At Play it Green, 10% of everything we receive from our customers goes to a good cause of their choice, and we want to celebrate the amazing work that they do. Today, we look at one of our most popular charities, Sea Shepherd UK.
Sea Shepherd UK is a registered marine conservation organisation founded in 1977. Their primary goal is to end habitat degradation and illegal wildlife killing along the UK’s coastline and throughout the world’s oceans to conserve and safeguard marine ecosystems and species.
At Play it Green, we are incredibly proud to be supporting this cause. Along with overfishing, climate change and the amount of waste we produce are both having extreme effects on our ocean ecosystems. Solving this issue must play a role in repairing our damage to the planet.
But how exactly does Sea Shepherd UK go about accomplishing such a massive goal?
A part of this is using innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By safeguarding the biodiversity of our delicately-balanced ocean ecosystems, Sea Shepherd works to ensure their survival for future generations.
The charity also aims to achieve these objectives through research and public awareness, with their education site directed towards schools and families being one of the most recent examples.
All of their campaigns to defend marine wildlife or habitats are guided by the United Nations World Charter for Nature or other relevant national or international conservation laws, treaties, and regulations.
Sea Shepherd UK just last month received a huge $4.5mn donation from the Age of Union Alliance, a non-profit environmental organisation led by ex-CEO of Lightspeed, Dax Dasilva.
“I have long admired Sea Shepherd’s unyielding efforts to protect our planet’s most sacred oceanic ecosystems,” said Dasilva, “With these funds from Age of Union, we hope to help Sea Shepherd save the lives of endangered species, preserve their habitats, and support local communities disrupted by illegal poachers. We must continue to shine a light on the important work organisations like Sea Shepherd do to keep our waters safe for the prosperity of critical marine wildlife.”
According to Sea Shepherd, the donation will fund the operating costs of a 56-metre vessel for three years under the name of Age of Union.
Without the presence of a patrol vessel like Age of Union, industrial ships routinely illegally fish in local West African communities, robbing them of their food source. Fish is the number one source of protein for local communities in these areas: at least 33,000 people in Liberia and 200,000 people in Gambia depend on small-scale fisheries for their livelihood.
If you want to get involved and support Sea Shepherd UK more directly, you can look at their volunteering opportunities here. If you want to have an even greater social and environmental impact, you can support them while repairing the planet through reforestation and reducing your footprint with Play it Green.
