"Growing up as a young boy the whalers were our heroes. They were doing it for the island. It supplied us with food."
Nollie Simmonds
Whatever your feelings on the matter, the hard fact is that the people of Bequia hunt whales. They are one of the few communities that the International Whaling Commission recognise as having a legitimate right to hunt under the Aboriginal Subsistence Scheme. This means that through tradition and a dependency on whale products, some native people are permitted to kill a certain number of whales per year.
"We are still doing it the traditional way and we are doing it for food. We are not commercial, we're not doing it like say the Japanese."
Nollie Simmonds
The islanders of Bequia are permitted to catch 20 humpback whales between 2008 and 2012. One was caught in 2008. However, the methods they use seem to make a further 19 an unrealistic target.
"We catch them now in exactly the same way as you may have read in Moby Dick or as we did since 1876."
Nollie Simmonds
Whaling in Bequia today is done just as it was when Nollie Simmonds' ancestor, William Wallace, started it. The animal is hunted from an open wooden boat, launched from the shore and powered by sail and oars.
"With a double ended wooden skiff, six men, some wrought iron harpoons and a lot of rope. A lot of sweat and muscle."
Nollie Simmonds
The whaling tradition has also had a major impact on other aspects of the island's seafaring culture. Bequian boat builders adopted the design of the 26-foot whale boats when building fishing boats.
Bequia has become synonymous with this design of boat and the beaches are still littered with craft pulled up on the sand, although today they are mainly used for fun and not fishing.
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Read about boat building and culture on the islands