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

However Sea Shepherd's vegan crewmembers are performing a task that others like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden tried to do. To bring out the truth about what is happening in society to the public and prevent governments and corporations ignoring, or getting around the laws, that already exist. Every member of Sea Shepherd is doing their part to prevent whales, sharks, and seals from becoming extinct. They are tackling problems that most don't even know exist until it's too late.

The crews of Sea Shepherd challenge the status quo of our social existence, saying by their commitment and action that they will not just accept what they are told by governments.

Every time a crew member is arrested for trespassing, a Sea Shepherd ship is rammed, or a seal hunter punches a woman crew member, the establishment is challenged in a sort of Gandhian way.

Where government policy and operation is dominated by political and economic considerations which tramp over individual rights, direct action by organizations like Sea Shepherd is the only way to keep governments honest. Thus organizations like Sea Shepherd from the eyes of governments are considered an enemy. Just like Assange. Just like Snowden.

So paradoxically, support for Sea Shepherd is mandatory for anyone who treasures the rule of law, and the right of people to know the truth. Paul Watson, who commanded the Sea Shepherd ship Whales Forever was treated in a similar manner to Assange and Snowden. This cannot be seen more in the way the Norwegian Warship K/V Andenes was used in an effort to arrest him in international waters, which resulted in the ramming of the Sea Shepherd ship in 2012.

The recent World Court verdict against Japanese whaling can in many ways be credited to the actions of Sea Shepherd in the Southern Ocean and the publicity they managed to generate.

Sea Shepherd is redefining the means to achieving social justice. Sea Shepherd is not just an organization, it's a movement completely funded by the public that will influence how society will be ordered far beyond the issue of whaling.  In this way Sea Shepherd is one of the citizen's last hopes in maintaining civil rights against ever more compliance demanding governments in the future.