Paul Watson

Paul Franklin Watson (born 1950‑12‑02 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian‑American activist and television personality whose career spans over five decades of relentless marine conservation advocacy. From his teenage involvement in a 1969 Sierra Club protest against nuclear testing to the founding of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in 1977, Watson has championed aggressive, non‑violent direct‑action tactics to protect whales, seals, and other marine life, positioning himself as a polarizing figure labeled by some governments as an eco‑terrorist and by supporters as a heroic defender of the oceans. His early contributions to the nascent Greenpeace movement, including sailing aboard the Greenpeace Too! in 1971 and co‑founding the organization in 1972, were later downplayed by Greenpeace, yet documentary evidence affirms his status as an eighth founding member with lifetime membership number 007. After parting ways with Greenpeace over strategic disagreements, Watson launched Sea Shepherd, a group renowned for bold interventions such as boarding whaling vessels, deploying prop‑foulers, and scuttling ships in Icelandic ports, tactics that have attracted both international acclaim and legal challenges across jurisdictions including the United States, Canada, Norway, Costa Rica, and Japan. In recent years, Watson has lived in Paris, authored numerous books on eco‑activism, and founded the Captain Paul Watson Foundation following his removal from Sea Shepherd’s board in 2022, continuing to coordinate campaigns against illegal whaling and deep‑sea mining while navigating complex extradition battles that culminated in his 2024 release from detention in Greenland. His personal life reflects a series of partnerships—Starlet Lum, Lisa DiStefano, Allison Lance, and Yana Rusinovich—resulting in three children, and his legacy endures through documentaries, reality TV series Whale Wars, and a litany of environmental awards that underscore his enduring impact on global marine conservation.