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Host: It's 7:45 a.m. over in Paris.

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I'd like to give a very warm welcome
to Captain Paul Watson.

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(Applause)

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[Paul Watson - Sea Shepherd Captain]

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Paul Watson: Okay, thank you.

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I'm here in Paris,
where at the end of this year

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we're going to have yet
another international conference

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on addressing the threats
to our environment.

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I attended the United Nations Conference
on the Environment in 1972,

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and again I attended it
in 1992, in Brazil,

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the first one being in Sweden.

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And not a single, you know,
suggestion, proposal, plan

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of any of those conferences
was ever carried out.

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So will this just be another get-together

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for international leaders
to, you know, have some expensive dinners

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and photo ops

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or will they actually
address some of the issues?

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The problem is,
when governments get together,

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they don't really address the solutions.

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Usually come down to:
Can we tax anybody over this?

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You know, the carbon taxes or whatever.

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But there are real solutions,

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and the problem is is that people -
they want to see change,

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but they don't really want to change.

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And what we have to address here

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is the problem of what
we're doing to our oceans.

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The ocean is the life support
system for this planet.

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It provides food, it provides oxygen -

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about up to 80% of the oxygen
is supplied by phytoplankton in the sea.

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It regulates temperature, storms.

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It is the life support system.

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And on Space Ship Earth
that life support system is run by a crew.

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And we're not crew,
we're just simply passengers.

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We're having a great time
amusing ourselves.

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But the crew, well, we're killing them.

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Everything from the bacteria
through to the plankton to the fish

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to the great whales to the trees,

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we're killing them.

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And there's only so many
crew members you can kill

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before the machinery begins to collapse.

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And that's where our future
is heading right now,

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a collapsing life support system.

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One of the things that I want to bring
to this conference here in Paris

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is the need to replenish
diversity in our oceans.

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Industrial fishing fleets have destroyed
90% of the fishes over the last 16 years.

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The whaling industry has devastated
entire whaling populations,

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driven many of them
to the brink of extinction.

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And these are the species
that keep everything running in the sea.

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For example, a blue whale.

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One blue whale, every day,
defecates three tons into the sea.

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Three tons of iron-,
nitrogen-rich fertilizer,

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and that of course provides nutrients
for the phytoplankton,

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which in turns provides food
to the zooplankton,

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which provides food to the fish
and ultimately, again, to the whales.

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Since 1950 we've seen a 30 to 40% decline
in phytoplankton populations in the ocean.

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And I think a lot of that has to do

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with the fact that we've diminished
the whale population so much.

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We killed 300,000 blue whales
in the twentieth century.

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That's an incredible amount
of iron- and nitrogen-rich fertilizer

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that has been taken away from the sea.

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We humans, we take fish from the sea
and put nothing back.

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We have actually no long history
of being part of that ecosystem.

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And so we've been
rather destructive about it.

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Fishermen will say, "Well, you know,

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we need to get rid of the seals
and the dolphins and the seabirds

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because they're eating all our fish,"
like we own those fish.

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But the fact is is if you want more fish,

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you need more seals, you need
more dolphins, you need more whales.

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It's a cycle that's worked perfectly
for millions of years,

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and we have destroyed that cycle.

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You know, 300 years ago

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there was no shortage
of fish in the oceans.

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When Jacques Cartier set out
from France to Canada in 1534,

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there were some 45 millions seals
in the North Atlantic,

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including species that are now extinct.

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There were animals like the sea mink,

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the atlantic gray whale

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and the giant auk,

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and once we were even walrus
in the North Atlantic - all gone.

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We used to have beluga whales
in Long Island Sound off of New York -

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all gone.

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The tragedy is is that not only
have we destroyed them,

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we've actually forgotten
that they've ever existed,

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and that diminishment has been ongoing.

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I was raised in a fishing village
in Eastern Canada.

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I've seen that
diminishment in the seas.

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If we can replenish our ocean,

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and that means a total ban
on industrialized fishing operations -

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long lines, trawlers, seiners -
we have to get rid of them.

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If there's going to be any fishing,
it has to be artisanal only,

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local fishermen.

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You know, we always talk about the jobs,
the jobs that are at the sea.

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We don't talk about the people
who really lose their jobs:

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a million Indian fishermen put out of work

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because of the Norwegian
dragger fleets going down their coast;

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Somali pirates driven to desperation
because the real pirates,

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the European and the Asian fishing fleets

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came in and took everything
out of their waters.

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Within 10 years' time we're going
to have the pirates of Mauritania,

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the pirates of Senegal.

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Because right now, at this very moment,

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we have those industrialized fishing
operations plundering those seas,

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taking everything they can.

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Sea Shephard just returned
from Operation Ice Fish,

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which is one of our
most successful campaigns.

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We left the two ships, Sam Simon
and the Bob Barker in December,

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and set out to find six of the most
notorious poaching vessels in the world

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fishing on Patagonian Antarctic toothfish
in the southern oceans.

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On December 17th, the Bob Barker
found the most notorious of them all,

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that was the Thunder, and began a chase.

