Commit to our Values - Sea Shepherd Origins

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Rob Read

Rob Read is Sea Shepherd UK’s Chief Operating Officer managing the development of the UK charity and managing SSUK’s campaigns since 2013.

“When I first volunteered with Sea Shepherd UK in 2007, I never thought that one day I would head up the UK entity of the marine conservation organisation.

I remember being impressed by the determination of Captain Paul Watson, who I first saw in the ‘Ocean Warrior’ episode of the TV series ‘Defenders of Wildlife’ back in 1993.

Not long after ‘Ocean Warrior’, I managed to watch the earlier BBC program ‘Black Harvest’, which followed one of Sea Shepherd’s campaigns in 1986, opposing the Faroese pilot whale hunts.

Paul was a charismatic and unashamedly uncompromising modern-day marine conservation ‘pirate’, with a black painted ship and a passionate volunteer crew that confronted illegal fishing and whaling at sea. Sea Shepherd was not the typical banner waving environmental group, and Paul’s unique, non-violent direct action tactics were truly inspirational.

Sea Shepherd stuck in my memory while I studied environmental science and worked in research and education for 13 years, during which time I joined Sea Shepherd UK as a volunteer later in 2007.”

As a volunteer, Rob attended over 150 events and gave talks on Our campaigns as well as joining the protest at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting on the islands of Madeira in 2009 and coordinated the Sea Shepherd protest at the IWC meeting on the island of Jersey in 2011. He was commended as ‘Sea Shepherd Coordinator of the year 2011’ and in November 2011 joined the Board of Trustees of the Sea Shepherd UK Charity becoming vice-chairman.

Since December 2013, Rob has been the Chief Operating Officer of Sea Shepherd UK managing the day to day running and development of the charity, building thd UK fleet of small boats, and has launched or coordinated the following Sea Shepherd campaigns:

– Operation GrindStop in the Faroe Islands 2014

– Seal Defence Campaign in Scotland (2014-2015)

– Operation Bloody Fjords in the Faroe Islands (2016-2022) including launching the #StopTheGrind coalition (2021-present), a partnership between Shared Planet and SSUK

– Cove Guardians / Operation Infinite Patience in Japan (2016-2017)

– Operation 404 (2017-2018)

– Sea Shepherd UK’s Ghostnet campaign (2018-present)

– Various reconnaissance work by boat and land around Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, and the Faroe Islands since 2016

– Operation Mjolnir in Iceland (2018)

– Sea Shepherd UK’s Education Project (2020-present)

– Operation Northern Exposure, Iceland (2022)

Rob maintains and drives the Sea Shepherd UK’s RHIBs ‘Siren’ and ‘Phantom’, as well as the Ex-MOD landing craft ‘Selkie’ based in Scotland, and is also a drone pilot, BSAC Ocean Diver, Marine Mammal Medic with BDMLR, RYA/ICC powerboat licensed, WISE trained, and with RYA Marine Radio SRC certified.

In November 2022, Rob became one of the co-founders of ‘Sea Shepherd Origins’ – a new entity dedicated to defending the core values of Sea Shepherd as a frontline, direct action marine conservation movement as SSCS was founded by Captain Paul Watson in 1977.

“Sea Shepherd has made many enemies over the years because our campaigns have been so effective under Paul Watson’s vision leadership and vision.

Now we have a new fight to reclaim Sea Shepherd US from a rogue board who have taken control with the aim of eradicating our founder’s legacy and changing Sea Shepherd into (yet another) generic research based marine conservation organisation.

Sea Shepherd’s unique style of independent, uncompromising, and ethical campaigning can not be destroyed while ocean wildlife and ecosystems are under such severe threats.

Unless we can preserve the DNA of Sea Shepherd and stay true to our principles which have saved so many lives – the void in enforcement and investigation caused by governments, their agencies and naval patrols which Sea Shepherd have filled for over 4 decades will be once again be open to illegal and destructive exploiters of marine wildlife”.

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Nathalie Gil

Nathalie Gil is currently President at Sea Shepherd Brazil. She joined Sea Shepherd in 2019 after dropping out of a career of 18 years’ experience working as strategic partner to many large companies around the world, as it made her disappointed by working with the status quo, but motivated to make a difference with the skills she developed from it. Deciding to follow her heart and to dedicate her talents for the planet, she took the decision to become a deckhand and eventually bosun’s mate at one of Sea Shepherd ships, the White Holly. She helped to set up the Holly for missions, and worked as Media Coordinator on a campaign. In parallel to crewing onboard, Nathalie has started the development of the Expedition Boto da Amazônia, which was launched in 2021 by Sea Shepherd Brazil.

