About Sea Shepherd

[Richard]

[Paul B]

Sea Shepherd is a non-profit, marine conservation organization that was founded in 1977 under the name Earth Force Society by Paul Watson, a founding member of Greenpeace.

Sea Shepherd engages in conventional protests and direct actions to protect marine wildlife. Sea Shepherd operations have included interdiction against commercial fishing, shark poaching and finning, seal hunting, whaling and dolphin slaughter. The group has been active in intervening against fishing and poaching in the South Pacific, the Mediterranean, and in waters around the Galapagos Islands. Sea Shepherd is also actively engaged in the protection of reefs as well as ocean clean-up of plastics. In 2008, Animal Planet began filming the weekly series Whale Wars based on the group's encounters with the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean, a development which brought the group much publicity.

Sea Shepherd currently operates the vessels MY Steve Irwin, the MY Bob Barker, the MY Sam Simon (donated and named after Sam Simon, co-founder of The Simpsons), the MV Brigitte Bardot and the MY Martin Sheen. In 2015 Sea Shepherd purchased two more vessels, one of which will be named Farley Mowat, after an earlier vessel that Sea Shepherd retired in 2008, and the other will be named Jules Verne, after the author of the novel 20000 Leagues Under the Sea. For the 2011/12 Antarctic campaign, Sea Shepherd used non-weaponized drone aircraft to assist in their surveillance of the whaling ships.

Sea Shepherd has received active support from numerous celebrities and businessmen such as entrepreneur Steve Wynn, television and film personalities including Bob Barker, Martin Sheen, Daryl Hannah, Pamela Anderson, Richard Dean Anderson, Sean Connery, Edward Norton, Pierce Brosnan, Christian Bale, Emily Deschanel, William Shatner and Heath Ledger. From the music industry Red Hot Chili Peppers, Leona Lewis and Rick Rubin.

[Richard]

Because charity matters…

Now that we have given you the impressive guest announcement for The Homecoming, please allow us to explain why all of these great people will be gathering in Vancouver next year.

Naturally they are coming to meet the wonderful fans that support them in all they do, but they are also coming along as special guests of Richard Dean Anderson and to help raise funds and awareness for Sea Shepherd.

Richard has been involved with Sea Shepherd for over 10 years and currently sits on the Board of Advisors. As well as lending his name in support of Sea Shepherd and its campaigns, he also took part in the protest against seal hunting alongside Capt. Paul Watson on the Canadian ice floes in 2005. Richard's involvement with Sea Shepherd is born from his concern over the destruction of ocean life and the efforts made by this group to help bring awareness to the world of the rapid decline in ocean ecology. Richard's desire in spearheading The Homecoming Sea Shepherd charity event is to help fulfil the objective of raising funds for their important campaigns.

"Given that most of the air we breath comes from our oceans, they truly are our life support system. However they are in deep trouble globally, due to over fishing, pollution and ocean acidification. The problems the world's oceans and our planet face can be overwhelming at times, however I know that with Richard, Paul Brown and team Gatecon, there is nothing that together we cannot achieve. For they are a part of Sea Shepherd, part of this movement to save the oceans, to save life and therefore they are part of our victories. For when we shut down whaling or an illegal fishing operation on the high seas, we collectively, Richard, Paul, team Gatecon and our crew on the frontline shut it down. Sea Shepherd's fleet would never be able to set sail without the help of people like you, keeping our ships out to sea in defence of the oceans!  See you all at this amazing event in September, 2016"
Jeff Hansen, Managing Director, Sea Shepherd Australia, Director, Sea Shepherd Global.

More information about Sea Shepherd can be found here: http://www.seashepherd.org.au

Although the Homecoming is a Sea Shepherd charity event, we have also invited Amanda Tapping's charity initiative 'Sanctuary for Kids' to join us. They will have a booth where you can learn more about their mission to improve the lives of children around the world who need protection – those who are exploited, dispossessed or threatened. The Gatecon/Legends team are fully supportive of this worthy cause and we welcome them to our event.

