Pia Klemp


Pia Klemp is a ship captain, animal and human rights activist and author from Germany, who, between 2011 and 2017, worked for the Sea Shepherd organization to participate in many international operations to protect sea animals. Between 2016 and 2018 she commanded two rescue ships in the Mediterranean Sea for the German NGOs Jugend Rettet and Sea-Watch during the ongoing European migrant crisis. Her ships rescued about 14 thousand migrants from drowning. Klemp was responsible for the rescue of more than a thousand of them.
One of her ships, the Iuventa, was seized by Italian authorities in 2017, who accuse her of cooperating with human traffickers, and claim many of those saved were at no imminent risk of death. If convicted, she faces 20 years in prison. Her newer ship, the Sea-Watch 3 was blocked by Maltese authorities for several months in 2018.

Life and work

Klemp was born in 1983 in Bonn-Beuel, Germany. She studied biology in Bonn. For two years she worked as a diving instructor and participated in several nature conservation projects in Germany, Thailand and Indonesia.
In 2011 she joined the marine conservation organization Sea Shepherd, working on the MY Steve Irwin, MY Bob Barker, MY Sam Simon and MV Brigitte Bardot, for six years in various positions such as cook, rescue diver, deckhand, ship manager and second mate, while gaining her sea captain's patent. During this time she took part in many missions including Operation Relentless and Operation Milagro.
On 9 June 2015, she founded Aquascope e.V., an organization to develop and utilize surveillance technologies to tackle illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
With the emerging European migrant crisis since 2015, she switched in 2017 to rescue ship operations in the Mediterranean Sea, commanding the Iuventa by the German Jugend Rettet organization in two missions until the ship was seized by Italian authorities on 2 August 2017. Presented at Manifesta 12, a Goldsmiths, University of London-based Forensic Oceanography and Forensic Architecture team of researchers came to the conclusion that the crew of the Iuventa neither communicated with nor returned empty boats back to the traffickers.
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Since early November 2017 she was responsible for the first four rescue missions of the Sea-Watch 3 near the Libyan coast, after the ship was taken over by the German Sea-Watch organization from Médecins Sans Frontières Spain. On 1 June 2018, the Sea-Watch 3 was blocked from leaving the harbour of Valletta by Maltese authorities until October 2018.
The forthcoming suit in the Iuventa court case forced Klemp to temporarily stop her rescue activities at sea and return to Germany in August 2018.
Later that year she founded the group Solidarity at Sea''.
Klemp is author of the novels Allmende und Schrebergarten and Lass uns mit den Toten tanzen.

Media

On 13 January 2017, hosted Klemp and other guests in his Nachtcafé 90-minute talkshow at Südwestrundfunk discussing her marine life conservation and anti-whaling activities with Sea Shepherd.
On 10 June 2018, the in Bologna, Italy, introduced Michele Cinque's 86-minute cinema documentary '.
On 7 September 2018, interviewed Klemp for half an hour in Phoenix persönlich, on Phoenix.
On 5 March 2019, Katja Kipping spoke about Klemp in a feature Bedeutende Frauen der Weltgeschichte - Pia Klemp by Julia Menger and Kerstin Hermes in "Der schöne Morgen" of radioeins, Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg.
Also in March 2019 Klemp was interviewed for half an hour for the OstWest format by Moritz Gathmann.
On 4 April 2019, Westdeutscher Rundfunk broadcast an 8-minute documentary about Klemp by Iris Toussaint.
On 29 May 2019, ' by Joko Winterscheidt and Klaas Heufer-Umlauf of ProSieben featured her in a 15-minute theatrical-like staging.
On 8 July 2019, Bayerischer Rundfunk broadcast an 11-minute telephone interview by Knut Cordsen.

Awards