“Captain” Paul Watson: Founder
The Sea Shepherd is not really a protest organization. We’re not protesting anything. We’re opposing the illegal activities by criminal operations in a world where governments support criminal operations in the name of profit.
In an address to the Animal Rights 2008 National Conference, Alexandria, VA, Aug. 14-18, 2008.
Asking us to respect Newfoundlanders is like asking us to have respect for the soldiers of the Third Reich. The slaughter of the seals is horrifically cruel and bloody. How can anyone respect these vicious and barbaric butchers or anyone who supports this butchery?
In “Seal hunt supporters worry Beatle star power will have impact,” Canadian Press, Mar. 3, 2006.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society does not have a policy or a position on tree-spiking. … I have my own opinion on it and I support the tactic and I have no regrets or apologies for my past participation with tree-spiking activities, especially in the Clayoquot region. I wish that every tree was spiked and I hope that many a sawblade is damaged as a result of the trees that have been spiked.
Posting to the on-line message board of the Native Forest Council, Jan. 11, 2005.
On fishermen: the biggest bunch of sadistic bastards in the world. And environmentalists should “rise up and rip those loggers limb from limb.
Animal Rights Conference, Los Angeles, 2003, as reported in “Sierra Club ever more radical,” Center for Consumer Freedom, Sept. 4, 2003.
The Newfoundland sealers have a game called head hockey where they use a baby seal’s head instead of a puck. These games will provide us with an international peg to hang our message that the cruel, wasteful, economically insignificant slaughter of seals must end.
A complete lie dreamed up for the media release “Sea Shepherd Calls for a Boycott of the 2010 Canadian Winter Olympics,” July 3, 2003.
We should never feel like we’re going too far in breaking the law, because whatever laws you break to liberate animals or to protect the environment are very insignificant.
Animal Rights Conference, 2002.
It is a certainty that the whales will talk about you in the same vein as Jews now talk of Nazis. For in the eyes of whalekind, there is little difference between the behaviour of the monsters of the Reich and the monsters behind the harpoon.
In a “letter to the Norwegians” in the newspaper Nordlys, Jan. 8, 1993.
was arrested in Florida for attempting to rescue captive dolphins. The attempt failed. Sea Shepherd was hit with an $8,000 legal bill and we narrowly avoided a civil suit.Ê White acted in Sea Shepherd’s name without the know-ledge of the Sea Shepherd board. He was quite aware of the Sea Shepherd policy that prohibits any illegal action within U.S. territorial waters. We operate internationally,Ê and we need the sanctuary of the U.S. to be effective. White’s actions threatened the security of Sea Shepherd.
From “Attacks on Sea Shepherd are unfair,” by Paul Watson, Animal People, December 1993.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is a law-abiding organization. We rigidly adhere to and respect the laws of nature or lex natura. We hold the position that the laws of ecology take precedence over the laws designed by nation states to protect corporate interests …
In a “letter to the Norwegians” in the newspaper Nordlys, Jan. 8, 1993.
We confront dangerous people. As the captain, it is my responsibility to protect the lives of my crew … Therefore, I have prepared myself for the possibility of defending my crew in a situation that could never occur, but if it does I will use firearms to first intimidate and then to defend.
Quoted in the Los Angeles Free Weekly, Apr. 24, 1992.
The scuttling of the Nybraena was not a terrorist or criminal act. We were responsible for removing an instrument of death and destruction without causing death or injury.
On the 1992 scuttling by Sea Shepherd of the totally legal Norwegian fishing and whaling boat Nybraena.
As for myself, I do not believe in loggers, I believe in trees. I do not believe in fishermen, I believe in fish. … I am a proud traitor to my species in alliance with my mother the Earth in opposition to those who would destroy her, those parasites who believe the Earth is here to serve human interests. … If we are removed from the Earth, the loggers will slowly fade from the consciousness of the Earth like unpleasant and distant memories. If we survive, the loggers will also fade from the consciousness of humanity as perverse and embarrassing aspects of our once primitive selves. Either way, the logger is a rot, a disease and an aberration against nature, and I among others will not weep a single tear at his demise. To sum up, tree-spiking works. … It is simple and cheap. … Whatever political stance the Earth First! rank and file take, tree-spiking will continue … despite criticism, despite the laws of society, despite the so-called ‘rights’ of the loggers and their ilk. … Tree-spiking is an idea and an idea is impossible to kill. It will continue and I will continue to advocate it until I die. No compromise, not now or ever.
In “In defense of tree-spiking“, by Paul Watson, Earth First! Journal, Sept. 22, 1990.
I was the person who first thought up the tactic of tree-spiking and as such I feel obligated to defend this child of my imagination.
In “In defense of tree-spiking“, by Paul Watson, Earth First! Journal, Sept. 22, 1990.
FRUM: Mr. Watson, how easy is it to raise money against the seal hunt?
WATSON: Well I think that of all the animals in the world or any environmental problem in the world, the harp seal is the easiest issue to raise funds on. Greenpeace has always managed to raise more money on the seal issue, for the campaigns, than have actually been spent on the campaigns themselves. The seal hunt has always turned a profit for the Greenpeace Foundation. And the other organizations like IFAW, API, Fund for Animals also make a profit off of the seal hunt.
FRUM: Are you suggesting that they fight for seals rather than other animals because it’s easy, or easier, to raise money that way, or because it’s a profit maker for them?
WATSON: Well, it’s definitely because it’s easier to make money and because it does make a profit. Because there are over a thousand animals on the Endangered Species List and the seal isn’t one of them, the harp seal isn’t one of them.
In an interview with Barbara Frum, for CBC Radio, 1978.
To be responsible for an extinction is to commit blasphemy against the divine. It is the greatest of all possible crimes, more evil than murder, more appalling than genocide, more monstrous than even the apparent unlimited perversities of the human mind.
In “The politics of extinction,” by Paul Watson. Date unknown.