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That chase lasted for 110 days,

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from the coast of Antarctica to western
Africa, off the equator, off of Sao Tome.

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And with nowhere to run, on April 6th,
the Thunder scuttled their own vessel

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to destroy the evidence.

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But our crew managed to get on board
before it went under the sea,

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and were able to recover
that evidence.

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And they rescued the crew, turned them
over to the Sao Tome officials;

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they're still under detainment.

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When they left, 
when they began running,

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they've dropped 72 kilometers
of gill net into the sea.

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Our vessel the Sam Simon
spent 200 hours recovering that gill net.

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And that gill net has now
been offloaded in Germany,

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where it will be recycled into clothing

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because that's part of our project
called the Vortex Project,

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which is to remove plastic
from the oceans and recycle it.

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That campaign, our toothfish campaign,

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resulted in Malaysia
seizing two other vessels,

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Thailand seizing one,

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and as it happened, the remaining two
decided to head off to a place

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and sneak into a port
up in Cape Verde Island.

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And of all the places to choose,
they chose one country

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where we actually had a patrol vessel
off the West African coast,

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and although they changed
their name and their flag,

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Captain Peter Hammarstedt
was able to identify the vessel,

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and last week it was also
detained, boarded,

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and that meant that all six
of these toothfish vessels

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have been now shut down.

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So it's been a highly successful campaign.

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But what I want to really illustrate here

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is that we were, as a non-
government organization,

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able to shut down these notorious
poaching operations,

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whereas over the last 10 years,

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the governments of the world
have done very little to stop them.

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And the reason for that, I think,

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is because there's just simply
no political or economic motivation

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on the part of governments
to uphold international conservation law.

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And this is what has led to the tragedy
of overfishing around the world,

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to the depletion of the whales.

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You know, we've been condemned as
everything from ecoterrorists to pirates

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for opposing the Japanese whaling
operations in the Southern Ocean.

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But people forget

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that there is an international
global moratorium on whaling worldwide

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and that this is the Southern
Ocean whale sanctuary.

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And you don't kill whales
in a whale sanctuary.

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For 10 years we battled them.

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Australia finally took Japan to court.

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The Japanese were condemned
by the International Court of Justice.

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Yet still they say
they're going to continue whaling.

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The International Whaling Commission
has condemned them.

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But what I am proud to say is
that after all of those years,

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what gives us such a sense of satisfaction

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is that there are 6,000 whales
in the Southern Ocean

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that are swimming there now

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that would otherwise be dead
if we hadn't have intervened.

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The passion that my volunteers
bring to the table

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is something that you cannot get -

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you can't pay people to do
what our people do for nothing.

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And so Sea Sheperd has now
become an international movement,

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no longer an organization
but a movement in 40 countries.

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At any time we have
over 100 people at sea.

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Right now we have our vessel
the Martin Sheen in the Sea of Cortez

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protecting the endangered vaquita.

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We have three vessels being prepared
to go up to protect pilot whales

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off the Danish Faroe Islands this summer.

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We have our vessel
the Jairo Mora Sandoval in Cape Verde

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protecting turtles and patrolling
the waters there for poachers.

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And we just secured two new vessels,

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the Jules Verne and the Farley Mowat,
which are now in Florida,

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and we'll be deploying them
to protect sharks

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off of Cocos Island, Costa Rica,
and Malpelo Island off of Colombia.

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So what we're building here
is an international movement of people,

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volunteers, who can make a difference.

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We have to protect our oceans.
If the oceans die, we die.

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We don't live on this planet
with a dead ocean,

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and it's as simple as that.

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And all ecosystems
have to abide by or exist

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within the context of the three
basic laws of ecology:

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diversity, interdependence,
and finite resources.

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And no species can survive
and exist outside those three laws.

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We need diversity;
we need interdependence;

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and there is a limit to resources,
a limit to carrying capacity,

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and right now, we're stealing 
the carrying capacity of other species.

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And for our numbers to grow,
they simply have to disappear.

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And that will lead to
the downfall of the human species -

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it's as simple as that.

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We're not here to protect the planet;
the planet can protect itself quite well.

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We're here to protect humanity

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because if we're going to survive,
we're going to have to adapt

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and learn to live within the context
of those laws of ecology.

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And that means that we have to address
the things which are causing the problems.

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Most greenhouse gasses are produced
by the development of agriculture,

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especially the production of meat.

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40% of all of the fish
taken from the ocean

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is fed to livestock -
to pigs, to chickens.

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We now have a situation where chickens
are eating more fish from the ocean

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than all the world's
puffins and albatrosses.

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We're feeding more fish
to our domestic house cats

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than are eaten by seals.

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And we're simply eating the oceans alive,
and we have to address that.

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And that's one of the reasons
that for over 15 years

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our ships have been run as vegan vessels,
and we promote this vegan lifestyle.

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Because there simply
just isn't the resources

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to continue to support
7.5 billion people on this planet

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with the resources that are available.

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The oceans are been depleted
at an alarming rate,

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and right now fish is more important
living in the sea,

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you know, maintaining the ecological
integrity of the ocean

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than it is on anybody's plate.

