Tribute to the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society - Paul Watson.

By Rob R:

The warrior founder of Sea Shepherd:

Sea Shepherd was founded in 1977 by Canadian born Paul Watson who was the 8^th founding member (membership no.007) of Greenpeace in the early 1970’s. Paul Watson and his lifelong friend Robert Hunter (Greenpeace membership no.000) were the first people to put their lives on the line to protect whales when Paul placed his inflatable Zodiac between a Russian harpoon vessel and a pod of defenceless Sperm whales. During this confrontation Paul looked directly into the eye of a harpooned and dying sperm whale and recognized a flicker of understanding in the dying whale's eye. He felt that the whale knew what they were trying to do and he watched as the magnificent leviathan heaved its body away from his boat, slipped beneath the waves and died. This event changed his life forever so he vowed to become a lifelong defender of the whales and all creatures of the seas.

In June 1977, Paul Watson resigned from the Greenpeace Foundation because of disagreements with the bureaucracy of the organization and because he saw a global need to continue direct action conservation activities on the high seas by an organization that would enforce laws protecting marine wildlife when no-one else would. He was chosen by ‘Time Magazine’ as one of the environmental heroes of the 20th Century in the year 2000.

Paul Watson is the man Japanese whalers, Canadian seal hunters and illegal fishermen everywhere fear the most! Captain Watson said this year – “I have been fighting whalers since 1974 which is all of my adult life. I would dearly love to see whaling abolished before I die and if that means spending the remainder of my days fighting whalers on the high seas than that is what it will be”.

Paul Watson describes himself in March 2008:
My primary interest is in defending and protecting marine life in our oceans. It is my deepest passion and it is a fight that I have been involved in all of my life, a fight that I shall never retire from and will continue until the day I die. I am Captain and Educator, Author and Lecturer, Fund-raiser and Film-maker, Executive Director and Marine Conservationist. I am Master of the 657 ton ship Farley Mowat and the 1000 ton vessel Steve Irwin. The Steve Irwin is being prepared for a voyage to Antarctic beginning in November 2008 to intervene against illegal Japanese whaling. The Farley Mowat is being held captive by the Canadians after saving seals. in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. My ship Sirenian is on permanent patrol in the Galapagos. I am closely connected to the Scuba-Diving, Surfing and Vegetarian communities