User:Mialejeune/Aboriginal whaling

I am adding my information to the "Lembata" page as a new section.

Environment and Ecosystems in Lamalera
Lamalera is a whaling village on the Indonesian island of Lembata in the Savu Sea.

The village of Lamalera, like much of the island Lembata, is not hospitable to plant life, as the soil is hard and rocky. Islanders rely on sperm whale, dolphin, and manta populations to sustain their way of life.

Cultural Practices
Lamalera is the only island in South East Asia that traditionally and still hunts large toothed whales.

Lamalera villagers view the ocean as a mother. The sea, their mother, provides for their community and nurtures them; to show their respect, the villagers must accept their mother's gifts. Most whale species are acceptable to hunt in Lamalera culture, especially sperm and orca whales. The blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus, is a holy species and is not allowed to be hunted. According to local legend, the blue whale once rescued a respected family and was forever spared from the hunt.

Every part of the whale is used out of respect to the sea.

Methods of the Whale Hunt
The whaling season lasts from May to October, and crews typically venture out to sea one day out of the week and rest for the other six.

The lamafa is a distinguished harpooner and the captain of the hunt. Lamafa are selected based on their harpooning abilities. Some lamafa come from particularly skilled families, and others work for years to move up in the hunt. Some boys start training as young as six years old to be the lamafa.

Before the hunt, the lamafa leads the other whalers in a prayer ceremony and song about their mother, the sea. Lamalera whalers believe going to sea angry or fighting with loved ones can bring bad luck to the hunt; those who have fought with loved one recently will abstain from the hunt.

Ten to 15 whalers then load on to the peledang, a 10 to 12 meter rowing boat. When a whale is spotted, whalers use the traditional hunting cry, "baleo" to notify the lamafa. Then, the lamafa leaps into the air and stabs the whale with a harpoon. It takes multiple stabs and often hours of waiting for the whale to tire enough for the whalers to safely sever its spinal cord and kill it. Often whalers are pulled for hours or even days by the harpooned whale before it dies.

Traditionally, the best part of the whale is reserved for the whaling team that harpoons the animal first. Then, the whale is divided and used evenly among villagers by drying the meat and using it throughout the year or by saving the oil for lighting. Even whaling teams that have an unsuccessful hunts are given parts of the catch. Since Lamalerans are so dependent on the sea, one poor hunt can cause a famine, so families and whaling teams share what they capture.

The traditional Lamaleran method of whale hunting with a harpoon was first documented in the 1640's marking the practice as a form of cultural whaling.

Commercialization of the Whale Hunt
In the early 2000s, Lamalera and other villages were connected by roads, which exposed islanders to the conveniences of a modern economy and more traditional ways of making a living.

As the global economy grows, islanders, who are permitted to hunt whales for cultural practices, have started using whale harvests to invest in modern conveniences like motor oil and motorized boats. Lamalera is predominantly a bartering society, but whale meat and bones are so valuable and rare it can only be traded for cash. Bartering whale meat and products at weekly at local market is a legal practice on the island. United Nation's authorities worry, though, that this increased commercialization will lead to the endangerment of whale species.

Traditionally, whalers would row the peledang out to sea, but today, some whalers use motor boats to tow the traditional sailboats out to depths where sperm whales inhabit. This speeds up the chase and allows whalers to catch more whales, but it also threatens their claims to cultural whaling. Some Indonesian government officials worry that traditional practices have evolved too much to claim they are subsistence whalers. This means that they personally consumed the meat and use the hunt to preserve cultural practices.

There very little international regulation on the practices of Lamalera as the island has not formally agreed to adhere to the regulations of the International Whaling Commission. The International Whaling Commission does see Lamaleran whalers as subsistence whalers, though.

Environmental Concerns
Traditional whalers killed about 20 sperm whales annually. Skilled whalers with modern tools can kill up to 30 to 50 sperm whales annually. The Indonesian government allows whale hunting on the island as long as catches are used for cultural practices and not commercial use. The Indonesian Government has become more restrictive of the type of hunting being conducted in the Savu Sea. Many environmentalists have called for similar restrictions to be enforced on Lamalera as some people's cultural practices have evolved to include more modern convinces like motor boats.

Officials from The Nature Conservancy have claimed that Lamalera whalers have exceeded using whaling for survival and now use it for profits as well. Officials from the Indonesian government and the Nature Conservancy have pushed to limit the hunt because of the modern tools being used and cash profits being made. Additionally, there has been evidence of increased whale meat and bone trafficking to Japan and China since 2007.

Lamaleran fishers have also been harsh on other fish populations surrounding the island. The lack of prey as deterred whale populations from returning to the island regularly. Animal rights activists have had tried to bring whale watching and tourism to the island to sustain the economy while replenishing the sea, but locals were reluctant to move away from whale hunting.

Western conservation standards also consider the elaborate and painful killing process to be torturous and abusive to the individual whale species.