Freedom is Being Paperless in Exile 

Freedom is Being Paperless in Exile 

February 21, 2024

I think that one of the happiest periods of my life was my exile.

With my 2 passports and ID papers confiscated, I escaped from Germany, crossing two oceans and North America to board my ship the STEVE IRWIN off American Samoa, to voyage onward to the Southern Ocean to disrupt illegal Japanese whaling and cutting their kill quota by 90%.

With two Interpol Red Notices, 21 charges of contempt of a U.S. Federal court injunction, I could not return home. Hillary Clinton said she would extradite me to Japan if I returned, but when John Kerry became Secretary of State, he authorized my return to the States. Canada refused to allow me to return, although now that the Red Notices have been dropped it is probably safe to do so now.

For 14 months I could not return home, except I was home. I was at sea and never was I more free.

Sailing back from Antarctica on the STEVE IRWIN, switching to the BRIGITTE BARDOT in Tasmania to Rose Atoll, where I switched to the CARIBANA then onto Vanuatu, to Tonga, back to New Caledonia and to the Great Barrier Reef, to the Cook Islands and then to Hawaii and back to California to face my accusers in a Seattle Court.

It was an incredibly beautiful experience. Sharing the world with millions of seabirds, sea turtles, sharks, hermit crabs, whales, and dolphins. Spending days cleaning up plastic debris from remote beaches, living on coconuts and tropical fruits, walking for miles on deserted beaches, diving in azure blue waters amidst giant clams, sharks and forests of coral. Exploring the old leper colony ruins of Fantome Island, visiting Tongan communities and spending time with incredible local people.

I think that I never felt freer than when I was wanted by Japan for saving whales and by Costa Rica for saving sharks.

From August 2012 to October 2013 remains one of my most exciting and amazing 14 months of my life.

Thanks to all my crew that shared that adventure with me as we moved between the COLUMBUS (Trans-Atlantic) to the BRIGITTE BARDOT Trans-Pacific (twice) to the STEVE IRWIN (To Antarctica and Back to the CARIBANA. My memories of Rose Atoll, Ofalanga, Tasmania, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and the islands of the Great Barrier Reef will be forever embedded in my memories. The colors, the smells, the winds, the birds and the warm waters, the icebergs, penguins, whales and seals of Antarctica, the long voyages of twice transiting the water of the South and North Pacific and the crossing of the North Atlantic, of my brother Stephen helping me to slip ashore in Nova Scotia, aided by Farley and Claire Mowat, and leaving California with the help of John Paul DeJoria and Pamela Anderson. 

When I arrived in California, Robert Kennedy Jr came out to greet me. After that, I drove to Seattle for the trial where I was acquitted by Judge Peter Shaw, although the 9th Circuit Federal Court Judge Alex Kozinski reversed the acquittal and did me the honor of officially labelling me a pirate.

If I am lucky, I may be exiled again someday.

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