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I found it quite amusing that last week
I attended the Cannes Film Festival.

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I was invited to a dinner that was
raising monies for environmental groups.

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And at the dinner they served
Chilean seabass.

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And when I pointed that out -

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because they asked
why we weren't eating it,

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and I said, "Well, because
it's an endangered species,"

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and the person across from me said,
"But you should really try it. It's good."

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I said: "No, we're depleting
the oceans; they're disappearing."

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And she looked at me very puzzled
and just said, "Yes, but it's good."

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And so it's really hard to get
that message across to people,

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even while those people
are attending a fundraiser

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for environmental organizations.

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They just cannot seem
to get that connection

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that what we eat is destroying our planet

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and destroying the future of our children.

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We all have to get involved in this.

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We can't depend upon governments
to solve these problems.

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They've never have solved
any social problem; they never do.

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Governments mainly cause problems.

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And politicians certainly are
the biggest troublemakers on the planet.

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We have to do this ourselves.

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As Dian Fossey once said that,
you know, we all have to be involved.

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And Margaret Mead said,

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"Never depend upon
any government or corporation

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to solve any social revolution
or problem; they never have.

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All change comes through
the passion of individuals."

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You know, slavery was ended
by people like Wilberforce and Douglas,

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not by the U.S. government
and other governments around the world.

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So it has to be motivated by individuals,

248
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and the same thing is with
the conservation environmental movement.

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We have to all be involved in that

250
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if we're going to make
a significant change.

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So what we need,
and what I'm very happy to see,

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is that we're having 
a global movement that's growing.

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There's now 3 million
non-government-registered

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environmental organizations in the world.

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There are activists all over the planet
that are making a difference.

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You don't hear about them
because they're not really recorded.

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I mean, in fact, 920 of them
according to the New York Times

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have been murdered over the last 10 years,

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and, you know, we don't hear
much about that

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but that really illustrates
the kind of courage

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that these people all over the world
are making in order to make a difference.

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People killed in Amazonia
protecting the rainforest.

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People killed in Costa Rica,
you know, protecting turtles.

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You know, these are
very, very courageous people

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doing the work that needs to be done
that governments refuse to do.

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And one of the reasons for that

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is that governments are here
protecting the economics

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of what I call
"the economics of extinction,"

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that there's money to be made
by driving species into extinction.

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A good example of that
is the blue fin tuna.

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You now, Mitsubishi has about 10 to 15
years' supply in their warehouses.

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They could stop fishing today
and still provide tuna to their customers

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for the next 10 to 15 years,
but they won't do that.

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Because they know that if they do that,
the fish will replenish in the sea,

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and replenish in the sea,
that means that the prices will go down

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because scarcity translates
into higher prices and into profits.

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And if the species are to go extinct,

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well, Mitsubishi's sitting on a warehouse
with 15 years' supply,

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they'll be able to set
their own prices on that

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and make billions of dollars.

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And every fishing industry in the world
is in a similar situation.

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It's where we are literally investing
in the extinction of the species.

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And for that reason, you know,
it's going to be very difficult

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to get change through government areas.

285
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But there are laws.
Those laws can be enforced.

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United Nations World Charter for Nature

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allows for non-government organizations
and for individuals to actually intervene

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and to make a difference.

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00:15:51,388 --> 00:15:55,667
Sea Sheperd's not a protest organization;
we're an interventionist organization.

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We see the laws, we see that laws
are not being enforced,

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and therefore we go out
and we physically enforce them.

292
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Well, we also do it with a code of ethics.

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That means that we do not cause 
any injury to anybody,

294
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and our history is completely
unblemished in that regard.

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We've never caused a single injury.

296
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We've never sustained a single injury

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in nearly 40 years of operations
on the high seas

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in very dangerous campaigns.

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But we take extreme precautions
to ensure that this is done nonviolently.

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We're accused of being violent,
but I call that - what we do -

301
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aggressive nonviolence.

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00:16:29,081 --> 00:16:31,687
And I think that when
you destroy something

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which is being used to take life,
like an harpoon or a gun,

304
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that in fact is an act of nonviolence.

305
00:16:37,848 --> 00:16:41,715
But in a culture where property
takes precedence over life,

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there is this understanding, however,

307
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that when you damage property
that that's violent,

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when in fact, it's an act of nonviolence.

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We need more of that.

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00:16:51,449 --> 00:16:53,901
The environmental conservation
movement is, in fact,

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00:16:53,901 --> 00:16:56,946
the single most nonviolent movement
in the history of the planet.

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00:16:56,946 --> 00:17:00,171
It's also the largest growing
movement in the history of the planet,

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and it is a universal movement;
it affects everybody

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00:17:02,653 --> 00:17:06,553
regardless of their religion, 
their politics, or their philosophies,

315
00:17:06,553 --> 00:17:10,263
because if we don't save this planet,
we're not going to save ourselves.


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We're basically at war with ourselves
to protect the planet from ourselves.

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And we are doing this for the benefit
of all future generations of all species.

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And if we don't win, then everybody loses.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)