Five Year 12 Mossman High students set themselves a challenge before graduating. In their Studies of Society class, their task was to be active young citizens by setting about changing public perceptions about something they thought needed to be changed.

Students Riley Cox, Yasmin Stievano, Taylor Killeen, Freja Garde and Bronte Lowenstein selected Sea Shepherd, a not for profit conservation organisation whose mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.

Sea Shepherd Australia reports they use direct-action tactics to investigate, document and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the ocean.  Their aim is to work towards ensuring the survival and safeguarding of the biodiversity of our oceanic ecosystems for future generations.

Under the tutelage of their Studies of Society teacher, Elliot Davidson, the students believed Sea Shepherd was an appropriate topic for the group to investigate with an aim to alter the public’s perception.  Riley Cox explains the perceived misconception surrounding Sea Shepherd.

“Many stories have circulated that Sea Shepherd ram their boats into whaling boats which endangers the lives of people.  However this is simply not true.  This is probably the biggest misconception surrounding Sea Shepherd,” advised Miss Cox.

“Instead, Sea Shepherd drives their boats to the rear of the whaling boat “motherships” to make it impossible for the whaling boats to pull a whale on board.

“Sea Shepherd, whose boats are crewed by volunteers, go out to sea and stop illegal fishing, whether it’s over fishing, shark finning, whaling or catching dolphins.  They set themselves apart from from other organisations as they actually take action against illegal fishing, however they do so within the law,” she said.

Yasmin Stievano conducted a random online survey of 65 people which found that many people had a negative view of Sea Shepherd ascertained through the media.

“Trends in the data showed that people who did not approve of Sea Shepherds actions and wouldn’t support them had heard controversial stories about them,” said Miss Stievano.

However, the students found that many of those surveyed would be prepared to educate themselves further about who Sea Shepherd is what they do.

Taylor Killeen was focused on educating people about the true methods Sea Shepherd employs and what they actually support.

“We are spreading awareness and hoping to increase the amount of people that volunteer for the cause, by sharing their page on Facebook or buying their merchandise,” said Miss Killeen.

Freja Garde set about raising awareness via social media.

“By seeing if posting personal things on Facebook gains more likes than sharing links and stories regarding Sea Shepherd, I found that my Sea Shepherd posts were getting no where near the same attention as my personal posts,” said Miss Garde.

Bronte Lowenstein began engaging other students at Mossman State Hight School.

“I talked to the younger grades about Sea Shepherd and realised that not many younger people really knew who Sea Shepherd were at all, they hadn’t even heard of them,” said Miss Lowenstein.

Riley Cox focused on raising awareness and gaining media attention for their project and the cause and decided against fund raising.

“I think it was a good choice given where we live and the need to sustain our beautiful reef and marine life,” said Miss Cox.

“We were intending to do this task as a fund raising exercise however we decided against it and instead chose to simply raise awareness for the cause.

“Through our research and interviews we now have an idea of the most effective ways to raise money.  We can now pass this information on the next Studies of Society class, if they so wish to carry on with this task.” said Miss Cox.