Lamya Essemlali

Lamya Essemlali (born 1979) is a French environmental activist, of Moroccan origin. She's the co-founder and president of Sea Shepherd France, the French branch of the anti-poaching organisation Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Quotes Today, when we evaluate the fish population, we still talk in tons, not in number of individuals . This is something we don't do with any other animal! We talk about fish in terms of stocks. This is serious! This is what fuels this view that we must change. The ocean is not a warehouse with goods that we must manage! It is a living environment that we must respect, for ethical reasons but also more selfishly for our own survival. When a whale gets harpooned, it's not a big deal to anyone. But we figure if humans risk their lives for it, then it can become a big deal. So our job is to shine a spotlight on what's happening at sea . We're whistleblowers. If the ocean dies, we die . We don't have a choice about whether or not to act, so we have to do it. When it comes to ecology, we are all totally overwhelmed by the multiplication of problems and the scale of the issues . If we want to act, we are forced to choose a battle. The sea represents 70% of the earth's surface and, for the moment, Sea Shepherd is the only association with ships to take concrete action on the ground . So I chose this environment because it is a major issue and there is enormous room for improvement. For me, it was a strategic choice, not an ideological one. Of course, if we had an infinite amount of resources, we could duplicate our methods and our battles to create a land-based Sea Shepherd, a mountain Sea Shepherd... But we can't and so we hope that others will. Our overall goal is to raise awareness about what humans are doing to the ocean . The next goal, which stems from the first, is to change regulations that are completely lax and permissive. We may have to fight against horrific but technically legal practices. To do this, we will adopt different strategies and actions depending on the issues and situations. The cause and the animals we defend also change the situation! Not all of them are equally easy to defend. We do not carry out the same actions when we want to convince people that we must protect sea cucumbers and when we want to save dolphins. The carnage at sea is beyond anything we can imagine” Interview with Lamya Essemlali, Sea Shepherd, retrieved on May 11, 2022 External links Category:Women activists from Morocco Category:Living people