Paul Watson

"Intelligence is the ability of a species to live in harmony with its environment."

"We have intelligent species on our planet that we are not even trying to communicate with."

"Were now in the midst of a 3rd World War, but this time the enemy is ourselves, and the objective is to save the planet FROM ourselves. Theres no hope for masses of humanity to do anything — they never have, they never will. All social change comes from the passion and intervention of individuals or small groups of individuals. Slavery wasnt ended by any government or any institution. Women got the right to vote not because of any government. The civil rights movement, the same thing. India with Mahatma Gandhi, South Africa with Nelson Mandela. Again, its always individuals. You need those individuals with the passion and the energy to get involved. In fact, I dont know of any government or any institutions that are doing anything to solve any of these problems. All over the world, all I am seeing is individuals and non-government organizations that are passionately involved in protecting ecosystems and species, and thats where I see some optimism. Thats where I see results are happening."

"All of our targets were criminals, they were all operating in violation of international whaling laws."

"We are pirates of compassion hunting down, hunting down and destroying pirates of profit."

"I dont eat fish because there is no such thing as sustainable fishing in the world right now."

"We cannot allow activism to be stifled because of all the paranoia going around."

"In a way, the event could also be called the "Holocenic hominid collective suicide event."

"A virus kills its host and that is exactly what we are doing with our planets life support system. We are killing our host the planet Earth."

"The activists of the and the are merely emulating the strategies and tactics of every other social and political movement that has ever existed but with one distinct difference – they have not killed anyone. Yet environmentalists and animal rights activists have been murdered, and the media is reluctant to portray the deaths as terrorism."

"I am unconcerned if people do not approve of this approach, but my position is: find a whale that disapproves of our actions and we might reconsider. We didn’t ram and sink those whaling ships for people. We did so for the whales. They are our clients."

"When it comes to whaling, I believe that direct action is the most effective approach. There is no argument to say otherwise. Our actions speak for themselves. In the Southern Ocean we saved the lives of 6,500 whales. Overall, through the decades, I believe that we’ve saved the lives of tens of thousands of whales that would have been killed illegally if not for our intervention."