Paul Watson lives after controversy, but the Sea Shepherd captain seems perfectly comfortable in the froth of public opinion.
The founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society recently returned from his Antarctic anti-whaling mission and sounds absolutely pumped about his success in stopping the Japanese ship Shonan Maru 2 from killing its legal quota of whales.
Never mind the loss of their high-tech speedboat Ady Gil — which was rammed by the whaling vessel after the two captains locked air horns — or the imprisonment of the Ady Gil captain, Pete Bethune.
"We cut their catch by 449 animals. Of their legal quota for 50 fin whales, they took one. Of the 935 minke whales, we cut it by 449," says Watson.
"That means we cost them about $75 million. That’s good for us, because the only language they understand is economics. They’ve been operating at a loss for five years, and are in debt to the Japanese government with about $120 million in subsidies."
Watson has learned a few things about the ups and downs of committed activism since he broke off ties with Greenpeace, an organization he had a hand in creating back in the heyday of Vancouver’s hippie era.
Not content to spend millions on fundraising in order to get millions in funding — a formula familiar to most non-profits — Watson says the best use of his time and money is action.
"I set Sea Shepherd up as an anti-poaching organization. We intervene. We don’t protest. I think protesting is very submissive. What we do is intervene, but we do so in a responsible manner. Some people may disagree, but I think our record speaks for itself. In 33 years, we’ve never injured anybody and never had a crew member seriously injured. We’ve also never been convicted of a felony crime. And we’ve never been sued."
Watson punctuates his sentences with a brief pause and the same downbeat inflection you hear from news anchors as they deliver the daily tragedies. It lends him an official quality that seems to go hand in hand with his penchant for wearing a uniform, complete with gold laurels.
It also makes him a compelling screen character in a variety of formats. Watson is the leading figure in Whale Wars, a new reality-TV series airing on Discovery Channel. He also recently wrapped production on Pirate for the Sea, a new film that picked up the best feature documentary prize at the Boulder International Film Festival and will make its West Coast debut as the closing night gala for Projecting Change, the rapidly growing environment-focused film fest that unfurls in Vancouver from Thursday to Sunday.
"Last year, I gave a speech at the FBI Academy in Quantico, and one of the agents said, ‘Well, you know, Sea Shepherd is walking a pretty fine line.’ And I said, ‘Well, who cares about how fine it is, as long as you don’t cross it,’ " says Watson.
"They had to agree. And really, the perception is not the reality. But I don’t do anything to change that perception, because I think it works for us . . . . I mean, we fly our own Jolly Roger. We paint our ships black. We do that for a reason."
The intimidation factor is a good thing to exploiton the high seas, he says, but he knows role-playing can go both ways. He tells his crew they have to be ready to die for a whale if they want to be on board for the voyage, and, so far, he says no one has bailed — or been forced to pay the ultimate price.
"A whale could have killed me a long time ago, but I looked into its eye as it was dying, and (it) changed me forever."
Watson comes close to quoting Jesus’s "Forgive them, Father" words from the cross as he describes the look in the whale’s softball-sized eye as it disappeared into the blood-red depths.
"I can’t just sit back and watch these mammals of high intelligence slaughtered for nothing."
Convinced his quest is righteous, Watson talks about his blessing from the Dalai Lama and the spiritual leader’s words of advice on fighting the leviathan powers in office.
"The [talisman] the Dalai Lama gave me represented the compassionate side of Buddha’s wrath," says Watson.
"I didn’t really know what that meant, so I asked the Dalai Lama to explain it to me, and he said, ‘ Well, you never want to hurt anybody. But sometimes, when they can’t see enlightenment, you scare the hell out of them until they do.’ "
Katherine Monk, The Vancouver Sun, April 19, 2010
Source: http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Shepherd+captain+sails+fine+line/2923344/story.html
