October 19, 2023

Today I had the great honor and pleasure to be part of the official launch of the Sea Shepherd France vessel The WALRUS. This vessel commissioned and custom built for Sea Shepherd France is fast, efficient, and outfitted with cameras to document every action in a campaign.

This vessel is named for my lifelong friend David Garrick also known as Walrus. Sadly, David passed away earlier this year on Vancouver Island, Canada. 

Walrus was an incredible environmental activist, a respected archeologist and anthropologist and a world-renowned expert on magic mushrooms. By expert, I mean it was Walrus who discovered that certain symbols on the Aztec calendar for which there was no explanation were in fact indicators of the season magic mushrooms could be found.

His greatest contribution as an anthropologist was his extensive research and studies on culturally modified trees. This involved dating trees that had planks removed in the distant past for the building of long houses for the First Nations peoples of the Pacific Northwest.

Native peoples once removed planks from living trees so as not to kill the tree. As the tree grew, it was possible of determine by the rings, the year that the planks were removed. In this way Walrus was able to provide credible evidence of Native habitation going back hundreds of years prior to European colonization. This provided valuable evidence in land claims litigation.

Walrus and I volunteered to serve with the American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1973 during the AIM occupation of Wounded Knee. Together we led the Greenpeace seal campaigns in 1976 and 1977. Together we led the campaigns to protect wolves for Friends of the Wolf in 1984.

Walrus led campaigns to Japan to focus attention on mercury poisoning and nuclear threats and to oppose Japanese whaling and dolphin killing. He served as cook on the Greenpeace V and Greenpeace VII and we were both contributing writers for the Vancouver weekly alternative newspaper, the Georgia Straight, where he used the pen name Walrus Oakenbough,

Walrus is no longer with us but this boat with his name will continue to fight for life, diversity, and interdependence in the sea.

It is my great pleasure to introduce you to The WALRUS.