Country:New Zealand/New Zealand
Duration: 17 minutes
Filmmaker:Tess Brosnan
Category: Marine Culture, Marine LifeOcean culture, marine life
Film Synopsis:
Perched on rugged highlands overlooking New Zealand’s Cook Strait, an unusual group of elderly civilian “scientists” are observing the migration of humpback whales. They are conducting research as part of a scientific study called the “Cook Strait Whale Count.” The aim of this study is to monitor the recovery of humpback whale populations in New Zealand since the country banned whaling in 1964. These volunteers are so skilled at whale observation because they are not only descendants of New Zealand’s two-hundred-year whaling culture, but they were also once whalers themselves.
Sitting high on a rugged hilltop looking out over New Zealand’s Cook Strait, an unusual team of senior ‘citizen scientists’ keeps watch for migrating humpback whales. They’re spotting for the Cook Strait Whale Count a study into the recovery of New Zealand’s humpback population since the end of New Zealand whaling in 1964. These volunteers are uniquely skilled in watching whales: Not only are they descendant of New Zealand’s 200-year history of whaling, they were all once whalers themselves.
Whale Chasers shares the voices of these dedicated characters who have traded harpoons for pencils and notepads, and is described by reviewers as “one of few films where the bloody history of whaling is reconciled with modern sensibilities and aesthetics”. Pirates, conspiracy, life-and-death on the high seas: Whale Chasers is not for the light of heart, but about the heart of whale conservation.