Capitaine Peter Hammarstedt
25 novembre 2019
@Flavio Gasperini / Sea Shepherd
Guerrier, défenseur et protecteur de la mer. Le capitaine Peter Hammarstedt de Sea Shepherd partage sa quête pour mettre fin à la pêche illégale et sauver la faune marine. Partageant les défis auxquels il a été confronté, ses réalisations avec Sea Shepherd et leur mission actuelle.
Imaginez que vous êtes en mer, avec des vagues atteignant 13 à 14 mètres de hauteur, d'un blanc éclatant et le vent violent éclaboussant les vagues. Il est presque impossible de distinguer l'écume blanche d'une vague déferlante et la glace dans l'eau. Sans oublier une autre partie cruciale ; vous êtes sur un bateau. C'est un navire de 500 tonnes, sans moteur de secours. En gros, si vous perdez le moteur, vous perdez le navire.
N'ayant nulle part où aller, vous n'avez pas d'autre choix que de sortir par ce temps. Sans surprise, ce sont les moments où Peter se sent le plus intimidé en mer. « C'est très humiliant, vous reconnaissez à quel point nous sommes petits en tant qu'espèce sur cette planète, mais c'est aussi terrifiant. Il y a un certain élément de contrôle qu’il faut laisser derrière soi ».
«Je voulais faire partie de ces personnes dans ce bateau. Mettre mon corps en jeu, me gêner physiquement et interférer avec ce genre de chasse ».
Histoire de vie - Tout a commencé avec l'image d'une baleine morte tirée sur la rampe d'un baleinier-usine de 8 000 tonnes dans l'Antarctique. Plein d’incrédulité et de choc, Peter, 14 ans, s’est senti agité. «Je ne pouvais tout simplement pas ébranler l'image. Cela m’a profondément choqué que la chasse à la baleine continue d’exister », a-t-il déclaré. On pouvait également voir sur cette image un petit bateau zodiac rigide exploité par Greenpeace. Ce bateau essayait de se mettre entre les baleines et les baleiniers. Ce petit bateau qui affrontait cet énorme navire-usine montra à Peter qu'il y avait encore de l'espoir. En repensant à ce moment, il déclare : « Je voulais faire partie de ces personnes dans ce bateau. Mettre mon corps en jeu, me gêner physiquement et interférer avec ce genre de chasse ». Après en avoir appris davantage sur la pêche illégale et la chasse à la baleine, Peter a décidé d'attendre d'avoir atteint l'âge minimum de 18 ans pour soumettre une candidature d'équipage.
Rejoindre Sea Shepherd
C'est à l'âge de 17 ans que Peter a commencé à faire du bénévolat chez Greenpeace, où, lors d'un quart de nuit, il a appris davantage sur Sea Shepherd. « L'approche proactive de Sea Shepherd m'a beaucoup plus séduit que ce que je faisais avec Greenpeace ». Peu de temps après, l'Islande a rejoint la Commission baleinière internationale et a repris la chasse à la baleine.
En réaction, Sea Shepherd a annoncé qu'elle se dirigeait vers l'Islande pour intervenir directement et empêcher la mort de baleines. Ayant développé un lien fort avec les baleines et étant suédois, Peter voulait vraiment rejoindre l'équipage dans cette quête. C’est ce qu’il a fait. « D’une certaine manière, je me sentais personnellement responsable. C'est la Suède qui a voté de manière décisive, ce qui a finalement permis que cela se produise », a-t-il expliqué.
Et puis vint le tonnerre
Lorsque nous interrogeons Peter sur sa plus grande réussite, il nous raconte comment ils ont arrêté le bateau de pêche illégale le plus recherché au monde ; le tonnerre. Ce navire, recherché par Interpol, était sur liste noire depuis 10 ans et avait réalisé un bénéfice d'environ 60 millions de dollars. Littéralement, personne n’a pu arrêter ce navire, pas même les gouvernements. En poursuivant le navire pendant 10 jours, Sea Shepherd avait pour objectif d'accomplir quelque chose que personne n'avait jamais fait auparavant. « Nous pensions trouver ce bateau quelque part en Antarctique, en activité.
Notre prochaine étape consistait à le suivre aussi longtemps qu'il le faudrait, jusqu'à ce qu'un gouvernement proche puisse arrêter le capitaine et l'équipage », a expliqué Peter. En fin de compte, le bateau de pêche illégal n’a pas pu s’en débarrasser. Après que Sea Shepherd ait suivi le Thunder pendant 110 jours, le capitaine du Thunder a décidé de couler son propre navire, à proximité de São Tomé, et de détruire les preuves à bord. Ironiquement, Sea Shepherd a dû secourir le capitaine du Thunder et ses 39 membres d'équipage.
