June 5, 2023

Last summer when Sea Shepherd France President Lamya Essemlali told Sea Shepherd Global director Alex Cornelissen that I was forming the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, Alex laughed and said, “Right, who’s going to organize that? Omar Todd? Good luck with that!!”

Alex told Lamya that I was no longer the face of Sea Shepherd, that he and Peter Hammarstedt were the new face of Sea Shepherd. “When we go to events, no one knows who Paul Watson is anymore.” He said….

Alex completely underestimated us.

His dismissal of Omar Todd was based on his contempt for Omar. Alex supported the firing of Omar from SSCS in 2021 by Pritam Singh. Why did he dislike Omar? One simple reason. His loyalty was to me and not to them. 

The firing of Omar Todd was mystifying. Omar had organized the websites, many marketing campaigns, donation drives and social networks for Sea Shepherd Australia, U.K. and the USA from scratch. In one specific occasion, he personally raised a million-dollar donation for SSCS and other times hundreds of thousands of pounds for Sea Shepherd UK and Sea Shepherd Australia through events, getting Sea Shepherd into Comic Cons and various marketing drives. More importantly he made sure Sea Shepherd for many years was never hacked, that all our emails and websites and donations systems were protected. 

I remember when Omar secured a million-dollar donation and the reaction from Pritam Singh was not gratitude but anger that he had raised the funds without getting prior approval to approach the donor, and not going through proper channels to secure the donation. He was told to turn over the donor contact info and not to contact the donor again. That was the last time that donor made a donation.

It was all about control and in their efforts to control every facet of Sea Shepherd operations, he was fired along with others like Captain Locky MacLean.

Locky was the best Sea Shepherd captain we had, but his loyalty to me resulted in his dismissal for refusing to comply with demands by Pritam Singh to refrain from controversial actions. Locky had not signed an NDA. He was told if he wanted to keep his job, he had to sign the NDA. He signed and right after he signed, they fired him.

My objections to the firing of both Locky and Omar were ignored because in 2019, I was removed from the SSCS Board. Directors that supported me were replaced by people I did not know, people who had never served on a campaign or on a ship, people who were there to vote for whatever Pritam Singh wanted them to vote for.

I remember when Pritam Singh and James Costa told me they were going to fire Locky. I objected and said I could not support that. James Costa said, “It does not matter, the decision is ours and we’re going to fire him.”

Who is James Costa? Good question. He never sailed with us or participated in a campaign. Just another rich guy wanting control.

When I said that Board directors are not supposed to micro-manage, the reply was they were in control, not me.

In June 2022, when I refused to follow the decision by Pritam Singh to change the strategies and tactics of Sea Shepherd and to refrain from controversial and confrontational actions, only two directors supported me. Both were immediately dismissed.

Pritam Singh called me an “employee” who needed to do what I was told. I was offered a substantial amount of money to shut up and do nothing but to be a silent and complying figurehead for an organization that I no longer had any control over.

He began scrapping and selling ships. He covertly had filed trademarks on the name I created and the logos I designed, and then threatened Sea Shepherd Global to submit to his authority or he would take them to court for trademark violations. I asked the Global directors to stand with me and to resist his demands. Their response was to send me an email dismissing me from the Global Board. There was no meeting, discussion, or vote. The only Global director to oppose this decision was Sea Shepherd France director Lamya Essemlali . She was also dismissed from the Global Board without an explanation.

Fast forward ten months and here we are. The Captain Paul Watson Foundation has been established. We have a ship, a loyal crew, strong support and we are making ready to oppose illegal whaling in the waters between Iceland and Greenland.

And here’s the kicker. This would not have been possible without Omar Todd, Locky MacLean and Lamya Essemlali.

Omar organized the structure, set up the administration (Small non-bureaucratic and efficient). He applied and secured all the paperwork and tax status, set up the fund-raising structure, the websites and socials, in short did the work of a dozen people to get us where we are now just like he did when SSCS has a injunction from Japan back in 2012 and he set up Sea Shepherd Australia’s entire technological infrastructure to continue the campaign all in just 2 weeks so there was no disruption to Sea Shepherd operations.

Locky found and secured the new ship, organized the refitting and recruited the crew and brought the ship from the UK to New York city for final preparations for the campaign.

Lamya helped to finance the campaign and is challenging the illegal actions of the Sea Shepherd Global Board. She is also working to help organize future campaigns for the John Paul DeJoria.

These three people, Omar, Locky and Lamya made it possible for me to reorganize, restructure and to return to action.

In addition, the support of the Rob Read and the directors of Sea Shepherd UK, Nathalie Gil and Carolina Castro, and Sea Shepherd Brazil has been immensely helpful. We are working to partner with Brazil to get a boat on the Amazon and the U.K. is leading the effort to oppose the Icelandic whalers on land in Iceland.

It is extremely satisfying to have a truly passionate and committed action team once again. 

We will make every effort to keep manipulative infiltrators from ever again taking control of who we are and what we do.

We have survived the coup, out maneuvered the mutineers and once again we are back and 100% in control of our actions.

Photo: Some of the many people who made it possible for us to make ready for the campaign this summer.

Left to Right: Locky holding my son Murtagh. Angus and Mara and Candice Lamya on my right, my son Tiger on my left with John Paul DeJoria and his wife Eloise. My wife Yana behind me and Omar behind her and my nephew Shawn behind Omar.