Waves crashing over rocks | Music | 00:00 |
Vava'u Island | TREVOR BORMANN: In the scattered islands of Polynesia there are few places more enticing than this. | 00:07 |
| The deep, calm waters of Vava'u offer a resting place for ocean-weary sailors. |
|
| But each year this northern outpost of Tonga welcomes a more remarkable traveller. |
|
| These waters offer the closest contact possible between humans and one of the most loved and enigmatic creatures of the deep. |
|
Whales with swimmers | The humpback whale comes here to breed or give birth after a ten thousand kilometre migration from Antarctic waters. | 00:39 |
| And waiting for it are those who want to watch it, swim with it, study it and others with different ideas. |
|
Samiu Vaipulu | SAMIU VAIPULU: They have to make a choice, either we swim with them or we eat them, simple. | 01:03 |
Libby on the boat | TREVOR BORMANN: The warm waters of Vava'u are Libby Eyre's laboratory. | 01:19 |
| For the fifth year in a row the researcher from Sydney's Macquarie University has come to record and study the song of mating humpbacks. |
|
Whale breaching | LIBBY EYRE: It's the males that are singing. | 01:54 |
Libby on boat | And they're a little bit like our pop songs where they have one song that all the males are singing and it will change on the breeding ground and all the males will start to incorporate that change into their song. So it's a bit like having a hit tune. | 01:56 |
Boat driver ,Libby and Trevor on boat | BOAT DRIVER: Swim out there, see the baby going down. You see the baby going down to the mother.' | 02:15 |
Libby and Trevor swim with whale | TREVOR BORMANN: These waters ran red until the King here banned whaling thirty years ago. | 02:36 |
| By then local harvesting and the more devastating commercial killing of the Tongan humpbacks reduced the population to ten per cent of its original size. |
|
| The numbers here have only partially recovered. |
|
| The humpback was too inquisitive for it's own good easy prey for whalers and now just as approachable for us. |
|
Libby and Trevor in water | Now they're a bit bigger than we are but are they scared by our presence here? LIBBY EYRE: They're certainly very wary, a mother with her calf would be as protective as any mother with a baby would be. | 03:07 |
Shots of Vava'u | TREVOR BORMANN: Vava'u is whale central. The locals can rightly claim this as one of the few places in the world you can actually swim with a humpback. If only because just about everywhere else there are laws against it. | 03:20 |
Aunofa Havae | AUNOFA: Today, we never know what we're going see. | 03:40 |
Whale swimmers in boat | TREVOR BORMANN: On another promising day off shore Aunofa Havae coaches her passengers on whale swimming etiquette. | 03:42 |
Aunofa Havae | AUNOFA HAVAE: Only four people in the water plus a guide, and a guide will always tell you where to go | 03:50 |
Backpackers on boat | TREVOR BORMANN: Most of the swimmers are young European backpackers who've crossed the world just for this expensive experience and they don't have to wait long for contact. | 04:00 |
Backpackers swimming | TREVOR BORMANN: The sheltered waters here are a perfect resting place for humpback mothers to feed and strengthen their calves before the long migration back to Antarctica. | 04:20 |
Whales breaching | On this day whale and calf were in no hurry to move on and some males nearby were in full song. | 04:37 |
Aunofa Havae | AUNOFA: Yeah these whales are singing so loud and then when you're in the water it's different, you feel like they are very close to you. | 04:53 |
Whale breaching | TREVOR BORMANN: Depending on its mood the gregarious sometimes even curious humpback will loll around for minutes at a time. | 05:11 |
Anna Maria and friend on boat | After her close brush German backpacker Anna Maria Pasquariello was overwhelmed. ANNA MARIA: The best day of my life I would say. TREVOR BORMANN: Best day of your life? | 05:19 |
Super: Anna Maria Pasquariello Tourist | ANNA MARIA: Yes. Well that's the day I was waiting for all my life, that was my biggest dream and so it's like amazing you just stop breathing and the tears come to your eyes it's like wow. | 05:27 |
