Crowdsourcing in the name of the whales

Environmentalists and environmentalism have always depended on volunteers and donations for followers and funding. With the rise of the internet their span has broadened.

One of the organizations that has gained a lot through crowdsourcing and also crowdfunding is the marine wildlife conservation organization Sea Shepherd.

In the seventies Greenpeace was the dominant international player in environmental questions. But there were many other smaller organisations, which struggled to raise money and awareness. Among them was Sea Shepherd, who’s leader Paul Watson was a former member and founder of Greenpeace. But with the internet Paul Watson and Sea Shepherd have been able to reach a lot more people through both crowdsourcing and crowdfunding.

On their website you can both join their direct action campaign, shop clothes with their brand and donate money. They have also succesfully gained support from celebrities, and both Brigitte Bardot and Charlie Sheen have sponsored boats to the organization.

In the recent three months the Sea Shepherd has been campaigning against the whalehunt on the Faroe Islands, called Operation Grindstop. All the activists have been recruited on the website https://my.seashepherd.org/NetCommunity/SSLPage.aspx?pid=860. Sea Shepherd have also invited celebrities to the Faroe Islands, and the press conference with the actress Pamela Anderson was streamed on the internet to raise international attention.

Sea Shepherd has been active aginst the faroese whalehunt since 1985, but this is the first time there have been more than 400 activists on land as well as on the sea. Previous years they have campaigned with an old trawler, but this year they had five speed-boats, drones, one small ship, a trimaran and a lot of people on land.
Today Sea Shepherd has 72.338 followers on Facebook.