One of the hardest parts for me personally about sitting on the beaver subcommittee was the constant internal tension between pushing as hard as you could for doing the right thing to keep the beavers and still appearing receptive and reasonable and respectful to the other side. It was in fact the hardest single thing I’ve ever done in my adult life, and I’ve interviewed rapists, wife beaters, and child molesters. It’s that constant sense of being stretched as tight as you can possibly be pulled between what you desperately want to happen and how you need to behave in order to create the best possible chance that it might happen.

It’s hard, hard work.I only had to do it for 90 days and it was the hardest thing I ever did. The truth is I like my job as beaver heckler now much better. Unless I’m doing a presentation or applying for a grant I can say and do pretty much as I like on the website and it barely matters to anyone. But pressing for outcomes without appearing unreasonable is hard, hard work.

That;s why I liked this interview with Paul Watson so much.

Sea Shepherd’s Paul Watson

Paul Watson doesn’t care what you think. The captain of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been putting himself between whales and harpoon ships for more than 30 years, preventing the killing of countless cetaceans. He’s been called a terrorist, a greater threat than Al-Qaeda, a liar. None of it bothers him.

“I am here to say things people do not want to hear and do things people do not want to see. I am here to piss people off – that is my job,” the 59-year-old Watson says in Ron Colby’s 2008 documentary Pirate for the Sea.

How can you not LOVE any interview that starts with those two paragraphs? When you read these nagging quotes from Brock Evans like “Endless Pressure Endlessly Applied” Or read about John Muir vainly struggling with Hetch Hetchy you can see the tension. Asking for more than is given but taking care not to alienate, sever communication, close the door to forward movement.

Paul Watson says “Fuck that”.

From that moment on, the change in my life was that I never did anything again for people – I did it for whales and other creatures of the sea. So that pretty much puts us beyond criticism from people – because when people disagree with what we’re doing, I say: I don’t care. Our clients are the whales, sharks, seals, fish, whatever. We don’t give a damn what you think. Find me one whale that disagrees with what we do and maybe we might reconsider, but until then we’re going to do what we do. And I think we do it responsibly; we’ve never injured anybody. I find it interesting that some of the larger organizations condemn us for being violent but we’ve never injured anybody. We’ve never had anybody seriously injured, we’ve never been convicted of a felony, and we’ve never been sued. And we get criticized by organizations that have been sued, have had people killed, and have had people convicted of felonies. I just find it a little bizarre.

Greenpeace doesn’t approve.

‘Greenpeace has condemned you as an eco-terrorist. What’s your response?’ I said, ‘What would you expect from the Avon ladies of the environmental movement?’ They’ve never forgiven me for that. But they called me an eco-terrorist. I was just responding.

Do you think the attitude of “I don’t care – I work for the whales” possibly makes your work less effective?

I think it’s irrelevant. I don’t care if I put people off. After we sank those whaling ships in Iceland, half their fleet, John Frizell from Greenpeace came up and told me that what I did was reprehensible and irresponsible and an embarrassment to the movement. And I said, ‘Well you know John – So?’

And he said, ‘I think you should know what people in this movement think about you.’ I said, ‘Really John, I don’t give a crap. We didn’t sink those whaling ships for you or Greenpeace or anybody else. We sank them for the whales.’ The whales are dying – they’re being slaughtered in horrific ways, so I don’t have time for people to say, well that’s not the way to go about it. All I know is that there are 528 whales that are swimming in the ocean right now that would be dead if we had not gone down there and intervened. That’s the only thing that really matters to me. That and the fact that we did it without injuring anybody.

Ohhh I have so much respect for that kind of extremity. Mixed up with envy too and resentment. I know full well that a reasonable voice is needed at the table. And that real change happens in increments. But I also know I admire him. Admire his ruthless advocacy and see how it helps.

A couple of years ago 60 Minutes Australia did a piece in which a Greenpeace spokesperson said he was opposed to Sea Shepherd because we were violent and that Greenpeace’s approach was to bear witness. I was just appalled. Bearing witness – you know, you don’t walk down the street and see a woman being raped and do nothing. You don’t walk down the street and see a kitten or a puppy being stomped to death and do nothing. You don’t walk down the street and see a child being molested and do nothing. And you don’t go down there and watch whales die and hold signs and do nothing. I just find this bearing witness another word for cowardice. So that really offended me that they would say that.

We’re an interventionist organization, not a protest organization. Protest is very submissive – it’s like saying, “please please, please, don’t kill the whales.” Then they go and kill them anyway – nobody cares. The fact is, you gotta stop them – you’re dealing with ruthless people, and you have to stop them. But you have to do it in a responsible way, which just means you don’t hurt them.

Oh yes. You can see how having Sea Shepherd at the edges lets Greenpeace push differently from the less extreme position. You can see how they’d like to wag their finger at Paul and say ‘We;re the reasonable ones” and earn points by scowling disapprovingly in their direction. The pushing edges make the fight in the middle easier to navigate. I remember what it was like being the ‘reasonable one’ on the subcommittee.

How did he get into this work, anyway? Funny you should ask.

I was raised in an eastern Canadian fishing village right on the Maine border, called St. Andrews. I used to swim with these beavers in a beaver pond when I was 10. I went back when I was 11 and found there were no more beavers. I found that trappers had taken them all so I became quite angry and that winter I began to walk the trap lines and free animals from the traps and destroy the traps. So that was really my first venture into activism.

Now doesn’t that make sense? I can’t help it. I love that his extreme activism was inspired by beavers. And I can’t help thinking that “So was mine.”

So do you have any quiet time?

I do what I want to do. I don’t really understand this quiet time thing. Every time I see a movie, I see people sitting on the beach with a drink – to me that seems like one of the most boring things to do. The perfect job is a job where you’d do it whether you’re getting paid or not and you’ll never retire from it. That’s what I have.

A million years ago I used to get my hair cut by the same woman who cut the powerful property owner in Martinez who wanted the beavers killed. He had every city council member by the throat and nearly always got what he wanted with his vast money and power.

Except for with the beavers.

My hair stylist commented airily one day that she had just seen him and finished his appointment right before mine. She shook her head laughing “Boy does he hate you.  I can’t understand it. He hates you more than you can possibly guess. After all these years!'”

I was a little shocked at the time but now it makes me smile. I will remember that now and think of Paul Watson.

We can’t all be Paul Watson, on the front lines throwing smokebombs at beaver trappers to save a few more. But we can all take a little bit of his spirit, like a shield into battle with us. And remind our timid selves that we are not doing this work to be liked or popular. That what matters is the mission.