To: Paul LaBombard Jr., aka Pritam Singh, Chairman and former President of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, David Hance, George Nugent, Dr. Diana Reiss, James Costa, Roger Payne, Glenn Platt and Linda Pransky

You have hijacked Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS), an international organization founded and successfully led since 1977 by Captain Paul Watson.

You have caused the closing of numerous US chapters, thus cutting off major revenue streams from annual fundraising efforts and retail sales by hundreds of dedicated volunteers. 

You have removed many allies of Captain Paul Watson, and hand selected individuals for the current Board of Directors who have no legitimate experience in Direct Action ocean conservation. Your collective history of sports fishing, direct alignment with the dolphin captivity industry and large-scale real estate developments in threatened wilderness areas is appalling and contradictory to the core mission of SSCS.

You have bullied former staff and volunteers with legal threats and jeopardized the security of Sea Shepherd Global by filing lawsuits claiming trademark violations; all the while claiming direct support and seeking recognition for the success of Global campaigns. Furthermore, you continue to mislead donors to believe they are funding Direct Action efforts which you have publicly admitted will no longer be the aim of SSCS. 

You have removed Captain Paul Watson from Sea Shepherd’s website in an atrocious effort to erase him from the very history of HIS organization, while threatening him with legal action for use of his own images and intellectual property, including the logo and name which he created. You have even threatened to sue Captain Paul Watson for wearing Sea Shepherd apparel. 

You have scrapped and sold off almost the entire Sea Shepherd US fleet, the majority still in operational condition, without even notifying the donors who sponsored them. Yet you claim that you are expanding the fleet in order to continue to carry out direct action missions.

You went too far with your recent demands that Sea Shepherd Global remove Captain Paul Watson from its Board of Directors or face legal consequences. They did not stand up to you.  So, We Are. 

We will not sit back and allow you to cause further damage to the impeccable reputation of this effective 45-year-old organization and movement. We will not tolerate your continued waste of donor funds in an erratic effort to silence its revered founder with exaggerated legal threats.

We demand the immediate resignation of Pritam Singh as Chairman of The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. We also demand that the current Board of Directors submit their resignations and return the organization to its rightful founder and champion of this movement for over 5 decades.

Signed: The Supporters and Volunteers of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Worldwide

Note: For more history on the hostile takeover, please go to Paul Watson’s Facebook page and read multiple posts beginning July 28, 2022. 

*Photography Credit:  Barbara Viega