Sea Shepherd partners with many national governments and agencies to stop illegal fishing, providing an offshore civilian patrol vessel and crew to help authorities surveil their waters, control and inspect fishing vessels for illegal activities at sea, and to make arrests when necessary. Sea Shepherd covers all ship expenses, including the fuel, which costs us on average €3333 per ship each day on patrol. Your donations are what make these patrols possible.

Our most recent fundraising campaign – focusing on the hundreds of thousands of sharks we help protect on our illegal fishing campaigns – received a much-needed boost when longtime Sea Shepherd supporters Philip and Trix Wollen of Melbourne Australia made the amazing offer to match all donations up to AU$100,000 (EU€62,000).

To date, their generous gift has inspired more than 2000 supporters to take up the challenge, raising over €52,000 in under three weeks: that’s over €104,000 with the matching funds! As we approach the final fundraising deadline (until midnight January 31^st), we would like to give a heartfelt thanks to the Wollens for their continued dedication to Sea Shepherd’s mission!

A Message from Philip and Trix Wollen

Sea Shepherd is the most effective environmental organization on the planet today. Period. Why do I speak with such confidence? Experience……. My experience.

I have spent over 30 years in the social justice, animal rights, and environmental protection space. In the process, I have invested my own money in over 500 projects in over 40 countries. I have accumulated information, files and resources on the people, projects and terrain that would shame most libraries.

After 15 years of being actively involved in Sea Shepherd, I can vouch for their dedication, sincerity and effectiveness. They say what they mean, and they mean what they say. They are relentless. They are focused. They see the big picture – and study the small details. They focus on marine animal protection, but do not shirk the difficult confrontations on behalf of factory farmed animals. Needless to say, all the ships are vegan.

As a donor, I have a wide array of possible projects I can support. I constantly seek “bang for my buck” – by asking and measuring how many lives are saved, over what period of time, how scalable are the campaigns, how enduring are the victories, how teachable are the lessons. And most importantly, how trustworthy are the captains, officers, crews – and the growing network of land-based volunteers without whom Sea Shepherd would not exist.

Sea Shepherd under promises and over delivers on all these fronts. I urge every donor, big and small, to support Sea Shepherd. Trix and I are proud to have played some small part in its metamorphosis.

There is no organization like them.

- Philip and Trix Wollen

Follow-up February 1, 2019 -- Thanks to 3502 donors and the generous matching funds from Philip and Trix Wollen, our Shark Fundraiser was able to raise a total of €170,499! That means our ships have the funds to keep our ships on patrol an additional 51 days (for 85 total) in 2019, protecting sharks and other marine wildlife from illegal operators. We couldn't do this without you!

It's never too late to join the movement to save our oceans, donate now!