Protesting, paddling and pros

One half of Chicks with Sticks is off on a mission...

First stop is Soul Surfer Foundation's annual fundraising event Paddle Round The Buoy. As an ambassador for the charity Nat is heading there to take part in the paddle again the Oxbow team and other brave entrants! Being held on International Surfing Day at Svengingan, there’s lots going on from parties to photography workshops!

"I have never surfed in the North Sea so I imagine it’s going to be an experience, but I hear the waves are pretty decent! If anyone would like to sponsor me then please… get in touch - it’d be great to get some more support behind me!"

To check out what good work Soul Surfers do, and what they will be putting the money towards visit their website

After Svengingen, She will be travelling via Gremany to Agadir, to join the demonstrations at the International Whaling Committee meeting. Nat says;

I’m currently writing an article for Surf Girl on the future of whaling, and have discovered I have very strong feelings on the subject – like a lot of people I have spoken to about it.

Japan, Iceland and Norway have put forward a proposal to lift the ban on whaling, that has currently been in place for 10 years. The decision will be made at the IWC's annual meeting where there will be conservation activists present like Greenpeace, Avaaz, Sea Shepherd and our Chicks with Sticks Art Rumble charity; Surfers4Cetaceans.

Japan has been continue to whale and fuel the industry under the banner of "scientific research", still capturing and killing thousands of minke whales each year. There are currently 84 committee members, made of countries that strongly oppose whaling like Australia and New Zealand, and others that are looking to lift the ban...

"Since the moratorium was adopted, the support for it has dropped from a 75% majority to a 50-50 split, with many of the countries initially recruited by the anti-whaling side now voting with the pro-whaling block. (A 75% majority is needed to overturn the moratorium.) Anti-whaling campaign groups and some governments claim that the Japanese Fisheries Agency has carried out a programme of "vote-buying" - i.e. offering aid to poorer countries in return for them joining the IWC and supporting Japanese positions on whaling. Japan claims, however, that this accusation itself is politically motivated because Japan's oversea aids are not only given to pro-whaling countries. Japan has given US$320 million in overseas aid to Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Guinea, Morocco, Panama, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis and the Solomon Islands." (Wikipedia)

Another controversial aspect of the voting is that if all the members of the EU (which includes the United Kingdom) cannot reach an agreement, then it will be exempt from voting.

Learning more about the possible outcome and concequences if the ban is lifted - which would last for 10 YEARS - has lead me to the conclusion I want to do something to help support the whales, and make a stand for them.

I visited Newquay’s Aquarium with my God-daughter Nancy at the weekend, and it really hit home how it’s up to our generation to protect and preserve our precious sea mammals in order for them to be around for the next generation to learn about.

In the same weekend, I also learn that whale meat is actually available on the black market in Hackney, East London, so it's a very real issue!

Whales are prehistoric and they are huge, it’s impossible to breed or maintain a captivity programme like an aquarium for them. Although the The human race has brought whales to the brink of extinction, thanks to the moratorium whale numbers have started to increase. Cetacean intellegance is a phenomenon, and with research techniques developing all the time we might one day find a way to live in harmony with these creatures, rather than abusing them and the oceans they reside in. The only way is to study them, and learn about them in their natural habitat. And this means an end to whaling once and for good.

Stay tuned for the news from Morocco.

Oh and guess who's coming with me? The hot pink fish, of course!

I'm aiming to get a last minute whale campaign going at the Gul night surf, if anyone's keen to join in, then drop me a line!