December 19, 2023

I will never forget the betrayal that ousted me from the Sea Shepherd movement I founded in 1977.

In August 2022, I was unlawfully dismissed from Sea Shepherd Global. There was no meeting, no discussion, no vote. Sea Shepherd Global had six directors including myself and Sea Shepherd France President Lamya Essemlali. Lamya was not invited to the meeting because they knew she would support me. The meeting was held in secret.

They dismissed me with an e-mail on September 2nd, 2022. They did not have the decency to speak with me. A few months later they dismissed Lamya Essemlali also without a meeting, a discussion or a vote when she questioned the fact that they had made decisions on partnerships without the knowledge of her or myself as directors.

Tomorrow, December 20th a Dutch court will rule on the legality of our dismissals.

They have never informed Sea Shepherd supporters as to why they dismissed me. They hijacked the Sea Shepherd movement in order to take total control of something they never created, and to claim ownership of the flag and logo designs that I created. They seized the ships, the list of supporters and all the assets.

I was referred to as the “Watson Problem” an considered too radical, too controversial and too confrontational, and this was posing a problem for their newly acquired corporate donors like the Allianz Insurance Company, Austral Fisheries of Australia, Maruha Daichiro Fisheries of Japan, the Dutch Postal Code Lottery, The Lloyd’s of London Insurance companies and their partnerships with corrupt African governments like Liberia and Namibia and their relationship with the Israeli Security firm Yamasec.

You just need to follow the money to see how the world’s most aggressive and effective marine conservation movement was commandeered by four men to change the course towards the non-controversial mainstream.

Four Sea Shepherd entities have remained loyal to the original values, objectives and strategies of Sea Shepherd: (1) Sea Shepherd France. (2) Sea Shepherd Brazil. (3) Sea Shepherd UK (4) Sea Shepherd Hungary.

Since my dismissal from the Global Board, I was dismissed from the Sea Shepherd Australian Board for questioning the relationship with Austral Fisheries. I was dismissed from Sea Shepherd Germany without any explanation and Sea Shepherd Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Belgium blocked me and refused to respond. I am still a member of the New Zealand Board where they simply ignore me despite the fact that Lamya Essemlai and I provided them with a patrol boat.

What is particularly egregious is that I mentored all four of these men and I proved them with the opportunities to be leaders. But in the end it was comfort and job security that guided their treachery. 

These four: (1) Alex Cornelisson of the Netherlands (2) Peter Hammarstedt of Sweden (3) Geert Vons of the Netherlands and (4) Jeff Hansen of Australia.

In September 2022, I was forced out without compensation, without access to my ships, assets and support list. As such these treacherous four believed I would just fade away and disappear as they removed my history from Sea Shepherd websites.

Alex Cornelisson told Lamya Essemlali that people would forget me because I was no longer relevant.

Since September 2022, we have secured our first ship and we have a strong working relationship with Sea Shepherd France and Sea Shepherd Brazil, and Sea Shepherd UK has changed their name to the Captain Paul Watson Foundation UK.

Thanks to the supporters of France, the UK, Brazil and Hungary, and thanks to thousands of people who were appalled at what these four deceitful men did, and thanks to hundreds of former veteran crewmembers, we are recovering, rebuilding and reorganizing and we will continue to fight for our clients in the sea and we will continue to be confrontational, controversial and radical.

Sea Shepherd Global may very well carry on with the support of their corporate supporters but they have lost their heart and soul, their passion and their courage and they are just a mainstream organization that has hijacked a name and a flag they did not earn nor deserve.

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