May 23, 2023

Just putting this out there, but has anyone heard from any of these guys about why they did what they did?

Since last summer I have sent them messages – No Response. I have challenged them to a public debate – No Response. Lamya Essemlali has challenged them to a public debate – No Response. She has messaged them – No Response.

I would love to know why Jeff Hansen partnered with SS Australia with Austral Fisheries and the Japanese fisheries corporation Maruha Daichiro? He refused to explain it to me when I was a Director of SS Australia. I was ousted from the Board of SS Australia for insisting on an answer. Has anyone in Australia heard the reason why? Why has he been doing media with Austral Fisheries CEO David Carter (his cycling buddy) in support of “sustainable fishing”. Why is he accepting donations from fishing companies?

Lots of questions Jeffie – no answers.

I would like to know why Geert Vons is claiming that he created and designed the logos that I commissioned (the classic logo) and the Jolly Roger logo and flag that I created. I’ve asked him but he refused to answer. I have sent him evidence of his deception, but he has not responded.

I would like to hear from Peter Hammarstedt on how he can justify betraying me after all that I did to mentor him from deck boy to Captain? I sponsored him into the Explorer’s Club at his request and two years ago, I even bought a brick for $2500 with his name on it for the terrace at the Explorer’s Club Terrace. I trusted Peter. Why did he vote to dismiss me from the Global Board without allowing a meeting, a discussion or a vote? 

I would also like to know why he refused to answer valid questions from Lamya Essemlali about the African campaigns and when she insisted, he still refused to answer, and the other three Global Directors unlawfully dismissed her from the Board without a meeting, a discussion, or a vote, for insisting on answers.

 I have asked him why he scrapped the Bob Barker and then made a goodbye history video to the ship without mentioning that it was I who arranged the donation to buy and secure the ship, and it was I that gave him the position of captain? Not a word for the last 10 months after knowing him and working with him since 2005. He told someone that the “Watson Problem” had to be solved, and from what I understand that means my dedication to controversial and confrontational campaigns and my insistence that SS should be a movement. 

Finally, I would like to ask him why he organized, led, and took a ship to the Southern Ocean to oppose the exploitation of krill and call it Operation Antarctic Defense when it was simply a picture taking excursion that blocked nothing and stopped nothing, Why the word defense? There was no defense.

I would like to ask Alex Cornelissen why he betrayed me. He joined as a cook in 2002 and I made him Mate and Captain and entrusted him to coordinate SS Global. I never micro-managed him and stood by him. With SSCS he told me he had my back and once I was ousted from SSCS, he struck a deal with SSCS and voted unlawfully to dismiss me, informing me by email without even the decency to call me in person. Have not spoken to him since. I would also ask why is he spending so much donor money on lawyers to sue SS France in an attempt to shut down the most effective and dynamic SS group on the planet?

Alex, why did you and Peter tell me in April 2022 that you hated PS, the property developer, you could not work with him and never would work with him? And then you did work with him against me.

These four men have seized absolute control of SS Global and have changed the entire philosophical structure and focus of SS without any transparency, without informing supporters as to why?

Surely some people have heard their reasoning, heard their justifications. 

After 45 years of leading the organization I created, I think I should have the right to some answers and explanations.

I think that many SS supporters are unaware of the betrayal and lack of transparency, most likely because of the intentional lack of transparency. Lamya and I have been 100% transparent. We answer questions and we are willing to meet with, debate with and negotiate with these four men seeking to control all of the Sea Shepherd movement outside of the USA.

I suspect that the strategy they are playing is to not respond, to say nothing and to hope it will all blow over and be forgotten. I think they believe that by removing my name, picture and history, supporters will forget that I ever existed.Last year Alex Cornelissen told Lamya Essemlali that people had already forgotten me, and when they do talks or meet with groups, no one asks about me and that I was no longer an important part of the movement. “Peter is the new face of the movement.” Alex said. “Paul needs to retire.”

They will have some time to wait if they are waiting for my retirement.

But I do have one thing that I am grateful for, and I should thank them for.

Because of what they did, I have no choice but to return to sea and to confrontations on the high seas to protect life and diversity, to protect whales and dolphins. I can’t let my life’s work be discontinued by people who are afraid to carry it on, afraid to take the risks. I can’t let them destroy the movement so many of us created. They have chosen compromise and inaction, mediocrity and cowardice.

We will carry on taking the risks, accepting the challenges, and giving our all, to protect life in the sea with the absolute understanding that we cannot retreat from action, because the harsh truth is that when the Ocean dies, we all die.

 And the Ocean is dying. That is the big picture and that is our reality and every day that is our call to action.