Pop Culture Narrative

Paul Watson

I am someone who likes to be outside and see the wildlife and marine life. Thats why Paul Watson is very influential to me. Paul Watson is someone most people probably do not know about, but he is a key reason why there are still whales left on our planet, along with dolphins, seals, and many other marine life creatures.

Paul Watson is a Canadian animal rights and environmental activist. He is also the founder and president of the Sea Sheherd Conservation Society, which is a direct action group devoted to marine conservation. Watson was part of the Canadian Coast Guard and Greenpeace. Greenpeace is an organization that focuses on preventing and stopping world wide issues such as global warming, deforestation, overfishing, commercial whaling, and anti-nuclear issues.

Watson is most commonly known as the captian and founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The Sea Shepherd is known mainly for preventing the killing of whales. There is a show on Animal Planet called Whale Wars, which follows along with the Sea Shepherd vessels and shows the horrors of whaling, and the actions the Sea Shepherd takes to prevent whaling. There is an international ban on whaling, but many countries like Japan still kill whales and say they are doing it for scientific research. The Sea Shepherd targets the Japanese Whalers because, whether legal or not, are killing about 1,500 whales a year. Globally, whaling is a problem because about 7,400 whales are killed each year and 7 out of the 13 species of great whales are still endangered. This is also a problem because whales cant reproduce until they are about 7 to 14 years old, so it takes a while to repopulate. Paul and his crew constantly pursue the japanese whalers until whaling season is over, and they do it year after year.

Paul is influential to me because he has taken much criticism over his 31 years of being an activist, and not once has he stopped his pursuit to stop whaling or give up on what he believes in. Even at 60 years old, he still fights to stop whaling and I find that very admirable because he wants to help save marine life, and he wont stop until whaling stops.