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10/28/2022
Censored, Erased and Dismissed.
And Yet Still Campaigning and Fighting for the Ocean
For 45 years, I have proudly worn my Sea Shepherd shirts and hoodies, my coats and jackets.
Now I cannot wear the logo I designed or wear anything that has the name Sea Shepherd on it.
Every other person in the world can wear Sea Shepherd shirts or anything with a Sea Shepherd logo except for myself.
If nothing else, that's just plain strange and quite vindictive.
People tell me that the Board of Directors of Sea Shepherd USA has no right to demand that I not wear anything with a Sea Shepherd logo but my facebook page was shut down for a month because of a picture of myself wearing a Sea Shepherd shirt in front of a Sea Shepherd flag received a complaint from Sea Shepherd's Board and Facebook cited it as a trademark violation.
Facebook did not give me an opportunity to defend my position.
I have been advised that my use of the name I created and the logo I designed is a trademark violation by a group of people who have never sailed on a Sea Shepherd campaign, who have never weathered the storms or taken any risks to defend life and diversity in the sea.
My name, my picture and my history has been removed from the Sea Shepherd USA website as they seek to simply erase me from Sea Shepherd history, just as Greenpeace did years ago when I was removed as a co-founder of the Greenpeace Foundation.
All of this because I refused to compromise and I refused to accept the diminishment of the organization and movement I created.
I have been accused of being too confrontational and too controversial. I have been told that my personal history is an embarrassment to Sea Shepherd's desire to work in partnerships with governments and corporations. I have ben told that because Japan has a Red Notice on me that this is problematic for the organization.
I continue to be a Board member for Sea Shepherd in France, in the U,K,, New Zealand, Brazil and Australia but even so if I wear a Sea Shepherd shirt, I can be sued for a trademark violation by Sea Shepherd USA.
Sea Shepherd USA covertly registered trademarks on the name and logo in numerous countries and because of this they were able to force Sea Shepherd Global to sign an agreement with them with the consequence that I was dismissed by the Global Board without a meeting, a discussion or a vote. I simply received an e-mail from Global CEO Alex Cornelissen informing me of my dismissal.
On the positive side, I have re-organized and established the Captain Paul Watson Foundation and we intend to continue to be confrontational, controversial and direct action oriented with my original strategy of aggressive non-violence.
Now more than ever there is a need to be aggressive. Our Ocean is dying, we are losing species, diminishing diversity and turning many areas of the sea into a lifeless wasteland.
In the face of illegal, unregulated, unreported fishing, in the face of industrialized over-fishing, in the face of threats like ocean mining, plastic pollution, climate change, we must take an aggressive stand in defense of the Ocean.
Now is not the time to play posturing games with governments or to participate in green washing with corporations.
Please join my Foundation and help us to rebuild the Navy that was taken away from us. My crew have the passion, the courage and the imagination to do this and with your help we will be on the sea and primed for confrontation in 2023.
Who are my crew? All veterans of Sea Shepherd campaigns, some of who were dismissed, some who resigned and some who disagree with the change of priorities by Sea Shepherd USA and others who continue to work with Sea Shepherd France, U,K, and other Sea Shepherd entities.
We intend to make waves in 2023.
You are welcome to come onboard for a new and exciting venture to save lives and to defend marine eco-systems.