Paul Watson Quotes

I don’t see the point in making a distinction between natives having more of a right to kill whales than nonnative people.

There’s no rest when you‘re on planetary duty.

I’m thankful to have time to write.

The fact is, Japan’s whaling is illegal, so just because there is a natural disaster in Japan is no reason for us to stop opposing their illegal activities in the Southern Ocean.

Every fish in the ocean is in danger.

I did not establish the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as a protest organisation.

If you’re dealing with criminals, they’re not going to want to go to court.

Pete Bethune is a hero in New Zealand. He’s a hero worldwide to people who want to see the end of whaling.

I have actually led more expeditions to Antarctica than Scott, Amundsen, and Shackleton put together.

There are many who condemn my crew and I for taking the law into our own hands and for taking on the barons of corporate profit.

There are very few fishermen left today.

I don’t have a religion, but I respect them.

The only thing scarier than Godzilla is Godzilla’s lawyers.

The environmental movement doesn’t have many deserters and has a high level of recruitment. Eventually, there will be open war.

People feel good about giving money to Greenpeace.

Sea Shepherd does not condone, nor do we practise, violence.

Domestic house cats kill more fish than all the world‘s seals put together.

To me extremism is targeting endangered whales in a whale sanctuary in violation of a moratorium. That, to me, is extreme.

Japan is a bully nation that takes what it wants and threatens any who oppose it.

Whales are killed today to supply the limited demand for whale meat or to be used in pet foods or as fodder for fur-bearing animals used in the fur trade.

Everybody is a hypocrite. You can’t live on this planet without being a hypocrite.

I will not watch a whale die. I’ve not seen a whale die since I left Greenpeace in 1977.

I’m never horrible to anybody. My problem, and you can ask any of my friends, is that I’m too nice to everybody.

We live on the most incredible planet, and yet we abuse it, and we abuse it mercilessly.

I find it abhorrent to see a whale being slaughtered and do nothing but bear witness.

Taiwan gives a lot of foreign aid to Costa Rica, so it looks like they are basically buying the right to fish, even though it’s not legal.

As long as there is a Southern Ocean whale sanctuary, Sea Shepherd crew will continue to patrol and defend it.

I’m not interested in culture; I’m interested in the law.

I feel that people should have a license to have children, that they have proper education how to raise children. And that nobody should be allowed to be a parent unless they can prove that they are competent enough to be a parent.

The Polynesians used to have a system where they proclaimed a fishing area as ‘taboo.’ If any fisherman was caught fishing in a taboo area, they would be killed. The Polynesians understand that the fish had to be given a chance to recover.

The seal hunt has made me ashamed to be a Canadian.

Russian subs are a bargain at $60,000. Unfortunately, none of the dials or instructions are in English.

I always say, ‘I’m not a pirate, I just play one on TV.’

We’re close to losing our essential diversity. Look at our wheat crops – we rely on a handful of grain crops and plants that we’ve refined and bred over hundreds of years.

There’s money to be made by driving a species extinct.

Sustainable fishing is a fraud. It’s a marketing term that really means ‘business as usual.’

I don’t think you really have to retire from what you do.

The most powerful weapon in the world, as far as I’m concerned, is the camera.

Costa Rica and Germany have simply been pawns in the Japanese quest to silence Sea Shepherd in an attempt to stop our annual opposition of their illegal whaling activities.

In Africa, the rangers shoot poachers.

I would just say that nobody could do what I do unless you had a big ego. It’s the only way you can really put it. You have to be arrogant enough to challenge the arrogance of the human race.

Putting Zodiacs in front of whaling vessels doesn’t do it anymore. Done that, been there, seen that.

Sometimes we are separated by differences, and sometimes we are united by common ideals of respect and compassion.

Ships are expendable; the whales are not.

I have been honoured to serve the whales, dolphins, seals – and all the other creatures on this Earth. Their beauty, intelligence, strength, and spirit have inspired me.

The only language that the Japanese whaling industry understands is economics.

I’ve had a lot of disappointments. I think my biggest disappointment is the failure of elected officials to make good on their promises in regards to the environment or anything else, really. I have very little faith in politicians.

Most people can’t see the connection between their own lives and the oceans.

People are beginning to realize that we need to live in accordance with the law of ecology, the law of finite resources, and if we don’t, we’re going to go extinct.

Commercial fishermen are the greediest, stupidest people on earth.

In December 2012, the U.S. 9th district court granted a temporary injunction to the Japanese whalers that ordered the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society U.S.A. to not approach within 500 yards of the whaling vessels.

I’ve won some awards. ‘Time’ magazine designated me as one of the environmental heroes of the 20th century. Oh, and I’ve got some honorary citizenships, like from the Conch Republic of the Florida Keys. But the one thing I am proud of is I didn’t get the Chevron environmental award. Never did get that one.

Protesting against illegal activity is not piracy.

It is true that many of the Sea Shepherd crewmembers are inexperienced, but the fact is that these volunteers bring a passion to the project that cannot be found in a hired crew.

I’m not pessimistic about anything.

My grandfather carried me around on his shoulders at 85.

Here’s the thing: Nobody gets extradited for a crime where nobody’s been hurt, where no property‘s been damaged.

I take a biocentric point of view. I look at things from the point of view of the Earth and the laws of ecology. As opposed to the anthropocentric point of view, where everything revolves around humanity.

Usually, environmental programs are not designed for a mainstream audience.

In ‘Deadliest Catch,’ we have men in ships in rough seas catching crabs. With ‘Whale Wars,’ we have men and women from a dozen different nations going out to sea in rough weather to help save the whales. We also have icebergs, whales, penguins, and dramatic ship-to-ship confrontations.

Spermaceti oil is valued for its high resistance to heat, and thus it is used in machinery where there is excessive heat.

I do what I do because it is the right thing to do. I am a warrior, and it is the way of the warrior to fight superior odds.

An American citizen is not going to be extradited to Japan for saving whales.

Greenpeace is the world’s largest feel-good organisation now, and I can say that ’cause I am one of their co-founders.

All revolutions are violent revolutions.

I want to stay in the ocean. I’m not going to be able to do that from some holding cell in Japan.

Way back in October 2007, I had urged thousands of Australians to vote for Kevin Rudd and Peter Garrett’s Labor Party. Why? Because they promised to get tough on illegal Japanese whaling.

The United Nations World Charter for Nature, section 21, empowers any nongovernmental organisation or individual to uphold international conservation law in areas beyond national jurisdiction and specifically on the high seas.

Greenpeace has a fast ship that could stop the whalers cold.

You don’t get anywhere unless you’ve had a little bit of a complicated life.