HISTORY

It all started during 1973 when Ken Botes at the age of 24 was called into James Van Langelaar’s office, Chief Inspector of MCM to relieve Schalk from whaling duties during his compulsory military service, this was at the Union Whaling Station in Durban.

This was the very first time that he encountered various species of whales at close quarters and he still remembers that day. In previous journals he wrote about this. The shock and amazement to see monsters of 50 tons slipped onto a flensing deck within minutes and disappear down the cooker tubes within an hour or so, was something you’d never forget!

His main responsibilities were to measure each whale, take samples of the stomach contents and photograph the dorsal fin of whales for scientific research.

In addition, he was also to lay charges for the capture of undersize whales and accompany whale catchers on whaling expeditions.

Later he was seconded to Australia by the South African Government as International Whaling Observer for a year and to South America when he returned. Latter appointment was cancelled due to the protesting against the discriminatory South African Apartheid laws.

However, while in Australia he was offered a job by his counterparts Fauna & Flora. Their dedication and immense hard work impressed him. They were not afraid to gain that extra mile to achieve their objectives which was surely not the case back home, and sadly is still the same today in South Africa.


HOBBY STARTED AND EXPANDED

During that time he started to collect whaling artifacts, photos and books on whaling. With a library of a few hundred which he read he came to the conclusion that most authors, if not all, wrote these books hoping they could make a difference by saving whales or mostly alternatively, and this is the bottom-line, to please whaling sponsors to write a story about the glory of whaling.

Obviously, that included the so called importance of food matter, other by-products and since 1986 killing whales for scientific research. Latter being the Lame Duck and is still being practiced worldwide.

The big question is for how long? To this end the answer is quite simple! In one of his books on anti-whaling you will find the answers. Contents of all three books are being formatted, South African Whaling History, Anti-Whaling and Whaling Tourism.


WHALING TOURISM IN CRISIS

The holistic approach to Whaling Tourism in South Africa has been ignored for various reasons. Taking some of these factors in consideration the real answer lies within, by creation of a wider scope of disciplines through innovation and by making it a meaningful cluster of events that will create new job opportunities, as well!

This motivated Ken to do something about this and the rest is history.