What Happened With Sea Shepherd?

Why, When, Where, Who and Where?

Note: Although I can mention Sea Shepherd Global directors, I am prohibited from referring to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (USA) directors for legal reasons. The SSCS Board sued me for trademark violations for the name Sea Shepherd and the logos I designed. Because of the enormous cost of defending myself from SSCS, I had to agree to a settlement, the lawsuit dropped in return for my agreeing to not be critical of any of the directors involved.

So where to begin?

In 2018, Leslie Chilcott began her documentary project WATSON.

Locky Maclean took the Martin Sheen to do Operation Clean Wavesat the Fanning atoll in the South Pacific to clear plastic debris and to work on coral reef propagation and restoration.

Sea Shepherd UK focused on Operation Bloody Fjords in the Faroe Islands and Operation Mjolnir to document illegal whaling operations in Iceland.

I sent a crew once again to Taiji for the Cove Guardian campaign.

Sea Shepherd France began Operation Dolphin By Catch and continued Operation Nyamba on the French territory island of Mayotte to protect Sea Turtles. 

Sea Shepherd Italy had Operations Siracusa and Operation Siso to stop poachers in the Mediterranean.

I organized a crew to oppose the killing of Sea Lions in the Colombia River called Operation Duwa.

Operation Jairo to protect turtles and our campaign in the Galapagos continued.

I sent the Brigitte Bardot to the Eastern Tropical Pacific to document illegal fishing operations in the waters off Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru called Operation Mamacocha.

We continued Operation Milagro in Mexican waters to protect he endangered Vaquita and Operation Virus Hunter in British Columbia to oppose domestic salmon farms and We established Operation 404to oppose the captivity of Orcas and Dolphins.

Peter Hammarstedt was working to create partnerships with African countries to patrol their waters for poachers. 

2018 was a very active year. I was President of the U.S. Board of Sea Shepherd and a Global Director, in addition to being a Sea Shepherd director for Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Brazil.

In 2018, thanks to the untiring efforts of my lawyer Abraham Stern, the case against me in Costa Rica was dismissed and they removed their Interpol Red Notice against me. Japan however continued to restrict my movements with their Red Notice. They refused to accept the affidavit by Pete Bethune that he lied about me ordering him to board the Shonan Maru #2 in exchange for a suspended sentence and time served.

In 2018, Omar Todd became my personal assistant and like every personal assistant that I had previously, this made him unpopular. Nobody likes the gatekeeper.

IN October, 2018 under my leadership, the Sea Shepherd global movement was extremely active. I heard rumors that Alex Cornelissen and Peter Hammarstedt were unhappy with my leadership but when I spoke with them, they denied there were any problems and assured me I had their 100% support. 

We had a Sea Shepherd Global meeting in San Diego, California to discuss campaigns attended by all the Global directors: Myself, Alex Cornelissen, Lamya Essemlali, Jeff Hansen, Geert Vons and Peter Hammarstedt. Once again, all the Global directors were in agreement with the objectives and strategies of the movement.

It was in 2019 that the problem really began. 

I had sent the Brigitte Bardot to Iceland to oppose the killing of endangered Fin whales. It was a successful campaign and when the ship arrived in Reykjavik, the whaling was cancelled. Peter Hammarstedt however complained that the anti-whaling campaigns were anti-Icelandic government, and this was a problem for him and his partnerships with African nations. He discussed with others, but not with me, that Sea Shepherd needed to be rebranded and that we should no longer be doing confrontations and controversial campaigns. He also discussed with others that, in his opinion, I should be removed from Sea Shepherd because I was a threat to his African government partnerships because of my controversial history.

One thing that I did discuss with Hammarstedt was the demand by his African partners to not fly our Jolly Roger and to paint the ships a dull grey instead of the razzle dazzle camo design I had placed on the ships. My concern was that governments should not be dictating the color of our ships and what flags we could fly. 

The African campaign also smacked of colonialism to me. White people going to Africa to show them how it’s done. African governments should be protecting their own territorial waters and not having an NGO doing it for them. The entire African operation was raising red flags for me. but I did not realize just how serious this concern would become.

In 2019 the Sea Shepherd USA Board consisted of myself as President and directors Rob Holden, Mike Galesi, Clementine Pallanca. I can’t name the other three. So, when I was on the Board it was four against three. When I was removed it became three to three. 

In July 2019 there was a Sea Shepherd USA meeting in Vermont. At that meeting Omar Todd announced that he had secured a one-million-dollar donation. Instead of congratulating him, he was accused of not going through the proper channels. I was shocked at the ingratitude. 

Writing this is difficult because we were sued by the Sea Shepherd Board in 2023. We were unable to afford the huge cost of defending ourselves from the suit and we were forced to settle and part of the settlement was that I could not be critical in any way of the directors of Sea Shepherd USA.

This means that I cannot use the names of the directors without a retaliation by a small army of lawyers with the claim that I have zero rights to the name I created or the logos I designed.

In 2019, the Board suggested that I step down as President and as a Director because my Japanese Interpol Red Notice was making it impossible to secure director’s insurance. I was assured that I would still be able to participate in the meetings, discussions, and decisions. To protect the other directors, I agreed to do so. I was assured that I would not be restricted. The President at the time said to me that if he ever did anything that I disagreed with all I had to do was ask him to resign. I had no reason not to trust him. He had been a longtime supporter and was instrumental in bringing me back from exile and regaining control of the previous Board that sought to bar me from involvement with Sea Shepherd.

Following this move, Sea Shepherd USA began to phase out Operation 404, the Cove Guardian program and Operation Virus Hunter.

A few people contacted me to warn me that there was talk about removing me. One person informed me that I had to be removed to protect Sea Shepherd from my unpredictable decisions. I was not overly concerned. It was my “unpredictable actions” that made Sea Shepherd the success that it became.

I was also told by the U.S. Board that I was indispensable and would always be the founder and leader of the Sea Shepherd movement.

Photo: The Sea Shepherd Global Board Meeting in San Diego on Board the Master and Commander ship Surprise. Left to Right Peter Hammarstedt, Geert Vons, Lamya Essemlali, Jeff Hansen, Alex Cornelissen and Paul Watson. Photo Credit: Yana Rusinovich Watson.

Four of these directors would betray me and unlawfully vote to oust me in a secret meeting in 2022. Only Lamya Essemlali remained loyal to our movement, it’s objectives and strategies.