U.S. Tuna Fisherman Confesses to Multiple Felonies 

Commentary by Captain Paul Watson

I have always said that our primary opposition is ignorance and this weekend I found myself in a debate with a former San Diego Tuna fisherman who clearly demonstrates the ecological ignorance that has brought the oceans to the diminished state we have presently. But most importantly, in the little silly exchange that I had with this man, he admitted to multiple felonies while skippering a U.S. registered tuna boat.

Self righteous aquatic-parasites like Bob Petton give little thought to the life they so casually waste and the ecosystems they so mercilessly destroy.

I received this first message from ex-tuna fisherman Bob Petton on July 11th. Usually I ignore such hate mail, but this time I sent a simple response and then the man went beyond attacking me and boasted about the slaughter of dolphins. I have not corrected his spelling:

From: Bob Petton
Sent: Saturday, July 11, 2009 10:28 AM
To: Paul Watson
Subject: CRIMINAL

Watson, you are nothing more that a criminal. You fly your Jolly Roger flag and it is nothing more than fitting. You are a pirate and a criminal. You break all the Rules of the Road and a dangerous person, you belong in prison.

Be glad that I am not the Capt. on one of those vessels you are 
threatening, I'd make short work of your fat ass. You say "nothing can stop you", When you get a couple of those stupid high school dropouts killed you will be stopped. Throwing "stink bombs". lol One of those harpoon vessel could stop you in a heartbeat. They are being attacted and lives being threatened. One harpoon through one of those rubber dingys and you are finished. Just for good measure one through you pilot house, that would get your attention. lol As for the victums of your behavior, they would be well within their rights.

I am a victum of jackasses like you, they put an end to the greatest Tuna fleet in the world, San Diego. Yeah, I was the Master of some of the finest Tuna Vessels that ever sailed. I had more that just a 2000 ton fishing ticket, possess a hard earned Masters Inspected license which enabled me to run many fine sailing vessel. That piss pot you run is nothing but a piece of junk.

It looks like a conversion of an old Army FS228. Watson, I believe you to have a mental problem and you are dangerous.

They way you walk and stand around on the bridge suggests to me you have a problem. You are going to get some people killed by you lousy seamanship and your ignorant "crew". Hell, these little girls get hurt just riding around. Now you see why we never allowed girls on a Tuna Vessel. They will be the cause of your total ruin.

Robert E. Petton Capt. USCG

In response to this message I simply sent a short message:

I'm quite happy to hear that we helped put you out of business. If I was doing anything illegal I would be in jail. Do some research before you shoot foolishness from the hip.

Paul

The ex tuna killer then sent the following response:

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Petton
Sent: Sunday, July 12, 2009 12:22 PM
To: Paul Watson
Subject: RE: CRIMINAL

So you are happy that you placed thousands of people out of work? You are one ignorant asshole.

Now countrys that have no regs at all are catching and killing the Dophins. (Porpoise, is what we called them. They are such stupid and worthless animals. They can jump 20ft. high and yet the could not clear 3inches of cork. They died by the thousands. I found out that one dies and 50 comes to it funeral. I have seen schools of porpoise that you could not see the end of them with 20X binoculars. The tuna weighed 10 to 15lbs. Now, 45 years later and a few million porpoise fewer the tunas are in great health and feeding the world. Fish are in the 100 to 200lb class and in great shape. The worthless porpoise? There is no end to them. Still are billions of them depleating the ocean of food and poluting the water.

So you keep throwing your stink bombs, you are and will do nothing to save a few useless whales. The world has to eat fool. I'm betting on the Japs. They will serve you idiots your lunch one day and it will be served cold, and its what you deserve.

Now an insult to myself is one thing, but to condemn the dolphins and to spout such ecological nonsense about dolphins and tuna is quite another, so I decided to give him a piece of my mind. Sometimes one just has to vent and thanks to Captain Bobby Petton, I got to let off a little steam. 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Watson 
To: (ex)Captain Bob Petton

Yes I am very happy we shut you down, very happy indeed and we will shut down the Japanese whalers also. We have already cost them over $240 million and negated their profits for the last four years. We will sink them economically just as we destroyed the sealing industry. Your comments about the dolphins simply reinforce my belief that we are right. The tuna are in trouble. All the world's fisheries are collapsing because of people like you.

But Captain Bobby would not let it go and sent the following, where he admitted to bribing Federal government observers which I found very interesting:

 

-----Original Message-----

From: Bob Petton
Sent: Sunday, July 12, 2009 4:16 PM
To: Paul Watson
Subject: RE: CRIMINAL

Hey Watson: Not only are you a criminal motherf**ker, but a ignorant one at that. You and your who es, with those pussy kooks arent going to shut down shit. Throwing f**king stink bombs are going to shut down a multimillion dollar industry? In your f**king dreams you lardass piece of shit. You remind me of that fool Tidwell, he's bear shit now. Hopefully you will join him, soon. lol I watch Animal Planet just to see what you and your stupid crew can fuck up next. You all belong together. Like I said before "a small ship of fools' You will fail as you have in this life.

How is your bullet wound and the white powder? You lying piece of shit. Nobody shot you or gave you a letter with some foot powder in it. This is some of the stupid shit you and those Einstein's made up.

I'll keep watching all you asshole's make fools of yourselves, reminds me of the 3 stooges. You new first mate reminds me of many of the Govt. Observers I had on my vessel, what a dickhead. I used to deal with those jerks with bribes, booze and dope. You talk about some worthless shit, they were it.

