Re: “Relegate whale-watching to dustbin of history,” letter, Aug. 15.
As much as capturing and confining whales in small pools for human entertainment has been exposed for the incredible cruelty that it is, “whale watching” continues. These beautiful and complex animals are struggling to survive within their ever-more-threatened ocean environment. Pollution, over-fishing and marine traffic ranging from small boats to ferries and freighters are constant problems for all marine mammals.
Along with those irritants and perils, imagine being chased by flotillas of noisy boats daily — all day. At any given time, whales are surrounded by loud, high-speed Zodiacs and large, even louder, vessels from dawn to dusk. They can’t even hide from them because most whale-watching companies have “spotters” scanning the ocean from mountain tops to radio their positions.
Then they come. Zooming out from the Inner Harbour and multitudes of other marinas, boatloads of “eco-tourists” race toward them, surround them, follow them and when they leave, the next barrage of annoying boats arrive.
How can this be considered acceptable or even legal?
Whale-watching is equivalent to chasing down bears to “watch” with helicopters that hover above them in swarms. Surely we are now able to recognize how wrong this is.
Tourism Victoria should be educating tourists about the extreme detriment “whale watching” causes to these beleaguered animals. It should not be assisting with advertising for the proprietors.
Neil Gregory
Victoria
