PARIS (AP) – He’s a fugitive on Interpol’s Red List and a marine vigilante who’s done jail time for extradition requests. Yet to many, he’s also a heroic marine conservationist who risks his life and those of his crew to save countless endangered whales, turtles, dolphins and sharks from slaughter.
Love him or loathe him, Paul Watson, the 65-year-old, silver-haired founder of Sea Shepherd and co-founder of Greenpeace is now a celebrity because of his job: ramming whaling boats for a living.
Watson has a hit U.S. reality TV series, “Whale Wars,” that has aired on the Discovery Channel since 2008 about his organization’s fight against Japanese whalers. And his influence reached new heights with the award-winning documentary “Sharkwater,” which conservationists say resulted in shark finning being banned worldwide.
Both have attracted a new legion of global fans to Sea Shepherd’s controversial approach of battering whaling and fishing ships.
The tactics have landed him in the legal hot water even as they boost his renown. During an interview with The Associated Press in Paris, Watson – a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen – was stopped four times in the street by fans of all nationalities who asked for autographs.