Ils ont ensuite été poursuivis en justice et le capitaine et deux de ses officiers ont été condamnés à trois ans de prison, à São Tomé. Sea Shepherd a acquis une connaissance mondiale et des éloges pour sa quête, atteignant même la une du New York Times. En outre, cela a inspiré un dialogue mondial sur le problème de la pêche illégale. Peter ajoute : « C'est le dévouement de Sea Shepherd qui a finalement arrêté ce navire. Ce n'était pas un gouvernement. J'en suis incroyablement fier !
En mission en Afrique
Actuellement, Sea Shepherd travaille avec des États côtiers africains comme le Libéria et propose son aide aux différents gouvernements de ce continent pour arrêter les bateaux de pêche illégaux. Pour chaque jour où un bateau de pêche illégal est retenu au port, des dizaines de milliers d’animaux sont sauvés. En parlant de sa campagne actuelle, Peter réfléchit : « Nous sauvons 10 000 animaux chaque jour lorsqu'un de ces navires est immobilisé. »
Chaque vie compte
Dans l’ensemble, il s’agit de nos propres choix de vie individuels. De ce que nous mangeons à ce que nous portons et bien au-delà. Peter pense que la meilleure approche consiste à combiner votre passion individuelle avec vos compétences et qu'il s'agit de savoir comment les combiner pour réellement apporter un changement. Celui pour lequel ils peuvent se battre toute leur vie. Ce n'est durable que si c'est vraiment personnel et trop souvent les gens sont dépassés par l'ampleur de ces problèmes ».
En regardant vers l’avenir, Peter souligne que nous vivons selon l’idée d’une croissance économique illimitée dans un monde dont l’expansion est limitée.
« Il ne peut produire qu’une quantité limitée de bois et de poisson dans un laps de temps limité et sa capacité de prise en charge est limitée. Avec les modes de vie que nous avons, notre planète ne peut accueillir qu’un nombre limité de personnes. La tendance actuelle est incroyablement effrayante, mais les solutions existent également. La planète a cette incroyable opportunité de rebondir. La terre est très résistante. Si nous pouvons mettre en place des mesures, par exemple pour les océans, qui sont mon domaine de compétence, nous pouvons créer des zones marines protégées et renforcer leur application. Je pense alors que les océans peuvent rebondir très rapidement ».
« Chaque vie que nous pouvons sauver est suffisante. Si c'est tout ce que nous pouvons faire, cela me suffit. Il faut que ce soit le cas ».
Dans ses derniers mots, le capitaine Peter Hammarstedt nous encourage à agir, aussi accablant que cela puisse paraître. « Nous examinons tout, de la déforestation à ce qui se passe avec les océans en passant par le changement climatique, il y a tellement d'excuses et de raisons pour ne pas s'impliquer. Tout simplement parce que l’opposition semble si écrasante. Je pense que vous devez examiner ce que vous pouvez faire dans la sphère que vous pouvez contrôler. Chaque vie que nous pouvons sauver est suffisante. Si c'est tout ce que nous pouvons faire, cela me suffit. Il faut que ce soit le cas ».
Jeans MUD X Sea Shepherd
Commentaires
It is deeply disappointing to see no acknowledgement of Paul Watson, the founder of Sea Shepherd and the driving force behind its original mission. His decades of uncompromising dedication to marine conservation cannot simply be erased or ignored. Anyone genuinely interested in supporting the cause should take the time to understand the organisation’s roots and the key individuals who shaped it. Promoting a figure who played a role in ousting the founder and reshaping the organisation away from its original direct-action ethos raises serious questions about your values and alignment with true environmental activism. This choice reflects poorly on your brand and suggests a lack of integrity or awareness—possibly both. Do better.
Peter is a traitor! I can’t believe this publication even gave any credibility to Peter. He makes absolutely no mention of Captain Paul Watson who founded Sea Shepherd and he was the one who promoted Peter from deckhand to a captain. In the end, Peter betrayed Paul and Peter lost his moral compass
Peter Hammarstedt cares only about money, not nature, not whales! His betrayal of Captain Paul Watson was brutal and conniving. It was about controlling a large amount of money his Captain Paul had personally raised. Sadly Peter will amount to a grifter.
