May 1, 2023

Sea Shepherd Australia: Every day, our Sea Shepherd ships protect millions of marine animals from illegal exploitation and environmental destruction. We defend our ocean and its precious marine wildlife from illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, discarded fishing equipment and plastic pollution.

CPW: Somewhat of an exaggeration. Millions! Really. There is absolutely no proof of this. Busting a few small fishing vessels along the coast of West Africa where the poachers spend a few days in port, have their wrists slapped with a small fine and allowed to go back to sea does not translate into millions of lives saved, nor even thousands. 

Sea Shepherd Australia: The presence of a Sea Shepherd vessel is a clear and bright signal to illegal fishing operators; if they prey upon our ocean, they will be caught.

CPW: And after they are caught, they pay a small fine and back to doing what they did before. Last year Sea Shepherd France President Lamya Essemlali asked Global campaign Director Peter Hammerstedt to answer some specific questions about the Sea Shepherd Global African campaigns. Questions like, how many vessels detained and for how long and how much were they fined? Peter refused to answer and when Lamya pressed him, the Global Board dismissed her from the Board without a meeting or a legal vote. Like Captain Watson, she was informed of her dismissal by an email from the Global Board. There was no discussion and no legal vote. Since the African campaigns began, Sea Shepherd France gave some 8 million Euros towards ship operations. Lamya was in her rights to ask those questions.

Sea Shepherd Australia: Our ships have chased notorious poaching vessels across the oceans, covering thousands of nautical miles. We have removed kilometres’ of illegal gillnets, octopus traps, and ghost nets from our ocean, resulting in countless marine lives saved. These wins for our ocean are only possible because our vessels are strong and ocean ready. 

CPW: In 2015, Sea Shepherd chased the poaching vessel Thunder for thousands of miles. It was a great campaign and ended the career of that notorious vessel. In 2017 Gary Stokes chased a Chinese fleet of poachers and  brought them into Timor Leste, where they were detained for 9 months. That was the last really successful anti-poaching campaign by Global. Instead of thanking Gary Stokes for such a good job, the Global Board, without Captain Watson’s vote, fired Gary Stokes. Since the partnerships with some African nations, Sea Shepherd campaigns have been controlled by the African partners. They must approve media releases, they dictate the color of the ships and what flags can be flown. The Sea Shepherd Jolly Roger flag is not allowed to be flown on the African campaigns at the demand of the government partners. The nations should be patrolling their own waters with the funds provided to them for that purpose by the IMF and World Bank, funds that are pocketed by the politicians while Sea Shepherd provides resources in return for raising funds for the campaigns. In short Sea Shepherd has been compromised. Everything they do with these partnerships is subject to approval from their government partners.

Sea Shepherd Australia:  Today I am reaching out with an urgent request for your help. Will you please consider a tax-deductible donation of $55, $75 or if you able, $140?

CPW: Why not be honest and say money is needed to help fund the civil lawsuit against Sea Shepherd France? Jeff Hansen is a Global Director and one of the four that initiated the lawsuit to shut down Sea Shepherd France. The question Sea Shepherd Australia supporters need to ask is what percentage of funds raised are being spent of lawsuits against other Sea Shepherd groups. 

Sea Shepherd Australia: Our newest vessel, theAllankay,purchased late last year in Australia, is a 55-metre former long-line commercial fishing vessel. Before her maiden voyage in February, our dedicated volunteers completed only the most critical modifications to theAllankay.Time was running out and we needed to reach the Southern Ocean before the end of the krill fishing season. And what we witnessed broke our hearts. We found two supertrawlers bulldozing through a megapod of fin whales and chinstrap penguins, literally stealing the food from their mouths.

CPW: Purchased at a discount from Austral Fisheries. Austral Fisheries CEO David Carter is a cycling buddy of Jeff Hansen, and they have appeared on media shows patting each other on the back in defense of so called “sustainable” Fisheries. Great deal for Austral Fisheries. They get to sell an old ship not capable of going more than 10 knots, when all our experience over the years is that speed, range and hull strength are the most important requirements. The purchase of the ship came with a big donation of fuel from Austral Fisheries. The maiden voyage of the Allan Kay was from Australia to Africa, not to Antarctica. The voyage to Antarctic waters was called Operation Antarctic Defense except there was nothing being defended. The voyage was a picture taking and video safari. The statement about supertrawlers bulldozing through a pod of fin whales and penguins is pure fantasy. Fin whales and penguins are faster than these krill exploitation trawlers. The word defense means to defend, not to take pictures. There was no attempt to block the ships, to snag their props or to cut their nets, no attempts to stop them at all. Documentation is important but it is not direct action. The Allan Kay was much slower than the krill trawlers and was not the ship to send on that campaign. They should have sent the Ocean Warrior.

Sea Shepherd Australia: After her journey to Antarctica, the Allankay is back in dry dock and she urgently needs to have Phase II of her critical refit requirements completed. Her next campaign will be combating illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing in the waters off the coast of West Africa. Every day she remains in dry dock, is another day poachers can illegally plunder our ocean for their own gains.

CPW: Sea Shepherd Global has two other ships doing this same campaign, the Ocean Warrior and the Age of Union. With two ships on patrol already, how are the poachers continuing to plunder the Ocean?

Sea Shepherd Australia: Once the remaining essential modifications are complete, this vessel, previously designed to take marine lives, will be metamorphosised into a ship whose sole task is to protect those lives. But we can’t complete the transformation without the help of our passionate and dedicated supporters. I am asking today, will you consider a donation today of $75?

CPW: What they are saying is they need your money to sue Sea Shepherd France, to pay Jeff Hansen’s inflated salary and to support the Sea Shepherd Australia’s growing bureaucracy. There is no way all the money in the world is going to make that old trawler any faster than it is now.

What is truly appalling is that Sea Shepherd Australia is in a partnership with Austral Fisheries which is 50% owned by Marua Daichiro, a major Japanese fishing company and former whaling company. This is why Sea Shepherd Australia is not opposing Austral Fisheries’ objections to the expansion of the marine protection zone around Australia’s MacQuarie Island.

What this letter is actually saying is:

Together suckers, we can complete the critical scope of works required to get our newest vessel back out so it can pretend to be on the frontline of ocean defence as soon as possible.

The rather slow moving old Austral Fisheries trawler is now pretending to save life in the Ocean through direct inaction and misleading bogus misinformation. Back on the Frontline? It’s never been on the frontline.