Sea Shepherd Founder Steps Down

[Yamato]

The founder and president of hardline conservationists Sea Shepherd, Paul Watson, is stepping down from the leadership after a ruling from a United States court over a Japanese restraining order.

Former Australian Greens leader Bob Brown is to take over running Sea Shepherd's imminent Antarctic anti-whaling campaign.

Watson, 62, who is wanted by Japan under an Interpol "red notice", remains at sea aboard the group's flagship, Steve Irwin.

The Steve Irwin docked at Timaru on Saturday to take on fuel, but Watson switched to another vessel before his ship arrived in port.

He said that 35 years after he founded the group he was resigning from all paid positions, as well as the captaincy of the Steve Irwin, and would remain onboard as an observer of the campaign.

http://www.stuff.co....nder-steps-down

Edited January 8, 2013 by Yamato

[Simbi Laveau]

Awww....even so,if he remains onboard ,he will be active behind the scenes,so its all legal on paper .

[Yamato]

"Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in the United States and myself as a U.S. citizen must comply with the order by the 9^th Circuit court of the United States. Because I have been personally named in the injunction I have resigned as the President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in the United States and as President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Australia. I have also resigned my position of Executive Director of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society USA and I will hold no paid position with Sea Shepherd anywhere Sea Shepherd is registered and operates as a non-profit organization in any nation." ~ Paul Watson

http://www.seashepherd.org/commentary-and-editorials/2013/01/07/statement-from-captain-paul-watson-592

Arguably the greatest conservationist who ever lived, the legendary Captain Watson will be missed. What's so disturbing about this forced resignation is that the reason he got railroaded by this avalanche of political correctness is because he was successful. His policies were just too effective. The Japanese government admitted that the effectiveness of Sea Shepherd's tactics were breaking their backs economically when a single whale is valued at almost a million dollars these days. Sea Shepherd has caused on average approximately $300,000,000 of economic damage to the illegal Japanese whaling industry every year for the past nine annual Antarctic campaigns, and doing so on an annual budget in the single-digit millions, not to mention protecting sharks in the Galapagos, dolphins in Japan, tuna in the Mediterranean, whales in the north Atlantic, etc. as a bonus! It's no wonder Sea Shepherd maintains the highest rating from Charity Navigator. They give an outstanding percentage of their supporters' donations directly into funding their campaigns.

And in an act of karma, and a happy ending for this story, Sea Shepherd rolled out their latest weapon in the defense of the Antarctic, a former Japanese whaling ship! Say hello to the SSS Sam Simon:

On a final note, people really ought to live in harmony with their environment like the great whales do and this world would be a better place.

[Yamato]

Awww....even so,if he remains onboard ,he will be active behind the scenes,so its all legal on paper .

But not nearly as active as he was. This is a very big deal to whales still swimming in the ocean today. He's the heart and soul of the organization. If there was a bigger loss than Apple's Steve Jobs, this is it. Sea Shepherd could quickly descend into Greenpeace Plus with Watson no longer having any authority to control the organization. We're about to kick off the battle for the Antarctic any day now and it'll be interesting to see how aggressive Sea Shepherd operates compared to previous campaigns. There's supposed to be an Australian observer ship shadowing Sea Shepherd this year as well though it's difficult for me to know what effect that might have.

Watson sacrificed himself to save his organization and especially the Antarctic campaign, and that proves the measure of the man to me. God help the whales if SSCS won't get within 450 yards of the floating Japanese slaughterhouse 'Nisshin Maru' because Watson's kingship got neutered by Japan's biggest trading partner.

I think it's more important this year than ever that Paul Watson hired a crew of inexperienced but passionate people. Unlike other paid "professionals", the unpaid volunteers are the ones that can ride out a storm like this and persevere. First time ship captain Peter Hammarstedt gives me hope for the future but he's the only man I know who could possibly match Watson's passion for saving the oceans. And he's only the captain of one ship. So who will lead Sea Shepherd into the future? Is this the end of the line for the Great Whales, as other countries will take Japan's actions as legitimate and resume poaching themselves?

The US politics on this issue have been a total disaster. Obama is a backstabber who has betrayed every promise he's ever made about marine conservation. The US 9th should be ashamed of itself. This battle has always been about pirates of compassion vs. pirates of profit and now it's clear what side's pirates the US government is on.

Edited January 8, 2013 by Yamato