"Sanctuary For Kids is very much looking forward to being at the Gatecon Homecoming event with Legends in Vancouver next year. We will be bringing the S4K booth with the official merchandise and can't wait to meet you all there."

More information about Sanctuary for Kids can be found here: http://www.sanctuaryforkids.org

Gatecon was fortunate enough to be able to showcase the work of Sea Shepherd at our previous Richard Dean Anderson event in 2008 with special guest Captain Paul Watson present. The relationship between Sea Shepherd, Richard and Legends has been flourishing for many years with the three entities joining forces to help bring the work of Sea Shepherd to an ever-widening audience. In 2010, the Meet the Man event in Vancouver raised $100,000 for Sea Shepherd in a single weekend.

Legends founder Paul Brown made the following comments in discussing his role with Sea Shepherd, "When I commenced my charity activities with Richard Dean Anderson nearly 10 years ago, it was he who introduced me to Capt. Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd organization. Since that time, we have worked together to support this group and I am immensely gratified with the results of those efforts. I was also honoured to be invited by Paul Watson to join the Sea Shepherd Board of Advisors in 2008. I welcome the challenge of The Homecoming event to match or exceed the results from our Meet the Man event in 2010. With the participation of Richard and his many guests, I am confident in taking on this challenge."

We look forward to welcoming representatives from both Sea Shepherd and Sanctuary for Kids  to The Homecoming next September.

[Dr_LC]

It would be nice if there were disclaimers or statements indicating that ticket sales are for admission only, and that participation in the charities is strictly voluntary.  The way I'm reading through the website and this forum, there's so much Sea Shepherd stuff, it almost makes a regular GateCon patron seem like they're automatically in support of the sponsored charities.  Could there please be some clearly stated clarification in multiple places throughout the website indicating that donations to charities are voluntary only.  It would be nice to know that payments to attend GateCon are not automatically supporting a specific charity, or that registration is unwittingly enrolling the attendees into organization.

Thank you.

[Paul B]

Of course attendance at this event isn't 'enrolling' ticket holders into Sea Shepherd! Participation in charitable activities is purely voluntary....and the Homecoming event is no different. We have selected Sea Shepherd as a worthy cause that is helping bring people together for this event, both guests and attendees. In case you are not aware, ALL Gatecon and Legends events over the past 10 years or so, have been underscored with charity support and that will never change. Most attendees at our events are extremely supportive of our charity activities and embrace them willingly. The same can be said for the guests, every one of whom is coming to the Homecoming to help Sea Shepherd.

[Dr_LC]

Respectfully, all I'm saying is that the lines seemed somewhat blurred between the convention and the SSCS when I last visited the GateCon website.  I'm in favor of stars and fans supporting their favorite charity, and I see no problem with a Stargate convention hosting charities who wish to advertise at the event.  However, there's a big difference between hosting a charity, and "proudly supporting" a charity.  "Support" can include many things, such as monetary support, and "proudly supporting" could suggest a lack of neutrality with respect to a specific charity.  Asking for clarity about where the money goes from the cost of attendance is a fair question since Stargate fandom includes people from all walks of life, not just supporters of SSCS.  I hope that fact is recognized by attendees and staff alike.

Thank you.

[Highlander II]

Respectfully, all I'm saying is that the lines seemed somewhat blurred between the convention and the SSCS when I last visited the GateCon website.  I'm in favor of stars and fans supporting their favorite charity, and I see no problem with a Stargate convention hosting charities who wish to advertise at the event.  However, there's a big difference between hosting a charity, and "proudly supporting" a charity.  "Support" can include many things, such as monetary support, and "proudly supporting" could suggest a lack of neutrality with respect to a specific charity.  Asking for clarity about where the money goes from the cost of attendance is a fair question since Stargate fandom includes people from all walks of life, not just supporters of SSCS.  I hope that fact is recognized by attendees and staff alike.

Thank you.

I'm not one of the organizers, so I'm not speaking on their behalf, this is all me based on my previous attendances of Gatecon.

From past experience, the ticket prices for Gatecon go to pay for the venue hotel and guest appearance fees, etc - running a con is expensive.  All charitable donations/payments are done via other means - direct contributions or via the charity auction.