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Hunting and Killing Whales With Their Bare Hands.

By Alex in Animal, Pictures on Jul 5, 2007 at 1:57 am


For the fishermen of Lamalera, a remote village in Indonesia, the way of life hasn’t changed for hundreds of years: they still hunt and kill whale with their bare hands:

Hunts are led by the Lamafa (boat captains), who purify themselves during the six-month whale hunting season by abstaining from sex. They are also banned from sleeping during a hunting trip. [...]

The Lamafa leaps from the boat holding a ‘kefa’ (a javelin-like bamboo pole with an iron-blade) which he uses to pierce the whale before swimming back to collect another pole.

The fishermen work as a team, stabbing into the whale flesh and working ropes around its massive body. The tiny boats, dwarfed by the bulk of a whale, risk being pulled under with every lurch of its huge tail.

Link – Thanks Aberron!


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COMMENT
  1. Yak Boy
    Jul 5th, 2007 at 4:56 am

    Or, to put it another way, they hunt and kill whales with GIANT SPEARS.

  2. Droo
    Jul 5th, 2007 at 6:24 am

    Maybe they have giant spears for hands! Ever think of that?

    I swear, people these days...

  3. E
    Jul 5th, 2007 at 9:23 am

    That's disgusting. There is no reason to continue killing whales. And I don't want to hear about local resources being thin--it's up to the superpowers of the world to provide means for poor countries to avoid slaughter like this. We are so high and mighty about the environment, yet we still elect horrible people into office who don't care about it.

  4. DCer
    Jul 5th, 2007 at 9:37 am

    Yeah, those people are pure evil. Civilized cultures give up uncivilized behavior like slavery, hunting whales, funeral pyre suicides, footbinding, burning witches, etc. I know one southwestern Native American who told me he thought ceremonial Inuit hunts were awful ideas that gave people the impression that aboriginals could never exist in a modern society- he was an entrepreneur, so hardly someone who needed to resort to killing whales any more than I would eat a pet dog or blame the gypsies for my lost car keys.

  5. skh.pcola
    Jul 5th, 2007 at 11:47 am

    "...those people are pure evil."

    Are you kidding? Ever think that they use every part of the whale to sustain thier own existence? They are poor people. Evil is Islam and the cruelty that they perpetrate on other religions of the world, their animals, and thier women. Pfft.

    "...it’s up to the superpowers of the world to provide means for poor countries..."

    Communist babble. Although it wouldn't be too difficult to find a mailing address of some poor folks in, say, Indonesia that you could send YOUR donation to. You probably hate the superpowers of the world anyway. Most socialists do.

  6. Piotr
    Jul 5th, 2007 at 12:26 pm

    E - This has absolutely nothing to do with environmentalism, and I say this as a rather far left environmental liberal. Are you suggesting we act as a police force and tell small villages what can and can not be part of their diet? Are you suggesting we somehow bestow tofu patties upon every group of people that still hunts it's food? This is one small village that has been living this way for hundreds of years. As skh.poola said, they more than likely use every single part of the whale and don't hunt more animals than is necessary to their survival, so it's hardly on the level of slavery, footbinding, or burning witches (Though I'm rather certain DCer was being a bit sarcastic). It would take thousands, if not millions of villages such as this to have even a fraction of the impact the commercial whaling industry, the fishing industry, or the oil industry have had on the whale population.

  7. E. Scissorhands
    Jul 5th, 2007 at 12:53 pm

    Yeah, and I do topiary with my bare hands.

  8. ted
    Jul 5th, 2007 at 2:43 pm

    Hey, don't knock the bare hands thing. Those ropes and spears must chafe. They're not like their sissy glove-wearing neighbours.

    Their leader hasn't had sex for six months, and he's the only one who stays awake during the whole hunt. I wonder if the other hunters sleep with one eye open.

  9. Snappy
    Jul 5th, 2007 at 4:59 pm

    It would be less cruel for the natives to rig a giant underwater slingshot that would fling the whale through the air and onto the shore.

  10. cybele
    Jul 5th, 2007 at 5:49 pm

    Snappy - I think I love you for that comment!

  11. bernard krova
    Aug 19th, 2007 at 11:25 pm

    hi .... thanks for comments
    I'm a Lamalera's was born and spare more than 20 year living in Lamalera. First of all, I'm really understand all the comment regarding the above picture and news. Honestly, in deep of my heart I just want you all not blame them because that's a way of life for a very small village has been living in this village for hundred years. I can say that, this is only one way of life to the very very very poor people in that's small and traditional village to survive. They just killed not more than 5 - 6 whales a year and all that killed whale's are for their survive life.
    WWF, WHO, FAO and any other NGO in the worl have been in my village to saw, learn and understand how that's people doing their battle. And finally, that's way of life still running until today because no one can change it and the most important is their battle never never never disturb population of whales at all. Thanks - bernard krova

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