She has skidded across ice banks in home made snow shoes, been arrested for watching people kill seals, worked in an engine room, cooked hundreds of vegan meals and she is only 23.Bermudian Laura Dakin arrived back on the Island this week after two years aboard the Farley Mowat, a ship run by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS).

The organisation aims to enforce international conservation laws on the high seas where little law enforcement exists.Though she grew up on east coast of Australia her mother is Bermudian and Laura moved here when she was 19.She began working at the Robin Hood Pub and Restaurant and was quite happy living on the Island. But a chance meeting with crew members of the Farley Mowat caused a change of plans. (To see what Laura's life looks like now on board the ship go toThe Royal Gazette video link at www.theroyalgazette.com).

While the ship was doing maintenance on the Island in 2005 Laura befriended some of the crew and visited them on their last day here."I was down in Dockyard and I thought I should get a tour of the ship," she said. "When I was on I was talking with the crew and one of them suggested I join them for the seal hunt campaign. I went back to my place grabbed a few things, called some friends to tell them I was taking off and boarded the boat."It was a scary decision, I was nervous but it's been an incredible experience and I have learned so much in two years."Her first campaign with the Farley Mowat was off of Canada where it is still legal to cull thousands of baby seals. It is the largest mass slaughter of marine mammals in the world; in 2006 approximately 330,000 seals were killed during the hunt.Laura arrived in the frigid North Atlantic waters off of Newfoundland with only the clothes she packed when she left sunny Bermuda. To deal with the winter weather she borrowed from friends and attached screws to the bottom of her sneakers to make homemade ice cleats.The SSCS is known for taking direct action against those that break conservation laws but since the seal hunt is legal they go to document the event and inform the world about the practice.But Canada's Seal Protection Act actually outlaws filming or witnessing the hunt without a Government permit ; activists say the Government only issues permits to groups they do not see as a threat.The SSCS was not granted a permit and in 2005 Laura and several of her friends were arrested for watching the hunt."We were on the ice asking the hunters why they were doing this, asking them to stop, while some of our members were filming them killing seals," she said. "Then two Coast Guard helicopters appeared and we began running back to the ship."I was slipping everywhere because of my shoes when the helicopters cut some of us off from our ship and we were arrested."I wasn't scared because I knew I hadn't done anything wrong. I hadn't been violent; I was there asking people to stop being violent."She was taken to the mainland, convicted and fined $1,000. Since then Laura hasn't looked back. She has been involved in more than six campaigns around the world and has also spent time off the ship protecting forests. Though some critics of the SSCS have labelled crew members as radical for their hands on approach to enforcing laws Laura said they aren't: "How can we be eco terrorists? Aren't the people destroying the ecosystem the terrorists?"When people meet us they see we are not like that, we aren't violent and we have never injured anyone."Though she began her career on the ship in the engine room she soon began to assist a vegan cook on board and grew to love cooking. Now she is responsible for churning out three meals a day on land and at sea for a crew that can be as large as 40 people.

The ship is in Bermuda until February 2008 when it will leave to head north and start another campaign protecting marine wildlife. Laura will be taking a break abroad for two months but will return in the New Year to work on the ship and will join it when it leaves. She conceded that she can't imagine leaving the ;Farley Mowat anytime soon. "It will be very hard going back to a normal nine-to-five lifestyle. I don't think I could do it," she said. "Now that I know what is going on around the world it's hard not to want to do something about it."