If The Ocean Dies, We Die
Founded by Captain Paul Watson in 1977. The most effective direct-action ocean conservation organization in history. We are the last line of defense.
As Seen On
A LIFE OF OCEAN DEFENSE
50+ Years Fighting For Our Oceans
“The question is not whether we can afford to save the oceans the question is whether we can afford not to.”
Captain Paul Watson is one of the most influential environmental activists in history. A co-founder of Greenpeace and founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, he has dedicated his life to protecting marine wildlife through direct action.
His unwavering commitment has saved thousands of whales, dolphins, and other marine creatures. Now leading the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, he continues the fight with the same passion and determination that has defined his legendary career.
Our FOUNDER
Captain Paul Watson
50+ Years of Direct Action
AS SEEN ON CNN
The Mission, On Air.
Captain Paul Watson speaks to CNN about industrial whaling, the fight for Antarctic krill, and why direct action remains the only language that works at sea.
our Campaigns
DEFENDING THE OCEAN
OPERATION BLOODY FJORDS / 2023-24
Operation Bloody Fjords is a collaborative effort with CPWF UK and represents a resolute mission dedicated to safeguarding the cherished and remarkable lives of dolphins against a profoundly cruel mindset prevailing among certain communities deeply ingrained in the abhorrent practice of exterminating entire family pods of innocent and vulnerable, highly intelligent, and self-aware sentient beings.
OPERATION COVE SIEGE / 2025
OPERATION COVE SIEGE
For six months of every year, Taiji becomes a place of suffering. Entire pods of dolphins, from Risso’s dolphins to melon-headed whales are hunted down. Some are butchered for meat, others are sold into captivity, condemned to a lifetime in tanks. This is not tradition. It is profit dressed up as culture and it continues because the world looks away.
The Horrors
At first light, a fleet of boats leaves Taiji harbor with one mission: to track, trap, and kill free dolphins. Day after day they scour the ocean, stripping it of life and freedom.
The cruelty is hidden behind closed waters, but it is systematic, and it is graded like a scoreboard:
- Blue Cove : hunters return with nothing.
- Green Cove : dolphins are captured alive and sold into captivity.
- Black Cove : dolphins are imprisoned overnight, their fate decided by the highest bid the next morning.
- Red Cove : dolphins are slaughtered in the hundreds, often entire families wiped out in a single day.
This isn’t fishing, it is the commodification of freedom itself. If we continue to rob the ocean as if it were a limitless bank, the account will one day be empty.
Kunito
At 3:30am every morning, 59-year-old Kunito rises, gets on his bicycle, and makes his way to the cove. He does this knowing his town despises him. “They hate me,” he admits. Still, he keeps going.
At 26, Kunito suffered a heart attack. Despite ongoing medical risks, he has devoted his life to exposing what happens in Taiji. His presence is an act of defiance. His camera, his only weapon. He knows he could be arrested, yet he stands his ground because if he doesn’t, no one will.
Kunito is the guardian of the cove. He risks his health, his reputation, and his freedom so the world can no longer claim ignorance.
What You Can Do
- Support Kunito : Every item on his wishlist helps him continue documenting Taiji’s darkest days.> https://www.amazon.co.jp/hz/wishlist/ls/2FS6KY20Z8CS?ref_=wl_share
- Wear Operation Cove Siege — Shop our merch and help fund direct action, legal defense, and frontline monitoring. https://shop.paulwatsonfoundation.org/product/operation-cove-siege-t-shirt/black
- Raise Your Voice — Spread the truth. Post, tag, and share with the world:
- #DoNotVisitJapan
- #DoNotVisitTaiji
- #OperationCoveSiege
- #EmptyTheTanks
- Follow The Cove Live Streaming on Instagram @kunitos
OPERATION GULF GUARDIANS / 2025
Rice’s Whale on the Brink of Extinction : 50 Left
The Rice’s whale, one of the world’s most endangered marine mammals, is in urgent peril, with only 50 whales left. They face constant threats to their survival.
Oil and gas traffic: The Gulf of Mexico is a high-intensity industrial zone, home to thousands of platforms and shipping routes. Vessel traffic and seismic blasting flood the whale’s habitat with harmful noise, disorientation, and collision risk.
