Tag Archives: minke whales

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 14 – 16 June

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*  Despite an international ban on whaling, Japan has announced that it has killed 30 Minke whales in its ‘research‘ program.  The Japanese government is planning to apply to the International Whaling Commission for permission to hunt whales from next year again.

*   Babylonstoren has received a fantastic write-up on the online Forbes site, entitled ‘Harvest the Colourful Bounty at Babylonstoren, South Africa, and praised it as follows: ‘Easily the most  vibrant and distinct of all converted farms in the valley‘.

*   Grazia magazine calls Hallelujah on Kloofnek Road ‘The Hottest restaurant in Cape Town‘ and describes it as the ‘2014 It restaurant’, for its interior decor and its lobster rolls and slow-roasted pulled pork buns.

*   Airlines servicing South Africa are unprepared for the new controversial Department of Home Continue reading →

‘Whale Wars’ on Animal Planet

The new season of ‘Whale Wars’ is being flighted on Animal Planet at 21h00 on Wednesday evenings.  The show features the work of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, under the leadership of Captain Paul Watson, in preventing the hunting and killing of whales, especially by the Japanese in the Antarctic.

The programme started in November last year, reports The Times, and has attracted controversy due to the graphic reflection of the extent to which the Society goes to prevent the Japanese from hunting and killing Minke and fin whales, including shooting at the Japanese, but also being shot at by them.

“What we hope to achieve with ‘Whale Wars’ is to raise global consciousness about what’s happening in the world’s oceans, what’s happening to the whales, and I think we have been very successful”, says Watson. 

Watson would like to see the programme broadcast in Japan.  To date it has achieved success and support in Latin America, Europe and Africa, and will now be broadcast in New Zealand and Australia.   “Before ‘Whale Wars’, people weren’t aware that whaling was even taking place, and I think it’s important to bring people down to this very remote and very hostile region of the world and allow them to be eye witnesses to what’s going on” added Watson.

Watson accuses the South African government of siding with the Japanese, and of keeping them in Cape Town against their will four years ago.  They had no choice but to ‘escape’ from the Cape Town harbour.

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Whale wars

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is to go to battle against Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in the Antarctic for the fifth time, at the end of this month.

The Society’s founder Captain Paul Watson says :  “We intend to sink the Japanese fleet economically.  Our strategy is to prevent whales from being killed, to force the Japanese whalers to spend money on fuel without killing whales.     We will once again intervene against illegal Japanese whaling and once again we intend to save the lives of as many whales as we can with the resources available to us.   We have been the cause of the Japanese whaling fleet losing profits for three years in a  row.   We intend to make it a fourth year of red ink in the whaler’s books.”

Greenpeace, on the other hand, will not be fighting the whale wars in the Antarctic, focussing its energies amd monies instead on defending two of its activists for allegedly stealing whale meat bound for the black market, which could lead to a ten year imprisonment.  Greenpeace says the arrests are politically motivated.   The association is looking to lobby the Japanese from within Japan.   “We have saved whales every year we’ve been in the Antarctic, but we want to end whaling for good and we can’t do that if all our resources and energy are focused in the Southern Ocean” says a Greenpeace spokesperson.

Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have managed to reduce the number of Minke whales the Japanese have caught for “lethal reserach”, from 850 to 551.