Corporations should always fact check before putting out endorsements of this nature. I can no longer support a brand that sponsors imposters, traitors, crooks or posers. This is simply green washing at its finest. And you can take my word on it: https://slantedonline.com/the-betrayal-of-captain-paul-watson-continues/
Corporations should always fact check before putting out endorsements of this nature. I can no longer support a brand that sponsors imposters, traitors, crooks or posers. This is simply green washing at its finest. And you can take my word on it: https://slantedonline.com/the-betrayal-of-captain-paul-watson-continues/
Interesting article, with no mention of who was behind the actions and who was behind the strategies, and really who inspired all this. Not one mention of Paul Watson should have really sort of hit hard for this MUD JEANS company. It is an article without any proper journalistic investigating. Its more a less an OPED written by the publisher.
It starts with the inspiration Captain Paul Watson brought to 14 year old Peter, just like it did hundreds of thousands (millions?) of youth and adults when Paul was in his Zodiac trying to interfere under Greenpeace directly putting himself between the harpoon and the whale.
Peter starts with Greenpeace (co founded by Cap Paul Watson) at 17 not liking what he is doing and would rather be going to Paul Watson’s Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Paul founded SSCS to be more proactive as Greenpeace did not like peaceful but aggressive direct interference to uphold international maritime law. So Peter continues to be inspired by Paul and joins him.
His greatest achievement is indeed the pursuit of The Thunder under Paul’s strategy, guidance, and support. And certainly this was not what Greenpeace would do as Peter criticized the lack of direct action, nor today’s sad version of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society nor their sad Sea Shepherd Global. They are not much better than Greenpeace after the multi-millionaire (billionaire?) Paul Labombard aka Pritam Singh and his new minions of anti direct action and corrupt alliances took over through an illegal vote Peter participated in. In fact Peter is like the Judas of Sea Shepherd (I am not a fan of biblical quotes).
Peter has worked at undoing the strategies that Paul put in place along with the other traitors and ended up not interfering anymore and working with companies that are associated with fisheries and israeli security Yamasec. What a distance they established from the original org, so strangely when reading this “article” I sort of had a gag reflex reading how Peter presents himself as a captain that interferes with poachers when he has let go of this approach and fought Paul on it. What a bunch of vegan baloney! (oh and they changed the standards on board of the ships! no longer vegan ships, ethics?).
I do strongly believe that Mud Jeans should have let him write his own OPED rather than write this much much elevated Peter that along with other traitors of the movements belong on a “pirate plank”. Sea Shepherd is entirely corrupted. Their leadership got rid of their essence. They started under the new take over, to eliminate ships that were sea worthy and recently fixed so they did not have to spend money on those ships going out in pursuit of illegal activities and ships (not their identity anymore), then they purchased a ship and publicized it heavily..and then they sent their vessel with scientists to take pictures and report but not intervene and uphold maritime international law. They also did upon take over publicize direct action they were not doing but had been done in the past under Paul to solicit donations!! Is that even legal?
The take over started at SSCS first and some tried to save footage and sent it over to Europe to protect it, and SSCS (the US) was planning to take over global as well and so threatened SSGlobal from massive lawsuits if they did not send the direct action footage, then SSG fell and got taken over. This was bullying, to be added to Peter et al’s ways! The pretense that the Jolly Roger is theirs is a fabricated lie. That belongs to Paul!
Interesting article, with no mention of who was behind the actions and who was behind the strategies, and really who inspired all this. Not one mention of Paul Watson should have really sort of hit hard for this MUD JEANS company. It is an article without any proper journalistic investigating. Its more a less an OPED written by the publisher.
It starts with the inspiration Captain Paul Watson brought to 14 year old Peter, just like it did hundreds of thousands (millions?) of youth and adults when Paul was in his Zodiac trying to interfere under Greenpeace directly putting himself between the harpoon and the whale.
Peter starts with Greenpeace (co founded by Cap Paul Watson) at 17 not liking what he is doing and would rather be going to Paul Watson’s Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Paul founded SSCS to be more proactive as Greenpeace did not like peaceful but aggressive direct interference to uphold international maritime law. So Peter continues to be inspired by Paul and joins him.
His greatest achievement is indeed the pursuit of The Thunder under Paul’s strategy, guidance, and support. And certainly this was not what Greenpeace would do as Peter criticized the lack of direct action, nor today’s sad version of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society nor their sad Sea Shepherd Global. They are not much better than Greenpeace after the multi-millionaire (billionaire?) Paul Labombard aka Pritam Singh and his new minions of anti direct action and corrupt alliances took over through an illegal vote Peter participated in. In fact Peter is like the Judas of Sea Shepherd (I am not a fan of biblical quotes).
