The Great Whale Trail follows the migration of humpback whales
from the warm tropical waters of the South Pacific, where they
breed, to the icy Southern Ocean around Antarctica, where they
feed. Click on the whale icon to see more information about the
individual whales.
The whales are heading to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary,
which should be a safe haven for them. Unfortunately, whaling still
continues there.
Why the Japanese Fleet can't use this map to find and kill
the humpbacks.
Greenpeace has a long history of defending the whales of the
Southern Ocean by activists putting themselves between the whale
and the harpoon. We would never let a whale be put in danger. The
posting of the location of the whales on this website has been
delayed to ensure the whaling fleet cannot locate them through
the Great Whale Trail.
In addition, to justify their whaling as "science", the
Fisheries Agency of Japan (FAJ) fleet is obliged to follow strict
pre-determined search patterns or 'transects', when they hunt the
whales. They claim this is to show that they are doing random
population sampling. Any deviation for a single whale or large
groups would automatically negate their so-called "scientific"
programme.
