Sea Shepherd ditches direct action for cooperation

A RECENT press statement took me by surprise. Lloyd’s Register Foundation (LRF) announced a grant to Sea Shepherd Global, to develop and expand its programme sponsoring female maritime cadets from Africa onboard its ships.

Sea Shepherd? Sea Shepherd! Wait a minute. Isn’t that the group that spent years carrying out very controversial, and dangerous “direct action” against whaling ships from Iceland, Norway and especially Japan?

Even staunchly anti-whaling voices baulked at supporting Sea Shepherd’s tactics. What has changed?

I needed to catch up and spent a while trawling Google for Sea Shepherd. It seems it is a very different body now. It works with – instead of against – governments, and its focus is now on illegal fishing rather than whaling.

Apparently there has been an acrimonious split between the founder of Sea Shepherd, Paul Watson, and the current board of directors of what is now known as Sea Shepherd Global. According to reports, Watson is planning to build a new body that will revert to his old direct-action methods.

Meanwhile, the organisation he founded is on a very different course. Since 2016, it has moved away from confronting whaling fleets and has worked in partnership with the governments of Gabon, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome and Principe, Tanzania, Benin, Namibia, and Gambia to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

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Sea Shepherd Global provides the use of civilian offshore patrol vessels to African coastal and island states “so that authorities can enforce fisheries regulations and conservation laws in their sovereign waters”, it says. And it adds: “To date, the unique partnerships have resulted in the arrest of 86 vessels for illegal fishing and other fisheries crimes.”

LRF’s grant will allow four cadets to join the crew onboard Sea Shepherd Global’s vessels. They will be paired with a dedicated chief engineer or bridge officer to complete their log book, allowing them to sit their examination for a certificate of competency.

According to the International Maritime Organization, today women represent just 1.2 per cent of the global seafarer workforce. The recent Global Maritime Trends 2050 report produced by Lloyd’s Register and LRF, however, estimates that the use of more advanced technologies and systems, plus extensive reskilling and training programmes, will pave the way for women to take on more roles on land and at sea.

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This means women could make up a quarter of global seafarers by 2050. Perhaps, but that raises the question of why would anybody want to go to sea anyway – which is an issue for another day.

The report also predicted that African seafarers could eventually provide some 30 per cent of seafarers working on the global commercial fleet.

Currently though, LRF said, women around the African continent still face substantial barriers in obtaining the sea time needed to attain the professional qualifications necessary for employment. Sea Shepherd Global says that it is committed to equipping under-represented seafarers with professional seagoing experience, by upholding the highest industry standards in safety, crew welfare and training onboard.

According to the statement, LRF funding will enable Sea Shepherd Global to develop future collaborations with groups such as Women in Marine Africa, Women in Marine East and South Africa, and the Female Seafarers Association of Nigeria. By expanding this programme, Sea Shepherd Global will create opportunities for former cadets to mentor new ones from their home countries.

“Sea Shepherd Global is proud of its four-year history of partnering with women maritime professionals around the African continent to promote marine conservation, while helping advance the careers of some of the world’s least represented seafarers in the marine space,” said Sea Shepherd Global’s director of campaigns Peter Hammarstedt.

“The initiative is the result of connections made between Sea Shepherd Global and African Women in Maritime during the Africa Blue Economy Forum organised by Mrs Leila Ben Hassen in Tunisia in 2019, and its further development and expansion is now possible thanks to the generous support of Lloyd’s Register Foundation.”

Bea Aguera, Sea Shepherd Global’s crew coordinator, said: “Crewing agencies in West Africa either don’t exist or can’t compete with the more established and dominant ones in Indonesia and the Philippines, where the recruitment system is more developed. It’s also harder to get a visa, and travel can be more expensive.

“Unfortunately, gender discrimination is prevalent throughout the maritime world, including in developed countries. At Sea Shepherd Global’s crewing department, we’re committed to breaking down gender barriers in the maritime world. This partnership with Lloyd’s Register Foundation reflects this commitment.”

Sea Shepherd Global also benefits from the arrangement, by having locally trained cadets onboard, with first-hand experience in ocean conservation measures combating IUU fishing.

Olivia Swift, senior programme manager at LRF, said: “Governments, regulators and the private sector need to work together to remove barriers of entry into the maritime system, increase diversity, and aid the just transition for all demographics in the ocean economy. I’m excited by Lloyd’s Register Foundation’s initial collaboration with Sea Shepherd Global, and looking forward to seeing how our funding will make a real difference to Africa’s female seafarers.”

I suspect Watson might demur, but this is, albeit in a small way, a real good news story. There is a gradual realisation that global fish stocks must be protected, and just how much ecological damage IUU fishing is causing. Furthermore, boosting the prospects of female cadets from Africa is in itself a good thing. Sea Shepherd Global’s current approach is to be welcomed on both counts. (But let’s not forget about the whales.)