Sea Shepherd - visit ship Farley Mowat - Melb Docklands : Melbourne Indymedia

Welcome Australians!

Thank you for your support of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society! Our flag ship the Farley Mowat is currently docked in the Melbourne Docklands at the Victoria Warf, berth 3. Guided tours are open to the public and available from 9:00am to 6:00pm daily. Come visit the ship and crew and learn how you can help save the whales.

Sea Shepherd Hosts an Evening for the Whales

Date: Friday the 4th of August
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Location: The Kaleid RMIT Union Theatre,
360 Swanston Street, Melbourne

Join us for a video presentation of "Hunter becomes the Hunted" a documentary highlighting Sea Shepherd's anti-whaling campaign in the Antarctic last year.

Program:

Join us for a video presentation of "Hunter becomes the Hunted" a documentary highlighting Sea Shepherd's anti-whaling campaign in the Antarctic last year. Made by the award winning South African TV Program 50/50, this 20 minute documentary shows you the behind the scenes action of Sea Shepherd's battle with the Japanese whaling fleet.

Following the video will be a lecture by Captain Alex Cornelissen, of the Sea Shepherd Flag Ship the Farley Mowat, currently docked in Melbourne. Captain Cornelissen will discuss the importance of returning to the Whale Sanctuary again this year in order to stop the whaling fleet from killing over a thousand whales, including the endangered humpback and fin whales.

A short question and answer period will follow the lecture. Other members of the Sea Shepherd crew will be in attendance, along with key Melbourne volunteers and supporters.

Come out and learn how you can get involved and join us in this growing movement to save the whales. Together we can and will shut down this illegal slaughter once and for all.

Reception immediately following the program. Donations welcome
- no one will be refused for lack of funds.

For more information or to help with the event:
Peter Hammarstedt - Melbourne
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
peter@seashepherd.org
+61(0)4 1273 0813 Mobile

Sea Shepherd Australia!

Support for Sea Shepherd in Australia continues to grow on a daily basis! Please click on the city nearest you to learn of details about the meetings we have planned and what Sea Shepherd's needs are in your area. We would love to see you at the meetings and have your help in any way you can!
Brisbane & Gold Coast, QLD / Byron Bay, NSW

Melbourne, VIC

Perth, WA

Sydney/Canberra, NSW

Contact Information / Donations

We are pleased to announce our new mailing address and bank account for direct donations.
Mailing Address: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
288 Brunswick Street
Fitzroy, VIC 3065

australia@seashepherd.org
Online Donations: Credit card donations
Paypal
Bank Account Information:* Bendigo Bank
Account name: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Account number: 126462092
BSB: 633 000

Sea Shepherd Flagship Farley Mowat to Arrive in Melbourne
July 25, 2006

After a long voyage, including one high seas ramming and 85 whales saved from certain death, Sea Shepherd’s flagship, the Farley Mowat, is finally returning home to the city that welcomed it with open arms last summer – Melbourne.

After a successful but brief stop over in Perth, the Farley Mowat will be arriving at Victoria Wharf in the Melbourne Docklands, berth 3 on the 25th of July. Over the next four-and-a-half months, preparations will be made to provision the ship for the most dangerous, most expensive, most important Sea Shepherd campaign in its 30-year history of defending whales.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is currently in the process of acquiring a faster vessel that will accompany the Farley Mowat on its campaign to the Southern Whale Sanctuary. When the whales need nothing short of an armada, Sea Shepherd plans on sending them one.

This year is crucial for the whales. Japan has doubled its illegal quota of minke whales to just over a thousand, and will be targeting, for the first time since the early eighties, 50 endangered fin and 50 endangered humpback whales. “Japan is testing international public opinion, seeing how the world will react to what amounts to nothing short of a full-scale resumption of commercial whaling,” said Peter Hammarstedt, Ships’ Liaison. “That's why they must be stopped and that’s where Sea Shepherd comes in.”

According to Founder and President Captain Paul Watson, “Sea Shepherd is not a protest organization. We are an international conservation enforcement organization. We plan to intercept the Japanese whaling fleet and shut them down, permanently.”

The Age
Australia
July 26, 2006

Modern-day pirates who treasure our whales

Captain Alex Cornelissen (standing, third from right) commands a crew of volunteers
on the Farley Mowat anti-whaling ship, which docked in Melbourne yesterday.
Photo: Paul Rovere

by Gary Tippet

The earringed, tattooed and pierced crew of the ship Farley Mowat sail under the skull and crossbones and live to catch and disable other ships. They don't mind being called pirates.

"You've got to be a pirate to catch a pirate," shrugs the skipper, Dutchman Alex Cornelissen.

"We're the good pirates, the eco-pirates," he said, explaining his mission. "We're trying to stop the bad pirates from raping the oceans."

The Farley Mowat, a converted 1958 North Sea trawler, is the flagship of the Sea Shepherd Society, the most unapologetic anti-whaling group plying the oceans. The bad pirates, of course, are the Japanese and their whaling fleet.

