Australian Greens spokesperson for Healthy Oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, has paid tribute to Sea Shepherd’s flagship the MY Steve Irwin, following its retirement, announced today after a decade of defending the oceans.

Greens spokesperson for Healthy Oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, provides the following comments on the decision by Sea Shepherd to pull out from their Southern Ocean mission to protect whales from slaughter.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “Make no mistake, thousands of whales are alive today because of the efforts of Sea Shepherd putting themselves in front of harpoons in the Southern Ocean.

“Only recently it has been reported that whale numbers have rebounded and Sea Shepherd can take some of the credit for this.