Meet the team

Our international oceans policy team is joined by campaigners and policy advisors from our offices around the world. Who better, for example, to lead our team to negotiations among countries over a new Regional fisheries organisation in the South Pacific, than Carmen Gravatt from Greenpeace New Zealand, who led two expeditions aboard the Rainbow Warrior to the Tasman Sea, exposing the destruction caused by high seas bottom trawlers in that region. Or Sebastian Losada, from Greenpeace Spain, who joined us at the UN last year to challenge what the Spanish government had to say about our work defending the oceans in the North Atlantic and the role of the Spanish fishing fleet there.

You’ve already met John Frizell, who does much of our work at the International Whaling Commission. Now meet the rest of our international policy team – and look out for our blogs over the coming weeks from political events around the world!

Karen Sack - Oceans Policy Advisor

Karen Sack is Greenpeace International’s Oceans Policy Advisor and has advanced degrees in international environmental law and international politics. Karen is South African, though is now based in the United States. She leads our delegations to UN meetings on oceans and works with our offices around the world to develop our oceans policies. Karen has been a “deep-sea defender” for several years now, and is one of the few non-politicians to have addressed the United Nations General Assembly as part of our ongoing campaign for a UN moratorium on high seas bottom trawling (to see what she had to say, go to Policies & Reports). She has been campaigning to fundamentally change the way we treat our oceans for the past 12 years. Asked what motivates her, Karen said, “the wild beauty of the oceans, the freedom that they offer and the beautiful, strange, almost incredible creatures that they are home to, has always fascinated me. I don’t think any country or industry has the right to take any of that away, and am determined not to let them.”

Saskia Richartz - EU Marine Policy Advisor

Saskia Richartz is our EU Marine Policy Advisor. Saskia is German, but currently lives in Brussels. She is an ecologist with a background in nature conservation, environmental management, environmental economics and policy making. She has been with Greenpeace's European Unit since February 2005. And what’s the one thing that is more captivating, inspiring and rewarding to Saskia than advancing the legal protection of the marine environment? To gaze over the waves and breathe in the smell of the salty surf.

Cristian Perez - Latin America Policy Advisor

Cristian Perez is the Latin America Policy Advisor to Greenpeace International. He is Chilean, but currently lives in Brazil. He is a veterinarian by training and holds a Masters of Environmental Science. Although he works on all of the Greenpeace campaigns, Cristian used to work on Antarctic and Southern Ocean issues (including pirate fishing) before he started working for Greenpeace in 2005.

Duncan Currie - legal guru

Duncan Currie is a practising international and environmental lawyer – and our legal guru. He has practised international law and environmental law for over twenty-five years and has advised Greenpeace on legal and political matters since suing the French government in 1985 after the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior. There isn’t much that Duncan hasn’t worked on for Greenpeace: fisheries, whales, pollution, nuclear transport and waste, nuclear law, peace, genetic engineering, toxic wastes are just some of the issues he has tackled. Duncan has lived by the sea for most of his life, sails, swims and dives, spending a lot his time either beside, over or under the sea, and is passionate about protecting the ocean and its creatures.

Merav Datan - Mediterranean Policy Advisor

The newest member of our team is Merav Datan. Merav is Greenpeace International’s Mediterranean Policy Advisor and will be working on oceans and disarmament issues. Merav is an international lawyer and an adjunct professor at Rutgers Law School. She has worked as a consultant to the United Nations Department for Disarmament Affairs, as director of the UN Office of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, as program director for the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, as research director for the Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy, and as a news analyst for the Ethiopian Consulate in Jerusalem.

Shane Rattenbury - Oceans Campaign Head

-- and just before we forget since he’s been in a survival suit for the past few months, we have one other member of the policy team who you’ve already met. His name: Shane Rattenbury, an Australian who lives in the Netherlands and is a lawyer by training. Before Shane became the Head of our international oceans campaign, he was the policy advisor to Greenpeace Australia. Now that he’s back on land, we plan on getting him into a survival suit that isn’t orange and getting him to tell some tales (whale tails perhaps) to some of the government officials we meet.