Follow the Great Whale Trail!
Today we launched the Great Whale Trail, following the migration of humpback whales from the warm tropical waters of the South Pacific, where they breed, to the icy Southern Ocean around Antarctica, where they feed. And we're doing it via satellite tracking and Google Maps. Nifty.
It's a collaboration between Greenpeace and scientists studying humpback whales in the South Pacific. We provided the financial support, while the humpbacks have been tagged by the Cook Islands Whale Research, and Opération Cétacés (New Caledonia). Why are we doing this? Well, it's simple, really: whales must not be allowed to die in the thousands for needless, discredited "research," - like that carried out by the Japanese whaling fleet. We're satellite tracking whales in the Southern Ocean to prove that non-lethal means can be used to do some real research!
Every year, more than 300,000 whales and dolphins die from just getting caught in fishing nets. The one place you might think that whales would be safe is in a whale sanctuary like the Southern Ocean. Alas, not so. Once in Antarctic waters they face the one threat that ended most easily - whaling, under the guise of "research" - whaling that is in reality a commercial operation.
Track the whales, on Google Maps »
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Comments
Bashing Japan over it's scientific whaling is so futile.
You do need to kill whales in order to cut them up into small pieces, put them into storage, and eventually ship them to the markets where consumers wish to eat the stuff.
And as much as some try to deny it, it is necessary for those who wish to eat whales to conduct research. This is the same as with any other fishery going. The heart of the problem is not that people wish to kill whales in the name of research, but that people wish to eat whales, which necessitates research. A misdirected campaign is never going to be won.
Greenpeace has some options:
1) campaign against eating all whale meat (on some grounds)
2) campaign against whaling in some parts of the world like the Southern Ocean where regional countries generally don't want whaling, and achieve an outcome by compromising and accepting whaling in other parts of the world where people do like to eat whales, providing it's conducted on a sustainable basis.
I favour the latter as it's a mature response to an international dispute.
It's cool to be able to see these whales on the map though :)
Posted by: M. Green | October 12, 2007 10:57 AM
1) We are against all commercial whaling, not only so called "research whaling".
2) Whales are highly migratory, and the whaling industry has a long record of un-sustainable whaling. We simply don't trust them to do it responsibly, anywhere.
There's only two country's that still do commercial whaling - Japan and Norway. Neither of them have a huge demand for the meat.
Posted by: Andrew | October 12, 2007 7:22 PM
Commercial whaling is one thing, but commercial fishing for producing energy is another.
In Varkaus, Finland, Bioste Oy is planning to build a biogas energy plant. They get the methane gas from fish, which they catch from finnish lakes just for that purpose.
Watch the news (in finnish):
http://areena.yle.fi/toista?id=863405
Posted by: Fish | October 13, 2007 7:11 PM
Iceland's government seems as if it will be happy enough to allow commercial whaling again if it can negotiate access to the Japanese market, but that aside, you're right that the market for whale meat is not huge.
That being the case, how could anyone be worried that "the whaling industry" (a villian which barely even exists today) will be so tempted to go and kill more whales than is sustainable?
It really does seem to me that those campaigning against whaling in the Southern Ocean are cutting off their noses to spite their faces. Biggest surprise to me is that those in the whale-watching business in Australia and the South Pacific haven't come to the same conclusion. Who really benefits from the current situation?
Posted by: M. Green | October 15, 2007 2:41 AM
How ironic is it that Japanese Whalers can now log onto Greenpeace to track the whales they are hunting?
Posted by: AJK | October 15, 2007 10:09 AM
The Japanese whaling fleet cann't use the map for find humpback whales because of the reasons we have listed here.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/oceans/whaling/great-whale-trail/map
Posted by: Richard Hanson | October 15, 2007 11:00 AM
Do you know, we can find whale's bone and shark parts jewlry in Maui ??
This trade is strictly forbidden in French Polynesia.
Don't buy!!
And please report if you find some anywhere.
Best regards
Mata
Posted by: Patricia Maihota | October 17, 2007 6:31 PM
Dear Andrew,
I don't know if you speak Finnish or not but you have misunderstood a couple of things.
Bioste Oy does not plan a biogas plant that produces biogas solely from fish. Fish that is fed to the reactor makes only a couple of precents of the feed material the rest being for examaple municipal biodeagradable waste.
Many, especially small lakes in Finland suffer from eutrophication and this is the case also in Varkaus region. Fishing low value fish that even animals won't eat helps to remove nutrients from the lake. Fishing also helps to balance ratios of phytoplankton, zooplankton, herbivore and carnivore fish species. The fishing is done by local authorities and is not economically profitable to anyone. It benefits only the lake ecology.
At the moment the problem is what to do with the fish that has been removed from the lake. Bioste offers an opportunity to make renevable energy from it instead of the fish rotting and smelling at a landfill.
Posted by: Biogas | October 26, 2007 2:35 PM
Hey guys !! I didn't post the comment about Andrew's one, Biogas did.
I said about whales and sharks parts sold to tourists in Maui.
Thanks to Our envronnment team, and Georges Handerson Minister, this is forbidden in Tahitisince 2004.
Best regards to you.
Mata from I Go
Fare'ofe a Greenpeace Home in Tahiti
Posted by: Patricia Maihota | October 28, 2007 12:33 AM
Hey guys !! I didn't post the comment about Andrew's one, Biogas did.
I said about whales and sharks parts sold to tourists in Maui.
Thanks to Our envronnment team, and Georges Handerson Minister, this is forbidden in Tahiti since 2004.
Best regards to you.
Mata from I Go
Fare'ofe a Greenpeace Home in Tahiti
Posted by: Patricia Maihota | October 28, 2007 12:34 AM
"Commercial whaling is one thing, but commercial fishing for producing energy is another.
In Varkaus, Finland, Bioste Oy is planning to build a biogas energy plant. They get the methane gas from fish, which they catch from finnish lakes just for that purpose."
I don't agree with you very much, fishes need decide their life by themselves.
We couldn't offend them.
Posted by: Dalia | November 7, 2007 8:33 AM
this is really old information - what is happening now? 20 May 2009- Shane
Posted by: shane | May 23, 2009 3:00 AM
Hi Shane, it's old, but it's part of a weblog, from 2007.
You can find out more here:
http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/issues/whales/
Posted by: Dave | May 25, 2009 10:43 AM