How you can help Sea Shepherd

• Social Studies
• 6-9 Grade
• 9-12 Grade

Introduction

This presentation has been prepared for teachers to learn more about how students can support Sea Shepherd and work to protect the ocean and marine wildlife.

Instructions

A teachers introduction to how students can help protect the ocean before teaching our lessons.

Contact: [e-mail]
© Sea Shepherd 2025

Instructions

How you can help Sea Shepherd.pdf

HOW CAN YOU HELP PROTECT THE OCEAN?

For over 40 years Sea Shepherd has been defending the ocean and marine wildlife worldwide.

In this section we give you an insight into the work of our founder, Captain Paul Watson, and our dedicated volunteers.

You can find out about our mission, explore our ships, experience some of the wonderful achievements that have happened over our 40 plus year history and find out where we are currently working on marine conservation issues.  

Find out how you can support Sea Shepherd and become part of the movement taking direct action For The Ocean.

Conservation is not about standing by admiring others for what they do, it’s about every one of us making better choices and decisions every day; making a difference for the environment, for other species and for the health of our ocean and planet.

Marine conservation is about being part of a movement to create change for the better.  That is why Sea Shepherd invites you to join us in making a difference.  

Together we can globally defend, conserve and protect the ocean and marine wildlife. 

Our Mission

The original mission of Sea Shepherd was marine mammal protection and conservation with an immediate goal of shutting down illegal whaling and sealing operations, but was later expanded to include all marine wildlife.

Sea Shepherd’s current Mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.

Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By safeguarding the biodiversity of our delicately balanced oceanic ecosystems and working to ensure their survival for future generations.

While we would love to see more people joining our ships crews, helping to tackle illegal fishing operations, hauling in illegal fishing gear, or becoming an onshore volunteer helping to raise awareness and funds to keep our ships at sea, we know this is not for everyone.    

Just as important is supporting the ocean every day, by simply making better choices in your daily life and advocating for positive long-term change.

The ocean environment is an intricately-balanced ecosystem designed to support and sustain marine wildlife. To truly thrive, they need safe sanctuaries to feed, mate and raise their young without pollution, destructive fishing gear, plastics and other marine debris that choke marine wildlife and destroy their habitats.

Sea Shepherd opposes the pollution of the fragile ecosystem through off-shore drilling and fisheries, as well as the destruction of coral reefs from trawling, and the loss of coastal nesting sites from commercial development.

There are many ways you can join the Sea Shepherd 

movement by making a difference.

OUR LOGOS

We have two main logos.  

Our Whale logo with the whale and dolphin, which is our original logo and then the Jolly Roger.

Because of our direct actions over the years, we often get called pirates especially by the illegal whalers. It’s a name we can laugh about especially given the people that call us pirates are generally the ones doing something illegal on the high seas, like the whalers. Paul Watson decided that if our opponents think that we are pirates and they are scared of us, then maybe we should fly our own Jolly Roger flag.

 

Reduce the demand for fish

Overfishing and illegal fishing operations are stripping the oceans, with some fish populations disappearing.  

The demand for cheap fish encourages these operations to continue, by helping to lower the consumption of marine wildlife we can reduce demand and make it less profitable for them to continue.

Remember farmed fish is still fed ocean caught fish, including krill, thus still making this a choice that harms the ocean.

OUR LOGOS

We have two main logos.  

Our Whale logo with the whale and dolphin, which is our original logo and then the Jolly Roger.

Because of our direct actions over the years, we often get called pirates especially by the illegal whalers. It’s a name we can laugh about especially given the people that call us pirates are generally the ones doing something illegal on the high seas, like the whalers. Paul Watson decided that if our opponents think that we are pirates and they are scared of us, then maybe we should fly our own Jolly Roger flag.

 

Reduce the demand for fish

Don’t support products like krill oil supplements – krill is being fished from the mouths of whales in Antarctica.  

These populations are already reducing due to climate change, overfishing of krill is the next major threat that whales and other species face in the Southern Ocean.  

