Sea Shepherd
Four decades of direct-action marine conservation, from Paul Watson splitting with Greenpeace to found the fleet in 1977, through the Antarctic whaling wars, the Faroese grind, the fight for the vaquita, and the patrols that police the high seas where no navy will.
A chronological documentary of 920 moments spanning 1977–2026 on Loreline.
Curated by Olivier · last updated 2026-09-20
Eras
- Origins & the Fleet, Paul Watson founds Sea Shepherd in 1977. The ships, the crews, the campaigns and the films that built the movement.
- Whaling Wars, Campaigns against industrial and "research" whaling, the Faroese grind, and the Antarctic krill collapse threatening the whales' food web.
- Seals & Sea Lions, Confronting commercial seal hunts and protecting endangered sea lions.
- Illegal Fishing & Poaching, Operations against IUU fishing, poaching and ghost gear, vaquita/totoaba, toothfish, trawlers, gillnets and traps from the Gulf of California to West Africa and the Med.
- Reserves, Reefs & Ocean Defence, Marine-reserve patrols, shark-finning interdiction, reef and turtle protection, marine-debris cleanups, and frontline ocean-defence campaigns worldwide.
- Voices & the Wider Ocean, Everything else from the channel, short films, profiles, awareness pieces and the broader case for the ocean.
- - Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founded. Paul Watson, expelled from the Greenpeace board, founds the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to take a more confrontational, interventionist stance on marine wildlife.
- - Paul Watson, founder and helmsman. A co-founder of Greenpeace, Watson built Sea Shepherd around direct intervention, putting hulls between harpoons and whales rather than only bearing witness.
- - Ramming of the pirate whaler Sierra. The first Sea Shepherd vessel rams the notorious pirate whaler Sierra off Portugal, ending its whaling career, the action that defined the group's method.
- - Confronting the Canadian seal hunt. Sea Shepherd takes its campaign to the ice floes off Newfoundland, dyeing seal pups with harmless organic dye to render their pelts worthless to hunters.
- - Magdalen Islands confrontation. Paul Watson is arrested and the Sea Shepherd II nearly crushed in the ice during a confrontation with sealers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
- - Scuttling of Icelandic whalers in Reykjavík. Activists sink two of Iceland's whaling ships at their moorings in Reykjavík harbour and sabotage the Hvalur whaling station, one of the most contested actions in the group's history.
- - Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary declared. The IWC designates the waters around Antarctica a whale sanctuary, the legal backdrop for Sea Shepherd's campaign against the Japanese "research" whaling fleet.
- - Guarding the Galápagos Marine Reserve. A long-running partnership with the Galápagos National Park supplies patrol vessels, detection dogs and a forensic lab to fight shark-finning and illegal fishing in the reserve.
- - The war on shark finning. Tens of millions of sharks are killed each year for their fins. Sea Shepherd intercepts finning vessels and longlines from the Galápagos to Cocos Island.
- - The Cocos Island confrontation. Off Costa Rica's Cocos Island, Sea Shepherd intercepts the long-liner Varadero, an incident that led to Paul Watson's long legal entanglement and an Interpol notice.
- - The Patagonian toothfish pirates. The "Bandit 6", a notorious group of illegal toothfish vessels plundering Antarctic waters, became the targets Sea Shepherd hunted across the Southern Ocean.
- - Shepherds of the Seals, narrated by Martin Sheen. Sea Shepherd, 2006
- - Antarctic Whale Defense Campaign. Sea Shepherd, 2006
- - MY Steve Irwin joins the fleet. The former Scottish fisheries vessel, renamed for the late conservationist, becomes the flagship of the Antarctic whale-defence campaigns.
- - Greenpeace chases Japanese whaling fleet - 13 Jan 08. Al Jazeera English, 2008
- - Whale Wars premieres on Animal Planet. The reality series follows the crew of the Steve Irwin through the Antarctic whaling campaigns, turning the confrontations into a global television event.
