The Whale Heritage Sites Steering Committee is delighted to announce that Nantucket, USA, has passed the initial application process to become a Whale Heritage Site and has been approved for candidacy. The site can now plan how to undertake the rigorous audit process as it attempts to meet the criteria required for full Whale Heritage Site status.
“Nantucket! Take out your map and look at it. See what a real corner of the world it occupies…. Look at it – a mere hillock, and elbow of sand; all beach, without a background. Two thirds of this terraqueous globe are the Nantucketer’s. For the sea is his; he owns it, as Emperors own empires… the Nantucketer, out of sight of land, furls his sails, and lays him to his rest, while under his very pillow rush herds of walruses and
whales.”
From the pages of Moby-Dick, thru a world renowned 21st century Whaling Museum, appendage to the historic whale oil Candle Factory (1847), Nantucket’s whaling history, culture and global impact are expressed in a depth unique to this elbow of sand. Listed as one of the top 10 Islands in the world to visit (National Geographic), Nantucket, beneath its stylish skin boasts over 800 pre-1860 homes, most coupled to whaling — the bones of this historic place. On this mere hillock our internationally acclaimed Museums, responsible Whale Watching and Nantucket Marine Mammal Conservation Program, author of Nantucket’s campaign to become a Whale Heritage Site, all play a role in bringing current understanding of Cetacea (whales and dolphins) to over 100,000 visitors and our local schools annually. Teaching and learning of the threats
these leviathan face today from Ocean noise, pollution, ship strike, climate change, entanglement, prey food declines & contemporary whaling, is a community collaboration.
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