Paul Watson

Paul Watson is the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and is known as "The Admiral".

History
Paul joined the Sierra Club in 1969 at the height of the conservation movement where he met all the big names. A year later he formed Greenpeace Sea Shepherd's rival.

In 1977 Paul was kicked out of Greenpeace and the organization became too radical. Those that chose to follow him formed Sea Shepherd in 1978 and chose Paul as their founder and admiral.

Operation Sierra
After its founding Sea Shepherd began to target IUU poachers their first target was the notorious Norwegian pirate whaler Sierra. Paul went out with the Sea Shepherd 1 in 1979 and chased the Sierra to Portugal where Paul rammed it at the mouth of the harbor causing it to leak oil. Sierra was towed to port by a destroyer and Sea Shepherd 1 was impounded. Paul did not want his ship to fall into the hands of IUU poachers so in the dead of night he scuttled the vessel to keep it out of enemy hands. In February Sierra was getting ready to set sail to continue poaching. Sea Shepherd snuck into the harbor in the Sea Shepherd II and planted bombs on the hull of the Sierra sinking it.

The Whale Wars
Following successful campaigns Paul turned his attention to bringing down ICR who was in violation of the 1986 IWC Charter.

Since Operation Leviathan Paul has been at the helm of the Steve Irwin chasing Nisshin Maru and her Harpoon Boat cronies.

In 2007 during Operation Migaloo The Whalers hired an assassin and he fired his pistol at Paul and shot him. The whalers dispute this saying Paul made it up but evidence for the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet back Paul's claim and the bullet was collected as evidence. While in port Paul was mailed a envalope of anthrax and the crew was quarantined while the coast guard disposed of the envalope.

In 2008 during Operation Musashi ICR poached whales right in front of Paul and transferred them to Nisshin Maru. Paul ordered the Irwin  to ram the Nisshin Maru 's tow cable to prevent Yushin Maru No. 3 from transfering a whale. Yushin Maru No. 3 turned hard to starboard and rammed the Irwin putting a gash in the hull. Both sides accused each other of the collision.

In 2009 Paul was once again an admiral after losing the RV Farley Mowat to Canada along with his passport. Under his command were the Irwin, MY Bob Barker, and the Ady Gil''. ICR had bought a former harpoon boat and it became their nemesis Shonan Maru No. 2. Pete Bathune engaged the security ship and they backed off but tailed them to Nisshin Maru. After disabling Nisshin Maru Pete planned to meet up with the Bob Barker who would tow them until the Irwin'' arrived. That did not happen and Ady Gil was sunk by the Japanese. Pete wanted revenge so he boarded the Shonan Maru No. 2. and was sent to a Japanese prison. Paul then disavowed Pete for violating the Sea Shepherd code and allowing weapons onboard. The insurance company and Pete later sued Sea Shepherd for the loss of the Ady Gil.