October 1, 2023

This week Peter Hammarstedt, one of the directors suing Sea Shepherd France, did an interview in Switzerland where he put a few spins and lies into his responses. I’m going to address specifically the lies and twists that he uses to justify his betrayal of the Sea Shepherd movement, Sea Shepherd France and myself.

Interview in The #impertinent (Switzerland)

The Impertinent: Sea Shepherd has been accused of working with Austral Fisheries, fishing industries in Australia. Is it true?

PETER HAMMARSTEDT: No. We do not work with any fishing industry, only with governments and their fishing enforcement authorities, or national park authorities, the Coast Guard and the Navy.

At the time of the hunt for Thunder, this legal Australian fishing company came to the site to show its moral support for our operation. But we do not have a partnership with Austral Fisheries. We bought a ship from them to transform a fishing boat into a boat that works for conservation and I think it’s awesome.

Concerning Austral Fisheries, there is also the case of the death of a fisherman on a trawler in the northern territories of Australia. His family took the company (Austral Fisheries) to court and it was ordered to donate $50,000 to charity. The family chose Sea Shepherd as their beneficiary. Austral Fisheries was therefore forced to give this money to our Australian branch, but it was an order from the courts. That’s where this rumor comes from.

CAPTAIN PAUL WATSON: When he says that Sea Shepherd Global, which includes Sea Shepherd Australia, does not work with any fishing company, he is not being truthful. It is not a rumor. Specifically, Sea Shepherd Australia is partnered with Austral Fisheries, an Australian company 50% owned by the huge Japanese fishing corporation of Maruha Daichiro, formerly the notorious Taiyo fishing corporation. Sea Shepherd Australia Director Jeff Hansen is a cycling buddy of David Carter the CEO of Austral Fisheries. Together they have done joint interviews promoting “sustainable” fisheries. David Carter with his connections with the Australian Liberal party assisted Sea Shepherd Australia in securing charitable tax-deductible status in Australia. Austral Fisheries has given Sea Shepherd Australia donations on a few occasions including a large donation of fuel for the ship Austral Fisheries sold to Sea Shepherd Australia at a substantial discount. When I questioned this relationship as a Board member of Sea Shepherd Australia, I was told to resign from the Board after they refused to answer my questions. Sea Shepherd Australia, of which Jeff Hansen the Australian director is a Global Board member, is very much in a collaboration with Austral Fisheries. When Peter says the $50,000 fine imposed by the court was to be given to Sea Shepherd Australia, he says it was because it was the wish of the family, when in fact it was the wish of Austral Fisheries. I know because I was a director of Sea Shepherd Australia at the time.

The Impertinent: Paul Watson was fired from the Sea Shepherd board of directors . Supported by the French, Ukrainian, Brazilian, Hungarian and Caledonian branches, he launched Sea Shepherd Origins, then his own foundation. According to Lamya Essemlali, President of the French branch, the emblematic founder was ousted because he would now be considered too extreme and would oppose partnerships with governments. What about it?

PETER HAMMARSTEDT: Paul Watson has supported collaboration with governments throughout his career. Twenty years ago, he established a partnership with the Galapagos Natural Park during which Sea Shepherd worked with local rangers. In 2016, he supported work with West African authorities. The archives demonstrating this are still available on social networks. It was only in the last year that he began to become critical of this approach, but this had not been the case in the past.

I wish him nothing less than good luck in the work he is undertaking against the whalers in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. However, my position is that the greatest threat to whales today is not their direct fishing, but industrial fishing which kills 100 times more of these specimens per year as they are caught in fishing nets, just like dolphins. In my opinion, we must focus on the major causes.

I think the conservation movements have everything to gain from the fact that there are more and more of them.

CAPTAIN PAUL WATSON: Now this is really twisting the facts. Yes, I worked with governments in the past. In fact, I initiated Sea Shepherd working with governments beginning with the Galapagos in Ecuador in 1999 and with Mexico, and Trinidad also. The difference is that we were independent of these governments. They did not approve our media releases, they did not tell us what flag we could fly or how to paint our ships like Global is doing now with their drab grey ships and refusal to fly the Jolly Roger flag that I designed. They did not give us rules to abide by, like these African nations are now doing with Sea Shepherd Global. Sea Shepherd France donated some 9 million Euros to the Global African campaigns when both Lamya Essemlali, the President of Sea Shepherd France and I were directors. After they unlawfully dismissed me from the Global Board, they dismissed Lamya for continuing to demand answers to her questions about the African partnerships. I did support the African campaigns because I was given false information. The questions we asked that they refused to answer, included asking Peter Hammarstedt was about what the status is of the boats they intercepted, how long were they held, what were the fines, were there convictions. They did not answer because interceptions make for dramatic video but most of the vessels received a slap on the wrists and were released and most of the intercepted vessels were relatively small. Lamya and I came to the conclusion that the African campaigns were not cost effective and there was too much secrecy and a total lack of transparency on the part of Peter Hammerstedt. Sea Shepherd France and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation are engaged in opposing super trawlers, not small fishing vessels. Sea Shepherd Global has not engaged a single super trawler. Peter wants to make it appear that we are just involved with whaling and saving dolphins. He does not mention our turtle campaigns or the fact that we are opposing the horrific dolphin kill by the French trawling fleet. We have real campaigns with real results. Peter has smoke and mirrors. Stopping the killing of endangered Fin whales is a major cause. Stopping the slaughter of over a 1,000 pilot whales a year is a major cause. Peter wishes us good luck accompanied by a lawsuit to seize control of Sea Shepherd France. That’s a hell of a way to say good luck.

