Link to earlier post on NSL
Australians fear that the world’s only known white humpback whale could be slaughtered as Japan’s whaling fleet prepares to embark on its annual hunt in the Southern Ocean.
The unique male whale, named Migaloo – an Aboriginal word for “white fella” – has become a celebrity in Australia since being spotted for the first time in 1991.
Each year Migaloo – along with thousands of other humpbacks – migrates from the icy seas of Antarctica to the warm shallows of the South Pacific and the Great Barrier Reef.
A few months later the whales, the females leading their newly-born calves, return to Antarctica.
The arrival of 45ft-long Migaloo – believed to be the only completely white humpback in the world – is keenly anticipated by whale watchers along Australia’s east coast.
He has been hailed as modern day Moby Dick, even though the creature in Herman Melville’s 1851 classic was a sperm whale.
Conservationists fear that Migaloo is so accustomed to whale watching and fishing boats, that he will be easy pickings for Japanese hunters.
With the southern hemisphere summer approaching, the Japanese whaling fleet is preparing to leave port within days. It refuses to say exactly when.
It has declared that for the first time it will kill 50 humpbacks, as well as 50 fin whales and hundreds of minke whales.
Full story Link
2007-11-19 UPDATE: Japan whale expedition condemned (BBC)
i’m appalled at the thought this could happen. i’m usually mildmannered, but this sounds like a time for “sea shepherd.”