Australian Hopes To Lasso Whales

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31879, 6 January 1969, Page 12

Australian Hopes To Lasso Whales

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND. Carrying a bundle of 12-foot poles, part of the equipment with which he intends to catch mammals ranging from dolphins to killer whales, an Australian farmer arrived in Auckland today.

Mr J. E. Bligh, a powerfully built six-footer, took up catching marine mammals as a hobby in 1966. Since then, using a long pole, a mesh net and a losso, he has captured seven pilot whales and 31 dolphins of various species. His biggest catch to date was a 16-foot two-ton pilot; whale. I

Some of his captures are in the Surfers’ Paradise Marineland, an enterprise of which he is now a director. ’ Weather permitting, he will gall from Tauranga this week -in the scow Alma, with representatives of the Mount Maunganui Marineland, in search of killer whales, false

killer whales, pilot whales, and porpoises. “I don't think there’s any danger to it,” he said. “Once the thing’s lassoed properly it has the boat to tow round if it wants to get free. “I have no specific requests from my own company for mammals, but it's my intention if we are successful to offer them every alternative mammal caught,” he said. He said a Surfers’ Paradise Marineland official would fly over to supervise the transporting of any catches to Australia.