The oceans are full of wonders and amazing creatures. But most of all, they are in danger. Fortunately, there are people out there who try to save them.

I remember that I was still a teenager when I learned about the hunt on whales in the Antarctic, the cruelty of the Japanese drive hunts and the endless suffering for dolphins in captivity. I felt the strongest sympathy with anyone who was out there fighting to stop it. Greenpeace was the biggest name back then. But soon, I stumbled upon the book “Ocean Warrior” and read about Paul Watson, how and why he left Greenpeace to start his own organization, more focused on direct action – the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Nowadays, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization. Their declared mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world\’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.

 Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By safeguarding the biodiversity of our delicately balanced ocean ecosystems, Sea Shepherd works to ensure their survival for future generations. (www.sea-shepherd.org)

When I became a scuba diver and filmmaker, I started to spend a lot of time in the ocean and marine environments. We could see for ourselves the destruction and damage humans do – and the urge to do something ourselves to protect the seas became stronger and stronger.

When Paul Watson got stuck in Germany in 2012, we took the chance to meet him in person and did a short interview with him. We wanted to know what he thinks about the greatest threats the oceans are facing and even more important, what everyone of us can do to protect marine environments.

Interview with Paul Watson in Frankfurt

Sorry for the bad sound quality, the video was shot with “the smallest camera … [Paul Watson] has ever seen”… – a GoPro 2.