1. Greenpeace has since stated that Paul Watson was an influential early member, but not one of the founders of Greenpeace.
73 Facts About Paul Watson
1. 2.
Paul Watson promotes aggressive non-violent intervention to defend marine life and marine eco-systems.
3.
Paul Watson's activities have led to legal action from authorities in countries including the United States, Canada, Norway, Costa Rica and Japan.
4.
Paul Watson was detained in Germany on an extradition request by Costa Rica in May 2012.
5.
Paul Watson has never been convicted of a criminal felony despite numerous arrests during his career.
6.
Paul Watson appeared before a US appeals court on November 6,2013, stating that neither he nor the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society violated a 2012 order requiring them to leave whaling vessels alone.
7.
Paul Watson is living in Paris, writing books, giving lectures and coordinating marine conservation campaigns.
8.
In March 2019, Costa Rica dropped all charges against Paul Watson and has removed the Interpol red notice.
9.
Paul Watson has created his own foundation, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, as Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and the board of Sea Shepherd Global removed him.
10.
Paul Watson has left the executive office of the Australian branch.
11.
In July 2024, Paul Watson was detained in Nuuk by the Danish police, citing an Interpol red notice from Japan.
12.
Paul Watson was expected to stay in pre-trial detention until October 2,2024; Watson and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation filed an appeal with the Supreme Court to have the decision set aside.
13.
Paul Watson was released from prison and returned to France.
14.
Paul Watson was born in Toronto, the oldest child of Anthony Joseph Watson and Annamarie Larsen, and grew up in St Andrews, New Brunswick, along with three younger sisters and three younger brothers.
15.
Paul Watson signed up as a merchant seaman in 1969 with the Norwegian Consulate in Vancouver and shipped out on the 30,000 ton bulk carrier Bris as a deckhand.
16.
Paul Watson's third wife, Allison Lance, is an animal rights activist and a volunteer crew member of Sea Shepherd.
17.
Paul Watson married his fourth wife Yana Rusinovich on February 14,2015, in Paris.
18.
Paul Watson ran for Parliament in Vancouver Centre twice for the Green Party.
19.
In October 1969, Paul Watson joined a Sierra Club protest against nuclear testing at Amchitka Island.
20.
Paul Watson continued as a crew member, skipper, and officer aboard several Greenpeace voyages throughout the mid-1970s.
21.
In January 2013, Paul Watson relinquished captaincy of the Steve Irwin.
22.
Paul Watson was forcibly removed as head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in September 2022, after the board of directors voted him out in place of new government deals and promises of reduced conflict and a disengagement of direct obstruction to illegal fishing and whaling vessels.
23.
Many branches of Sea Shepherd worldwide followed Paul Watson and dissolved their campaigns in light of a new chapter suitably named, Captain Paul Watson Foundation.
24.
Captain Paul Watson is no longer legally allowed to be seen or photographed with the Sea Shepherd name or logo and has completely dropped all ties to the brand.
25.
Paul Watson was a field correspondent for Defenders of Wildlife from 1976 to 1980 and a field representative for the Fund for Animals from 1978 to 1981.
26.
Paul Watson was a co-founder of Friends of the Wolf and Earthforce Environmental Society.
27.
Paul Watson worked with the Green Party of British Columbia in Vancouver in the 1980s and 90s.
28.
Paul Watson resigned from the board a month before his term ended, in protest against the organization's sponsorship of a "Why I Hunt" essay contest.
29.
In January 2008, Paul Watson was named by The Guardian as one of its "50 people who could save the planet" for the work of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
30.
Paul Watson says he incorporated his own personal experience in writing the book.
31.
In 2007 Paul Watson explained his view of needed population control and the future for humans given their role in the Holocene extinction, which he refers to as the "Holocenic hominid collective suicide event":.
32.
Paul Watson continued as a crew member, officer, and skipper aboard several Greenpeace voyages throughout the mid-1970s.
33.
Paul Watson considers himself a founding member of Greenpeace and Greenpeace International, a claim Greenpeace disputes despite being pointed out in the documentary, How to Change the World which shows that Watson was indeed one of the original founding members of Greenpeace.
34.
In 1977, Paul Watson was expelled from the Greenpeace's board of directors by a vote of 11 to 1.
35.
Paul Watson accused these organizations of campaigning against the Canadian seal hunt because it is an easy way to raise money and it is a profit maker for the organizations.
36.
Paul Watson was sentenced to 10 days in prison and fined $8,000 for his actions during a Canadian seal hunt protest in 1980, after being convicted of assaulting a fisheries officer.
37.
Paul Watson served his sentence at Her Majesty's Penitentiary, St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
38.
Paul Watson was found guilty under the Seal Protection Act for painting harp seal pups with red dye to devalue their pelts.
39.
