ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Not new these were on the old site - along with Migaloo and it seems we now have another white whale swimming our shores.

It struck me this morning a I was taking my supposedly cholesterol beating tablet with wild krill oil in it - is this another case of man depleting the food chain for our animals, driving yet another wedge into our push for race extinction. Whales survive on krill - have done for centuries....so how come all of a sudden it appears on our supermarket shelves????





THE WISDOM OF THE WORLD IS IN HIS EYES

He has crossed the world’s big Oceans from the Arctic to the Sun
like his ancestors before him from time when the world begun .
He has seen his family murdered and has heard their final cries
still the Wisdom of the World is in his eyes.
He has seen the whalers harpoon tear the flesh until it bled .
From the sound of whaleboats that pursued him he has fled,
with his mighty flukes propelling him to ocean depths below,
until his lungs now close to bursting, made him surface, made him blow.

He has swum beneath the Arctic ice, in Polar Regions cold
where the Right Whales and the Orcas, seek the ocean krill I’m told.
Then across the world to warmer climes, back to where he was bought forth
past the shores of Fraser Island, to a destination North.
He has witnessed mans indifference to pollution in the seas.
How the fish world wide are dying. Pristine reefs filled with debris
Now the coral polyps struggle against poisons from the land.
Foul chemicals polluting ocean waters, shoreline sand.

For years at Tangalooma whales were hunted to their death
their stories passed to others by the survivors that were left,
and for many years no whales at all attended Moreton’s door,
until the whaling ceased in sixty six, then they returned once more.
Now millions pay to see them as they breach in oceans blue
while the might of tourist dollars helps to raise awareness too;
but world wide they’re still depleted, by Nations we should despise.
Who seek to hunt the one with the World’s Wisdom in his eyes..

He is majestic, none his equal on the land or in the skies,
yet he faces race extinction. If man would just realize
that the pollution of the oceans, the poisoning of the seas
is killing off the plankton, and the krill on which he feeds.
He shares his memories and his songs with others of his race
He swims the oceans regally with dignity and grace
In family groups he guards the young with diligence each day
as he shepherds their migrations, through uncharted ocean ways.

Such gentleness and majesty should never be decried
For these cetaceans of history for aeons have survived.
Who knows what they can teach us, can their knowledge be despised?
When you look you'll see the wisdom of the world is in their eyes.

Maureen Clifford ©

You're right, Maureen. Not much point in 'saving the whales' if we then starve them to death. There is a concern that global warming is impacting on krill, too, as they tend to proliferate at the ice edge (if my memory serves me correct). No ice, no krill. Simple equation.

We are so privileged to be able to go whale watching up here in Queensland pretty well all along our coastline these days, and there are $$$$ to be made from doing that as it has become an industry all of its own. The world should be doing everything they can to protect these mammals but sadly I think pollution, etc etc etc will see their demise within decades. Tragic that our modern world can kill off a species that is one of the oldest surviving species on this earth

When they closed Tangalooma Whaling station down in the 1960's there were no whales at all seen around our shores....they avoided it like the plaque and the message had obviously been transferred from whale group to whale group. As the older whales passed on I guess the memories were no longer passed along and the whales came back but it would have been a good 20 years before that happened and now of course they can be seen every year, and are not concerned by men because they realize they are now safe...at least here.

When you have a whale spy hop literally metres from your face, and he eyeballs you as you eyeball him....it is then you come to realize that they truly do have the wisdom of the world in their eyes. That experience moved me to tears and is one I will treasure to the day I die, I just wanted to reach out and hug him but tried to concentrate my thoughts and send him the mental message that we do care. Whether or not it worked I don't know but it was a magical couple of minutes. It was obvious he meant no harm and he was less than a metre off the stern of the boat.