Born in December of 1950, Paul Franklin Watson is a Canadian environmental activist, who founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a direct action group focused on marine conservation.

Watson’s pro-Earth, pro-environment & pro-animal activist career began when he joined a Sierra Club protest against nuclear testing in 1969. He was thereafter an early and influential member of Greenpeace, and was credited by The New York Times, The New Yorker and other publications with being a founding member thereof, though Greenpeace denies the claim. Watson argued almost from the beginning for a protest strategy founded on direct action — a strategy that conflicted with the Greenpeace’s interpretation of nonviolence. For this reason, Watson was ousted from the Greenpeace board in 1977, and subsequently left the organization completely. That same year, he formed Sea Shepherd Conservation Society — the same activist group that is the subject of the reality show, “Whale Wars” (which is truly AWESOME).

Soon after its founding, Sea Shepherd established itself as one of the more controversial environmental groups, known for its provocative direct action tactics; tactics which have included (and still include) throwing “stink bombs” onto the decks of whaling ships, using “prop foulers” to sabotage whaling vessels, boarding whaling vessels to shut them down, and even scuttling two ships in an Icelandic harbor.

In 1993, Watson also published “Earthforce!”, a practical guide for all environmental activists. Therein, he specifically endorses the tactics of “monkey-wrenching” — the purposeful destruction &/or sabotage of any & all property being used to harm the environment and any of the earth’s resident life forms.

Consistent with his anti-whaling & anti-sealing positions, Watson also promotes veganism, along with a biocentric (life-affirming), rather than anthropocentric (human dominate) worldview.

Watson’s courageous activities have led to legal actions against him from authorities in countries including the United States, Canada, Norway, Costa Rica, and Japan. He was detained in Germany in May 2012, on an Interpol red notice requesting his detention to allow an extradition application from Costa Rica. A second red notice was issued on September 14, 2012, this time at request from Japan. After staying at sea for 15 months, he returned to Los Angeles late October 2013, went through customs without incident. Costa Rica later dropped its extradition request after documentary footage taken at the time of the incident in question proved Watson’s innocence. Thereafter, he appeared before a U.S. appeals court in November of 2013, stating that neither he nor Sea Shepherd violated a 2012 order related to how they are to deal with whaling vessels engaging in illegal whale hunting activities. This argument, in great part due to its patent Truth, proved convincing, and Watson remains unpersecuted in the United States to this day, where he continues to be active in various pro-environment & pro-animal endeavors.

“They call me an eco-terrorist but I don’t work for BP.” ~ Paul Watson

“Whaling is cruel, uncivilized and has no place in the modern world … We are pirates of compassion opposing pirates of profit … We will not stop until whaling ends … People can criticize us all they want, but what they have to remember is that our clients are the whales and the Earth, and I have never heard either complain … You don’t walk down the street and see a woman being raped and do nothing. You don’t walk down the street and see a kitten or a puppy being stomped to death and do nothing. You don’t walk down the street and see a child being molested and do nothing. You DO SOMETHING.” ~ Paul Watson

 

Filed under: In LOVE with Humanity by Scaughdt