The Last Whale

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Saves the Whales - 1977
2007-09-05 03:46:00
A Save the Whales t-shirt from 1977 as worn by Aline Charney during the campaign against the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company at Albany, Western Australia.greenpeacewhalingWhales
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The Studio
2007-09-05 01:27:00
By Chris PashThe direct action campaign against the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company was hatched in 1977 at a studio, a converted warehouse in Sydney's eastern suburbs, shared by photographer Jonny Lewis and architect Tom Barber. They turned it into the anti-whaling headquarters. Frenchman Jean-Paul Fortom-Gouin and Jonny Lewis planned the campaign in a thick haze of strong cigarette smoke.The newspaper pictured above was one of the main set pieces produced by the Whale and Dolphin Coalition from the studio. It announced the linkup between the coalition and Greenpeace and stated the case FOR the whales.greenpeacewhalingWhales chris pash
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Whaling Station Protest - Albany, Western Australia
2007-09-04 08:03:00
Pro-whale activists Jim Cairns, former deputy prime minister (l), Jean-Paul Fortom-Gouin (centre), and Bob Macmillan, outside the whaling station in Albany, Western Australia , on August 28, 1977.When the whaling station closed in 1978, the Albany Advertiser wrote in an editorial that it was a black day, the "triumph of emotive actions and a disinterested Federal Government over the planned and responsible harvesting of a natural resource benefitting the town it operates in".On August 28, 2007, the 30th anniversary of the protests, the Albany Advertiser wrote: "happily the local attitude to whales has turned right around in the 30 years since the Greenpeace protest. "Whale watching is now and industry. The former whaling station, the last in the English speaking world, a tourist attraction. The sperm whales haven't been hunted for 30 years.--chris pashgreenpeacewhalingWhales chris pash
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Images from August 28, 1977, Albany, W.A.
2007-09-04 07:51:00
In the thick of it. Anti-whaling demonstrators meet whaling company staff at the demonstration on August 28, 1977.The Protest: Miss Cacholot, the blow up sperm whale at the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company whaling station.Australian Tom Barber standing, Canadian Bobbi Hunter sitting. At the whaling station August 28, 1977.greenpeace whaling Whales
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August 28, 1977 - The Authorities
2007-09-04 04:22:00
(Bob Hunter at the helm of a Zodiac off the whaling station on August 18, 1977) By Chris PashThe government of Western Australia reacted swiftly to the protest at the gates of the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company's whaling station at Albany.There was a strong police presence at the demonstration. Later the state govenment moved to plug holes in legislation which allowed the activisits to run interference against the whale ships at sea. If the protesters ever came back, they would face new laws.Sir Charles Court, the state premier, viewed with contempt the activities of Greenpeace. ?I don?t think they deserve any public sympathy at all. The Cheynes Beach whaling project is one that has been conducted strictly within the rules ? the company is harvesting whales, not pillaging them as these people would have us believe. As far as I?m concerned, the Cheynes Beach people have always conducted their operations properly. It ill becomes a group like the Greenpeace people to come here trying ...
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30 Years of Greenpeace in Australia
2007-08-27 09:13:00
By Chris PashTuesday, August 28, 2007, marks the thirtieth anniversary of the first direct action in Australia n by Greenpeace .The action started on a Sunday at the gates of the last whaling station in the English-speaking world at Albany, Western Australia.Canadian Bob Hunter, Greenpeace co-founder and its first president, flew the Greenpeace banner against the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company. The following weeks saw two Zodiac used to follow the whale chaser ships up to 30 nautical miles to the continental shelf. The activists ran interference, zig zagging in front of the ships to spoil the harpooner's aim.In the Zodiacs using themselves as human shields between the harpoons and sperm whales: Australians Jonny Lewis, Tom Barber and Allan Simmons; Frenchman Jean-Paul Fortom-Gouin; Bob Hunter.Greenpeace is having a reunion of the original 1977 protesters in September 2007 and is staging an exhibition of photographs, 30 Years of Inspiring Action, at CarriageWorks in Sydney. © 2007 Text...

The Phantom
2007-03-19 23:20:00
By Chris PashThe photograph is of Jean Paul Fortom-Gouin, dubbed 'The Phantom ' by Australian anti-whaling activist Jonny Lewis. The young Australian met the Frenchman in Canberra in June 1977 while protesting at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission.Jonny Lewis (http://www.jonnylewis.org/) took this image from a Zodiac inflatable while chasing Australia's last whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean off Western Australia in 1977. In the background is the Cheynes II (http://www.whaleworld.org/), one of three whale chaser ships.An extract from The Last WhaleCanberra, June 1977:Jean Paul Fortom-Gouin was thirty-five years old, born in Morocco and lived in America. He arrived in Canberra with official accreditation as the representative of the government of Panama. The fact that Panama was not involved in whaling was not lost on the establishment. How the Frenchman had persuaded the Panamanian Government to allow him to represent them at this multilateral gathering was the su...

Dangerous ideas
2007-02-21 10:03:00
It's the 1970s. Drugs, sex and rock and roll. And dangerous ideas. One of them is the concept that man may not have a free hand to do what he wants with the world's resources.Australia's last whaling station at Albany, Western Australia, is hunting sperm whales in the Southern Ocean. Whaling has been going on since before European settlement. The local crews of the whale chaser ships have standing in the community. They're the good guys. They go out each day and take a crop from the ocean. They bring money into the town. More than 100 people work in whaling, one of the biggest industries in town.In other parts of the world, opposition to whaling grows. The industry has a history of overexploitation, hunting whales, such as the blue whale, to the point of extinction.A bunch of self-described scruffy hippies decide to take the fight to the point of the harpoons. They are led by Bob Hunter, a Canadian and co-founder of Greenpeace. Bob and his wife Bobbi arrive in Sydney in mid 1977...
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Obituary - Australian Whaling Ship Captain
2007-02-19 23:47:00
By Chris PashAndrew Gordon CruickshankBorn: October 8, 1925Died: May 5, 2006Gordon Cruickshank liked to sneak up on a sperm whale. He?d come in behind the pod, drift into position and line up his target, the one whale he wanted.The master and harpoon gunner of the chaser Cheynes III bagged one of the last whales caught in Australia. He was there at the end when Australia?s last whaling station, and the last in the English-speaking world, closed at Albany on November 21, 1978.The Cheynes III could drift without power for several miles and still have some steerage. Gordon liked to be as quiet as he could.?I?d shut everything off about 50 yards out, come right up behind them and get a shot just under the little flipper they have on their side.?A head shot was no good. It was an easy target, almost one-third of a sperm whale?s body length, but it was tough. A harpoon could bounce off.Recounting the technique in the pub, he would emphasis the point of the story with a sudden jab of his f...
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The first whale war
2007-02-17 05:27:00
This blog is about the war for the whales, the first battle in 1977 and 1978. The campaign changed Australia from a pro-whaling nation to an international advocate for the whales. It also saw the formation of Greenpeace in Australia.I worked for the local newspaper, The Albany Advertiser, in Western Australia at the time. Albany was then a small sleepy town on the south coast. Next stop the Antarctic.The arrival of activists wanting to confront the whalers at the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company, the last whaling station left in Australia, turned the town upside down.Clashes took place at the gates to the whaling station and 30 miles out to sea -- a contest between rubber Zodiacs, open boats, and steel, sea-going whale ships.I've written a book about the events on the people. More on that later. This blog will be a deposit of stories and accounts from that time including photos and documents. The story is from two sides: the whalers; and the activists. The whalers, as you will see, go...
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