What Sea Shepherd did was thought to be quite impossible but the courageous and passionate volunteer crews made it possible. They shut down the entire outlaw poaching fleet in the Southern Ocean and they did it without causing a single injury or breaking a single law.
The toothfish poachers have been driven from Antarctic waters but other poachers remain. The Steve Irwin is returning this week to the Southern Ocean on another hunt and for as long as any poaching vessels return to the Southern Ocean, Sea Shepherd will send a ship or ships to uphold international conservation law.
These remote and hostile waters belong to the whales, the fish and the penguins and Sea Shepherd intends to keep it that way.
I would like to thank the captains, officers and crew on the BOB BARKER, SAM SIMON and STEVE IRWIN for their endurance, steadfastness and courage. I would also like to thanks all Sea Shepherd shore volunteers, directors and advisors for making it possible for our ships to put to sea and for supporting them during the long months of pursuit. And I would also like to express our gratitude to all those who donated to Sea Shepherd.
The crews at sea are backed by the support on land and without this support the ships could not be where they need to be.
Without a doubt, Operation Icefish has proven to be even more successful than anyone could have imagined it would be. It was a daring and ambitious plan and it was carried forth flawlessly, responsibly and effectively.
The word on the streets of Galicia, in the ports of West Africa and Southeast Asia, in the offices of Interpol, in the headlines of the New York Times and even within the office of the United States State Department is that Sea Shepherd is an effective anti-poaching force and delivers the goods in the form of real tangible results.
For the Ocean, for marine biodiversity, for life and for the future.
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