Paul Watson has the full name of Paul Franklin Watson. He is an environmental activist who was born December 2, 1950, with the status of two citizenship, Canada and US.
This Canadian is active as a conservator of marine and environmental animals that defend animal rights and take action on environmental issues. He is also founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society community, an anti-poaching group and direct action on marine conservation.
Before establishing the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Paul first became one of the founders of Greenpeace, a community engaged in environmental conservation as well. He was even positioned as a board member in the Greenpeace group in 1972 and became the community captain. Unfortunately, Paul’s status as one of the founders of Greenpeace is denied by the community itself.
Paul was fired from Greenpeace in 1977 for having opinions contrary to the group’s interpretations. That same year, he finally decided to leave the community and start the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The group later became the subject of a reality show called “Whale Wars”.
In addition to being an environmental activist, Paul Watson also promotes veganism, population controlling volunteers, and believes that the values of life exist on earth-no matter how much conscious. It is more biocentric than anthropocentric.
Paul has been the source of some of the contentious action strategy arguments used by Sea Shepherd to prevent unfriendly whaling and conservation activities, and have legal action against him in some cases. The legal action is carried out by several countries including US, Canada, Norway, Costa Rica, and Japan.
One of the controversial acts of Paul and Sea Sheperd is in connection with the ownership of two ships patrolling international waters and face to face with ships showing evidence of a criminal offense.
Some state governments rejected this action and regarded it as an “eco-terrorist” and a “hijacker”, but several others had chosen to cooperate with him patrolling and making arrests, acting like a “green police” agent.
Paul’s first action in terms of environmental conservation was in October 1969. He joined the Sierra Club to protest the nuclear test at Amchitka Island.
The results of the demonstration then gave birth to the Do not Make a Wave Committee community, now known as Greenpeace. Since then, Paul has been doing environmental conservation actions with Greenpeace.
After leaving Greenpeace, Paul with Sea Sheperd who he founded bought their first ship in December 1978 with the help of the Fund for Animals and the Royal Society for the prevention of animal violence. Not long after, Sea Shepherd established itself as one of the controversial environmental activist groups.
Paul’s other environmental conservation activities are field correspondence for Defenders of Wildlife, a US-based non-profit conservation organization, from 1976 to 1980 and representatives of the Fund for Animals in 1978-1981. Paul Watson is also one of the founders of Friends of the Wolf and the Earth force Environmental Society.
During the 1980s, he declared his support for Earth First! (radical environmental advocate group) and friends with Dave Foreman (founder of Earth First!) and Edward Abbey (environmental issues writer).
Not only giving immediate action, Paul Watson also showed his concern for the environment through his writing as outlined in a book titled Earthforce !, containing a strategy guide for environmental activists published in 1993.
In the book, Paul writes his specific support for “monkey wrenching” tactics-a kind of sabotage tactics-previously described by Dave Foreman and Edward Abbey.
A series of environmental conservation activities undertaken by Paul with Sea Shepherd put him on the list of “Guardians of the planet’s 50 people who can save the planet” in 2008.
Although many people judge Paul’s actions to be too radical and proactive, it is undeniable that he has made a major impact on environmental conservation, especially in the marine sector. Other people may judge as they please about a person, but the most important is the impact of the action the person does.
A proverb says, “Dogs bark, caravans go by.” Keep working for as long as the results are positively shaped by ourselves and around us. Courage and assertiveness are also needed to make changes, sometimes even extreme steps like what it that had been done by Paul Watson.
