Life-sized Blue Whale banner
Want a glimpse of just how big a Blue Whale is? Check out this "life-sized" Blue Whale banner from The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.
This is an extremely cool concept: it's really, really hard to visualize how big these creatures are.
In a lifetime of whale watching, I have seen one blue, off the coast of Iceland. I called my son that night, who was five at the time, to tell him I'd seen an animal bigger than a dinosaur.
"Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww."
"His tongue is as big as a car"
"Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
He wanted to know when he could go to Iceland. The answer, of course, is "Just as soon as Iceland stops whaling."
And that brings us to today's news about Icelandic whaling: Back in 2003 when we brought the Rainbow Warrior over to Iceland to talk with people about the issue, 90% of the public supported Iceland's "scientific" whaling program. Earlier this week, a Gallup survey asked the question "Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the Minister s decision to start commercial whaling again?" the result was a 50-50 split. So the numbers are moving in the right direction, and our challenge now is to keep them moving the right way until the government does the right thing, and ends both commercial and scientific whaling in Iceland forever.
If you too, want to see a blue whale in the wild, and you want to protect the endangered finn and minke whales which Iceland hunts, join the Iceland Whales Pledge, which has ammassed millions of dollars in potential tourist income, against a whaling industry which currently loses money. All you do is promise to visit Iceland if the government stops whaling.
And believe me, you'd be hard pressed to find a more beautiful spot from which to watch the whales. In the spring on the North side of the island, the sun shines past midnight and you can sit in a hot spring high on a hill, and watch the humpbacks breaching in the bay below. Pledge today, and join us there for the very big party we're planning to throw when the whales of Iceland are saved forever.
Comments
Very amusing the image of the whale! It took me a while to load everything but it was worth it. I hope that in the future me and my soon ( I hope I get a soon :D ) can see a true whale in the Iceland! Keep working guys!
Posted by: Paulo | March 26, 2007 11:47 PM
Good news about Iceland Brian - but I don't believe the WDCS thing is really to scale... I JUST saw the blue whale again in the British Natural History Museum and I swear the eye is as big as my entire head! :-)
Posted by: Lisa | March 27, 2007 11:22 AM