Whales are also killed in the nets of krill trawlers or hit by these ships as they plough through pods of whales stealing krill.  The large fishing companies only care about one thing, to profit from the ocean in the most ‘effective’ way.

The ocean environment is an intricately-balanced ecosystem designed to support and sustain marine wildlife. To truly thrive, they need safe sanctuaries to feed, mate and raise their young without pollution, destructive fishing gear, plastics and other marine debris that choke marine wildlife and destroy their habitats.

Sea Shepherd opposes the pollution of the fragile ecosystem through off-shore drilling and fisheries, as well as the destruction of coral reefs from trawling, and the loss of coastal nesting sites from commercial development.

To learn more, have a look at these lessons:
IUU Fishing lessons 1-4,
IUU and the law,
Human Impacts on the Ocean,
Overfishing the Ocean,
Global Citizen or
Extinction of Species.

There are four key components of the

Sea Shepherd Jolly Roger

The
skull, which represents mankind and is there to remind us that of all
the species living on this planet, humans are the Apex predator. We see
ourselves as the dominant species on this planet and that we own
everything, but we are not the only ones who live on this planet and we
couldn’t live without the many other species who also call it home. 

Actions:
 Check the source of any marine life you eat – could it have come from illegal sources, is it a species that is endangered or being overfished?

Reduce the amount of marine life you eat, or even better, stop eating it altogether!

Check what you are feeding your pets – is there a better option than fish.  Non human consumption to feed both domestic and farmed animals, is a huge market.

There are four key components of the

Sea Shepherd Jolly Roger

The
skull, which represents mankind and is there to remind us that of all
the species living on this planet, humans are the Apex predator. We see
ourselves as the dominant species on this planet and that we own
everything, but we are not the only ones who live on this planet and we
couldn’t live without the many other species who also call it home. 

Actions:

Check any health supplements you take – Omega 3 pills using fish or krill oil are not the best option as fish obtain their omega 3 from the algae and plant life they eat, they don’t produce it.

Help advocate for an end to the sale of products that are damaging the ocean. Let’s choose marine life over commercial profit.

There are four key components of the

Sea Shepherd Jolly Roger

The Yin Yang is a symbol, which shows how apparently opposing forces can actually interact and complement each other. Our Yin Yang is of a whale and a dolphin, which represents that we need to live in harmony with our environment. By learning from whales and dolphins and how they live in balance with each other and their environment, we can learn how to live with them. They depend on the survival of their ecosystems so they know how to look after their environment without impacting on it. They live within its means and take only what they need to survive. We must learn to do the same, if we want to save the oceans. 

Plastics

The ocean is filled with plastics, including dumped fishing gear, single use plastics and microfibers from plastic based clothing that go down the drain every time you wash them.  Reducing our use of plastics, whether this be single use plastics, fast fashion or everyday items, does help but we need to do more.

There are four key components of the

Sea Shepherd Jolly Roger

The Yin Yang is a symbol, which shows how apparently opposing forces can actually interact and complement each other. Our Yin Yang is of a whale and a dolphin, which represents that we need to live in harmony with our environment. By learning from whales and dolphins and how they live in balance with each other and their environment, we can learn how to live with them. They depend on the survival of their ecosystems so they know how to look after their environment without impacting on it. They live within its means and take only what they need to survive. We must learn to do the same, if we want to save the oceans. 

Plastics

To learn more, have a look at these lessons: 

 Polluting the Ocean;

Abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear,

 What pollution is impacting the Ocean, or

 Human Impacts on the Ocean.

There are four key components of the

Sea Shepherd Jolly Roger

Neptune’s trident, in roman mythology Neptune is the God of the seas and freshwater. He was said to carry a trident that could cause earthquakes, destroying and creating lands and renewing the oceans.  But a trident is also a weapon of war.  For us it represents our willingness to stand and protect the oceans and their inhabitants from harm and the need to defend them. 
Shepherd’s staff or crook. Shepherds are known for watching over and protecting their flock from danger.  As Shepherds of the Sea we are here to do that for our oceans; always watching and looking for areas where injustices or illegal activity is taking place and where species and ecosystems are under threat.