Ship strikes: Already fatal in some instances, these collisions are especially dangerous when whales rest at the surface at night.
Rollback of protections: In February 2025, the Trump Bureau of Ocean Energy Management rescinded precautionary measures, such as speed limits and on-deck spotters, that would protect this critically endangered species.
Time Is Running Out!
The government must :
- Reinstate and enforce precautionary measures, like vessel speed limits, observer requirements, and mandatory distance buffers.
- Stop oil and gas expansion in core and expanded habitat areas.
- Designate critical habitat immediately, and implement enforcement to prevent degradation.
With so few Rice’s whales left, any policy rollbacks or delays can have irreversible consequences. How can we possibly let a whale species become EXTINCT!
OPERATION HONU HUI ITALY / 2025
The Honu Hui Campaign was created to protect and promote one of the oldest and most fascinating creatures of our seas: the Caretta caretta sea turtle. Although it is the most common species in the Mediterranean, it is sadly now classified as endangered.
Results from 2025:
115 Caretta caretta nests recorded in Campania,
40 monitored directly by CPWF Italy volunteers,
Over 6,000 hatchlings successfully reaching the sea.
In 2025, several turtles were found dead due to the presence of ghost nets along the coastline — a silent but devastating threat that endangers countless marine species.
It is estimated that there are around 8,000 nesting females in the Mediterranean. In Italy, around 300 nests were monitored in 2023, a number confirmed again in 2024. For 2025, an increase in nest sightings is expected, thanks in part to the tireless efforts of organizations like the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, which is active on multiple fronts in marine conservation.
The first nests of 2025 were found in the warmer regions of Sicily and Campania, with Puglia, Lazio, and Tuscany following the same trend, confirming the nationwide relevance of this mission.
A Difficult Journey
Italian beaches, unfortunately, are heavily populated with beach resorts, creating significant obstacles for sea turtles. During the critical nesting phase, females face artificial barriers such as sunbeds, walkways, and fences.
And when hatchlings emerge, their first challenge is orientation: city lights, nightclub music, and urban noise disorient them, often leading them away from the sea — a journey many do not survive.
Dawn Watchers
Every morning before sunrise, volunteers from the Captain Paul Watson Foundation patrol the beaches in search of tracks left by turtles during the night. It’s a race against time: these fragile traces can quickly be erased by beach-cleaning tractors preparing the sand for the day ahead.
When a track is found, volunteers locate the exact nesting site, record its GPS coordinates, secure the area, and promptly notify the relevant authorities, such as the Coast Guard and marine biology centers.
Guardians of the Nests
From that moment, the nest is monitored daily. Volunteers ensure it remains safe from disturbances, vandalism, and natural threats. When exceptional events like storms or heavy rains put the nest at risk, experts from institutions such as the Anton Dohrn Zoological Station and the LIFE TURTLE NEST project intervene with conservation measures, if necessary.
Trained Volunteers, Hands-On Experience
Since 2023, the Italian volunteers of the Captain Paul Watson Foundation have been active mainly in Campania, Sicily, and Puglia. These are trained, passionate individuals who gain practical field experience and regularly participate in training courses, ensuring that every action is effective, respectful, and aligned with the latest scientific standards.
Dawn as an Ally
Monitoring activities take place in the early morning, when the beach is still quiet and untouched. It is in that fleeting moment — between darkness and light, between silence and the awakening of life — that the opportunity arises to protect a new generation of sea turtles.
OPERATION ICE STORM / 2024
Kristján Loftsson, the wealthiest and most politically influential man in Iceland, has ignited a storm of controversy in the North Atlantic.
Most Icelanders are against killing whales. The Icelandic government is opposed to killing whales, but Kristjan Loftsson is used to getting what he wants, and what he wants is to kill endangered Fin whales. Commercial whaling was outlawed in 1986 when the Internation Whaling Commission (IWC) declared a global moratorium on whaling. Fin whales are universally protected under international conservation law.
Kristján Loftsson is confident that he will get what he wants. We are confident that we can prevent him from doing what he wants.
