CAN EVERYONE PLEASE READ THIS IF YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE WHALES: Hi Stephen Thank you for your message last night. I appreciate your concern; it appears you have greater concern over these whales than Emma Webb showed yesterday. Firstly I would like to point out that as qualified skippers we take into account the tide, wind and any other conditions that may affect us anchoring when we go fishing. We understand the movement of the fish with the tide, how the bigger fish are following the smaller fish to feed. In turn these calculations along with the direction of the pod of whales travelling in were also taken into account. We passed the pod of whales at a very far distance, we went a long way ahead of the pod, stopped the engine and watched at a safe distance. The pod of whales actually approached us; they passed our boat within 8-10ft as though we were invisible as our engine was turned off. There were no signs of distress, the animals were busy feeding and were completely oblivious to us being there. We had no environmental impact on these whales what so ever, they didn’t know we existed. I care too much about all god’s creatures to put any of them endanger and I respect that this is an exceptional occurrence and sighting. My bother-in-law and I are offering these trips to ensure that people are going out with a qualified skipper under controlled conditions and that we are complying with the Sea Watch Foundation Code of Conduct to ensure the whales are protected from people going out on their own private boats. The hope is that they come out on our boat, adhering to the code rather than not knowing the distress they are causing by going to close to the animals themselves on their own boats. On a separate note Stephen, I would like to point out that your team member Emma Webb clearly was not adhering to the Sea Watch Foundation Code yesterday. Emma Webb was clearly not putting the safety of the whales first, I witnessed this first hand on the boat, she was full of self- importance and was clearly only out there in the morning as she had wind of Sky News being aboard our boat with Sarah from EWT. I hasten to add that Sarah at the EWT has a much more genuine concern for the safety of these animals and this was clear to see, she had no interest in the cameras but just wanted to monitor the safety and behaviour of the animals. Emma Webb, roared around on the police boat showing her self-importance, she had only come out on the boat at midday yesterday, she showed up for the TV cameras and then cleared off after roaring straight at the pod of whales at 20+ knots from behind to warn off the ONLY 1 other boat that was out there all day yesterday to take a look at these beautiful creatures. We tried to call the other boat on channel 16 to avoid a second boat heading at the whales at an unsafe distance but Emma Webb and the Police didn’t even attempt communication by radio which should be the first call to save them also disturbing the whales. So let’s take a look at Emma Webb’s movements yesterday and show just how concerned she was about the whales as part of the BDMLR, in the morning she was onshore being interviewed by BBC, midday she came out on the Police boat to be interviewed by Sky News, after her interview she roared up to the whales at an unsafe distance, approached them from behind which is considered threatening behaviour and can cause a lot of distress to the whales and is strictly prohibited, then she went back on land for the rest of the day. Please can you point out exactly where her priorities laid yesterday, it clearly wasn’t for the safety of the whales, she spent all of 5 minutes with them. Dale and I have spent a lot longer with these creatures than she has in the last few days and we understand their movements and behaviour better than she appeared to. Sarah at the EWT seemed to be happy with the distance we kept yesterday from the whales, she appeared happy with their behaviour and that they did not appear stressed in anyway, and they appeared to be feeding of the shawls of herring in the River. Both Dale, Myself and Sarah at EWT were asked by Sky News if it was ok to bring a helicopter overhead to film these whales, we all said no, but were informed that Emma Webb had already given permission for this to be permitted. We all said no for the safety of the animals, Emma Webb said yes to get in with the press and build up her own profile as an officer in the BDMLR. I have a few concerns here, all the press and yourselves keep reporting how stressed these animals are, how they are beaching themselves and getting in danger by doing so and that there are police boats and helicopters herding the whales into safer water and how there are so many boats going to see the whales causing them distress. Can I point out, as I said earlier there was our boat and 1 other boat out there all day to see the whales; that is not many boats. These animals are not stressed, they are feeding, there have been no boats herding the whales off into deeper water and the only way these whales need protecting is from people like Emma Webb and the Police boat. Let’s be honest, I think that the police boat should be out catching criminals, not chasing round a pod of whales, we are already told we don’t have enough police resources in our country yet here they are having a jolly round the whales and actually causing them more stress, not to mention eh police helicopter circling them on Tuesday, how much has that just cost our country? And what purpose did it serve? Where was Emma Webb and the police boat yesterday when a wind farm Catamaran came steaming out of Brightlingsea straight at the pod of whales that were on in the entrance to Brightlingsea harbour? We were the ones asking the boat to alter course to the West, which they did under our instruction, we were the ones protecting these animals and telling Sky news helicopter not to come down any lower and not get any landmarks in the background shots so the position of the whales wasn’t disclosed to the public. Surely as the BDMLR you should have your own boat and not be using police resources for matters which do not concern them. Surely you should be whistle blowing on Emma Webbs behaviour and lack of due care and diligence to the safety of these whales. Surely we should be commended for our efforts to protect these whales and at our diligence to follow the Sea Watch Foundation Code, not scorned at. And perhaps you should take a bit more notice of fishermen who actually monitor the feeding behaviour of fish and have a better understanding of where the whales might be heading and what they might be doing in shallow water. Staff like Emma Webb shouldn’t be roaring around soaking up media attention, they should be finding out about the ports local to where the whales are, how many boats operate from there, what area they operate from, making them aware of maintaining a safe distance from the whales and keeping a close watch out for them on their entrance and exist to port, putting in temporary speed limits to control fast boats, putting in temporary exclusion zones for fishing nets so that the whales don’t get caught. These are all proactive measures. I really would have liked to closely worked with your team to protect and monitor the safety of the whales but right now I have no confidence that you are doing your job for the right reasons and for that reason alone we do not wish to disclose the position of the whales which have moved from yesterday’s position, we will not be assisting your operation to run press release after press release showing your own self-importance. I hasten to add that we have video footage of your staff roaring straight at the whales yesterday on the police boat causing threatening behaviour by approaching the whales from behind, we have Sky News witnesses who can vouch for the agreement of a helicopter flying over these whales given by Emma Webb, despite our and EWT opinion that this should not be permitted. Right now, I am angry at your whole department for allowing all this to happen, I love to see the wildlife and couldn’t bear to see anything bad happen to it due to your lack of competence. Dale and I will be the first to get in the water and help pushing these whales off back into the water should they get into difficulty. But I would like to point out that these animals are not stupid, everyone treats animals like they are stupid and they aren’t. I think the whales would be safer without your team’s intervention; your team seem to be putting them at a greater risk. Right now, with all the connections to The Sun, The Mirror, Daily Mailetc, I would quite happily sell this story to them, I cannot express how angry I am with your team and how you seem to feel we are the ones endangering these animals.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 10:05:09 +0000
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