Whalers being assisted by speedboats not a problem

It appears that the International Whaling Commission (IWC) does not have a problem with speedboats being used to provide assistance to whalers during the whale hunt off the coast of Bequia.

The IWC website (https://iwc.int/bequia) says that in modern times, whalers are assisted in the hunting process by other whalers, “who use their normal fishing boats (speed boats) to help kill the whale quickly, using the darting gun.”

“This process helps the whalers to satisfy the “Time to Death” criteria, which averages 17 to 30 minutes, and makes the process a lot more humane than earlier years,” said the website.

The site also added that other modern techniques are used, including scuba gear and that helps reduce the loss of dead whales to zero.

Recently, Executive Director of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Environment Fund Louise Mitchell and the Fund’s chairman Bryan Adams in a recent interview with SEARCHLIGHT, objected to the use of speedboats during the whale hunt.

Mitchell told SEARCHLIGHT that whalers on Bequia are breaking the rules which govern the hunt by using speedboats to catch whales. Her observation came following the catch of two humpback whales in the waters off the Grenadine island, a hunt that was documented by video recordings and photographs and published on social media.

Mitchell said footage circulating on the Internet depicts parts of the hunt and what is obvious to her is that speedboats were central to the killing of the whales. She said this is problematic because SVG was only given a quota of four whales a year because we successfully made a case to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) that whaling here is an aboriginal activity.

“…And in all the statements that the government would have submitted to the IWC over the years, the claim is that we are engaged in traditional whaling using the same techniques and methods that we used in the 1870s,” Mitchell told SEARCHLIGHT.

“… As far as I know, there was only one whale boat that was out whaling and that was Kingsley Stowe’s boat and his whale crew,” said Mitchell.

She said the speedboats in Bequia are not being used to assist the process, but to carry out the entire process and to her that is wrong.

However, local IWC Commissioner Edwin Snagg says that the hunt is legitimate and takes place under the IWC’s convention on the regulation of whaling. He added that lobbyists are trying to destroy our way of life and culture as it relates to whaling.