Quotes from Paul Watson

Social change comes through people.

Sometimes going to jail is just the price you have to pay for social reform or social change.

Pete Bethune is a hero in New Zealand. He's a hero worldwide to people who want to see the end of whaling.

Bluefin tuna is sort of like the cheetah of the ocean. It's the fastest fish. It's a warm-blooded fish. But it's got a $100,000 price tag on its head.

Nobody can legitimately claim to be a marine ecologist and conservationist while continuing to eat fish. It is the ultimate form of hypocrisy.

The environmental movement doesn't have many deserters and has a high level of recruitment. Eventually, there will be open war.

Captain Falco saw the diminishment of biodiversity in our oceans over a span of nearly seven decades. He was dedicated to the protection of life and habitats in the sea. He was a legendary mariner, diver, oceanographer, and conservationist. The world is a better place because of him.

In 1993, I chased Cuban and Spanish drag trawlers off the Grand Banks off of Newfoundland. And it cost them $35 million in losses.

There's money to be made by driving a species extinct.

No species is more important than others.

The shark is the apex predator in the sea. Sharks have molded evolution for 450 million years. All fish species that are prey to the sharks have had their behavior, their speed, their camouflage, their defense mechanisms molded by the shark.

NATO isn't going to be concerned about fishing.

I always try to take the unexpected things and make them work for me.

I reject the idea that humans are superior to other life forms. . . Man is just an ape with an overly developed sense of superiority.

Russian subs are a bargain at $60,000. Unfortunately, none of the dials or instructions are in English.

I'm not interested in culture; I'm interested in the law.

The United Nations World Charter for Nature, section 21, empowers any nongovernmental organisation or individual to uphold international conservation law in areas beyond national jurisdiction and specifically on the high seas.

I feel that we have a responsibility to try to do everything we can to protect species, and the best way to do that is to uphold international conservation law.

I have an unexplainable belief that I will never cause harm or be harmed while at sea. Because of this, I feel secure at sea: I feel secure in the ice, I feel secure in the storms, and I feel secure in confrontations.

I want to stay in the ocean. I'm not going to be able to do that from some holding cell in Japan.

Every fish in the ocean is in danger.

The oceans are the last free place on the planet.

Most people can't see the connection between their own lives and the oceans.

I do what I do because it is the right thing to do. I am a warrior, and it is the way of the warrior to fight superior odds.