Actions:

Find alternatives for single use plastics.

Choose clothing that will last instead of fast fashion and plastic based fabrics.

Learn to repair and repurpose plastic items, if you can’t, make sure you recycle.

Join or create your own clean ups to remove plastics and debris from rivers, beaches and the ocean.  

DEFEND CONSERVE PROTECT

Sea Shepherd is a direct action organization, which means we take physical action to intervene and protect marine life, making an immediate difference to the oceans. There are three ways we do this, which is covered by our motto

DEFEND CONSERVE PROTECT

DEFEND
Sea Shepherd investigates and documents when laws to protect the world's oceans and marine wildlife are not enforced. We use innovative, direct actions to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas marine sanctuaries and in countries' sovereign waters through cooperative agreements with established law enforcement agencies.

Captivity is misery

After all these years people still believe that the captivity of marine animals for entertainment is acceptable.  That it is educational to keep dolphins, orcas, seals and many other species confined in small pools and train them to perform unnatural behaviour.  

These animals suffer every day. They are kept in unnatural environments, deprived of any of their natural enrichments and fed by trainers that demand they perform for their food. All for public entertainment and commercial profit.

CONSERVE

Working with law enforcement
Some of Sea Shepherd’s most successful campaigns were conducted in cooperation with international law enforcement agencies such as INTERPOL. We also regularly assist nations who are lacking the resources to defend their own coastal waters from IUU fishing, such as Liberia and Gabon in West Africa, and protecting marine sanctuaries from poachers in the Galapagos.

To learn more, have a look at these lessons Dolphin Captivity or Dolphins.

Actions

Refuse to support this cruelty and don’t visit facilities that keep marine wildlife.

Advocate for an end to captivity and the closure of these facilities.  

PROTECT

Direct Action

Despite our relatively small size and limited resources, Sea Shepherd’s campaigns have been effective because we use direct action to achieve results, instead of billboards, petitions or protest marches. Our ships, mainly crewed by passionate volunteers, have saved over 6000 whales from the Japanese harpoon ships in the dangerous Antarctic waters. We have stood up to seal hunters, hauled in miles of illegal fishing gear, and relentlessly chased one of the world’s most notorious poaching vessels for 110 days until they scuttled their own ship in defeat

Help create solutions

There are many issues impacting the ocean and while scientists and conservation groups work to tackle the issues and find solutions, there is still more that can be done.  Can you help create new innovations and ways to help protect the ocean ecosystem?

How would you solve issues like:

Abandoned and lost fishing gear (Ghostnets) - How can we track and locate commercial fishing nets, so they don’t become deathtraps?

Microplastics in the ocean – how could we clean the ocean of plastic?

PROTECT

Direct Action

Despite our relatively small size and limited resources, Sea Shepherd’s campaigns have been effective because we use direct action to achieve results, instead of billboards, petitions or protest marches. Our ships, mainly crewed by passionate volunteers, have saved over 6000 whales from the Japanese harpoon ships in the dangerous Antarctic waters. We have stood up to seal hunters, hauled in miles of illegal fishing gear, and relentlessly chased one of the world’s most notorious poaching vessels for 110 days until they scuttled their own ship in defeat

Help create solutions

How do we stop clothes shedding microplastics? How do we stop fibres going down the drain when we wash clothes?  Can

 we produce clothing that doesn’t shed fibres?

Plastic packaging – how do reduce what ends up in the ocean, or how do we encourage people to care more about the waste they produce and where it goes?

