April 30, 2023

Some people are asking me how I still feel about being ousted from Sea Shepherd.

Strangely, I feel relieved, motivated, and inspired.

The past is the past, our eyes are now on the present, and what we do in the present will define what the future will be.

Those who betrayed us took the ships, the name, and the logos, but they did not take the truly important things – the loyalty of so many supporters and former crewmembers, their passion and their courage, the virtues that made Sea Shepherd what it became, a powerful global movement.

Right now, some of these passionate and courageous people are completing the refit of our first ship – the JOHN PAUL DEJORIA. We are grateful to all the former supporters of Sea Shepherd that are now supporting the Captain Paul Watson Foundation. We are grateful to John Paul DeJoria for donating the funds to purchase the ship that now bears his name. 

We have accomplished so much in the year since I was forced out of Sea Shepherd. The Captain Paul Watson Foundation now has a 501(C)3 charity status in the United States and we are established in Australia. We have a perfect campaign ship with an experienced crew, an important campaign to protect whales, and we now have thousands of supporters.

I am also happy to have the continued loyalty of Sea Shepherd France, Sea Shepherd UK, Sea Shepherd Brazil and Sea Shepherd Hungary. France has been incredibly dynamic, ending the dolphin slaughter by the French fishing fleet and opposing poachers on the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte. The UK continues to actively oppose Icelandic whaling and the pilot whale and dolphin slaughter in the Faroe Islands plus engaging in ongoing marine debris and ghost net retrieval. Brazil now has a boat on the Amazon defending river dolphins. Hungary is small but supportive and loyal.

Back in 1977 when I founded Sea Shepherd, I had nothing but an idea and a strategy. The idea was to create a movement to protect and defend life in the sea and the strategy was “aggressive nonviolence.” This idea and this strategy made Sea Shepherd the most effective marine conservation force on the planet. 

I also set it up to be a movement of independent entities. That Sea Shepherd movement has been shattered and tainted but the idea and the strategy remain, and it will grow and be even more successful than ever. Names change, passion evolves.

Yes, Sea Shepherd US and Sea Shepherd Global are suing us. We are not suing them. They are suing to deny us the right to use the Sea Shepherd name and the logos I designed. However, we am not using the name or logos, nor do we have any intention to do so. Names change and logos can be re-designed. Sea Shepherd Global is suing Sea Shepherd France to deny them the right to use the name and logo but I am confident that Lamya Essemlali and her French crew will prevail.

My longtime friend the late Dave Foreman said when he was ousted from Earth First!, the organization he cofounded, “If you live in a mansion and the vermin move in, you will fight to defend the place but if you live in a Teepee when the vermin move in, you simply move on.”

I don’t have time to fight over names and logos when there is so much that needs to be done. I can understand Sea Shepherd France defending their rights because they have invested so much in being the most effective Sea Shepherd entity on the planet and I support Sea Shepherd France 100%. If Sea Shepherd survives at all, it will be because of Sea Shepherd France, UK, Brazil and Hungary.

A year ago, I was referred to in Sea Shepherd as the “Watson Problem” because I refused to submit to a policy of collaboration with governments and corporations. I refused to back off from confrontation and controversy, the very things that made Sea Shepherd so effective.

A partnership between Sea Shepherd Australia and a Japanese/Australian fishing corporation with Sea Shepherd supporting the myth of “sustainable fishing” is something that I could never have imagined Sea Shepherd would do. Taking pictures of industrialized krill trawlers in the Southern Ocean without intervention and calling it an Antarctic Defense Campaign was something that I would expect from Greenpeace, not Sea Shepherd. Scrapping boats and firing the most effective activists made no sense to me at all.  I learned many years ago that we cannot allow the past to shackle us. It is my intention to build up Neptune’s Navy into a global marine conservation enforcement organization and movement.

Most of the surface area of this planet is in a state of lawlessness. Illegal exploitation continues because there is no political or economic motivation to enforce these laws. What is the point of a High Sea Treaty without enforcement?

That is where we come in. We have been given a ship to sail into harm’s way to defend life, diversity, and interdependence and that is what we intend to do no matter the risks, the hurdles and the obstacles. 

To all of our supporters I would like to express our gratitude and appreciation for making us strong again. Thank you.