whale-for-sale

WHALE FOR SALE THE GLOBAL TRADE IN DEAD WHALEShing to hunt for subsistence purposes. The reality is that whaling in SVG is not a long-standing, traditionalhunt for subsistence purposes, it has no cultural roots and is not conducted by aboriginal people.Since 1986, SVG has been awarded an annual ASW quota for North Atlantic humpbacks (currently4 whales per year) and, between 1986-2012, has killed 34 humpbacks (plus several whales of otherspecies, including Bryde’s whale). For decades, SVG has repeatedly assured the IWC that it willabandon whaling after the death of its last remaining harpooner. 1 Despite his death in 2002, thehunt continues to this day and SVG has repeatedly failed in recent years to supply the IWC with therequired data from its hunts. In 2012, SVG whalers killed four humpback whales. 2© Scott PortelliUntil at least 2003, SVG whalers were notorious for targetting mother/calf pairs, striking the calf firstto ensure that its mother would remain close by to aid her dying calf, thus enabling them to moreeasily harpoon her. This technique is prohibited under IWC regulations which state that ‘it is forbiddento take or kill suckling calves, or females accompanied by calves’ and is both inhumane in welfareterms and counterproductive in conservation terms. Indeed most kills during the late 1990s involveda mother/calf pair. Hunting methods are particularly brutal, involving the use of speed boats, coldharpoons, lances and exploding projectiles fired by shoulder guns. 3The non-too subtle influence of Japan should not be forgotten here: over recent years, Japan hasgiven SVG grants worth many millions of US dollars for ‘fisheries development projects’ and has beenexplicit that it would encourage countries to join the IWC and support its pro-whaling policy via itstactical use of ODA (Overseas Development Aid). 4Whale meat and blubber from the hunts is not exclusively consumed by Bequians asintended, instead most is sold to the main island of St Vincent and, it is alleged, toneighbouring countries and even to expatriates in the USA and elsewhere. 5In 2010, whale meat and blubber was available for purchase by tourists on St Vincent. 6{ 38 }