Nelson Mandela gave strength to Sea Shepherd's Paul Watson

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      In the wake of Nelson Mandela’s death today, many tributes mention how the South African anti-apartheid visionary served as a source of inspiration or as a role model.

      In a July 2011 satellite-phone interview with the Straight from the bridge of the Steve Irwin in the Shetland Islands’ Lerwick harbour, Paul Watson, the founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, invoked Mandela when asked how he remained positive in his decades-long struggle against the whaling industry and in his defence of the world’s oceans.

      “I’m not pessimistic about anything,” he said just before heading north to take on the annual pilot-whale hunt in the Faroe Islands. “You just have to have enough passion and perseverance. I always point to 1972: the very idea that Nelson Mandela would be president of South Africa was unthinkable, unimaginable, and impossible, yet it happened. So I’m eternally optimistic.”

      Comments

      8 Comments

      WTF

      Dec 6, 2013 at 9:27am

      A man with Big Cajones :)

      You go Mr. Watson give em hell.

      Diane West

      Dec 6, 2013 at 11:02am

      I cried for hours yesterday when i saw the news,and i never met him peronally. i guess i was crying for what the world lost in him in death. he personifies greatness.

      Diane West

      Dec 6, 2013 at 11:11am

      Every year I look forward to "whale wars". To fight for this cause is important. And it just goes on and on, but someday, I look forward to not need to go and fight the whaling ships. That whaling will have ceased..

      Ida Brown

      Dec 7, 2013 at 3:55pm

      I admire Paul Watson for his courage and perseverance to the protection of all living creatures. I salute you.

      Phil SchoolCraft

      Dec 10, 2013 at 5:34pm

      Whales are tasty!

      whale wars supporter

      Dec 12, 2013 at 5:00am

      paul watson and team I salute you

      North Menn

      Dec 13, 2013 at 9:57pm

      They are tasty, but beside the point. Regulated hunting of a whales is not harmful for the survival of the species. If you are so in to animals and there wellbeing then start wit the cows and chicken from the big companies. They ar pump full of steroids and other growth hormones. Not to mention the crewl living earias that they have to spend there lives in.

      Ruth Parkinson

      Jan 23, 2014 at 4:56pm

      Thank you from the bottom of my heart....for the work you do to protect these intelligent creatures. 'Man is the cruelest animal.' Nietzsche