- - Farley Mowat seized at the seal hunt. Canadian authorities board and seize the Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat during the commercial seal hunt and arrest its captain.
- - Riz Khan- Eco Wars- 14 Aug 08- Part 1. Al Jazeera English, 2008
- - Raw Video: Whalers 'Launch Attack' in Antarctic. Japanese whalers blasted conservationists with a water cannon and hurled hunks of metal and golf balls at them in a clash Monday in icy Antarctic waters, an anti-whaling group said. (Feb. 2)
- - Raw Video: Ships Collide in Whaling Clash. Associated Press, 2009
- - 'Whale Wars' Intensifies in 2nd Season. Associated Press, 2009
- - MY Bob Barker enters service. Funded by the game-show host who gave Sea Shepherd $5 million, the ice-class ship became central to chasing the whaling fleet across the Southern Ocean.
- - 'Whale Wars' ship hits whaler. CNN, 2010
- - Activists clash with Japan whalers - 6 Jan 10. Al Jazeera English, 2010
- - Boats Collide in Anti-whaling Clash in Antarctic. Associated Press, 2010
- - Whaling Vessel Hits Protestors. CBS News, 2010
- - Japan releases whaling crash video. ABC News (Australia), 2010
- - Space-age powerboat destroyed in Japan whaling clash. A futuristic powerboat sent to harass Japanese whalers has been sliced in two and is sinking after a clash in Antarctic waters, activists said on Wednesday. All six crew on the Ady Gil trimaran, which holds the round-the-world record, were rescued unharmed, the Sea Shepherd animal rights group said in a statement. Raw images provided by Japan's Institute of Ceracean Research (ICR).Duration: 00:00:45
- - High stakes whaling standoff on the high seas - 07 Jan 10. New Zealand's foreign minister says his country's maritime agency will carry out an investigation into a collision between a Japanese whaling vessel and a boat belonging to the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling protest group.
- - New footage: Ady Gil crash. ABC News (Australia), 2010
- - Agy Gil sinks in attemped salvage. The protest vessel Ady Gil has sunk during salvage atempts after the boat was sliced in two by a Japanese whaling vessel.
- - Whaling Foes Complain Again About Boat Collision. Associated Press, 2010
- - Sea Shepherd cops another collision. ABC News (Australia), 2010
- - Australia Threatens To Take Japan To Court Over Whaling. Sky News, 2010
- - Barker: Whales belong in sea. CNN, 2010
- - Defend Conserve Protect. Sea Shepherd, 2010
- - Sea Shepherd Tries to Prevent the Japanese Whaling Fleet from Whaling (Graphic footage). Sea Shepherd, 2010
- - Final Moments on the Ady Gil. Sea Shepherd, 2010
- - Bob Barker Rammed by Yushin Maru 3. Sea Shepherd, 2010
- - Radio Assistance Offer Call. Sea Shepherd, 2010
- - Sea Shepherd Confronts Japanese Whaling Fleet. Sea Shepherd, 2010
- - Confrontation with Japanese whaling fleet. Sea Shepherd, 2010
- - Isabel Lucas PSA. Isabel Lucas wants you to help us save whales
- - Ady Gil sinking. Sea Shepherd, 2010
- - Pennywise and Sea Shepherd. Sea Shepherd, 2010
- - Underwater Channel interview with Captain Paul Watson @ Dive Show 2009. Sea Shepherd, 2010
- - CBS News Story on Shark Finning ft. Sea Shepherd Director, Kim McCoy. Sea Shepherd, 2010
- - Sea Shepherd Director of Investigations, Scott West, interview on Democracy Now! (pt.1). Sea Shepherd, 2010
- - Sea Shepherd Director of Investigations, Scott West, interview on Democracy Now! (Pt. 2). Sea Shepherd, 2010
- - 'Whale Wars' Sails Into 3rd Season. Associated Press, 2010
…and 870 more moments.
Full text archive: /loreline-text/sea-shepherd.md
