Sea Shepherd Captain, Paul Watson, on Seaspiracies and the Smartest Species on Earth

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Sea Shepherd Captain, Paul Watson (@CaptPaulWatson), talks with Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung) about Seaspiracy, life as an outlaw and as a movie star, the impact of Covid on life in the oceans and whether whales are more intelligent than we are.

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.

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Berke Breathed’s original drawing of Opus, the Penguin – used to illustrate Mark Leiren-Young’s poem Operation Dessert Storm in the Sea Shepherd newsletter.

Excerpts from Orcapedia

Mentioned Episodes:

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Sea Shepherd Global

Sea Shepherd Legal

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TIME CODES

  • 4:38– How Covid has effected the Sea Shepherd and the oceans
  • 4:52– “There has been an increase in poaching.”
  • 6:52– His new book, Orcapedia
  • 7:10– “What we’re talking about here is an international slave trade where the orcas are the new slaves.”
  • 8:36– “The orcas in captivity have names and therefore we tend to relate to them more so than the ones that are in the wild.”
  • 10:13– Tilikum’s story
  • 13:41– How Watson fell for whales.
  • 13:58– “To me whales are highly intelligent, very social, self-aware sentient beings and I think, in many cases, they’re probably more intelligent than we are.”
  • 17:20–  The backlash to Seaspiracy
  • 17:30– “The fishing industry’s very powerful and they throw a lot of money into their PR machines.”
  • 20:55–   “What we really need is a tuna-free tuna.”
  • 21:12–   “You can find scientists who will defend any side of an argument. I call them “biostitutes,” when they’re working for the industry.”
  • 23:36– “A good percentage of the fishing industry is strictly, completely illegal – unregulated and uncontrolled.”
  • 27:10– How his movie Watson happened.
  • 29:04– Selling his life story – a lot.

Paul Watson
“We’re killing these incredibly beautiful, socially complex, sentient creatures for the purpose of making a weapon meant for the mass extermination of human beings. And that’s when it struck me we’re insane, as a species we’re insane. And that’s when I said I’ll never do anything for people. I’m going to do this for them. (whales)”

“No orca has ever attacked any human being in the wild ever.”

“We’re killing these incredibly beautiful, socially complex, sentient creatures for the purpose of making a weapon meant for the mass extermination of human beings. And that’s when it struck me we’re insane, as a species we’re insane. And that’s when I said I’ll never do anything for people. I’m going to do this for them. (whales)”

 “After being criticized for sinking whaling ships:  “I said, ‘John, I didn’t sink those whaling ships for you or for Greenpeace or for anybody else. We sank them for the whales. Find me a whale who disagreed with what we did and I’ll promise I’ll never do it again.’”

“We’ve never been a protest organization. We’re an interventionist organization. Sea Shepherd is an anti-poaching organization.”

“I felt there was a need for intervention, not protest. I’ve never been a protester.”

“I call what we do aggressive nonviolence.”

“The real fault with the mainstream media is what they don’t talk about.”

“I used to joke that we were the ladies of night of the conservation movement because people may agree with us, but they don’t want to be seen with us in the daytime.”