Perreault Magazine - 65 -
The Sea Shepherd ship Sam Simon spent the summer doing anti-poaching patrols in the marine reserves around Sicily in partnership with the Sicilian police. The Sea Shepherd vessel Brigitte Bardot spent the first part of the summer doing research on plastic pollution in the waters around Sardinia and is now deploying divers to remove ghost nets along the Southern coast of France.
© Simon Ager/ Sea Shepherd.org
In the Sea of Cortez the Sea Shepherd fast patrol ship Farley Mowat is presently working with the Mexican Navy to intercept totoaba fish poachers. Earlier in the year, the Farley Mowat working with the Martin Sheen confiscated over fifty illegally set gill nets and longlines in the Vaquita Refuge, and with the use of night vision equipped drones, the crew were able to catch poachers in the act of setting the nets.
In Cape Verde, our vessel the Jairo Mora Sandoval has been granted to the NGO Biosphera to do on-going marine conservation work in Cape Verde waters.
Two other Sea Shepherd ships are being made ready for sea. The fast patrol boat John Paul DeJoria is being refitted in Key West, Florida ,and Sea Shepherd’s first ever specially constructed fast long range patrol ship Ocean Warrior will be launched from Turkey in early September.
These eight Sea Shepherd ships are making a big difference in enforcement.
This summer over 150 volunteers from some 25 different nations crewed onboard these intrepid vessels with the result that 10 poaching ships have been shut down, numerous poachers have been arrested and hundreds of marine animals have been cut out of illegal nets and freed.