Paul Watson was arrested in 1993 in Canada on charges stemming from actions against Cuban and Spanish fishing boats off the coast of Newfoundland.
40.
Paul Watson defends his actions as falling within international law, in particular Sea Shepherd's right to enforce maritime regulations against illegal whalers and sealers.
41.
Paul Watson took responsibility for the operation, abiding by published Sea Shepherd principles.
42.
In March 2012 Interpol issued a "written statement to all 190 member countries making it clear that it would not publish a Red Notice" for the detention of Paul Watson, but reversed that position in September 2012.
43.
In May 2012 Paul Watson was detained by German authorities at Frankfurt Airport because of a request from the government of Costa Rica.
44.
Paul Watson was charged with violating navigational regulations with the Interpol alert stating the charge as peligro de naufragio.
45.
On July 19,2012, Japan applied for an extradition order and Paul Watson left Germany, resulting in a German court ordering his immediate re-arrest.
46.
Paul Watson rejoined the crew of the Steve Irwin in the South Pacific in late November 2012.
47.
In March 2019, Costa Rica dropped all charges against Paul Watson and has removed the Interpol red notice.
48.
On December 2, it was announced that a decision on whether not Paul Watson will be extradited to Japan will be taken by December 18,2024.
49.
In October 2024, while imprisoned in Greenland, Paul Watson sent a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron requesting political asylum.
50.
Paul Watson's release was confirmed by his lawyer Julie Stage, who remarked that the charges against him were "groundless".
51.
In 1999, Paul Watson ran unsuccessfully for election to the national Sierra Club Board of Directors, with the backing of the anti-immigration faction Sierrans for US Population Stabilization.
52.
Canadian Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn accused Paul Watson of trivializing the memory of the lost sealers.
53.
Paul Watson replied that Hearn was trying to distract attention from his government's incompetence as the boat the men were on capsized while under tow by a Canadian Coast Guard vessel, while his political ambitions continued to support and subsidize an industry that had no place in the 21st century.
54.
In 1978, Paul Watson expressed opposition to seal hunt protest organization, suggesting in an interview with CBC's Barbara Frum that saving seals is a cheap and easy fundraiser and that seals do not deserve special status over other species.
55.
In October 2009, Paul Watson, who carries a US passport, complained to media outlets about having his request for an Australian visa denied.
56.
In January 2013, Paul Watson was presented with an Aboriginal passport by the Krautungalung people of the Gunnai Nation.
57.
On March 17,2008, Paul Watson said that he was shot by the Japanese crew or coast guard personnel during the Operation Migaloo anti-whaling campaign in the Southern Ocean.
58.
Paul Watson responded to Beck's comments on the official Sea Shepherd website by stating that he had said that but that it was taken out of context, paraphrasing Gerald Seymour's "One man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter".
59.
Paul Watson was criticized for his poem published immediately following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami which suggested the disaster was Neptune's anger.
60.
Paul Watson was not, having transferred to another ship in international waters, aware New Zealand was required to notify Interpol if he entered the country.
61.
Paul Watson criticised the search, accusing New Zealand of siding with Japan on the issue of whaling in the Southern Ocean.
62.
Paul Watson said "the reason I called it that is because it's pretty hard for anyone to infiltrate and take over an organisation that included my name".
63.
Paul Watson often takes the attitude that he represents law enforcement which is either unwilling or unable to enforce existing laws.
64.
Paul Watson received the Jules Verne Award on October 10,2012.
65.
Paul Watson was the second person after Captain Jacques Cousteau to be honored with a Jules Verne Award dedicated to environmentalists and adventurers.
66.
On June 28,2010, Paul Watson received the Asociacion de Amigos del Museo de Anclas Philippe Cousteau: Defense of Marine Life Award, in recognition of his merits achieved by the work done in defense of marine life.
67.
In 2002, Paul Watson was inducted into the US Animal Rights Hall of Fame for his outstanding contributions to animal liberation.
68.
In September 2024, The Perfect World Foundation announced that Paul Watson would receive the 2025 Perfect World Foundation Award.
69.
On November 19 2024, Captain Paul Watson was awarded the Citoyen d'honneur de la Ville de Paris, Honorary Citizen of the City of Paris.
70.
On March 2,2025, Captain Paul Watson was awarded the medal for the city of Nice by Maire de Nice Christian Estrosi, President del la Metropole, President delegue de la Region Provence -Alpes-Cote d'Azur.
71.
Paul Watson responded to the South Park episode by stating: "My understanding is that the Japanese Prime Minister was not amused and the whalers and dolphin killers are enraged at the way they were portrayed," Paul Watson said.
72.
Paul Watson was portrayed, during a 60 Minutes episode that aired in 2013, as contributing to the return of the humpback whale populations in the South Pacific.
73.
The 2019 documentary film Paul Watson, directed by Lesley Chilcott, features interviews with Paul Watson.