Endangered whale species caught and killed in St Vincent

St Vincent and Grenadines: The authorities have disclosed that a whale was caught at the shore of Central Leeward Town of Barrouallie on Saturday night. The whale which was identified as an Orca commonly called a Killer Whale got trapped during whaling.

The Twin Island nation is reported to be part of whaling and fishing activities and often remains in controversies for the same across the Caribbean. The Whale caught sparks a global concern as the Orca is already an endangered species. 

Whaling is a practice in which the whales are hunted for their meat, blubber, and oil, which then are used to manufacture products for human use. 

Whaling is common across St Vincent and Grenadines, in light of which the International Whaling Commission (IWC) passed a law to limit the number of whales to be caught in a year. The law provided a quota of 4 whales a year all across the country.

Notably, the authorities started to act upon the situation as they emphasized passing strict laws to outline the killing of Orcas in 2017. However, no decision has been taken since then in this regard. 

However, this announcement was made due to the rising concern of a dreadful incident that took place in 2017, when fishermen caught and killed two whales in front of the tourists during whale watching. 

This incident immediately took height causing authorities to take necessary action. However, a similar incident on the island was reported the next year in 2018, where 3 whales were caught, and killed on the shore, their organs were removed and the meat was exposed. 

Notably, Orcas are giant mammals and are one of the largest members of the Delphinidae family. They are usually found in groups and are noted to be safe for humans as they usually don’t pose any threat and no fatal attack from the animal has ever been reported. 

The incident has sparked a buzz among netizens on social media, where they are noting the incident to be a cruel act. 

One of the users on social media said, “This is so wrong there should be a law put in place to protect these animals I don’t like this one bit.”

Another user however said, “This is not right. People here do as they please and not take things into consideration. We need to protect this kind of species, and implement a law on this kind of practice.”

“These particular types of whales are usually non-threatening to human hence it was probably easy to apprehend because of their social nature. Shame that it has been caught and used for human consumption BUT fishermen do fish; that’s that,” said Rodel Mc Dowall on Facebook. 

The concern among the nationals remains crucial for the implementation of better laws to protect the animals from cruel acts. However, some have stated their opinions noting the practice to be important for fishermen, leading the topic to be of immense debate.