The whales, unfortunately, were a little shy, even way out of Katchemak Bay, but we did see two humpback whales, zillions of sea otters and a bunch of stellar lions, all framed by the stunning Alaskan coastline. The whales, fresh in from the breeding grounds of Hawaii, were too busy bulking up to bother too much with the likes of us, and we saw no breaching or "spyhopping" (where they poke their head above the surface). Instead, we saw the unmistakable humps and flukes as they swam and dived.

I'd seen humpbacks before, in the Southern Ocean, from the deck of the Esperanza. But I really didn't appreciate their incredible size until last weekend. At 12-16m long, they weigh in at about 35 tonnes. When they show their hump, that's just a small piece of the whale - like the tip of the iceberg, most of the whale is under the waters.

Our guide on the ship, DeWaine is passionate about whales - he gave a pretty animated briefing on how to spot whales on the way out, and it's obvious that he and his tree colleagues on the boat are completely nuts about whales and sea life, and for them, spending every day out on the water is a dream come true. They've also been involved in cataloguing a whopping 417 humpbacks in the area over the last eight years!

DeWaine demonstrates the humpback. A very small humpback!
© Greenpeace/Walsh

While out there, near Elizabeth Island, Kennedy Entrance, Katchemak Bay and Seldovia, I couldn't help returning to some of the bizarre discussions during the IWC in Anchorage. Throughout the meeting, pro-conservation nations requested respect for their right not to kill whales, and to consider them for "non-consumptive" use - i.e. whale watching. On first glance, it might seem that whalers and whalewatchers might never cross paths - but that isn't the case.

Part of the controversy surrounding Japan's plan to kill 50 humpbacks in the Southern Ocean this season is caused by the fact that some isolated populations of humpbacks breed around the pacific islands of Fiji, Tonga and others, then migrate down past New Zealand and Australia. The people of these nations feel a certain stewardship over these whales - and although they can be "exploited" by looking at them from boats in these places, and protected while in friendly waters, a harpoon operator on a Japanese whaling ship does not and can not make an distinction concerning a whales origin before he pulls the trigger.

And that's before even get back into the discussions on so-called "scientific whaling" or the hunting of animals that are threatened, and on the ICUN Redlist.

Somewhere in all the banter, someone spoke up - I can't recall if it was the Norwegian or Icelandic commissioner (yes, he, the guy who was effectively disowned by his new foreign minister) - claiming that whaling and whalewatching could easily co-exist side by side. I don't know if he's spoken to the horrified tourists who were inadvertently treated to the site of a minke whale being harpooned while they were whalewatching off the coast of Norway last year.

But most of all, the words of the delegate from St. Lucia stuck in my head. This man was fantastic. I disagreed with practically everything he said, but he was certainly entertaining, with his tendencies to launch into eloquent rants on how we must "use reason and logic". I lost the thread of his speeches after a few minutes... there didn't appear to be much of either ingredient. He did however, express his concern about the dangers of whalewatching - and how it might disturb breeding whales, on the grounds that it might adversely affect whale stocks. In plain English, what the learned gentleman was attempting to say is that he doesn't people looking at whales, because that might mean that there's less to kill. And this comes from the representative of a country that has few whalewatching boats, no whale hunting industry, and receives a tidy sum from Japan for fisheries investment. Interesting...

There's a quote I read somewhere - but I can't remember the source, it may have been Peter Scott. It went something along the lines of.

"You can watch a whale a thousand times, but you can only kill it once".

That sounds like good business acumen to me.

Recognition and development of whalewatching issues within the IWC »

Wikipedia: Humpback whales »

Bye for now... from Dave, Page, Chrissy, and all the whales blogging team...

- Dave

Junichi, Dave, Maarten, with the end of Kenai Peninsula!