We’re not in any position to engage in whale watching – Snagg

by Lyf Compton

The catch of a 44-foot 11-inch whale on Bequia last Thursday created a festive atmosphere on that Grenadine isle.

The female humpback was caught by Captain Bruce Ollivierre and his crew aboard the vessel Perseverance, some one mile south of West Cay.

But while many celebrated the successful hunt, an age old tradition on the tiny island, director of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Preservation Fund, Louise Mitchell-Joseph said in a public statement that she is saddened by the catch.

Persons on the Grenadine island of Bequia swarm the area where the whale was hauled up for distribution.

Mitchell-Joseph, who is also chairman of the St Vincent and the Grenadines National Trust, has secured funding to sensitize the whaling community of the seven-square-mile island to the benefits of whale watching and conservation. She wants the practice to stop.

But, according to Edwin Snagg, Director of Grenadines Affairs and St Vincent and the Grenadines’ (SVG) Commissioner to the International Whaling Commission (IWC), whaling is aboriginal, cultural and historical and cannot be stopped at the snap of a finger.

On Monday, Snagg told SEARCHLIGHT that in the SVG context, whale watching is not really an option.

“I don’t think we are in a position at this time to engage in whale watching because even though we have a quota of four whales per annum, over the years, we have not been catching four whales and the fact that has been happening, is an indication that we don’t see them. So, if we don’t see them, would you tell me what is there to watch?” Snagg commented.

He said in the past, this country had to provide a needs assessment report in order to hunt whales, but that has now been eliminated and will remain so once the status quo remains.

“Whaling is something that is traditional and cultural, and it is one of the things that we have had the battles with, over the years at the IWC.

“It is called aboriginal subsistence whaling because it is something that is historical and it’s cultural, and locally, it cannot be compared to commercial whaling which is taking place with the Japanese,” Snagg said.

He noted that the Japanese have opted out of the IWC so that they can proceed with commercial whaling and while some may consider this wrong, the scientific committee of the IWC has clearly indicated that whale stocks are in abundance.

“…but yet still there are a lot of people and countries in the world who are just antiwhaling and against the taking of whale for the purposes of food.

“In our case, it is an aboriginal and cultural and traditional practice and one only has to see what takes place on Bequia when a whale is caught,” Snagg told SEARCHLIGHT.

He said that when a whale is caught in Bequia, there is a mad rush with hundreds coming out to witness the spectacle.

“Children run out of the classrooms when a whale is sighted and leave the teacher in there alone and that tells you the depth of the culture…and all of a sudden around the whaling area, people turn up with snacks and other things selling,” Snagg explained.

He added that before last Thursday, the last whale was caught in 2016 and that was consumed within a matter of hours because there was the impression going around that would have been the last of whaling on Bequia.

“That tells you that there is a high level of consumption of whale meat because it is part and parcel of food security, the ability of persons to get protein in their diet.

“You can be against those who want to eat whale and those who do not want to eat it and want to watch it… there is nothing that says you cannot have both of them coexisting,” said the local IWC Commissioner.

He noted also that the nature of the hunt is steeped in tradition and one cannot take it in a dollars and cents way because a lot of the whale goes to the community and the whale catchers’ friends and family.

“What they sell is really just a small part because everybody in Bequia who is involved spreads it around. Persons are allowed to cut off pieces by the whalers and they sell some, but I don’t think we can check [what they sell] to see what is generated to add to the national income,” Snagg said.

“It is traditional, cultural and historical, and you can’t take that away from people.

“People say that whaling is going to die, but it will die when people stop going out to catch it. Like all traditional things, if it has to die, it will take its time and it will do so over a period of time.”