[7] Watson's activities have led to legal action from authorities in countries including the United States,[8] Canada, Norway, Costa Rica and Japan.

[9] After staying at sea for 15 months following his escape from Germany, where he was released on bail, he returned to Los Angeles in late October 2013, going through customs and "was not arrested".

[10] He appeared before a US appeals court on November 6, 2013, stating that neither he nor the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society violated a 2012 order requiring them to leave whaling vessels alone.

In 1972 he shipped out of San Francisco on the 35,000 ton bulk Swedish carrier Jarl R. Trapp and manifested for the Indian Ocean and Pacific trade.

[24] Watson has one daughter, Lilliolani (born 1980), with his first wife, Starlet Lum,[25] who was a founding director of Greenpeace Quebec,[26] Earthforce!, Project Wolf, and Sea Shepherd.

[46] Because of mounting legal complications, Watson stepped down as head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in 2013, to abide by an injunction barring him from proximity with Japanese whaling ships.

[51] In January 2008, Paul Watson was named by The Guardian as one of its "50 people who could save the planet" for the work of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

A headline comment on Monday's newspaper far outweighs the revelation of inaccuracy revealed in a small box inside the paper on Tuesday or Wednesday.

[58]Watson was explicit about what he perceived to be the lack of truthfulness in mass media: "If you do not know an answer, a fact, or a statistic, then simply follow the example of an American President and do as Ronald Reagan did—make it up on the spot and deliver the information confidently and without hesitation.

[2] Watson was sentenced to 10 days in prison and fined $8,000 for his actions during a Canadian seal hunt protest in 1980, after being convicted of assaulting a fisheries officer.

[74] In 1997, Watson was convicted in absentia[75] and sentenced to serve 120 days in jail by a court in Lofoten, Norway, on charges of attempting to sink the small scale Norwegian fishing and whaling vessel Nybrænna on December 26, 1992.

Watson defends his actions as falling within international law, in particular Sea Shepherd's right to enforce maritime regulations against illegal whalers and sealers.

The red notice has the charges issued by Japan as, "Breaking into the Vessel, Damage to Property, Forcible Obstruction of Business, Injury".

[84] In March 2012 Interpol issued a "written statement to all 190 member countries making it clear that it would not publish a Red Notice" for the detention of Watson,[85] but reversed that position in September 2012.

[98] On August 7, 2012, Interpol renewed the Red Notice for Watson on the charges of "causing a danger of drowning or of an air disaster" laid by Costa Rica.

The organization criticizes this decision, arguing that "after having been posted online for years, the notice had recently disappeared from the Interpol website, leading Paul Watson and his lawyers to believe that he was now free of his movements”.

[110] In 1999, Watson ran unsuccessfully for election to the national Sierra Club Board of Directors, with the backing of the anti-immigration faction Sierrans for US Population Stabilization (SUSPS).

This effort was denounced by another candidate in the election, Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center, as a "hostile takeover" attempt by "radical anti-immigrant activists.

[115] Watson replied that Hearn was trying to distract attention from his government's incompetence as the boat the men were on capsized while under tow by a Canadian Coast Guard vessel, while his political ambitions continued to support and subsidize an industry that had no place in the 21st century.

[126] On March 17, 2008, Watson said that he was shot by the Japanese crew or coast guard personnel during the Operation Migaloo anti-whaling campaign in the Southern Ocean.

The Institute and Coast Guard said that they used seven stun grenades designed to temporarily debilitate a target by rendering them blind and deaf for a period of time.

[131] Watson has been called an eco-terrorist by the Japanese government for his direct action tactics against whalers, and it repeated its position after conflicts during the 2009–10 whaling season.

[133] Watson responded to Beck's comments on the official Sea Shepherd website by stating that he had said that but that it was taken out of context, paraphrasing Gerald Seymour's "One man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter".

[134] Watson was criticized for his poem published immediately following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami which suggested the disaster was Neptune's anger.

[135][136] Watson responded to critics with a commentary on the Sea Shepherd website expressing "deepest concern and sympathy for the people of Japan who are suffering through one of the worst natural disasters in the history of civilization".

[147] Paul received the George H. W. Bush Daily Points of Light Award in 1999[148] and in 2000, he was named one of Time Magazine's Top 20 Environmental Heroes of the 20th Century.

[152][153][154] The 2008 documentary At the Edge of the World chronicled the efforts of Watson and 45 volunteers to hinder the Japanese whaling fleet in the waters around Antarctica.

In 2010, long time friend and filmmaker Peter Brown released the documentary Confessions of an Eco-Terrorist, a satirical look back at the last 30 years of actions.

[155] The documentary Eco-Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson from 2011 features interviews and footage with early Greenpeace members Rex Weyler and Patrick Moore.

In its fictional Larry King show, Watson himself was called "an unorganized incompetent media whore who thought lying to everyone was OK as long as it served his cause" and "A smug, narcoleptic liar with no credibility".