ST. VINCENT and the GRENADINES Planning a vacation? Consider this...

On March 6, 1999, a young Humpback whale calf and its mother were harpooned and killed just off the tourist beaches in Mustique in the Caribbean Islands of St. Vincent's and the Grenadines. This "hunt" consisted of harpooning the baby humpback and allowing its dying cries to draw the mother whale. When the concerned mother came to protect its calf, the whalers stuck her with harpoons until she bled to death. Since 1986, St. Vincent has received millions of dollars from Japan in return for voting favors at the International Whaling Commision (IWC) where Japan is pushing for a resumption of full-scale commercial whaling. St. Vincent has been meeting with officials from Japan and other Caribbean islands to discuss a commercial whaling program for the Caribbean region. St. Vincent, an IWC member since 1981, has been granted a quota of two humpback whales each year to satisfy a "so-called aboriginal substinence needs" -- on the understanding that whaling would end in the islands when the only remaining whaler (from its old Yankee-style whaling era), now 75 years old retires. However, the "hunt" described above and another poor mother whale and her calf (the year before) were killed by a young relative of the old whaler in a NEW whaling boat. These hunts took place in front of horrified tourists (from both hotels and yachts off the coast of Mustique). You could do much better with your tourist money. Spend it with your conscience. Source: Friends of Animals Magazine