Peter has worked at undoing the strategies that Paul put in place along with the other traitors and ended up not interfering anymore and working with companies that are associated with fisheries and israeli security Yamasec. What a distance they established from the original org, so strangely when reading this “article” I sort of had a gag reflex reading how Peter presents himself as a captain that interferes with poachers when he has let go of this approach and fought Paul on it. What a bunch of vegan baloney! (oh and they changed the standards on board of the ships! no longer vegan ships, ethics?).
I do strongly believe that Mud Jeans should have let him write his own OPED rather than write this much much elevated Peter that along with other traitors of the movements belong on a “pirate plank”. Sea Shepherd is entirely corrupted. Their leadership got rid of their essence. They started under the new take over, to eliminate ships that were sea worthy and recently fixed so they did not have to spend money on those ships going out in pursuit of illegal activities and ships (not their identity anymore), then they purchased a ship and publicized it heavily..and then they sent their vessel with scientists to take pictures and report but not intervene and uphold maritime international law. They also did upon take over publicize direct action they were not doing but had been done in the past under Paul to solicit donations!! Is that even legal?
The take over started at SSCS first and some tried to save footage and sent it over to Europe to protect it, and SSCS (the US) was planning to take over global as well and so threatened SSGlobal from massive lawsuits if they did not send the direct action footage, then SSG fell and got taken over. This was bullying, to be added to Peter et al’s ways! The pretense that the Jolly Roger is theirs is a fabricated lie. That belongs to Paul!
So ironic that he mentions his legacy based on missions and efforts led by Paul Watson, however no mention of the true hero behind these operations. Since he took over and removed Paul, his campaigns have been more scarce, less confrontational and less direct, exactly what he mentioned that attracted him to Sea Shepherd and made him move from Greenpeace in the first place. So that’s official: with his take over, he changed in other Sea Shepherds exactly what made it special, and still makes Sea Shepherd France, Sea Shepherd Brasil and Sea Shepherd UK (now CPWF UK) special, as continue to work alongside Paul Watson. I read this and I cannot see a hero, just a con.
Peter Hammarstedt betrayed the core values of Sea Shepherd when he agreed to take orders from corrupt African governments- who dictate what flags the Ships fly and demand that the Ships be painted dull grey. He partnered with Austral Fisheries in Australia for a ship at a discounted price and free fuel. In Namibia, he partnered with the seal killing government to get free docks at the government pier. When was the last time they arrested a fishing vessel was arrested there? He removed Captain Paul Watson, the founder of Sea Shepherd, so that he and Alex Cornelissen could become the “New face of Sea Shepherd”.
Peter was told to advertise jogging pants instead of jeans.
He was part of an organization set up to combat illegal whaling and other illegal activities on the front line. Paul Watson founded Sea Shepherd to save lives through direct action. To act where governments have failed to act due to corruption or economic interests. Governments are the problem why there are abuses in the oceans. Peter worked his way to the top of the organization with Alex Cornelissen, Gert Vons and Jeff Hansen, only to commit a betrayal. More relaxed campaigns WITH governments, getting ships sponsored by Austral Fisheries, no confrontations, armed soldiers on the ships, photos instead of direct action, all these reasons led to the founder Watson being kicked out after criticism of changing the DNA of his organization.
Peter Hammarstedt betrayed the man who mentored and trained him from a snot-nosed deck hand to a would-be captain. Without Captain Paul Watson, Peter would be paddling a canoe in a swimming pool. No decent person would have double crossed and and mutinied against their benefactor, stole all that he owned as a founder of Sea Shepherd and voted him out of his own organization. This whole fluff piece glorifying Peter Hammarstedt is another of Sea Shepherd’s pathetic attempts to pander donations.
Peter Hammarstedt neglected to mention that he was part of a hostile takeover and that he was part of an illegal move to dismiss me, the founder of Sea Shepherd from the movement I created in 1977 by covertly filing for trademarks. He did this because I refused to compromise and rebrand to becoming mainstream. He accused me for being too controversial and too confrontational. Since my forced removal, my name has been removed from the history and the archives. I continue to work with Sea Shepherd France, the U.K. and Brazil. Sea Shepherd Global that Peter Hammarstedt represents has developed lucrative partnerships with the Austral Fisheries Company, with Allianz Insurance and with the Israeli Yamasec Security firm. He is an opportunist who betrayed our movement. He may claim to own the name but he no longer represents the spirit of Sea Shepherd. – Captain Paul Watson – Founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.