Taste for blubber [1]
Saturday, July 10, 1999 - 02:00. Updated on Thursday, January 7, 2016 - 19:26.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 14, no. 3, July 1999.
Three decades after Tonga banned whaling, in line with an international treaty, the taste of whale fat lingers on, and blubber enthusiasts joined the curious to watch a whale being butchered in Nuku‘alofa on July 10.
Fishermen on the Taoa III said they came across a wounded and dying Humpback whale on a reef and they decided not to leave it to be devoured by other creatures of the deep. Instead, they towed it to the old Yellow Pier in Nuku‘alofa, a popular swimming place in front of the International Dateline Hotel, where is was quickly butchered and carried away by what seemed to be dozens of whale fat lovers.
At the time there had been no fish for sale in Nuku‘alofa for a number of days because of the cold weather, so the arrival of the whale, just in time for the preparation of the Sabbath feasts was considered a blessing.
The Secretary for the Ministry of Fisheries told Radio Tonga news the following Monday that he believed that the whale had died from a wound it received when it collided with a container ship on early Saturday morning. The ship was possibly the Tausala Samoa, which left port on Saturday.