After thirteen years of loyal service as an iconic Sea Shepherd vessel, Sea Shepherd Global has made the heartbreaking decision to retire the Bob Barker. First built in 1951 as a whaling vessel, the Bob Barker has since spent 71 years at sea including time as a Norwegian Coast Guard vessel, an eco-tourism vessel and as a refueling barge before Sea Shepherd acquired the vessel in 2009. Thanks to the generosity of Mr. Bob Barker, Sea Shepherd turned a whaling vessel into an anti-whaling ship.
For six years, the Bob Barker chased the Japanese whaling fleet around the Antarctic continent. In one year, the hull plates buckled and steel rails bent, as Bob Barker sandwiched between an 8,000-ton floating whale slaughterhouse and a 5,000-ton refuel tanker, successfully preventing the former from bunkering, and forcing the whaling fleet to end their season early.
In 2015, the Bob Barker set the world record for the longest maritime pursuit in history, chasing the most notorious poaching vessel in the word, an internationally-wanted fishing vessel named Thunder, for 110 days, across three oceans and covering 11,000 nautical miles until the captain of Thunder, unable to shake Sea Shepherd, sank his own vessel to destroy the evidence on board.
That chase brought Sea Shepherd Global to West Africa, where the Bob Barker has assisted governments around the African continent to arrest dozens of illegal fishing vessels–each one of them a slaughterhouse shutdown—thereby saving countless marine creatures.
But the collisions and the heavy seas, the thinning hull and the ageing machinery, means that the vessel can no longer be operated safely. Therefore, Sea Shepherd Global has a responsibility to the safety of life at sea, and the marine environment, to retire the vessel permanently.
The captains and crews who have sailed on board the Bob Barker understandably feel sentimental about the ship. It’s been more than a home and workplace; it’s been a vehicle for change that has meant the difference between life and death for the animals we protect. Thank you, to all of the captains, crews, volunteers and donors, who kept the ship afloat and who stood their ground on the deck of the Bob Barker, on the frontlines of marine conservation. We also discussed the situation with Mr. Barker’s team and they understand our sadness, and the necessity of making hard decisions when lives are at stake.
It is out of an obligation to the animals we must save in the future—as well as a duty to our donors and supporters—that Sea Shepherd Global has chosen to sell the steel of the Bob Barker. The funds raised through that transaction will go directly into the campaigns that the Bob Barker dutifully carried out, thereby continuing the legacy of the vessel and extending the life of the initial donation that purchased the ship.
Because it was a former whaling vessel in its past life, the Bob Barker had a karmic debt to repay. At Sea Shepherd Global, we consider the debt repaid.
If Sea Shepherd had never acquired the Bob Barker, it would have been just another ship. It was not just another ship. Instead, it lived up to its noble mission.
Captain Peter Hammarstedt
Sea Shepherd Global Director of Campaigns