What We Were, We Will Be Again |
Building the Captain Paul Watson Foundation |
In 1977, after leaving Greenpeace, I saw a need for a new approach. I called this approach “aggressive non-violence.†Aggressive intervention against illegal and unethical activities without inflicting physical injury, in other words, conservation through confrontation, an approach that has achieved incredible results for over half a century. This approach demanded courage and imagination. When someone wanted to join my crew, I asked a simple question: “Are you prepared to risk your life to defend a whale?†If the answer was no, they didn’t sail with me. We took on impossible situations and made the impossible possible. Key Actions Over the Decades 1979–1980: Targeting Pirate Whalers • Hunted down and sank the pirate whaler Sierra, ending its slaughter forever. • Sunk the outlaw Spanish whalers Isba I and II. • Shut down the pirate whaler Astrid. • Sank the pirate whalers Susan and Theresa. By the end of 1980, we had eliminated every pirate whaler in the Atlantic Ocean. |
Global Conservation Efforts |
1980s: • Blockaded an entire Canadian sealing fleet. • Shut down the Iki Island dolphin slaughter in Japan. • Sank half the Icelandic whaling fleet in 1986 and destroyed their processing plant, halting operations for 17 years. Consistent Actions: • Cut drift nets, rammed drift netters, and confiscated longlines. • Freed dolphins, tuna, sharks, and whales from nets. • Confronted Faroese dolphin and whale killers. • Sank three Norwegian whalers and evaded a Norwegian warship after depth charges, gunfire, and ramming. Protected Marine Reserves: • Safeguarded the Galapagos, Cocos Island, and Malpelo Island from poachers. • Deterred Cuban and Spanish drag trawlers off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. • Ended illegal Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary after a decade of confrontation. 1981: Soviet Whaling Exposure Led my crew on an invasion of Soviet Siberia to document illegal whaling operations—the first such incursion since WWII. Despite resistance from soldiers, helicopter gunships, and a Soviet frigate, we successfully gathered evidence for the International Whaling Commission. |
A Legacy of Defiance and Conservation For five decades, I have dedicated my life to conservation efforts alongside a passionate and committed crew numbering more than 7,000 individuals in total over the decades, all of who took risks, faced dangers, and shared the satisfaction of saving lives and protecting the diversity of our oceans. We were unique. We were controversial. We made waves, and we didn’t care a damn about what governments, media, or the public thought of us. Our clients were non-human citizens of the sea whose world was being ruthlessly plundered every day. Often, people joked that we were the “Ladies of the Night†of the conservation movement. Many people agreed with us quietly but did not wish to be associated with us in the light of day. Unfortunately, some of these people, specifically four men that I knew, mentored, and trusted for twenty years, organized a hostile takeover in 2022. In doing so, they condemned my history and my accomplishments. My history is now an embarrassment to them and the corporate donors they are cultivating, so much so that my picture, my bio, and my history have been erased from official websites. Who are these people calling themselves Sea Shepherd Global, who have never been shot at by the Japanese, the Norwegians and the Soviet whalers or beaten by Canadian sealers or faced down angry mobs of fishermen on Canada or the Galápagos? How can they take control of 50 years of my work only to redirect the organization into the mainstream on a course of inaction and mediocrity? Thankfully, there have been many who have joined me since that coup, people who will not go quietly into the night and will not surrender our values, our passion, and our resolve. That is why I created the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, to continue that which we have always done, to boldly go forth to face those powers that are intent upon destroying life and diversity on Earth. |
I continue to work in partnership with Sea Shepherd France and Sea Shepherd Brazil, the two national Sea Shepherd entities that have remained loyal to the original principles, objectives, and strategies of the Sea Shepherd Movement. And I am proud to see the Sea Shepherd Jolly Roger flag fly with French and Brazilian Sea Shepherd campaigns and to see that every attempt by Sea Shepherd Global to sue France and Brazil for using the name and logo I created, have failed. Outside of France and Brazil I carry on with my own new flag and the name Captain Paul Watson Foundation. These four greedy individuals hijacked the name I created and the logos and flag I designed but they can’t take away what they never possessed. Our passion continues to be backed up by courage, imagination, and persistence by the many people who have remained loyal to the principle of aggressive non-violence. Nathalie Gil in Brazil and Lamya Essemlai in France continue to lead Sea Shepherd effectively and courageously. In every other country in Europe and Australia, the Sea Shepherd name is no longer engaged in direct action. While they have my stolen library of direct-action videos and photographs to exploit, I am not permitted to use action photographs of myself taken before these greedy men were involved under threat of lawsuit for violating the trademarks they registered behind my back. I told the four men who betrayed me with a hostile takeover that they could knock me down, but they will never be rid of me. I will rise back up, stronger than before. I have no choice. The stakes are too high. Life in the sea is being diminished; marine ecosystems are being destroyed, bogus science, ineffective documentation, petitions, meetings, and merchandise sales will not suffice to end the plundering of the living treasures of our Ocean. If you care about the future of life in the sea, I need you. I need volunteer crew, I need shore volunteers, and I need contributors. I need to learn from my mistakes. I will not be taken advantage of and betrayed again. My new crew have returned to the sea and they are working hard together to let the world know that there still remains a unique group of people willing to risk their lives for a whale, a shark, a seal, a turtle, a fish, or any living species in the sea.
Captain Paul Watson Foundation e-mail
Thu, Jun 11, 2026 08:41 AM |
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