420 Dive Log Australasia OCTOBER 2026

My commitment to this cause, however, began a couple of years prior. In 1975, I looked into the dying eye of a sperm whale that had been harpooned by a Soviet whaler. This moment completely altered my worldview and changed the course of my life. I said to myself, “Is defending these incredibly important beings worth risking my life and my freedom?” My heart and mind replied that it was. In many ways, it was an epiphany, and it has been both a blessing and a curse ever since. What I saw in that mesmerizing gaze was not just my future, but the future of all humanity. It began with the realization that the Soviets were killing sperm whales for the high-heat-resistant spermaceti oil used to lubricate their intercontinental ballistic missiles. They were slaughtering these wondrously intelligent, beautiful, self-aware, sentient beings to manufacture a weapon intended for the mass extermination of humanity. In the early twentieth century, tens of thousands of whales were slaughtered for their oil and fat to manufacture explosive ordnance that killed millions of people. Further research enlightened me to the crucial role that great whales play in maintaining global phytoplankton health. Since 1950, there has been a 40% decrease in phytoplankton in the sea, according to a study published in a 2010 edition of Scientific American . (August 2010 – Volume 303, No. 2. “ Phytoplankton Population Drops 40 Percent Since 1950 ”) Whales are the “farmers of the sea,” fertilizing the ocean with essential nutrients like iron, nitrogen, and magnesium, which support phytoplankton growth. Added to the stress from diminishment of cetacean numbers is a study published in Science Advances (Vol. 11, Issue 42) on Oct. 17, 2023, entitled “ Declining ocean greenness and phytoplankton blooms in low to mid latitudes under a warming climate ,” citing a global decline in phytoplankton from 2001 to 2023, attributing it to increasing sea temperatures due to climate change. The study by Zhongkun Hong and Honwei Fang of Tsinghua University in Peking highlighted that phytoplankton concentrations are lower in regions with higher sea surface temperatures, which are linked to stronger ocean milestone traces back to 1977 when I established the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society after witnessing firsthand the harpooning of a sperm whale by a Soviet whaler in the North Pacific. The Icelandic Whale Wars N ext year, 2027, will mark my half century of aggressive non-violent activism dedicated to defending and protecting the great whales. This by Captain Paul Watson

stratification and reduced nutrient upwelling. Climate change and cetacean diminishment plus worldwide fish and seabird diminishment may see phytoplankton decrease further over the next three decades. A healthy phytoplankton population requires whale poop and less plastics, heavy metals, and chemicals in the sea. Phytoplankton produces about 70% of the oxygen in the air all living things breathe. If phytoplankton is diminished, biological diversity is diminished, and if phytoplankton disappears from the sea, so do most things that live on land and in the sea. That is why for the past five decades, my guiding motto has been: If the ocean dies, we die! For fifty years, I’ve fought for whales across the world’s oceans—from the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean, through the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans, to the high Arctic. During that time, I’ve rammed and sunk a few whaling ships, confronted the navies of Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Portugal, the Soviet Union, and the Coast Guard forces of Japan, Canada, and the United States, and I’ve done so without causing a single injury or being convicted of a felony crime because my opponents have been flat out pirate whalers or whaling operations operating in defiance of international conservation law. These campaigns have been documented in documentaries, books, publications, and the Whale Wars television series I developed on Animal Planet. The blessings of my actions have been the thousands of cetacean lives saved. The curse has been the consequences: detention, imprisonment, beatings, threats, and years spent in exile and pursued on an Interpol Red Notice issued by Japan for fourteen years until the warrant was dismissed by Interpol in July 2025 for being politically motivated. Though I’ve never been convicted of a felony, it hasn’t been for lack of effort by the governments defending the whalers I’ve opposed. This summer, our battle to defend the lives of endangered Fin whales began once again in Iceland. It has been a long struggle since 1986, when Iceland decided to defy the International Whaling Commission’s Global Moratorium on Whaling. In response to Iceland’s initial defiance, I organized a

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DIVE LOG Australasia #420 October ’ 26

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