Other boat in distance | TREVOR BORMANN: On the waters off Vava'u you're never alone. The boats follow the humpbacks and queue to serve their customers whale. | 05:41 |
Swimmers on boat | ALLAN BOE: It's whale whale whale, everywhere. | 05:54 |
Allan Boe | It gets your little heart beating the first time because of the size of it. It's a huge animal in the water. | 05:57 |
Allan on boat | TREVOR BORMANN: New Zealander Allan Boe co- founded the whale swimming industry 15 years ago. Now he's trying to keep a lid on it. | 06:05 |
Whale swimmers head for the boat | Each day, eager whale swimmers part with about two hundred dollars before they head out for a hopeful close encounter. Operators must be licensed and they're supposed to follow a code of behaviour to ensure the whale is not swamped. | 06:16 |
Super: Allan Boe Tourism operator Whale boat preps | ALLAN BOE: And so they are being put under pressure and some things are happening out there on the water that are not good for our industry. | 06:35 |
Super: Libby Eyre Researcher, Macquarie University | LIBBY EYRE: It's an industry that could very well be detrimental to the whales themselves. I've seen a lot of bad behaviour out there by the operators and if they don't tighten up, it could very, very easily could turn quite bad. | 06:56 |
Shots of Vava'u and Whale Discoveries sign | TREVOR BORMANN: Tonga can ill afford to chase its whales away. As a tourist drawcard every humpback is worth about one million dollars in its lifetime to the local economy | 07:16 |
Ongo on boat | ONGO KAIHEA: They used to hunt whales when I was young they always talk about whales and want me to see what they're doing. | 07:28 |
Boat trip | TREVOR BORMANN: Along with most Tongans his age Ongo Kaihea ate whale as a child. But now as a whale watch operator he needs to them keep them alive. | 07:43 |
Ongo on boat | ONGO KAIHEA: Every time I go out there I feel I love them and I don't want to hurt them anymore and I don't want to eat them anymore. | 07:54 |
Arriving at Island | TREVOR BORMANN: Ongo takes me to the island of Hunga. The people here aren't quite so attached to the humpback. | 08:09 |
Trevor with whalers | These men hunted whale for food in the sixties and seventies. | 08:16 |
Whaler with harpoon | WHALE HUNTER: You put like this high and you spear the whale and when the spear in the body of the whale. | 08:21 |
Shot of spear | TREVOR BORMANN: So how long did it take for the whale to die. How long did you follow it for? | 08:32 |
Trevor and whalers | WHALE HUNTER: Six hours. TREVOR BORMANN: So it took six hours for the whale to die. WHALE HUNTER: To die. | 08:36 |
Villagers | TREVOR BORMANN: The villagers here say there's nothing for them in the whale swimming industry. They want to exploit the humpback the way they used to. | 08:40 |
Ongo & David Finau | ONGO KAIHEA: He used to be a captain. | 08:48 |
Villagers and boat | TREVOR BORMANN: David Finau was the village elder who commanded the whale boat. | 08:50 |
David Finau | DAVID FINAU: We mostly got whales when there was a mother and baby. Because a mother whale stays with her baby, it gives us a better chance. | 08:54 |
Whaling boats | TREVOR BORMANN: They would like to see the return of limited harvesting of whales just for domestic consumption. SAMIU VAIPULU: On my grave. TREVOR BORMANN: On your grave? SAMIU VAIPULU: Right, I would never allow that. | 09:09 |
Villagers on beach | TREVOR BORMANN: The man so indignant is local MP and businessman Samiu Vaipulu. | 09:24 |
Samiu and Trevor walking on pontoon Super: Samiu Vaipulu Tongan MP | SAMIU VAIPULU: They should be saved for our future generations. There is a lot of food here in Tonga I should say, no one in Tonga has died of malnutrition there is a lot of food, we are obese, we are too fat because we eat too much. | 09:30 |
Montage of fat people | TREVOR BORMANN: It's not that Tonga needs more food perhaps just the right food. A place renowned for its giants of the deep is also conspicuous for its large people. As many as sixty per cent of Tongan adults are medically obese and eighteen per cent of the population have Type Two diabetes.. And that's why there's an argument over whether the whale is there to be watched or eaten as well. | 09:55 |