Your new suck ass first mate is in his heaven, wait til he gets a harpoon thru the pilot house or a blast from the acustic implement. He'll crawl right up Watsons ass.

You jerks are entertainment. Lol

NOTE:

The most interesting part of his rant was “You new first mate reminds me of many of the Govt. Observers I had on my vessel, what a dickhead. I used to deal with those jerks with bribes, booze and dope.”

The man admits to committing two felonies as a skipper on a U.S. flagged vessel. He admits to bribing federal government observers to allow him to operate in violation of the laws and he admits to possessing drugs onboard an American registered fishing vessel. And this man has the gall to accuse us of being criminals for saving whales from illegal whaling activities.

I sent him a final response:

Bobby Boy,

My, my but aren't we touchy and perhaps displaying a touch of paranoia in addition to the sociopathic behavior you're demonstrating. You're a real angry guy now aren’t you? Angry and stupid, and now that we've forced you off the high seals and your criminal activities, you spend your time watching Animal Planet and cussing us because we beat your ass, you little pansy fisherman. I guess you did not have much choice about being a fisherman, considering there are few other jobs available that can match the low IQ you most certainly have. Yes sir, sitting home with a six-pack and some cheetos watching Animal Planet and whining and sobbing into your beer.

What a pathetic little turd you are Bobby boy, you've got all the answers don't you? Of course you don't know crap do you? Just speculating with a heavy dose of bias. So you admit to criminal activity I see, bribing U.S. Federal government employees, of course you did because you were fishing illegally weren't you Bobby boy. You're a self confessed poacher and poachers are the slime of the fishing industry and you Bobby Boy reek of the slime of corruption. What a piece of work you are Bobby, you admit to being a poacher, you admit to bribing observers. You admit to possessing illegal drugs.

What I really enjoy is hearing just how much we piss you off. Thanks for that Bobby, much appreciated, if I can't piss off a degenerate illegal fisherman scumbag every now and then, it wouldn't be much fun now would it? So thanks for the fun and games Bobby boy, yes sir, you are one retarded bozo aren't you.

For a so called seaman you seem to have a hard time identifying vessel types. My ship is a British Royal Navy built island class patrol boat. Not much of a sailor are you Bobby boy, just a dumb fisherman with a chip on his shoulder, nothing more than a trivial marine parasite now washed up on shore where you most surely belong - right there in front of the television vegetating like a silly little zombie watching people you hate and fuming in your own stinking bile as we frustrate the hell out of you.

You are so yesterday Bobby boy, so left in the wake of evolution, just a little Darwinian mistake, a failed abortion, fit only to whine and moan and cry like a little baby for days gone past when you were able to kill dolphins and slaughter tuna to prove that you're a man. And now, you are nothing and that's good news for dolphins and tuna and good news for the oceans and us. So thanks for sharing your pathetic little issues with me. It's been amusing.

Way back in 1987, we held a press conference with a government observer who testified that tuna fishermen had bribed him. The industry of course denied the allegations. Now we have a man who brags about being skipper of some of the largest tuna clippers out of San Diego openly admitting that he bribed government officials and openly admitting that he bribed them with illegal narcotics and openly admitting to poaching and killing dolphins illegally.

With the tuna on the brink of commercial extinction this man states that the industry has never been healthier and his claim that there are billions of dolphins in the sea is ridiculous. From 1972 until 1992, the U.S. tuna fleet slaughtered some 17 million dolphins. It was an ecological crime of great enormity and the tuna industry brought ever-lasting shame to the United States because of it.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society contributed greatly to the shutting down of the tuna industry by releasing the first footage of dolphins being killed on the U.S. registered San Diego tuna clipper Sea King in 1988.

Our work was complemented by the efforts of Sam LaBudde, who worked onboard a Panamanian tuna boat and secretly documented the atrocities he observed.

We are proud of our efforts that contributed to the shutting down of the dolphin slaughter. This kind of slaughter cannot be justified by any number of jobs or by profits – it is simply unacceptable.

I view the tuna fishermen who participated in this massacre as ecological criminals of the highest order. This whining ex-tunaboat skipper Bob Petton is just one of the many merciless killers embittered by the fact that we helped put an end to their murderous crimes.

Addendum:

Bob Petton did send another angry response but it was so full of obscenities that there is no need to repost it here except for one very relevant further admission.

"I never killed one f**king porpoise. Now, maybe 10 or 15 thousand comitted suicide in my nets, but I never killed one. I spent 35 beautiful years harvesting tuna to feed the world, if a few dolphins* were lost, too bad. Gotta bust a few eggs to make an omlet."

So this, man who once deliberately encircled dolphins with a purse seine net in a method called "fishing on porpoise," is saying that the dolphins he chased and corralled and captured in his net - committed suicide.

This gives additional insight into the type of criminal mentality that allowed for the U.S. tuna industry to murder some 17 million dolphins before the U.S. government shut down their orgy of slaughter and ecological destruction.

As for Bob Petton, he's just a bitter old man of 72 with nothing better to do these days than to sit and watch Animal Planet and curse us for saving whales. His glory days of mayhem and slaughter on the high seas is over, and hopefully the world will not see the likes of criminals like him in the future - drug peddling poachers who bribe government observers and destroy the world's oceans for personal profit.