The Impertinent: Yet you took the French branch to court to prevent them from continuing to use the name Sea Shepherd as well as the famous pirate flag, the Jolly Roger, representative of your cause?

PETER HAMMARSTEDT: Due to ongoing legal events, I cannot comment further on this situation. All I can say is that the work of Sea Shepherd Global has not changed. These are always direct actions. I am currently on a boat in Germany and we are preparing to remove an illegal fishing net from the seabed and then release the animals trapped there. Our work continues and our donors expect no less from us.

It’s still the same work that Paul has been very enthusiastic about in the past, both publicly and privately.

CAPTAIN PAUL WATSON: I was enthusiastic based on what I was being told but when Peter refused to answer our questions, we insisted on the answers and without a meeting, a discussion or a vote, Lamya Essemlai and I were both removed from the Global Board and informed by e-mail. And here he uses the excuse of ongoing legal events meaning his lawsuit again Sea Shepherd France. We also have an extensive campaign to remove ghost nets and to rescue animals caught in nets by out Foundation in the UK and by Sea Shepherd France and Brazil, programs far more extensive than what Sea Shepherd Germany calls direct action but at the same time we are undertaking real direct action by physically challenging the killing of pilot whales in the Faroes, the killing of whales in Iceland and confronting armed poachers on the beaches of Mayotte to protect sea turtles. Removing a net from the seabed is not direct action and hardly confrontational. The Captain Paul Watson Foundation routinely removes ghost nets and at the same time opposes whaling.

The Impertinent: You have publicly declared that you want to change the image of Sea Shepherd. Do you also deny it?

PETER HAMMARSTEDT: Sea Shepherd’s image is that of the most effective marine conservation organization in the world. I don’t see how the actions of the Paul Watson Foundation are any different: they photograph and document what is happening in the Faroe Islands, in Antarctica, in order to draw public attention to these causes, just like us. We share the same values.

We continue our work and we still have the same flag flying on the mast of our German ship.

Captain Paul Watson: That was the image, not anymore. Sea Shepherd Global has moved mainstream becoming less confrontational and less controversial. How is the Captain Paul Watson Foundation different? The difference is confrontations and controversy like our recent incursion into Faroese waters to disrupt the killing of pilot whales. We do not share the same values because out values do not include hijacking what someone else created. Our values do not include taking orders from governments and greenwashing their corruption.

PETER HAMMARSTEDT: In the Watson documentary broadcast in 2019, Paul Watson is very enthusiastic about working with governments. His current comments are therefore very different from those he made a year ago.

Captain Paul Watson. Yes my comments are different because the method changed, working with governments is one thing, working for governments is quite another.

The Impertinent: Do you know why?

PETER HAMMARSTEDT: It’s not for me to say, I prefer to focus on the work we do rather than Paul’s personal problems. I prefer to talk about what really matters. All of this diverts attention from our cause.

CAPTAIN PAUL WATSON: Once again he refuses to answer questions and makes a snide reference to me having personal problems. My only problem is that there was a hostile takeover and Peter Hammarstedt, Jeff Hansen, Alex Cornelissen and Geert Vons, all people that I trusted and mentored and gave them their positions betrayed me, they betrayed Lamya Essemlali and they betrayed the principles of the Sea Shepherd movement.

The Impertinent: Do you still understand that it is important for donors and potential future members of the NGO to understand what is happening with this split?

PETER HAMMARSTEDT: Of course. But Sea Shepherd’s communication does not wish to comment on these issues, it wants to stick to talking about the work we do. We owe it to our donors and to the animals. We do not get involved in controversies on social networks. That’s not what we’re for. The oceans have nothing to gain.

CAPTAIN PAUL WATSON: Who the hell is Sea Shepherd’s communication. The question was asked to him and it is he who refused to communicate. He owes an explanation to all the Sea Shepherd crew, volunteers and supporters that he betrayed. He owes an answer to me and yet since the day I received an email dismissing me from the Global Board, he has refused to respond to me preferring to address the issue by ignoring me hoping everyone will forget what he did to advance himself in an organization he did not create. He says he owes no explanation to donors, many of whom no longer support Global. Saying he owes it to the animals is simply an attempt to distract from his betrayal of Sea Shepherd’s principles, strategies and tactics. He referred to me as the “Watson Problem” because according to him I was too controversial and too radical for the rebranding of Sea Shepherd into a more mainstream organization. At no time has Peter or the other three directors who seized control of Sea Shepherd Global ever explained why they dismissed me and Lamya Essemlali and why they abandoned the tactics that made Sea Shepherd so popular.

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