Captain Paul Watson resigned from the Board of Directors of Sea Shepherd Australia in December 2022 because Sea Shepherd Director Jeff Hansen refused to answer his questions about the partnership between Sea Shepherd Australia and the Austral Fisheries Corporation.

Captain Watson said he was astounded that any Sea Shepherd group would partner with a Fishing company, especially a fishing company connected to commercial whaling operations.

Sea Shepherd Australia received donations from Austral Fisheries, bought a ship at a discount from Austral Fisheries and accepted a load of fuel for the ship from Austral Fisheries as a donation. Jeff Hansen has endorsed Austral Fisheries as a “Sustainable Fishery” and has participated in forums with Austral Fisheries CEO David Carter to mutually support each other. Hansen describes Carter as a friend and cycling buddy. When the ship they secured from Austral Fisheries the Allen Kay was launched David Carter was invited as a guest.

Following this partnership, Jeff Hansen began to complain about the “Watson Problem” and made unsubstantiated accusations against Captain Watson without providing any evidence, in fact the accusations were vague. He said that he had evidence that would damage Watson’s reputation but could not release the evidence because it would harm Captain Watson’s reputation to which Captain Watson told him to put up or shut up and if he had something to say e needed to say it. He never did.

In 1979, Captain Watson hunted down and ended the career of the notorious pirate whaling ship the Sierra. That ship was owned by Taiyo Fisheries of Japan which is now the Japanese company Maruha Nichiro.

This partnership with Austral Fisheries is supported by Sea Shepherd Global and Jeff Hansen is a director of Sea Shepherd Global. Global Sea Shepherd director Peter Hammarsted is also a director of Sea Shepherd Australia.

How can any true Sea Shepherd supporter continue to support a very compromised Sea Shepherd Australia?

Any Sea Shepherd entity supporting Global or Australia is complicit in this betrayal and unethical partnership. Yet except for France, the UK and Brazil, no a word of protest has been registered which indicates that these entities support the partnership between Sea Shepherd Australia and Austral Fisheries and Marua Nichiro Fisheries.

There can be no justification for this partnership. Austral Fisheries is now challenging the Australian government expanded marine protection area around MacQuarie Island. Sea Shepherd Australia has said nothing in opposition to Austral Fisheries and their opposition to the expansion of a marine protected area.

No justifications have been offered – just silence. They have all stuck their heads in the sand while holding up a sign saying, “Nothing to see here.”

Supporting Information with hyperlinks.

2007 – Maruha Nichiro Holdings is born

Maruha Corp, with its superior capacity in procuring seafood products, and Nichiro, whose strength lies in the development and sales of processed foods, joined forces in a merger to seek growth in the world’s food market.

Source: https://www.maruha-nichiro.com/who_we_are/2007_2018.html

Maruha Corp was originally called Taiyo Gyogyo KK (Taiyo Fishery Co.) They ran a large fleet of whaling vessels as well as a fishing fleet.

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The Shunyo-maru, later became a combined catcher/factory whaling ship, the MV Tonna, and was owned by Andrew M. Behr who also owned the whaling ship, Sierra. Behr and the Sierra were also linked to Japan’s Taiyo Fisheries Co. through a Canadian subsidiary (Taiyo Canada Ltd.) with whale products for the Japanese markets.

Source: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_Japan _________________________________________________________

“Perhaps the most egregious whaling crimes were practiced by Japan’s Taiyo Fishery Co. It got into pirate whaling in 1968 in a joint venture with Norwegian whaling interests. A former Dutch catcher boat, the AM No. 4, was converted to a combination factory ship/ catcher boat by adding a huge freezer compartment and a stern slipway for hauling whales aboard for slaughter. Renamed the Sierra, the pirate whaling ship roamed the North and South Atlantic for a dozen years, flying flags of convenience such as Bahamas, Somalia and Cyprus.

Taiyo operated many more pirate whaling ships in the 1970s and 1980s, including the Cape Fisher, Susan, Teresa, Paulmy Star No. 3, and the Sea Bird. All flew flags of convenience and were based in non-IWC countries. Ownership was hidden behind dummy companies in offshore havens. All had Japanese crewmen in key positions. All of the whale meat was shipped to Taiyo in Japan.

The Taiyo Fishery Co. changed its name to Maruha a few years ago. Notorious even within Japanese industry, it probably did so in an attempt to help cover up its crimes against the whales.

Source; https://savedolphins.eii.org/…/second-issue-of-eco… ___________________________________________________________________

Maruha Group Inc. is Japan’s leading importer and processor of seafoods, and a leading producer and processor of frozen, canned, fresh, and convenience foods. Maruha’s operations span the full range of seafood production, from managing its own fishing fleet, to extensive global fish purchasing and processing operations, cold- storage facilities, food production and packaging, and distribution, including restaurant operations.

Formed in the late 19th century, Maruha developed into one of Japan’s major whaling companies, under its former name of Taiyo Gyogyo KK (Taiyo Fishery Co.), and also built up one of the country’s largest fleets of trawlers. The worldwide moratorium on whaling forced the company to exit that industry, and the company has responded to increasing conservation pressures on the global fishing industry by reducing its own fishing fleet and relying instead on an international network of supply partnerships. Maruha also has established some 60 international subsidiaries.

The company re-entered whaling and fishing, boosting its operations with the 1955 acquisition of Nippon Kinkai Hogei, formed in a merger between three prominent Japanese whalers just a year earlier. The company also contributed to the rebuilding of Japan’s whaling fleet, once again targeting the Antarctic region. By the beginning of the 1960s, Taiyo was one of the country’s leading whalers, with its own fleet hunting whales in the Antarctic, supported by its own factory ship.

By the 1977 whaling season, however, the company fielded just four whalers. In support of the whaling fleet, though, Taiyo founded a new subsidiary, Nihon Hogei, which began processing and distributing whale meat to the Japanese market. By 1987, however, Taiyo had exited the whaling industry altogether, transferring the remains of Nihon Hogei to a new company, Kyodo Senpaku.

Taiyo changed its name to Maruha Corporation, and developed a new logo, in an effort to shake off its past as a whaling company and to emphasize its new focus as a major seafood importer and processor.

Source: https://www.encyclopedia.com/…/politics…/maruha-group- inc