World-first whale site in NZ?
The Marlborough Sounds, which once ran red with the blood of whales, is now being touted as a whale heritage site.
The Sounds was chosen as a candidate by the World Cetacean Alliance, the world’s largest partnership to protect whales and operates in 40 countries globally.
Three other sites, located in Australia, Canada and Brazil, have been given candidate status.
Marlborough conservation organisation, Guardians of the Sounds, is building a replica of a 15-metre humpback whale as part of its aim to become a heritage site. Construction is due to begin in April. Guardians of the Sounds chairman and whale watching company E-Ko Tours chief executive Paul Keating said the replica whale would be visible to arrivals on the ferry.
The region’s whaling history meant it made sense to be a whale heritage site, he said.
‘‘We have the only restored whaling station (Perano Station) in New Zealand, right next to the humpback whales migratory route,’’ Keating said.
‘‘This is also the closest place these humpbacks come to the mainland and can be viewed from land and have been during the 10-year Cook Strait whale survey.’’
The region’s whaling history meant it made sense to be a whale heritage site. Paul Keating
The Marlborough District Council supported the project to become a whale heritage site, and gave a site next to the Picton Library to build the replica.
The project was estimated to cost $50,000 and would be funded by E-Ko Tours and other private donors.
Allan Buckland, a grandson of a Tory Channel whaler, believed it was a ‘‘great idea’’ to make the region a whale heritage site.
‘‘It’s part of the history of the Sounds really.’’ Although his 80-year-old whaling boat was destroyed in Thursday’s storm (see page 3).
The Alliance’s chief executive Dylan Walker said it was a ‘‘little bit like world heritage sites, but for whales’’. Marlborough’s whaling history made it an even better candidate to become a whale heritage site, he said.
‘‘We learned a lot about whales from whaling. It’s obviously not a good thing anymore, but it’s important to hold on to the knowledge that we gained from those activities, one being we don’t want to get back to doing them again.’’
The Marlborough Sounds had a ‘‘lot of potential’’ to be a heritage site because of the combination of responsible whale watching tourism and the historical aspects, Walker said.
The Whale Heritage Site programme has been running for two years, but it has yet to designate a site. The heritage sites would be places where the human population had a ‘‘respectful relationship’’ with the ocean giants, Walker said.
‘‘It’s where no-one’s going out hunting the animals or catching them for entertainment in captive facilities.
‘‘It’s where people benefit from whales, socially and economically and want to do more to take pride in them and want to do more to educate people about them and work towards a more environmentally friendly way of living to help protect them.’’
Each heritage site needed to meet a number of criteria judged by an independent panel before being given a heritage site status.
‘‘One is around responsible tourism, one is around sustainability, one is around celebrating the animals saved and what research and education outreach they’re carrying at the site.’’