Commentary by Captain Paul Watson

Captain Watson on the bridge wing of the Steve Irwin 
File PhotoIt has been an interesting weekend. The CTV network in Canada updated and nationally ran a previous profile piece on me on Saturday evening. Although I was not in Paris to personally accept it, I also received the Jules Verne Award on Saturday and that is a very prestigious honor indeed. Someone commented that I have gone underground. I'm not sure that is an accurate description. Can one be underground while being on the water?

I am not a fugitive, however. Germany no longer has a warrant for me because I am no longer in Germany. Costa Rica and Japan have me listed with Interpol on their ‘red list,’ which is not actually an arrest warrant. What it means is that if I enter an Interpol member nation, they will inform Japan and Costa Rica who will then issue an arrest warrant. So until I officially enter a country that is a member of Interpol, there is no warrant outstanding for my arrest. Interpol has zero jurisdiction on the high seas nor has anyone else, which means I am free to roam the ocean at will. Considering that is where the oceanic bad guys are operating, what better place to be if we are to stop them?

The other Sea Shepherd captains are preparing the ships, and Captain Peter Hammarstedt has taken over my speaking engagements and fundraising activities ensuring that everything is on track for our campaigns to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, in the Cove at Taiji, Japan, in the Galapagos, in La Reunion, in the South Pacific, in Namibia and a dozen other locations around the planet. No matter the obstacles or the inconvenience, life is always good each day that I am able to see that great red orb rise from the Eastern sea in the morning and dramatically slip below the Western Horizon in the evening with the rare treat of seeing a green flash. And the nights! What better place to be than under that great splash of diamonds embedded in the black velvet of sky? The sea provides the great picture window of spaceship Earth with a view that fascinates, humbles and enthralls, and that makes me a very happy pirate indeed.

I am especially excited that we are about to take on the Japanese whaling fleet again when they are at their weakest and we are now at our strongest, which gives me great confidence that we will have another very successful season of intervention against the serial whale killers from Japan.