm's way for the causes they believe in.

So are these people society's last real heroes, or degenerative eco terrorists and criminals, as would some authorities have the public believe?

Sea Shepherd was formed in 1977 by an expelled Greenpeace board member and activist Paul Watson. Since Sea Shepherd's formation, the organization has always been on the vanguard of direct action against seal hunters, shark finners, and whalers. What is most controversial are the tactics used such as shining laser lights in the eyes of whalers, scuttling and disabling whaling boats at port, throwing bottles of butyric acid onto vessels at sea, blocking the passage ways of ships at sea, and destroying drift nets at sea.

Although Sea Shepherd has received support for its tactics by many international celebrities over the years, they have been denounced by the Governments of Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the US, where the US courts have even been prohibited Paul Watson from going near his own ships. 

Paul Watson has continually claimed that Sea Shepherd actions have always been against criminal and illegal poaching operations. However, many critics claim that Sea Shepherd's direct action itself violates international law.

Although it has been claimed that Sea Shepherd's direct action against Japanese whaling ships has been counter-productive and strengthened the domestic resolve of Japanese for whaling, the organization has used the media very skillfully. The media is an important tool for Sea Shepherd, where critics have also claimed that Sea Shepherd material is not always truthful, but rather as Sea Shepherd sees it as a necessary fiction. Nevertheless, Sea Shepherd public relations has pushed the issues of seal hunting, shark finning, and whaling to the point where public opinion has swayed to Sea Shepherd's side. 

The Japanese detention of two crewmembers raised public sympathy towards Sea Shepherd. Likewise the Discovery series Whale Wars on Animal Planet have helped to propel Sea Shepherd into mainstream public acceptance. This to some point has protected Sea Shepherd's presence in countries like Australia, although internationally the Australian Government tries to distance itself from Sea Shepherd.

There is a feeling that any action taken against the organization would lead to public outrage against any government contemplating to do so.

Sea Shepherd is supporting bans on marine animal poaching that governments have put in place, and in this sense, Sea Shepherd is enforcing agreements that governments themselves due to political reasons are reluctant to do. However, Sea Shepherd's strategy is to stage events for the benefit of media exposure, where these often provocative direct actions have led to arrests and casualties.

Whether Sea Shepherd is an organization of selfless people committed to a cause or a group of high minded pirates will depend upon who you ask. Watson himself strongly points out that it is not in the interests of his clients, the marine life of this earth to harm anybody. "You only have vigilantes when governments don't enforce laws".