PROTECT

Direct Action

Despite our relatively small size and limited resources, Sea Shepherd’s campaigns have been effective because we use direct action to achieve results, instead of billboards, petitions or protest marches. Our ships, mainly crewed by passionate volunteers, have saved over 6000 whales from the Japanese harpoon ships in the dangerous Antarctic waters. We have stood up to seal hunters, hauled in miles of illegal fishing gear, and relentlessly chased one of the world’s most notorious poaching vessels for 110 days until they scuttled their own ship in defeat

Help create solutions

To learn more about the issues, 

have a look at these lessons:

IUU Fishing lessons 1-4, 

IUU and the law, 

Human Impacts on the Ocean, 

Overfishing the Ocean, 

Global Citizen 

Extinction of Species. 

Polluting the Ocean; 

Abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear What pollution is impacting the Ocean.

UP HOLDING THE LAW

From its earliest years, Sea Shepherd has embraced the mandate of the United Nations World Charter for Nature to uphold international conservation laws when nations can’t…or won’t.

Today, Sea Shepherd works with law enforcement agencies such as INTERPOL to help bring poachers to justice, and partners with national governments around the world to stop illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in their sovereign waters.

Where a law enforcement vacuum exists, Sea Shepherd acts to fill that void.

Raise awareness

One way to help Sea Shepherd protect marine wildlife is to become an advocate for the ocean and help raise awareness and lobby for change. 

Whether it be in your local community, school, region or country, there are ways to raise awareness of these issues.  

Create your own campaign for change using social media, local news, petitions for changes to laws, letters to businesses or lobby local politicians.

UP HOLDING THE LAW

From its earliest years, Sea Shepherd has embraced the mandate of the United Nations World Charter for Nature to uphold international conservation laws when nations can’t…or won’t.

Today, Sea Shepherd works with law enforcement agencies such as INTERPOL to help bring poachers to justice, and partners with national governments around the world to stop illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in their sovereign waters.

Where a law enforcement vacuum exists, Sea Shepherd acts to fill that void.

Raise awareness

Start by identifying the issue that you are concerned about – better protection for local beaches and marine life, more bins for rubbish, ban single use plastic products, stop the sale of krill oil, or encourage people to reduce fish consumption. 

 Research the issue and how it is impacting your local waterways / ocean / marine life or contributing to bigger issues like overfishing, plastic pollution or climate change. Check your facts carefully and document what is happening.

OUR FOCUS

IUU FISHING

While there are many issues impacting the oceans, Sea Shepherd's current focus falls under four main areas.
ILLEGAL, UNREPORTED AND UNREGULATED (IUU) FISHING

Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a global problem that threatens the health of marine ecosystems as well as the livelihood of coastal fishermen.

Legal fishing operations that observe quotas and by-catch laws are already forced to compete for fewer and fewer fish, yet an estimated 15-40% of the total global catch is caught illegally. The problem is particularly acute for nations that lack the resources to enforce local fishing laws, which is why Sea Shepherd works with governments like in Gabon and Liberia to make a real difference for the future of our oceans.

Prepare the message you want to share with everyone, outlining the issue, the cause, the impacts it is having and what could be done to make a difference.

Create the materials you need to support your action – infographics, posters, flyers, videos, petitions or letters.

If you are not sure how to do this, then you may ask friends to come on board to help you, or you can look for a local group that you can join.

The more people that become aware of the issues the ocean is facing, the more chance we have of making a difference and encouraging change.  

HOW YOU CAN BE PART OF THE MOVEMENT

Be part of the movement
-    Become an onshore volunteer – around the world Sea Shepherd local chapters are working on the ground to help raise funds and awareness of ocean issues. Visit our website to find your nearest chapter: https://www.seashepherdglobal.org/global/locations/
-    Join our ships crew – apply to volunteer on our ships and be part of our direct action campaigns around the world. https://www.seashepherdglobal.org/get-involved/volunteer-sea/
-    Join our volunteers and participate in beach clean ups or dives to remove ghost nets.

Visit our website to find out how to become a volunteer:

www.seashepherdglobal.org

Together we can create a movement for change that will have far reaching impacts.

www.seashepherdglobal.org