A Tribute to Captain Paul Watson

“If the ocean dies, we die.” — Captain Paul Watson

For nearly fifty years, one man has put his own body, his own ships, and his own freedom between whales and the harpoon.

This page is a tribute to Captain Paul Watson — co-founder of Greenpeace, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, star of Whale Wars, and founder of the Captain Paul Watson Foundation.

Early Life & the Founding of Greenpeace (1970s)

Paul Watson was one of the founding members and directors of Greenpeace in the early 1970s, part of the small band of activists in Vancouver who pioneered the idea of “bearing witness” — putting small boats between whalers and whales to physically block the hunt.

Watson helped establish the direct-action style of ocean activism that Greenpeace became known for. Ideological differences over tactics — Watson favored more assertive direct intervention than the organization’s leadership wanted to pursue — eventually led to his departure from Greenpeace.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (1977–2022)

In 1977, Watson founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to do what he felt Greenpeace would not: physically intervene to stop illegal whaling, sealing, and finning operations at sea. Over more than four decades, Sea Shepherd grew into a fleet of ships that patrolled the world’s oceans, confronting illegal fishing and whaling operations from the Southern Ocean to the Faroe Islands, the Galápagos to the Mediterranean.

Sea Shepherd’s campaigns became legendary in the conservation world — chasing down poaching vessels, blockading whaling fleets, and forcing Japan’s Antarctic whaling fleet to repeatedly cut its hunts short.

Whale Wars

Starting in 2008, Animal Planet’s documentary series Whale Wars brought Watson and his crew into living rooms around the world, following Sea Shepherd’s Southern Ocean campaigns against Japanese whaling ships through 2014. The show introduced millions of people to the reality of illegal whaling and turned Watson into one of the most recognizable conservationists on the planet.

Watson’s work and story have also been the subject of numerous documentaries and films, including Watson (2019), Sea of Shadows (2019), Al Jazeera’s Killing Whales (2019), the BBC’s A Perfect Planet (2021), and more.

Captain Paul Watson Foundation (2022–Present)

In 2022, after parting ways with the organization he founded, Watson launched the Captain Paul Watson Foundation to continue direct-action ocean conservation work — carrying the same mission forward under a new banner, with a renewed focus on ending illegal and unsustainable whaling wherever it still occurs.

Arrested for Defending Whales (2024)

In July 2024, Watson was arrested in Nuuk, Greenland, after his ship docked there, acting on an Interpol Red Notice that had been requested by Japan years earlier over a 2010 confrontation with a Japanese whaling vessel. He spent months in detention while Denmark considered Japan’s extradition request — drawing global attention and support from conservationists, celebrities, and government officials around the world who rallied behind him.

In December 2024, Denmark’s Ministry of Justice formally rejected Japan’s extradition request, and Watson was released and returned home. In July 2025, Interpol removed him from its wanted list entirely, closing the case for good.

Recognition

Over his career, Watson has received numerous honors for his conservation work, including a Genesis Award for Lifetime Achievement (1998), recognition as one of Time Magazine’s “Top 20 Environmental Heroes of the 20th Century” (2000), induction into the U.S. Animal Rights Hall of Fame (2002), the Amazon Peace Prize (2007), and the Jules Verne Award (2012). He has also authored more than a dozen books on ocean conservation, maritime history, and environmentalism.

Why This Matters

Whatever one thinks of his tactics, Paul Watson has spent a lifetime doing something almost nobody else was willing to do: showing up. He put a boat in the path of a harpoon. He sailed to the Southern Ocean, again and again, when it would have been far easier to stay home. He gave whales — animals with no vote, no voice, and no seat at any international table — an advocate who was actually willing to be there.

This page, and this site, is dedicated to him and to everyone who has stood between a whale and a harpoon.

Learn more: Captain Paul Watson Foundation · Captain Paul Watson Foundation UK