In two months, we will once again sail into the waters off Iceland to aggressively but non-violently intervene against the whale-killing machines. We’ve stopped Kristján Loftsson before – we cut his whaling fleet in half and saved hundreds of whales from his deadly harpoons. We now need to stop him for good.
There is a merciless storm threatening Fin whales in Icelandic waters, a storm of deadly explosive harpoons in the hands of a Cetacean serial killing fanatic. Our job is to calm these waters down and to make the North Atlantic a safe place for whales once again.
**UPDATE JUNE 2024**
It appears that no whales will be killed this summer despite the Icelandic government giving the green light to slaughter 99 endangered Fin whales. Whale killing boss Kristjan Loftsson says the permits came too late for him to launch his two ships and he understood that we would aggressively block his killing operations.
Awesome news.
But what to do with a ship and crew ready and eager for action?
We will be sending a land crew to the Faroe Islands to oppose the slaughter of pilot whales and dolphins.
But there is a new insidious threat to the whales – And we will pivot towards that and be back for Operation Ice Storm in 2025 if required.
OPERATION JAIRO MORA / 2025
Jairo Mora Campaign
The Jairo Mora Campaign was created in honor of Jairo Mora Sandoval, who lost his life protecting leatherback turtles in Limón, Costa Rica. His legacy inspires us to continue the fight for the conservation of the five species of sea turtles that nest on our coasts, all of which are critically endangered.
Operation Jairo Mora 2025 Result
Students educated on sea turtle conservation: 182 children
Today, sea turtles face multiple threats:
- Illegal hunting for meat, especially on the Caribbean coast.
- Clandestine sale of turtle eggs in bars and restaurants.
- Bycatch and ghost nets that trap them at sea.
Our work goes far beyond returning turtles to the ocean. The greatest challenge is to raise awareness: helping people understand that wildlife and marine sanctuaries must be protected as a national treasure.
That is why we work together with coastal communities and other organizations to promote sustainable alternatives, environmental education, and respect for one of the oldest creatures on the planet.
In Costa Rica, turtle nesting takes place almost every month of the year. Each season brings a new opportunity to protect, educate, and transform the relationship between people and the ocean.
As part of this mission, we have developed a strong educational program for elementary school students. By 2026, our focus will expand to include secondary schools and to collect valuable scientific data on these wonderful species.
Our goal is clear: to support, unite, and raise social awareness so that sea turtles can have a future in Costa Rica and around the world.
We are driven by passion, inspired by conservation, and determined to defend marine sanctuaries.
https://www.facebook.com/CPWFCostaRica
OPERATION KANGEI MARU / 2024
We are embarking on a perilous odyssey that will take us where no other conservationists have ever gone before on a mission that has never before been undertaken. Our quest is to find, block and stop the largest and most mercilessly vicious monster in the Ocean.
It is a mission that will demand great courage because we will be confronting something much larger and more powerful than us, a murderous enemy devoid of compassion and empathy hell bent on destroying the most intelligent self-aware sentient beings in the sea. Our mission is to stop the Japanese whaling ship Kangei Maru, the world’s largest industrial whale killing machine. Our destination is the North Pacific and to get there we need to transit the Northwest passage on our ship the M/Y John Paul DeJoria.
No NGO-owned ship has ever undertaken a transit over the top of Canada. Along the way, this will be an opportunity to take samples to test for the presence of micro-plastics in the Arctic Ocean and to make observations of the impact of climate change on transits through the Arctic Ocean. Once we reach the Pacific, the task will be to locate and confront the Kangei Maru. Our 2nd ship, the M/Y Bandero, is on standby in Australia if the Japanese whalers return to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. With the John Paul DeJoria in the North and the Bandero in the South, we will be positioned to intercept the Japanese whalers wherever they will be operating.
OPERATION KRILL WARS / 2026
We are at a tipping point.
This has been documented over and over again. WE need to do more NOW! If we don’t stop the destruction of krill populations, the entire Antarctic ecosystem could collapse.
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For the first time in history, the Antarctic krill quota was reached in record time and the season was forced to close early.
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Over 620,000 metric tons of krill were taken from the Southern Ocean in 2025.
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Norway Aker BioMarine, supplier to salmon farms and pharma, account for 64% of that catch.
