Sea Shepherd To Launch Chapter In Iceland

Sea Shepherd, an environmental activist group that has a long and storied history with Iceland, will be officially launching an Icelandic chapter next Tuesday.

The news was brought to light by a Facebook event, announcing that the launch will be held at Gaukurinn on October 16 at 18:00. The event, which will be held in English, offers the following:

“Please join us next Tuesday at Gaukurinn to officially launch the brand new Sea Shepherd Iceland! Our Icelandic team and our special guests Alex Cornelissen, CEO of Sea Shepherd Global and Lamya Essemlali, Chairwoman of Sea Shepherd France and Campaign Coordinator for Sea Shepherd Global will be there to answer all your questions!”

Sea Shepherd is no stranger to Iceland, especially given Iceland’s controversial policy of violating international law by hunting endangered fin whales. Sea Shepherd’s first and most notorious conflict with Iceland happened in 1986, when they sank two unoccupied whaling boats in Reykjavík harbour and sabotaged a whale processing facility in Hvalfjörður.

Since then, they have given Iceland special attention for its whaling practices over the years, to greater and lesser extents. In fact, Sea Shepherd has been a thorn in the side of Icelandic authorities to the extent that the government has labelled them a “terrorist organisation”, despite none of their actions ever harming whale hunters or putting them in danger.