More and more people, that are former members of Sea Shepherd organization have contacted me - after I made an interview with a former member a while ago (read article that article HERE). I have had the pleasure of interviewing Oluf Marchall from Scotland, that also is a former member of Sea Shepherd:
1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself ..?
My name is Oluf Marshall, Im 21 years old and currently employed as a Parliamentray Assistant in Edinburgh, Scotland. I grew up on the East Coast Scotland but was born in Hong Kong originally.
2. How come you became a member of Sea Shepherd ..?
I joined Sea Shepherd when I was about 16 or 17. It was after I had seen some of their stuff on TV. At the time I was stupid naive teenager who basically wanted to be part of something. Oh what a fool I was! I signed up to be one of their onshore volunteers which basically included leafletting, collection of donations etc. You know the general stuff that Charities do. I had joined with a friend of mine and we went on one of their training sessions in Glasgow which was interesting to say the least. We all had to sign these secrecy contracts that basically said we were not allowed to tell anyone about what we saw that day and a couple of guys refused so were sent packing. The secret stuff we saw was basically a video about the Society and it's history and then a wee thing on Paul Watson. They seemed proud of the fact that Paul Watson had spent his youth tree spiking an activity that has led to severe injury and death in the past and talked a little bit about how he co-founded Greenpeace etc.
3. Why did you quit Sea Shepherd ..?
I quit SS for various reasons. I guess my disillusionment started in the summer of 2011 when me, my friend and his Dad who joined with me were at a meeting Glasgow. The SS director in Scotland is a bloke called David Scott who is a pretty wealthy Car Salesman and a man with an ego as big as big as Watson's. We were coming up with fundraising ideas and for some reason Scott did not want to do things that meant publicity. He kept going on about security issues. My friend's Dad who was quite angry that he had been informed of the Groups activity in Scotland asked why he was not getting email updates or even a newsletter or something. Scott replied that we had a secret Facebook group (which we did) where we discussed all of our activity. My friend's Dad replied that he does not use Facebook and asked if he could get an email newsletter which I myself volunteered to make every month. Scott then said we cant do that for security reasons as this was just after the Steve Irwin got seized in Shetland in 2011. He claimed it was because of Social media. I tried to talk some sense and stated that the ship was seized from order of the Maltese government after the Bluefin Tuna incident in 2010. He was dismissive. Scott appeared to be one of those men who liked to think he was constantly in danger but in reality was not. Everything we did had to be in secrecy and he was operating more like the Polish Home Army Underground than a public pressure group which is what we were supposed to be. After an argument my Friend's Dad stormed out in disgust never to return. I found everything so vague too. They were reluctant to spend any money on fundraising or even pledge any of their own money. They did not give the slightest bit of support when I did a charity walk for them too.
Shortly after the meeting in Glasgow Scott then turned on my friend and banned him from the Secret Facebook group blaming him for the Seizure of the Steve Irwin (yeah a 16 year old boy was blamed for getting the Steve Irwin seized) This forced my friend out of the Society and I begun to feel I should do the same.
To be continued ...
Jógvan á Høvdanum (junior) 22.09.2015
1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself ..?
My name is Oluf Marshall, Im 21 years old and currently employed as a Parliamentray Assistant in Edinburgh, Scotland. I grew up on the East Coast Scotland but was born in Hong Kong originally.
2. How come you became a member of Sea Shepherd ..?
I joined Sea Shepherd when I was about 16 or 17. It was after I had seen some of their stuff on TV. At the time I was stupid naive teenager who basically wanted to be part of something. Oh what a fool I was! I signed up to be one of their onshore volunteers which basically included leafletting, collection of donations etc. You know the general stuff that Charities do. I had joined with a friend of mine and we went on one of their training sessions in Glasgow which was interesting to say the least. We all had to sign these secrecy contracts that basically said we were not allowed to tell anyone about what we saw that day and a couple of guys refused so were sent packing. The secret stuff we saw was basically a video about the Society and it's history and then a wee thing on Paul Watson. They seemed proud of the fact that Paul Watson had spent his youth tree spiking an activity that has led to severe injury and death in the past and talked a little bit about how he co-founded Greenpeace etc.
3. Why did you quit Sea Shepherd ..?
I quit SS for various reasons. I guess my disillusionment started in the summer of 2011 when me, my friend and his Dad who joined with me were at a meeting Glasgow. The SS director in Scotland is a bloke called David Scott who is a pretty wealthy Car Salesman and a man with an ego as big as big as Watson's. We were coming up with fundraising ideas and for some reason Scott did not want to do things that meant publicity. He kept going on about security issues. My friend's Dad who was quite angry that he had been informed of the Groups activity in Scotland asked why he was not getting email updates or even a newsletter or something. Scott replied that we had a secret Facebook group (which we did) where we discussed all of our activity. My friend's Dad replied that he does not use Facebook and asked if he could get an email newsletter which I myself volunteered to make every month. Scott then said we cant do that for security reasons as this was just after the Steve Irwin got seized in Shetland in 2011. He claimed it was because of Social media. I tried to talk some sense and stated that the ship was seized from order of the Maltese government after the Bluefin Tuna incident in 2010. He was dismissive. Scott appeared to be one of those men who liked to think he was constantly in danger but in reality was not. Everything we did had to be in secrecy and he was operating more like the Polish Home Army Underground than a public pressure group which is what we were supposed to be. After an argument my Friend's Dad stormed out in disgust never to return. I found everything so vague too. They were reluctant to spend any money on fundraising or even pledge any of their own money. They did not give the slightest bit of support when I did a charity walk for them too.
Shortly after the meeting in Glasgow Scott then turned on my friend and banned him from the Secret Facebook group blaming him for the Seizure of the Steve Irwin (yeah a 16 year old boy was blamed for getting the Steve Irwin seized) This forced my friend out of the Society and I begun to feel I should do the same.
To be continued ...
Jógvan á Høvdanum (junior) 22.09.2015
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