Paul Watson

A modern day "green" pirate, Captain Paul Watson is the star of Animal Planet's Whale Wars and the head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Captain Paul Watson has chased down, rammed and sunk pirate whaling ships, disrupted seal hunts, and halted the slaughter of dolphins. He has been shot at, assaulted, jailed and threatened.

But Watson isn’t just the controversial star of Animal Planet’s hit show Whale Wars. He is an international marine conservationist and environmentalist with four decades of experience defending marine life on the high seas and was even selected by TIME Magazine as one of the Environmental Heroes of the 20th century.

He was a co-founder of the Greenpeace Foundation and in 1977 he established the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the most aggressive and effective international marine conservation enforcement organization in the world.

Watson has led over 250 campaigns to protect and defend marine wildlife in all the world's oceans and is currently involved in campaigns to intercept the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and to oppose the slaughter of seals in Eastern Canada.

Actor and activist Martin Sheen has described Captain Watson as "by far the most knowledgeable, dedicated and courageous environmentalist alive today."

Certainly he is the most controversial environmentalist and deep sea ecologist on the planet and is constantly debating critics ranging from Catholic Bishops to the Right Wing pundits of the Fox Network. His bio-centric views have been denounced by some as heresies against humanity and lauded by others as the solution to our ecological dilemma.

And although he leads dangerous missions, Watson and his crew have never injured a single person or been convicted of a felony. As he reminds his critics, "I uphold international conservation law; I don't break laws, unless I have to."

Besides Whale Wars, which recently received an award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for providing “television with a conscience,” Watson is the author of numerous books including “Ocean Warrior” and “Seal Wars” and has been featured in profiles ranging from the New Yorker to Outside Magazine.

Watson is also featured in the movies Sharkwater and The Edge of the World, which premiered at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. The documentary biography of Captain Watson, entitled Pirate for the Sea premiered at the 2008 Telluride Film Festival

A truly remarkable individual, Watson is also a poet, a surfer, a scuba diver, a vegetarian and a master strategist. He has been a professor at Pasadena College of Design, a guest lecturer with the Honor’s program at UCLA, and is widely hailed as one of the most dynamic and passionate speakers on conservation and environmental issues.