Islay High’s famous five go whaling
published this on 8:34 pm, Wednesday, 11th November, 2009Argyll's Achievers| Islay| Marine Environment| News| Tourism activities | Comments (rss) | Respond | Ping |
Five intrepid S2 students from Islay High School attended a ceremony today (11th November) in memory of more than 40,000 slaughtered whales. The ceremony heralds the start of the Junior Whale Conference whose delegates were chosen after submitting a 100 word statement about whaling issues. Other delegates from Scotland were from Glasgow and Forfar.
The two day event at the Alton Towers Resort sees delegates from nine schools across the UK debate the controversial whaling industry, and includes pupils who have travelled all the way from Islay School (pictured). They include: Hannah Campbell, David Brown, Ashley Harrison, Charlotte MacDougal and Ciara McMillan.
Mr Harrison from Islay High School said the S2s volunteered to undertake the project and they were all very excited that they had been chosen to go to the Alton Towers event. The school supports the event as it forms part of the school’s, ‘learning, how to learn’ initiative and will give invaluable presentation skills.
The event started with a tour of new Sea Life attraction Sharkbait Reef and delegates then gathered around a pagoda style Japanese lantern shrine to reflect on the killing of over 40,000 whales since 1984 – in spite of an international whaling ban agreed that same year.
‘Whales have continued to be killed for so-called scientific research, to make money and for subsistence reasons’, said Mark Simmonds, Senior Scientific Officer with the Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society, which organised the Conference together with the Sea Life Centre network.
‘The choice of a Japanese shrine was deliberate, because Japan actually has a large Shinto shrine dedicated to the spirits of whales – and yet Japanese vessels account for 13,000 of those casualties in the last 25 years’.
The death toll includes more than 430 Sperm, 600 Fin, 560 Sei, 2,500 Gray, 40 Humpback, 33,000 Minke, 1,000 Bowhead and 1,000 Brydes whales.
After presenting the results of their own research projects into different aspects of whaling and whale biology, the young delegates will find themselves cast in the roles of some of the key national delegations to the annual International Whaling Commission (IWC).
‘We will have some of them consider the issue from the perspective of the pro-whaling nations such as Japan and Norway, as well as those that oppose a resumption of commercial whaling such as the UK and Australia’, added Mark Simmonds.
Argyll is one of the World’s ‘hotspots’ for whale watching. Pictured top is a Minke Whale seen just off the coast of the Isle of Coll. It is thought that the Minke Whale population that visits Scottish coasts is the same population that is hunted by Norway.
Norway were well supported in the EC regarding their ‘whaling industry’. Where were our MSPs and MPs, working to counter or protect Argyll’s/Scotland’s lucrative tourist industry – which in part relies upon Whale Watching? They were invisible and silent.
‘WDCS is represented at the IWC each year, and it may be that some of the arguments and views expressed by these youngsters will help us to develop our arguments and lend extra weight to what we do in that important forum’, Simmonds concluded.
Sea Life and WDCS joined forces earlier this year to oppose moves for a return of legalised whaling. Visitors to the 31-strong global Sea Life network have signed more than 100,000 anti-whaling postcards which will be delivered to the EU next year. It’s worth reading about this.
Mark Carter, Environmental Editor
The photographs above show a Minke Whale off Argyll’s Isle of Coll, by copyright holder Mark Carter; and the Islay High School party at Alton Towers for the 2009 Junior Whale Conference.
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