Paul Watson Isn't Afraid To Use Violence When It Comes To StoppingWhale Killers. By Maria Nasif FOR YEARS PAUL Watson has dared to do what the governments and navies of the world have lacked the guts to do--enforce existing international laws on whaling. While most folks would simply stand by helplessly and watch in horror as an illegal vessel slaughtered a protected orca or blue whale, Watson is world-famous for doing just the opposite. First he warns the intruders their ship will be rammed, and then he makes good on that promise. Watson is to be honored in Tucson at 5 p.m. Saturday, March 9, at the Ramada Inn, 1601 N. Oracle Road, as part of the annual Star Awards celebration, which recognizes achievement in animal activism. The awards presentation is sponsored by SPEAK, Supporting and Promoting Ethics in the Animal Kingdom. Watson has spent the last quarter century enforcing international laws the nations of the world have ignored. Not an easy task in the best of times, it's certainly made more difficult when our supposedly environmentally concerned president refuses to invoke the Packwood/Magnuson and Pelly Amendments against Norway and, more recently, Japan. Doing so would mean hitting with economic sanctions any country openly defying the current international moratorium on whaling. Clinton's reluctance may have had something to do with Norway's oil lease exploration licenses to U.S. companies and the $560 million worth of missiles the U.S. sold to Norway last year. Despite Clinton's environmental cowardice, which has severely undermined two decades of international efforts to protect Whales, Watson remains firm in his commitment. "We're making sure it costs more money to kill whales than they can make from killing them," he says. "Although the slaughter continues, the price of war insurance has increased 3,000 percent." This cost escalation occurred after Watson sank two Norwegian whaling ships and let it be known more were targeted. Despite his efforts, however, it seems the oceans will run even redder in the near future--Japan has announced plans to kill 2,500 Whales in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary this year alone. Meanwhile, Iceland, Russia, Canada and the U.S. all have announced plans to allow whaling again. Don't believe it? Just do a little research on the Makah Indian Nation of Washington state. Supplied with killing boats from Norway and Japanese buyers, the Makah intend to kill California greys. As if fighting whalers weren't enough to keep him busy, Watson and his crew have also found time to: • Confiscate illegal drift nets and gill nets (which are still widely used despite a world-wide ban); • Fight the Panama Declaration, which would once again allow dolphins to be caught with tuna; and, • Protect baby harp seals from the annual massacre in Newfoundland. In his quest to protect the seals, Watson traveled to the Magdallen Islands in 1994, where he discovered the molting pups' fur, when brushed, releases from the undercoating--a process the pups seem to enjoy. A German bedding company guaranteed purchase of this cruelty-free filler for its comforters. Unfortunately, when presented with this economically viable alternative, the sealers' response was to mob the hotel where Watson and actor Martin Sheen were conferring. They severely beat Watson, and local police forced him to leave the island. Apparently the sealers were reluctant to lose their deal with an Asian buyer offering $40 for each detached baby seal penis they could deliver. (The Asian black market has a long history of paying top dollar for everything from seal and tiger penises to black rhino horn, elephant tusk, black bear paws and gallbladders.) How does Watson stay alive and kicking despite cowardly governments and brutal profiteers? He says his motivational philosophy is derived from the Plains Indian belief that we must do what is right according to our conscience. And Watson says he believes "in the interrelationship of all species upon this planet and not to put the human species over and above any of them. This is the concept I fight for." He also insists that ecological principles such as biodiversity, the interdependence of species, thermodynamics and finite resources must eventually take precedence over man-made laws or, one day, our very existence will be jeopardized. "The natural world is being destroyed," he says, "because of grazing, because of forestry, because of mining. All of these things are threatening not only millions of species, but also indigenous peoples who have existed for thousands of years. There's very little thought given to the destruction of a culture, just as there's very little thought given to the destruction of a species. As long as somebody's making a profit, it seems to justify any activity regardless of the destruction." One need only read the findings of biologists worldwide--scientists of the stature of Edward O. Wilson, for example--who've announced humans are responsible for the fourth major spasm of species extinction (both flora and fauna) ever to afflict our planet, to realize the awesome task Watson has taken upon himself. To those who wish to help, he offers this advice: In addition to changing your lifestyle (i.e., becoming vegetarian, boycotting products, furthering environmental education), "We must take an aggressive individual stand and fight for the preservation of the wild. And that means to fight on a political level, on a judicial level; voice yourself through your work, get actively involved and organized." Although he was a founding member of Greenpeace, Watson doesn't recommend sending money to that organization--he says it's become nothing but a multi-national, multi-million-dollar corporation.

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