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Regular readers know it's usually me (Rebek) who does our interviews about conservation and the environment. However, when we ran into Richard Dean Anderson in the carpark at the Vodafone Events Centre during Armageddon, and he agreed to chat to us about his work with Sea Shepherd, my young cousin said he would just die if he couldn't do the interview.

Of course, I let him, and Ferhad Junior nearly exploded with excitement to talk to General Jack O'Neill about Captain Paul Watson! We sat down with him at our human friend Helen's apartment - which has some of the best views in Auckland.

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I carnt Bleave U aggreed 2 talk 2 me, this is so eggsciting, I loved U in Stargate SG-1, and ur human showed me sum MackGuyvirr from the Dark Ages when she was young, and that was waaaay cool, and then I find out that U R a big sipporta of Sea Shepherd, just like Xavier Rudd, and now here U R talking 2 me and ...

RDA: You should probably breathe. Deeply.

(Ferhad Junior took a quick breath at this point, and then gushed on again, much to Mr. Anderson's amusement.)

Rite, yes, so sorry ... as a HUGE fan of Xavier Rudd, ov course I no about Sea Shepherd, and problee most Kiwis no about the organizashun, cos their on the tele all the time here, and Pete Bethune is a Kiwi, and I intavuwed him once about Earth Race, and he let me go on bord, and he was way cool but not as cool as U ar of course, he coodint fix Earth Race when she broke with some duck tape, and U cood hav, and ... and ...

(At this point Kaz stepped in and calmed Ferhad Junior Down a little bit. He's only young, but we were a bit worried he might have a heart attack. She made him take 10 deep breaths before continuing.)

So, wot about the rest of the world? Do U think people ovaseas R awhere of who Sea Shepherd is and wot they do?

RDA: Our word is getting out slowly but steadily. Pamela Anderson is new to the group, not that new, but she's become an active, vocal participant in the cause. A variety of other people are getting involved, like Martin Sheen who recently gave us a big chunk of money.

U come from Minisotah. Theirs not a lot of sea around their.

RDA: No, but we have 10,000 lakes ... well … there's actually 11,000 but they don't want to change the license plates. That's a lot of water.

Wow, that's a lot of lakes. How did U get innvulved with Sea Shepherd?

RDA: I was at a fundraiser event held in Alaska. I'd never heard of Sea Shepherd, or Paul Watson, and he was the beneficiary of the monies that we garnered that weekend. I love Alaska so I made a beeline up there, jumped in, and became a part of the event itself.

I sat down and listened to Paul Watson give a speech, one that he had given before, but he was so passionate that the hook was set in me. There was nothing I could do to avoid following this man, and that's pretty much what happened. I'm still following him.

Wot happinned after U attendid that event?

RDA: I became friends with Paul and he asked me to be on the Board of Directors, which I was for a while. Now I'm not, because I just couldn't devote as much time as they needed me to, so I'm an advisor.

Wow! Does that mean U advize Captain Watson on wot 2 do?

RDA: No, no, it means I'm out there selling the word, and hoping that people will, at some point, either log on to the Sea Shepherd website, or stop into the booths at different events, concerts, and conventions, like this one, and get some information to see what Sea Shepherd's all about.

Can U tel humans who don't no much about Sea Shepherd wot they do?

RDA: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is an international non-profit marine wildlife conservation organization whose mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world's oceans, to protect ecosystems and species.

      
(L-R) Richard Dean Anderson chats with Ferhad Junior; RDA holding the stage at Manugeddon in Auckland, New Zealand; RDA proudly supporting Sea Shepherd at a charity event.

Y do U think its so importint for Kiwi 2 take an intrist in Sea Shepherd?

RDA: You live in the ocean, you guys!!!

Can U tell me about sum of Sea Shepherd's campains?

RDA: We have campaigns that go down to the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, where we've been trying to shoo the Japanese out for illegal whaling. We have a variety of other campaigns around the world, for various different animals, although so much of it just deals with the ocean. That was my initial attraction, the things in the water.

Wot can humans who R intristed in learning more about Sea Shepherd do?

RDA: Log on to Sea Shepherd and have a look. There is some pretty gruesome video there, we chronicled some of the campaigns of the slaughters, that's all you can call them, of dolphins and whales, that just made me sick, but it's important people know what's going on.

Save the Oceans Award

Richard Dean Anderson earns a Save the Oceans Award from Little Peppe & Friends for the amazing work they do in Kenya.

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT RDA AND SEA SHEPHERD

www.seashepherd.org
RDA's official website: www.rdanderson.com
RDA's official Twitter account: www.twitter.com/andersonrdean
RDA does not have a Facebook account. Anyone who says they are RDA on Facebook is a lying, nasty, evil human!

THANX HEAPS to Kate R. from www.rdanderson.com for helping me with this intavuw.

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