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Sea Shepherd is currently based in Friday Harbor, Washington, in the United States, and has a fleet of two ships, the Farley Mowat and the Sirenian. Major operations include interdiction against whaling in Antarctic waters, patrols of the Galapagos Islands, and action against Candian seal hunters. Sea Shepherd has an affiliated organization in Canada called ORCA Force.

Sea Shepherd engages in a number of provocative actions to protect marine wildlife such as seals, dolphins and whales. These have included more conventional protests, as well as, at times, such actions as armed boardings of foreign-flag vessels in international waters, scuttling and sinking of fishing boats engaged in illegal fishery operations, acts of sabotage against vessels in harbor, ramming the illegal whaling ship the Sierra in the Portuguese harbor, and the confiscation and destruction of illegal driftnets at sea. Sea Shepherd has also conducted an intense media campaign against Japanese high seas whaling and the Canadian sealing industry in particular.

Sea Shepherd bases its actions on claims to be engaged in international maritime law enforcement under the United Nations charter. Sea Shepherd is supported by private donations and operated by volunteers and paid staff, including two of its founder's wives. Critics, however, including its targets consider Sea Shepherd to be operating outside the law, harassing their lawful fishing and resource extraction operations, and some critics call the group a pirate or even a terrorist organization.

In the course of these operations Sea Shepherd associates have been threatened, taken prisoner, and tried for commission of crimes on the high seas including maritime piracy, usually with little success. Paul Watson, the founder of the group, was arrested in 1993 in Canada on charges stemming from actions against Cuban and Spanish fishing boats off the coast of Newfoundland. In 1997, Watson was convicted in absentia by Norway on charges of sinking a Norwegian whaling ship, but Dutch authorities refused to hand him over to Norwegian authorities. Costa Rica filed attempted murder charges against Watson for an incident after he caught a Costa Rican fishing boat poaching, but charges were dropped after prosecutors were shown a film of the incident that was shot by a team making a documentary of Sea Shepherd. Several nations including JapanJapan (, Nippon/Nihon literally "the origin of the sun") is a country in East Asia situated on a chain of islands east of the Asian continent on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. The largest of these islands are, from north to south, Hokkaido , Honsh have pressured the United States to declare Sea Shepherd a terrorist organization. Controversial animal rightsAnimal rights is the viewpoint that animals have rights and are worthy of ethical consideration in how humans interact with them. Overview Animal rights is the concept that all or some animals are entitled to possess their own lives, and that animals are activist Rod Coronado, who has had numerous legal problems stemming from his activism, got his start in activism with Sea Shepherd, where he participated in one of Sea Shepherd's best-known and most controversial actions, the scuttling of two ships from IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is an island nation in the northern Atlantic Ocean, located between Greenland and Scotland, northwest of the Faroe Islands. Lydveldid Island ( In Detail) (Full size) National motto: none Official languageNone. Icelandic de facto''.'s whaling fleet while in port in 1986.

Despite their frequent legal troubles in various nations, Sea Shepherd currently has working agreements with several countries including EcuadorThe Republic of Ecuador is a country of South America. Republica del Ecuador ( In Detail) National motto: Libertad y Orden ( Spanish; "The peace and wellbeing, the glory and triumph" Official language Spanish Capital Quito Largest City Guayaquil President, Costa RicaThe Republic of Costa Rica is a republic of Central America. Remarkably for the region, Costa Rica has stood as a bastion of stability and democracy since the minor civil war of the late 1940s that brought President Jose Figueres Ferrer to power. In fact,, Trinidad and TobagoFor other uses of the word Trinidad, see Trinidad (disambiguation). The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is a nation located in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Venezuela. It consists of two main islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and many smaller i, and IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia the world's largest archipelago, is located between the Southeast Asian peninsula and Australia, between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Indonesia borders Malaysia on the island of Borneo ( Kalimantan in Bahasa Indonesia), Papua N to help those countries fight poaching, and has worked against poaching in cooperation with the United States government in the past.

In addition to his controversial actions, Paul Watson is known for making provocative statements to the media which have given his critics plenty of ammunition against him.

Sea Shepherd has many critics, but also many outspoken supporters including actors Pierce BrosnanPierce Brendan Brosnan OBE (born May 16, 1953) is an Irish film actor and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of the James Bond character in four films: GoldenEye Tomorrow Never Dies The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day''. He is credited w, Martin Sheen, Sean Penn, and William Shatner, environmental activists Dave Foreman and Farley Mowat, and the late writer Edward Abbey. Corporate sponsors include Bombardier Recreational Products (maker of Ski-doos, snowmobiles, and ATVs).