Many of us folk a little older in years might remember how we helped “save the whales” back in the 1970s and ’80s.
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It was a time when the world’s whaling countries, including Australia, had decimated most of the planets great whale populations.
Few of us ever saw a whale along our coastline and by the time the moratorium was declared in 1982 when the world had agreed that whaling should stop.
Fewer than 300 humpbacks still migrated along the East Coast.
Australia was one of the first countries to officially ban whaling in our waters in 1978. Malcolm Fraser was the man who did it.
He gained quite a bit of environmental kudos for this decision although ironically it turned out it was largely made for economic reasons.
The Detroit car manufacturers in the US stopped using whale oil in their automatic transmissions because of increased emission controls. Motors had to run hotter to comply with the new rules. The whale oil broke down with those increased operational temperatures and a new heat resistant oil had to be found.
Whale (and dolphin) watching is now worth more than $1.5 billion annually.
In Port Stephens, it injects over $30 million a year to our visitor economy.
Looking back over the last 21 years as a skipper, the chance sighting of Migaloo the white whale in 1996 was the moment that kicked off whale watching for Imagine Cruises.
That year the NPWS estimated the population of east coast whales as 1800.
Today over 20,000 humpbacks make the long journey from the Antarctic to their breeding grounds inside the Great Barrier reef.
The growing fascination with whales and dolphins shared by most Australians has now caught the attention of the world.
The scientific consensus is that we have a world class estuary, which deserves world heritage status. How we care for these gifts of nature are now on view to the whole world. We who are lucky enough to live in Port Stephens and the Great Lakes region know it’s a special place.
Its marine and terrestrial biodiversity deserves good management if we are to enjoy the benefits for generations to come.
- Frank Future is the owner and skipper of Imagine Cruises, an avid whale lover and environmentalist.
