South African Kite and Wind Surfers Rally to Support Sea Shepherd

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society very much appreciates the efforts of Sven ten Bokkel Huinink for taking it upon himself to organise a fundraising dinner of kite and wind surfing conservation activists at the Italian Club in Cape Town South Africa.

Thanks also to Sea Shepherd South Africa volunteers Nikki Botha and Jennifer Byrne for working with Sven to make the dinner a success with over 100 people in attendance.

The dinner was followed by a raffle and the guests spontaneously offered to auction off their raffle prizes instead of just accepting them as part of a winning ticket. A wind sail that could have been accepted for the price of a raffle ticket, was auctioned off by the winner for R1500. Another gentleman donated R500, and Sven bought 10 extra raffle tickets himself. In the end, R6930.00 was raised.

In choosing Sea Shepherd as their charity to support Sven posted the following message on his website:

The Sea Shepard. Huh? Who the frick are they? They go out and play hide and seek in the oceans with those darn Japanese and Norwegian whalers. They also escaped Cape Town harbor in the middle of the night because Thabo got a call from his Japanese counterpart giving them a bogus reason and chained them to the harbor wall! So those are guys who risk their lives for us.

Pictures of the event can be viewed: http://www.ikiteboarding.com/photos/sea-shepherd-dinner-pictures/30/default.aspx

And Sven's very creative dinner invite can be viewed: http://www.ikiteboarding.com/kiteboarding/news/76/invitation-opening-season-charity-dinner.aspx

Sea Shepherd working to forge strong alliances with the international surfing and diving community. We recognize that surfers, wind surfers, kite surfers, scuba divers, snorklers, and free divers are people of the sea who appreciate and understand the need to stand up and defend all citizens of the sea.