When I read this blog http://thelastwhale.blogspot.com I thought for a moment that I was perhaps reading back in time. My mind could not grasp the fact that so called civilised nations are involved in mass whale slaughter. I had admittedly had an incredibly long, hot day in Mombasa but I could not quite link the words I was reading to something that is actually happening in our world today. “Japan’s whaling fleet today left Shimonoseki, a western port town, to start a new season of whaling in Antarctica. The whalers intend to take more than 1000 whales over the next four months. Japan has added 50 humpback whales to the kill list this year, a species protected from commercial hunting for more than 40 years. The fleet is led by the Nisshin Maru which has been repaired since a fire that forced Japan to cut short its last Antarctic hunt.
Both the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Greenpeace have said they will have ships in the Antarctic this season.
Greenpeace’s Esperanza ship will track the whalers in Antarctic waters, shooting video footage to show the public.
The mass killing of whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary has been deemed to be unlawful according to three separate panels of international, independent legal experts, commissioned by IFAW.”
I read one comment that read “Sink the ships and show no mercy”. Very tempting! Very tempting indeed!
I remember being told once that “the sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy or too impatient. To dig for treasures show not only impatience and greed but lack of faith.”
Please go the blog spot above and do what you can to help this put a stop to this madness.
4 Comments posted on "The Last Whale"
Dipesh on November 21st, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Hi, Just for your information, while I worked at WSPA, I put together a campaign for Kenya and started for African countries on this issue. The bigger problem is that African countries are being cajoled into joining the pro-whaling campaign which boils down to votes at the IWC. We managed to put together a comprehensive document of the status of whales in Africa which was done by Julie Church as a consultant. You can contact WSPA for the document. We also built a life size minke whale from recycled flipflops picked from the beach which you may have heard about. The whale is now at Haller Park. You can read about it on their blog.If it is an issue, you would like to get more involved with, do let me know and I can advice you how to go about it.
F. J. PECHIR on November 21st, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Thank you for this report. You are right in your statements; the information can also be consulted in the Environment News Service internet page, and is really a barbaric and totally disgusting practice and unlawful action from Japan. This country has a very, very large list of such acts against wildlife and many animal species around the world are in danger of extinction because their “medicine practises”. Such animals like tigers, rhinos, elephants, leopards, asiatic black bears and many, many more are killed by the thousands each year to fill the demand on these markets, based on ignorance and infinite cruelty. The IFAW and many more international institutions are now doing whatever possible to stop this whale slaughter, and I´m doing all at my reach to help.
Robin Andreae on November 21st, 2007 at 7:20 pm
This is so very sad! I’ll head over there right now to read the blog. Thank you for posting about this.
chris pash on December 8th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
many thanks for highlighting this issue. I would expect more action in about two weeks as the japanese fleet hits the antarctic followed by ships from greenpeace and sea shepherd. Post a comment
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