The Farley Mowat arrived in Melbourne yesterday, tying up at Victoria Dock for the next four months as it prepares for the Japanese when next they head to Antarctic waters.

The whalers, ignoring international condemnation, have doubled their planned quota to more than 1000 animals, including, for the first time since the 1980s, 50 endangered fin whales and 50 endangered humpbacks.

Last year the Sea Shepherd protesters chased the Japanese, unsuccessfully trying to run hawsers under the ships to foul propellers and ramming the supply ship Oriental Bluebird in an attempt to gash its side.

Not a man for sorries, Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson likened the Japanese factory ship to a "Death Star for whales" and promised to take his Farley Mowat and "ram it up their damn slipway".

In nearly three decades at the sharp end of environmentalism, Mr Watson claims to have sunk a dozen whaling vessels, in ports rather in the open ocean. They were what Farley Mowat first mate and liaison officer Peter Hammerstedt euphemistically calls "decommissioned alongside the docks".

Captain Cornelissen disputed that the group's tactics could kill whalers and even sink ships. "We've been doing this for 29 years . . . Sea Shepherd has never killed or injured a single person, on our side or the other side," he said.

"We're not there to hurt people, we're there to shut them down, to stop their operation. But if that means we have to inflict material damage, well we'll go ahead and do that."

He promised a tougher time for the Japanese this season.

Mr Watson has a new ship, with a top speed of 17 knots. It should be able to keep up with the whaling fleet, a failing of the Farley Mowat last year.

The ship had some unlikely-looking supporters when it docked yesterday. Philip Wollen OAM is a merchant banker and philanthropist and founder of the Winsome Constance Kindness Trust - which does not sound like the organisation to fund a group of modern pirates.

"My take on it is that they are in fact a law enforcement agency," he said. "It's what what the Japanese and the Norwegians, Icelanders and people like that are doing that's illegal."

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is starting a chapter in Melbourne, Australia, which will also represent the whole of Australia. We are looking for volunteers to make it happen!

Following is a list of the type of help we will need in your area, but please let us know if you have any specific ideas on how you can help. E-mail: australia@seashepherd.org

* Fundraising – Organize a fundraiser event or concert at your local pub, restaurant, or community meeting place; have a Sea Shepherd house party (show videos and give a presentation); help sell SSCS merchandise; tell your friends about our work!
* Outreach – Assist in manning an information table (or host your own) at special events, festivals, outdoor markets, and/or shopping malls in your area. Be creative! Think of any place where you can set-up a display table and hand out information.
* Education – Visit schools, universities, clubs, and/or organizations to give presentations on Sea Shepherd.
* Information Distribution – You can help spread the word about our mission by distributing printed brochures, info sheets, and newsletters.
* Administrative and clerical work to support the chapter's activities – You can help with telephone calls, answering mail, data entry, computer consultation, and translation work.
* Ship Support – Finding contacts in Melbourne for when the ship comes in, to provide services, parts, equipment, moorage, etc…
* Developing a support network for Sea Shepherd in Australia

An office has been donated free of charge by Phil and Trix Wollen of the Winsome Constance Kindness Trust. The main initial expense will be outgoing phone calls only, so we are fortunate to have this great base to build upon. This chapter of Sea Shepherd will be making its main objective the support of the marine conservation work of Sea Shepherd. This is carried out by mostly volunteer crews on their two vessels Farley Mowat and Sirenian.

Please forward this information to anyone that may be interested in joining/donating to Sea Shepherd and/or volunteering time for the Sea Shepherd Australia.

Contact:

Sea Shepherd, Melbourne
Suite 7, 288 Brunswick Street
Fitzroy Victoria 3056
Australia.
Tel: + 61 3 9445 0323
australia@seashepherd.org

Sea Shepherd's Farley Mowat in Melbourne

Sea Shepherd Melbourne

Sea Shepherd Melbourne opened its new office in February this year. It was donated by Phil and Trix Wollen and is located in their multi storied "Kindness House", a building housing mainly animal welfare and animal rights groups.

We hit the ground running with several fundraiser, protest and educational events.

Here's part of what we've been up to:

* In early February, Captain Paul Watson spoke to a large crowd of supporters at RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) about Sea Shepherd's Southern Ocean Campaign to stop Japanese whalers. This year, he and his crew managed to prevent them from killing whales for two weeks.

* On 15th March, International Seal Action Day, we held a peaceful protest outside of the Canadian Consulate, raising awareness of the sealing issue with many who had never heard of it, including a few Canadians.

* On 9th April, we held a pre-release screening of "March of the Penguins" as a fundraiser. It was a great success with a near full house!

Photos by Michael Williams, "It's a Wildlife", Newport, Vic.

* On 22nd May, Jon Sumby together with Sea Shepherd Melbourne, held an educational fundraiser talk, again at RMIT, called "Ocean Life: Overfishing and the marine environment". The talk (photo below), with an array of informative photos and data, was damning of modern fishing industry practices.