PAUL WATSON is a HERO. He's done what you don't have the balls to do. Save the lives of living beings who are intelligent, sensitive and live in families with no crime. They breathe air, have warm blood, bear live babies, nurse their young and keep their families together. Paul Watson is doing his best to save the oceans of the world from poachers and killers and liars and frauds.

He is NOT a terrorist in any sense of the word. He has never harmed a single animal or person in 31 years of saving what you do not honor. The only thing he damages is whaling ships and he hasn't even done that for over 20 years. Why don't you publish the ENTIRE article and let readers read the truth instead of excerpting and making a nasty comment. Paul Watson puts his life on the line to save the ocean creatures... - Investigating violations - Enforcing laws - - Protecting marine wildlife worldwide

What have you done with your life?

Paul Watson doesn't stay on dry land very much. Last year the tireless eco-warrior was at sea for 50 weeks, and this year he has spent just one week at his home in Washington State. As he puts it: "There's no rest when you're on planetary duty."

Since forming Sea Shepherd in 1981, Watson, a former Canadian coast guard, has commanded more than 200 voyages aimed at stopping Antarctic and Arctic whaling, illegal long-line fishing in the Pacific, the killing of seals in Canada and, more recently, poaching and shark-finning in Galapagos.

Legal or not, Sea Shepherd's tactics include bombarding whaling crews with smoke bombs and slabs of rancid butter. The butter makes the decks too slippery to work upon, but Japanese whaling crews have described the substance as "acid".

"They don't want any more negative publicity over whaling than they already get," he says.

Watson's passion verges on the spiritual. His moment of revelation came in 1975 when he was trying to prevent a Soviet ship killing a sperm whale. At one point, a harpooned whale came close to sinking Watson's small inflatable boat.

"That dying whale looked right at me and chose not to harm me. It moved out of the way to avoid crushing us.

"What angered me was that the Russians were using the fine oil from the whales as lubricants in intercontinental ballistic missiles. Here were human beings killing these intelligent, peaceful and majestic creatures to use a bit of oil inside a killing machine."

Although whaling is still one of Watson's prime concerns, his crews are at the forefront of publicising the dire state of the world's marine environment. He arrests illegal traffickers in sea cucumbers and Asian fishermen who slaughter sharks for use in shark fin soup - for which there is an insatiable demand in China's new economy.

He and his shipmates are all vegans.

"I don't eat fish because there is no such thing as sustainable fishing in the world right now," he says.

"There is no industry on this planet that is as wasteful. Commercial fishermen are the greediest, stupidest people on earth. I grew up in a fishing community and I don't like saying that, but these people may in the end be the cause of our planet's demise."

"I don't care what people say about me," he says. "My clients are the whales, the sharks and the fish populations who have no one to fight for them."

Japanese whalers have called him a terrorist. "But what does that word mean today, when the Chinese have called the Dalai Lama a terrorist?"

Watson believes that life on our planet conforms to what he calls the three fundamental laws of conservation. First the law of diversity, second the law of interdependence, and third the law of finite resources.

"We're close to losing our essential diversity. Look at our wheat crops - we rely on a handful of grain crops and plants that we've refined and bred over hundreds of years. It only takes a new disease to come along and take out one of the building blocks and the planet will go through an environmental correction."

"I mean that there are too many people in the world. But we aren't essential to its survival. Worms are more important to the system than we are - they can survive without human beings but we can't live without worms. I think the system will correct itself somehow as far as human beings are concerned."

But human beings in developing countries rely on fishing to survive; in the West we are constantly being urged to eat more fish on health grounds.

"Well, people may need to eat fish," he says, "but there aren't enough fish in the sea to go round. People mocked me in 1975 when I said that the cod fisheries would collapse. Those critics are pretty quiet now."

Watson's passion may be spiritual, but he abhors religion.

"Almost all religions put us at their centre. And this world isn't just about us. We are an animal like all the other creatures on earth, and we somehow think we are the most important."

But Watson is adamant that he doesn't want to emulate the larger, more corporate conservation groups. He dismisses them as "feelgood" organisations. He is equally dismissive of politicians.

"Take Ecuador," Watson observes ruefully.

"The Galapagos is a World Heritage Site and it's going down the tubes. The main island is over-run with dogs and cats, and the Navy take bribes from the illegal fishing boats. They have never arrested a single poacher. But we have, and we've confiscated thousands of illegally poached shark fins."

Apart from Watson and the ship's engineer, the crew of 35 is made up entirely of unpaid volunteers. One British supporter told me that they sold their house and moved back in with their parents to fund a year as a crew member:

"And I do get called 'Cassandra' a lot. But the thing is, Cassandra's prophesies all came true."

You are brainwashed fool, starbird, a complete, stone-cold, brainwashed fool. However, if you are trying to make Paul Watson supports look like complete idiots, you did a wonderful job of it.

While I'm NOT going to stand on the side of the road that thinks that ramming and sinking ships is a good thing, I DO believe that we have a certain responsibility to maintain our environment.

I realize that some will stand on the sidelines and yell, "Yeah!! That was cool. Another boat was sunk." Well, frankly, I think that idea is completely counterintuitive to the goal of maintaining our globe. (I really would like to say that idea is just plain stupid...but that wouldn't be nice...so I won't)

Having been a maritime investigator, I've been out there when a ship goes down. Does anybody have any idea how much toxic junk enters our seas when that happens? Does somebody actually think that it just evaporates because it was put there to support their unthinking ideals? When a ship is lost, that's the first thing that investigators look for...the oil sheen and which way it drifted to determine where it may have originated from.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for protecting the environment...just smartly.

In fact, in my new book, "Terrorism and the Maritime Transportation System" I devote an entire chapter to the issue of ballast water and the deadly non-indigenous species that impact our economy and the ecosystem. This is an issue that brought President Clinton to write an Executive Order with the intent of bringing about some regulation. Unfortunately, few listened and everyday tons of dangerous biotic invaders cause us harm.

So rather than cheering the sinking of boats by people who feel they have a right to disregard the law, perhaps folks might serve their cause better by asking their Congressman why they failed to support regulation that causes our world so much harm.

That's just my two cents.

Anthony M. Davis
Author: Terrorism and the Maritime Transportation System

Paul Watson is a terrorist, and should be subdued, sent to Guantanamo and trialed for terrorism, piracy and damaging private property.