November 22, 2023

Last weekend, our ship the John Paul DeJoria paid a brief visit to Bremen Germany prior to departing for the Ocean Killers campaign against super trawlers.

Our visit was well received and despite the rain we welcomed many visitors. It was also our opportunity to announce the formation of Captain Paul Watson Foundation Deutschland.

One group, however, was quite upset with our visit.

Yesterday I received the following message from Sea Shepherd Germany director Manuel Abrass:

I have to inform you, that the Board of Directors from Sea Shepherd Germany voted for your exclusion. You will no longer be a member of Sea Shepherd Germany. 

.

Reason: 

You gave your name and permission for the founding of the Captain Paul Watson Foundation Germany. This is a conflict of interests and also damages our association. 

PW: Of course, this is not the real reason.

Last August 23rd I was informed there would be a meeting to discuss my dismissal as a member of Sea Shepherd Germany, something that the directors of Sea Shepherd Global were insisting upon. I agreed to attend. The meeting was scheduled for September 6th, 2023. I was given a Zoom link.

September 6th at the appointed time I clicked on the Zoom link. The link informed me that I am not allowed to join.

I sent the following message:

So, as I understand it, you legally have to invite me to this meeting where you want to tell me that you are dismissing me from Sea Shepherd Germany but it appears you don’t actually want me to participate because your link will not allow me to join. 

Unless I am allowed to join this meeting, I don’t believe any decision to dismiss me is legal. Not that I am surprised considering Global dismissed me by email without a meeting, a discussion, or a vote of all six directors.

Captain Paul Watson 

Manuel Abrass responded with this message:

Hey Paul,

the meeting is cancelled, I’ve send a mail yesterday. Our treasurer Nico is sick. But without treasurer…no meeting!

You all will receive a new invitation when we have found a new date for it.

Best

Manuel

I never did receive a 2nd invitation for a meeting. Instead, I received this message yesterday saying I was dismissed for conflict of interest:

Morning Paul, 

I have to inform you, that the Board of Directors from Sea Shepherd Germany voted for your exclusion. You will no longer be a member of Sea Shepherd Germany. Reason: You gave your name and permission for the founding of the Captain Paul Watson Foundation Germany. This is a conflict of interests and also damages our association. 

According to our statutes you have the right to call for a meeting with all voting members, there you can make a statement and have a voting against our decision. To succeed, you need a 3/4 majority.

Apparently, Sea Shepherd Germany directors Alex Cornelissen, Jean-Manuel Leonardi, Tim Aldermann, Nicolai Duda und Manuel Abraas had the meeting and I was not invited and they decided to dismiss me. 

Not that it makes much difference since Sea Shepherd Germany banned me from commenting on the Sea Shepherd Germany Facebook pages a year ago and then blocked all comments on their pages.

It was an illegal dismissal, and I could sue but I’ve more important things to do, like building support for the Captain Paul Watson Foundation in Germany.

Today, Sea Shepherd Germany posted this on socials:

Sea Shepherd Germany hereby announces that the Board of Directors unanimously excluded Paul Watson as a voting member from the association Sea Shepherd Germany. (PW: It was not unanimous because I was not invited or allowed to defend myself or to vote, in fact over the last year as a “voting” member I was never allowed to vote on anything.)

Abrass continues: Due to the creation of the Captain Paul Watson Foundation by Paul Watson, which pursues the same goals and interests as Sea Shepherd Deutschland e. V., a simultaneous membership of Paul Watson in both organizations is not possible due to the conflict of interests that arise from it. 

PW: (What they are saying here is that no Sea Shepherd Germany member can support the Captain Paul Watson Foundation or myself. They are also saying that I as the founder of Sea Shepherd and the designer of the Sea Shepherd logos, that I have a conflict of interest with what I created without explaining what that conflict is. They also say that my Foundation pursues the same goals and interests as Sea Shepherd Deutschland. So, if that is true as they claim, where is the conflict of interest? What is a conflict of interest is Sea Shepherd Germany and Global partnered with the seal killing government of Namibia and with the Austral Fisheries Corporation of Australia and the Maruha Daichiro fishing company of Japan. It seems my opposition to these collaborations is the real conflict of interest. 

On Another note, my Foundation does not pursue the same objectives as Sea Shepherd Germany because my Foundation along with Sea Shepherd France and Brazil are standing fast in support of the values, objectives and strategies of the Sea Shepherd movement whereas Germany and Global have radically departed from those values and objectives with their collaborations with government and industry.

Abrass continues: As announced before, we would like to point out again that Sea Shepherd Germany is not involved in or financially supported in any form of legal disputes between Paul Watson, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, Sea Shepherd Global or Sea Shepherd France. Sea Shepherd Germany will continue to not participate in the public discussion and debate and will focus exclusively on our work to protect the oceans, as we have done all this time.

(PW: Amazing they have very publicly ousted myself and very publicly continue to support the four mutinous Sea Shepherd directors that ousted me and who are suing Sea Shepherd France. They also do not allow any comments on their socials so as to keep Sea Shepherd Germany supporters uninformed.)

Abrass continues: We will also in the future fully support the campaign approach of Direct Action and the protection of the oceans. It’s this approach that has made Sea Shepherd the most successful marine conservation organization.

We thank Paul Watson for his work.

(PW) they are thanking me for the strategies and approach that I initiated and yet they are condemning me for continuing to advance the very same philosophy that in fact did make the Sea Shepherd movement the most successful marine conservation movement (not organization) in the world. With the exception of Sea Shepherd France and Brazil, Sea Shepherd Global that Sea Shepherd Germany supports is now just a shadow of what we were.

The absolute lack of respect and decency of the Board members of Sea Shepherd Germany is shameful and cowardly. They refused to allow me to defend my position and instead chose to cancel me without proper explanation or transparency.

To all the Sea Shepherd Germany supporters who visited our ship the John Paul DeJoria in Bremen this last weekend, please take note that according to Sea Shepherd Germany, you are not allowed to support the Captain Paul Watson Foundation. We on the other hand would never impose such a dictatorial rule.

Sea Shepherd Global and Germany directors hold the opinion that people will forget, and they can move on. But how can such a betrayal of the objectives of our movement be forgotten? Do these directors really think our supporters are that shallow and stupid? They can continue to call what they do “direct action” but these are just words, words not backed up with real action but rather by just rhetoric and misinformation.

These Sea Shepherd Germany directors along with the four Global directors are an absolute embarrassment to the Sea Shepherd movement.

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