After a 50-day, 8,000 miles voyage from Melbourne, Australia, along the remote coastline of Antarctica, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat will be arriving in Cape Town harbour in the afternoon of January 24, 2006. From there, the ship will move to Hout Bay. Starting on Saturday, the vessel will be open to the public for tours between the hours of 9am to 4pm. For visitation information contact: southafrica@seashepherd.org

A major motion picture based on the life of Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson is in pre-production with shooting slated to begin in August of this year in and around the Cape Town area. The film is being produced by Pieter Kroonenburg of Kingsborough Pictures, which is based in Beverly Hills, CA.

"We are looking forward to spending some time in South Africa," said Wessel-Louis Jacobsz, a crewmember from Johannesburg. "While waiting for filming to start, we intend to research the South African fur seal trade to investigate the threats the species faces from human activity and encroachment. We will be working closely with Francois Hugo of Seal Alert-SA on this project."

Many of the 43 crewmembers from twelve different nations will be departing Cape Town to return home after an extraordinary voyage to intercept illegal Japanese whaling activities. Due to this, there will be many volunteer opportunities available. South Africans are welcome to apply for positions ranging from diesel engineers, welders, electricians, deckhands, galley, and more. For more information visit www.seashepherd.org/volunteer/volunteer.html or 
e-mail crew@seashepherd.org. 

During the last six weeks in Antarctica, the Farley Mowat intercepted the illegal Japanese whaling fleet four times and chased the whalers over 4,000 miles. The whalers spent 15 days running from Sea Shepherd and no whales were killed as the fleet attempted to put as much distance between the whalers and whale defenders as possible. During one confrontation the Farley Mowatsideswiped the Japanese whaling fleet supply vessel Oriental Bluebird and ordered it to leave from the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society plans to return to Antarctica in December 2006 with a faster long-range vessel. "We discovered that when we can catch them, we could stop their whaling activities. If we can secure a faster ship we will be able to shut them down completely. We will be making every effort to secure a faster ship so that we can return and intervene more effectively against their illegal killing operations," said Captain Paul Watson.