When leaving the ship in 2020, Nathalie worked as a Director of Development at Sea Shepherd Brazil, structuring the organization to operate in five local campaigns. In 2021 Nathalie became Executive Director in Brazil, and from 2022, she became President of the Board of Directors.

“I have very little historical experience at Sea Shepherd. However, I feel honored and proud to work side by side with Paul Watson and others who built what Sea Shepherd truly is about. I can see my role as a representation of the new blood which reinforces the mission and values of Sea Shepherd, that keep them alive and well, proving Sea Shepherd is a movement which is timeless: it is necessary today, just as it was back in 1977.

Every great step and achievement at Sea Shepherd nowadays is never done by any person in isolation: it was only made possible because of the beliefs and ethics which were set up by Paul Watson back then. Doors are opened to us because of his inspiring vision, people listen to us because of his impressive achievements. Our own achievements as leaders are always standing on the shoulders of every other achievement made through all these decades.
An organization which goes against what Paul believes in and what he built is one which goes against our origins. My motivation as a founding member at Sea Shepherd Origins is to help Sea Shepherd to continue to fight for what the ocean needs most right now: Sea Shepherd’s original boldness, its passion, its relentless mission.

No person or small team can destroy a movement which is so much bigger than them. We at Origins want to prove this: to fight for our origins is to fight for what the ocean needs the most, for today and for tomorrow.”

Lamya Essemlali

Lamya Essemlali was born in France in 1979. After completing an associate degree in advertising and marketing in Paris, she realized the only way she could ever be happy was to work in her field of passion, defending the environment and the animals. She decided to start over and went back to University at 24. She got her Master degree in Environmental Sciences with a specialization in conservation of Biodiversity at the University Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris.

In 2005, she meets the captain Paul Watson in Paris and she co-founds Sea Shepherd France in 2006 after her first campaign in Antarctica. She has been President of Sea Shepherd France since 2008 and has lead several international and national campaigns. The campaign she lead in 2010 for the Blue Fin tuna in the Mediterranean sea ended up with the release of 800 illegally caught tunas in the Libyan waters. She also has been very much involved in the campaigns in the Faroes island, she lead the 2010 expedition where the underwater graveyard was discovered and also lead the off shore team of Grind Stop in 2014, that has driven away from the hunting bays many pods of pilot whales. Although 33 whales died on a grind under Sea Shepherd’s watch that year, over 1333 whales had been killed the previous year on the same period, in the absence of Sea Shepherd.

Lamya launched the Mare Nostrum campaign in the Mediterranean sea since 2015, a campaign focused on the retrieval of ghost nets, during which kilometers and several tons of waste have been removed from the sea and many trapped animals released. She has also built sea turtles anti poaching campaign on the French island of Mayotte that goes on each year since 2017, the « Operation Dolphin Bycatch » in the bay of Biscay since 2018 and « Operation Ocean Killers » started in 2021, that focuses on the impact of supertrawlers in French waters.

Asides from campaigns, her work in France involves legal action, fundraising, media and communication, and meetings with govermental officials . She gives many public talks each year and she has written a book with Paul Watson in 2012 “Interview with a Pirate” in which she compiled several years of discussions she had with the Founder of Sea Shepherd on many topics including, politics, animal welfare, media, philosophy. An updated version of the book has been released in 2017 for the 40^th anniversary of Sea Shepherd.

Lamya has always considered all forms of life deserve respect. She believes mankind won’t ever be at peace unless it is at peace with the rest of the animal kingdom and finally realizes that it is not outside of Nature but part of it and any harm he does to Nature, he actually does to himself. Therefore she truly recognizes herself in the biocentric approach of Sea Shepherd.

« I have been involved with Sea Shepherd for 18 years and I intend to keep doing so as long as it remains in my eyes, one of the most effective tool to defend and protect the ocean. I believe that the co-founders of Sea Shepherd Origins have in common the essential values carried on by Paul Watson, which we have made their own. We are loyal to this legacy, we’ll work to ensure that the battle started 45 years ago to save our ocean keep inspiring millions of people to become part of the solution » – Lamya Essemlali

Rob Read

Clementine Pallanca

Nathalie Gil

Lamya Essemlali

Captain Paul Watson