Trevor & Big John | TREVOR BORMANN: So this is all imported food? | 10:24 |
Trevor & Big John walk down the aisles | BIG JOHN: Yes. All of them are normally imported all here in Tonga. | 10:28 |
Trevor & Big John walk | TREVOR BORMANN: Businessman Big John Tohi takes me supermarket shopping in the Tongan capital Nuku ‘alofa. | 10:32 |
Mutton flaps in freezer | BIG JOHN: This is mutton flaps, which is like ribs from the side of the lamb. TREVOR BORMANN: So this is a popular food in Tonga? TREVOR BORMANN: So this is a popular food in Tonga? BIG JOHN: Yeah most of the people will eat them daily. TREVOR BORMANN: Daily? BIG JOHN: Yeah. | 10:39 |
Tins of corned beef | TREVOR BORMANN: So what have we got here Big John? BIG JOHN: This is precooked like corn beef . Meat's already cooked. Then all you do is open it up and just re-heat it and you're done with it. | 10:53 |
Shots of Nuku ‘olofa | TREVOR BORMANN: An island nation surrounded by bountiful sea.. Tonga's staple food is expensive, fatty, and imported from New Zealand. | 11:10 |
Dr Ake with X-ray | The country's chief medical officer remembers a time when people ate whale and were more healthy for it. Dr Malakai Ake wants Tonga's whaling ban lifted to allow limited kills for food. | 11:22 |
Super: Dr Malakai Ake Chief Medical Officer, Tonga | TREVOR BORMANN: Is whale meat nutritious? DR AKE: Of course, of course, very tasty and very nutritious. | 11:36 |
Mutton flaps on table | AKE: Mutton flaps are meant to be eaten by dogs | 11:46 |
Big John says grace | BIG JOHN: Let us pray. Thank you Lord for this food. Bless this food for all of you. Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen. | 11:49 |
Big John & family at dinner | TREVOR BORMANN: Over a family lunch of lamb flaps and tinned corned beef of course Big John ponders his family's diet. TREVOR BORMANN: Are you conscious that it's not very good for you? BIG JOHN: I think we know it's not good but then we have no choice. | 11:58 |
Big John's wife feeding daughter | TREVOR BORMANN: So Big John how would you feel if someone came to you with some whale to cook up?. | 12:15 |
Big John & Trevor | BIG JOHN: Oh, first of all it would be a new dish, I think. Maybe we would want to try it you know, to see if it's good. | 12:21 |
Super: Allan Boe Tourism Operator | ALLAN BOE: Our whale watching industry would collapse here if Tonga went back whaling, it would just turn people right off they don't want to go somewhere where the whales are hunted, no way in the world. | 12:29 |
Greenpeace whaling boat | TREVOR BORMANN: The truth is, they are about to be hunted once more, for the first time in thirty years. It's supposedly for scientific purposes according to the International Whaling Commission. From November Japanese whalers will set out to kill a quota of 50 humpbacks as they return to Antarctic waters. | 12:47 |
Allan Boe | ALLAN BOE: They head due south from here November, around there for food down in the Antarctic and this is where the Japanese will take the stock and that will apply to Australia as well because the ones on the east coast of Australia are feeding on the same area for krill down there. | 13:18 |
Waves crash over rocks | TREVOR BORMANN: And even those who once hunted the whales themselves are wary of the Japanese. | 13:35 |
David Finau | DAVID FINAU: If the ban is lifted we hope that it is only for us Tongans. We do not want the Japanese to come and take our whales. | 13:41 |
Nuku ‘alofa | TREVOR BORMANN: Tonga's whale swimming industry is a beacon of optimism in an otherwise rundown country. This place is so poor most of its people can't even afford to live here. More Tongans live abroad than at home. | 13:54 |
Whale | But this country has an extraordinary resource in the humpback whale. It's a national asset. A creature of the deep that's very much valued and wanted. Dead or alive. | 14:15 |
Credits: | Reporter: Trevor Bormann Camera: Brett Ramsay ACS Editor: Garth Thomas Tonga Producer: Shannon Jones Additional Footage: Shannon Jones Greenpeace | 14:45 |