May 24, 2023

The scrapping of the White Holly was heart breaking. This ship had a colorful history going back to 1944. The ship was generously donated by Benoît Vulliet. Literally thousands of hours of volunteer labor went into refitting the ship in Florida, and I sent it to Cocos Island off the coast of Costa Rica to remove some 40 tons of marine debris. The ship had so much potential but, without any explantation, the ship was scrapped. Another organization offered $250,000 for the ship to be used to remove plastic debris from the Pacific Gyre. I thought that would be a good use for the ship if SSCS no longer wanted it. Alex Cornelissen overruled me: ordered the ship scrapped in Mexico because he did not want the ship to go to a competing NGO. I told him that there are no competing NGO’s and we need to work together. My efforts were ignored, and the ship was torn apart.

I remember his words. “I have no intention of letting Locky have this ship. As CEO my position is I’m scrapping it and that’s my decision.”

My sincere apologies to Benoît Vulliet and to Captain Locky MacLean, and his hard working and courageous crew. This ship was strong, long-range and a terrific work horse. It is a mystery to me why the decision was made to destroy the White Holly.

Such a waste of a historical and useful vessel and I never received an explanation as to why.

Like the Bob Barker, the John Paul DeJoria I, the Sharpie and the Farley Mowat – all trashed without respect or dignity.

This wanton destruction of good ships, the rejection of the principles that guided us for 40 years and the shameless hostile takeover of a movement they did not create nor build is deplorable.

We built up the largest marine conservation navy on the planet and these craven mutineers destroyed it.

The question is simply why?