Dear Editor:

After sailing the entire eastern Caribbean, we fell in love with and recently moved to St. Kitts. We subsequently discovered that St. Kitts hosted the last International Whaling Commission meeting in 2006 and also wrote the declaration of why the ban should be partially lifted in the Caribbean. It worked. Several islands signed on; and one of them, Bequia, has been killing whales. Now whales are under attack again, only on a grander scale.

Why? Because it's a cultural thing? Throwing virgins into live volcanoes was a cultural thing too, but no one does that anymore. Certainly, we've learned a bit since the days of our ancestors - haven't we?

No. Unsurprisingly, the # 1 reason St. Kitts and other islands took this ill-advised route was thanks to the approximately $100 million in both monetary payments and new fish processing facilities offered by Japan to vote with them on this issue. Talk about blood money.

Here's what one misguided soul at the St. Kitts Fisheries Department said about whaling in 2006:

"We are speaking to data, we believe that science should be the way forward but instead of it they are really focusing on the emotional aspect of it.

"First of all, there is no science behind it. Japan has not submitted one meaningful scientific report obtained from its killing of whales since the ban was lifted. We already know that whales form strong family units; they sing songs specific to their pods that have been around for thousands of years; they're pretty intelligent; and they feel pain. Isn't that enough to make us question whaling?

Second of all, of course we're focusing on the emotional aspect of it. Isn't that what supposedly separates us from the animals? You know - the fact that we actually feel compassion. We can decide to destroy or not to destroy. What to eat or not to eat. We do have choices. Unfortunately, every other thing on the planet has to live with the choices we, as humans, make. The good and the bad. This one is bad.

"We have all these tourists coming here, what are we going to feed them with, are we going to ask the United States to send the fish here?" the Fisheries Department official asked, adding, "That's not what we want. We to want to be able to benefit from tourists coming to our country and that's what we have to look at."

He's kidding right? They don't know how they're going to feed all the tourists without killing whales? Believe me. No one is going to starve on this island. Any day of the week, and especially on weekends, there are rusted barrels full of hot coals on every single corner (and in between) cooking up more food than McDonalds.

By the way, because whales live so long, their meat is highly contaminated by chemicals (mercury, pesticides, etc.) they ingest over the years. Why willingly poison yourself?

A widely touted reason for killing the whales is due to the misguided notion that whales are depleting the world's oceans of fish. Worldwide, is not whales that are depleting fish stocks but rather over-fishing by huge trawlers and factory ships. They take not only targeted species but kill thousands of dolphins, sea turtles, and other marine life as they drag miles of nets destroying reefs that are the nurseries necessary to protect fish as they grow. In the Caribbean, the few whales who pass through here are most certainly not a threat to the fish supplies. I'm pretty sure there are more fishing vessels than whales out there.

Proponents of whale hunting want to assure us that the whales won't be over-harvested.

Sure. Fishermen bring bags of lobsters to local restaurants with adult lobsters on top, and babies and pregnant female lobsters on the bottom. The restaurants could be fined up to $5,000 if such lobsters are found on premises, but I have yet to hear of any action being taken to target these short-sighted lobstermen. These criminals are going to kill the last generation of lobsters decimating business for honest fishermen and restaurants as well. Mahi is also becoming harder and harder to come by. Yeah. Our record of stewardship has been exemplary so far...

Even if you are for the hunting of whales, at least insist that the technique is as humane as it possibly could be. The technology used for killing whales has altered little since the 1800's, when the grenade-tipped harpoon was invented. The harpoon is intended to penetrate the whale's body before detonating, killing it by inflicting massive shock or injury. It usually doesn't work, meaning they then need to be shot dozens of times or harpooned again. If this sounds bad, it's actually much worse.

In 1947, Henry Lillie, a British physician made a really good point.

"If we can imagine a horse having two or three explosive spears stuck into its stomach and being made to pull a butcher's truck through the streets of London while it pours blood in the gutter, we shall have an idea of the present method of killing. The gunners themselves admit that if whales could scream the industry would stop, for nobody would be able to stand it."

Think about it. This practice would be considered unacceptable if whales were required to be treated in the same way as agricultural animals slaughtered for human food. Again - where's our compassion? Where is our conscience?

Let me just say to the tourism and fisheries department of St. Kitts. No cruise-ship passenger wants to come into the harbor and see this (their last vacation was probably to Sea World and their favorite movie Free Willy). And they certainly don't want to pass such a sight and then have a restaurant serve them up a whale burger.

Please contact the fisheries and/or tourism department and tell them that the island's support for whaling is bad for business, if not just plain inhumane. We're better than this...Aren't we?

Sincerely,

Renee Petrillo and Mike Puceta