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Now, Norway is proposing to double the krill quota to 1.2 million tons.
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China has rapidly expanded its fishing fleet in the last 3 years.
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While Russia recently arrested a top marine biologist who advocated for stricter krill fishing regulations.
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Krill are the foundation of life in the Southern Ocean. They feed penguins, seals, whales, and help capture 20 million tonnes of CO₂ every year.
Remove krill, and everything unravels.
No krill, means no whales.
No whales, means ecological failure for our ocean planet, our home.
On January 17, 2026, as the High Seas Treaty comes into force and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation in collaboration with Sea Shepherd France will ignite KRILL WARS! We are preparing two ships The John Paul DeJoria and The Bandero to sail into harm’s way to protect krill from devastating extraction.
We have the ships. We have the crew. We have the plan.
Now we need your help to make it count.
$35 fuels one nautical mile of patrol.
$250 keeps live satellite evidence streaming.
$1,000 powers drone flights to expose krill vessels.
$25,000 funds a full day of operations at sea.
You can also become a Defender of Antarctica with a monthly gift!
OPERATION OCEAN KILLERS / 2023-24
Unleashing havoc on our oceans, super trawlers are rapidly depleting marine resources and disrupting thriving ecosystems. These colossal factory ships leave a trail of destruction in their path, producing high rates of bycatch and throwing trophic levels into chaos, disrupting vital food chains and endangering marine life – all urgent issues that demand our attention.
We’re taking a stand against this environmental threat, calling for immediate protection for delicate marine ecosystems like the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel. This campaign is a collaboration with Sea Shepherd France, and aims to challenge the actions of these killing machines.
OPERATION PAIAKAN / 2023
Operation Paiakan is focused on saving 169 endangered Fin whales from being slaughtered by Hvalur hf, an Icelandic whaling company operated by Kristjá n Loftsson.
Despite the global moratorium on commercial whaling established by the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Iceland continues to permit this. Operation Paiakan has been established in response. Through the use of aggressive non- violence and direct intervention, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation intends to uphold international conservation law to save the lives of 169 Fin whales.
OCEAN THREATS
THE OCEAN IS UNDER ATTACK
Industrial Fishing
Massive industrial fleets are stripping the oceans and destroying entire marine ecosystems.
Ocean Pollution
Plastic and toxic waste are killing marine life and contaminating ocean ecosystems.
Illegal Whaling
Despite global bans, whales are still hunted, threatening species vital to ocean health.
Climate Change
Rising ocean temperatures and acidification are rapidly disrupting marine ecosystems.
Habitat Destruction
Coral reefs and marine habitats are disappearing due to destructive fishing and pollution.
Industrial Fishing
Massive industrial fleets are stripping the oceans and destroying entire marine ecosystems.
Ocean Pollution
Plastic and toxic waste are killing marine life and contaminating ocean ecosystems.
Illegal Whaling
Despite global bans, whales are still hunted, threatening species vital to ocean health.
Climate Change
Rising ocean temperatures and acidification are rapidly disrupting marine ecosystems.
Habitat Destruction
Coral reefs and marine habitats are disappearing due to destructive fishing and pollution.
BECOME A VOLUNTEER
THE FIGHT FOR OUR OCEANS CONTINUES
News & Events
Latest Updates
- February 23, 2026
Captain Paul Watson Foundation Launches “Operation Krill Wars” to Defend Antarctic Whales Crew departs for…
- January 26, 2026
Operation Krill Wars : Defend Antarctica In January 2026, the UN adopted the High Seas…
- December 2, 2025
Happy 75th Birthday, Captain Paul Watson Today we celebrate 75 years of a life lived…
- November 27, 2025
Last year, Captain Paul Watson spent his 74th birthday in JAIL. Facing extradition and life…
- November 4, 2025
Antarctica’s ecosystem is collapsing and few people even know it’s happening. At the center of…
- October 15, 2025
October 2025 — Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF)…
Our Vision
A world where oceans are protected, marine life thrives, and fragile ecosystems are preserved and restored for future generations.
Fuel Our Efforts
Your donation helps build our navy, support our crew, and funds our operations and partnerships.
