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Bequia is a small island, even by Caribbean standards, measuring seven miles by one mile. However, for all its modest size and modest population (4,500), it holds a world record that can never be equaled, for here on our island in the lower Caribbean, 13 degrees north of the Equator and 125 miles from Venezuela, you will find the last traditional whale fishery in the world. From the shores of Bequia, the whalers go out to sea in their homemade boats to hunt the humpback whale.

Whale fishing from Bequia was started by Bill Wallace, a Scotsman, who, around 1800, established the industry which was to form one of the main occupations in the Grenadines, until its collapse seventeen decades later. Soon after Wallace came the Frenchman Joseph Ollivere, who built his station on Semples Cay, just south of Bequia by a half-mile. His son, following in his father’s wake, put down his shore base on the island of Petit Nevis (sometimes called Whale Island), close by Semples Cay. It is this last fishery that is still working, using the traditional methods of Mr. Wallace and the Messrs. Ollivere. The method is an adaptation of the old New England way.

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T. W. Burgess

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Bequia is a small island, even by Caribbean standards, measuring seven miles by one mile. However, for all its modest size and modest population (4,500), it holds a world record that can never be equaled, for here on our island in the lower Caribbean, 13 degrees north of the Equator and 125 miles from Venezuela, you will find the last traditional whale fishery in the world. From the shores of Bequia, the whalers go out to sea in their homemade boats to hunt the humpback whale.

Whale fishing from Bequia was started by Bill Wallace, a Scotsman, who, around 1800, established the industry which was to form one of the main occupations in the Grenadines, until its collapse seventeen decades later. Soon after Wallace came the Frenchman Joseph Ollivere, who built his station on Semples Cay, just south of Bequia by a half-mile. His son, following in his father’s wake, put down his shore base on the island of Petit Nevis (sometimes called Whale Island), close by Semples Cay. It is this last fishery that is still working, using the traditional methods of Mr. Wallace and the Messrs. Ollivere. The method is an adaptation of the old New England way.