St. Vincent to introduce legislation outlawing killing of orcas

The government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines says it will pass legislation outlawing the killing of orcas, after fishermen killed two of the marine mammals in the presence of a whale-watching group last week.

The killing of the orcas — commonly called killer whales – bring to six the number of the dolphins known to have been killed in St. Vincent since July 2015.

Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said that the law to be introduced by his government,will be in keeping with an international ban that the country signed on to years ago.

Gonsalves made the announcement on radio five days after the two orcas were killed while being watched by some 40 cruise ship passengers on a whale and dolphin watching tour with a local operator.

Thomson Cruises, owners of TUI Discovery, the cruise ship on which the tourists arrived in St. Vincent, have since cancelled all of its whale and dolphin watch bookings with Fantasea Tours, the local operator that conducted the tours last week.

While on a radio programme on Tuesday, Gonsalves said that “the person or persons who were involved in killing the two ‘killer whales’, the orcas, … is a very hard working fisherman.

“But what he did was plain wrong. What he did, I want to emphasise this, what he did was plain wrong. Not just because it happened in front of tourists, but (because) he must not kill the orcas.”