Animal Rights/Vegan Activists' Strategies Articles




Life Without Sea Shepherd USA

From Captain Paul Watson
August 2022

I will once again secure a ship and I will once again return to the high sea to do what I have done my entire life – to save lives and to defend marine species from phytoplankton to the great whales.

[Also read Resignation of Sea Shepherd Founder Captain Paul Watson from Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (USA)]


Captain Paul Watson

As some of you may know, I have recently resigned from Sea Shepherd USA although I continue to be a part of and support Sea Shepherd Global.

Sea Shepherd USA has elected to change course from the work we have been doing for the last 45 years and that is a course that I cannot support or participate in.

In 1977, I formulated a strategy called aggressive non-violence to create a unique organization focused on intervention against illegal operations exploiting life in the sea.

This approach has been highly effective, but it has also been both controversial and confrontational. We have always been a rock the boat organization, saying things many did not want to hear and doing things that angered many others, especially those with a vested interest in exploiting life in the sea for profit.

I have not changed. I intend to passionately continue my aggressive and controversial conservation work and although I can no longer do so in the same way, I will continue to fight for the cause we all believe in and support nonetheless.

What can never be taken away is my love for and my dedication to protecting, defending and conserving marine biodiversity and interdependence.

I will once again secure a ship and I will once again return to the high sea to do what I have done my entire life – to save lives and to defend marine species from phytoplankton to the great whales.

I hope you will continue to support me in overcoming obstacles and rising strong upon the waves again.

If the Ocean dies, we all die?

That is the reality that has guided me for a half century.


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