SEA O2 Sustainable Development - Sustainability Management and Consulting

The humpback whale rose to the surface alongside the fishing dory in which Wayne Wyatt was trolling for mackerel off the coast of North Westrn Australia. As it had for twenty minutes, the whale spewed a jet of stale air from its blowhole and rolled on its side to reveal a squinty black eye that studied the irate fisherman with calm accusation.

From across the water, Wayne Wyatt could hear peals of laughter from the skipper and three crew onboard the mother-ship, the fishing boat Ha'Penny. Wayne Wyatt was in a deadly mood as he looked into the eye of the whale and plotted a way to stop his crewmates laughing.

Wayne Wyatt was new to the Ha'Penny. He was signed on in Broome because the fish were biting and there was a spare bunk on board.

The other crew members on skipper Lou Winter's mackerel boat were the partners Joaney and Kevin, and the quite but hard working Macco. These three crew had signed on in Fremantle three and a half months ago and worked well as a team.

Prior to Wayne's arrival, there had been calmness and a mechanical order about the vessel. However, despite deliberate efforts to include the newcomer into the fold, by the end of his first week, Wayne had put everyone on edge with his deliberate antagonism and boasts.

The second week at sea came and passed and Wayne Wyatt's presence disrupted the whole crew. Only the demanding duties of the fishing boat - the stream of silver-blue mackerel hauled from the sea, filleted with thin sharp knives and sent to sleep in the freezer – kept the crew's mind off Wayne Wyatt for the most part.

Despite being a rotten human being, Wayne Wyatt was a proficient fisherman. For this reason alone the deckhand's foulness was tolerated by Lou Winter, the Skipper of Ha'Penny, and he ordered the crew think likewise.

Wayne Wyatt was no enigma to Lou Winter. Lou had met plenty of deckies, and he had picked Wayne's maliciousness early in the trip. Unfortunately, Lou had been fooled by a few intelligent words from Wayne Wyatt on their first meeting.

Bad was not uncommon in the fishing industry, but Wyatt was particularly nasty. This was apparent from his constant swearing – he used the word ‘fukken' like a punctuation mark. It seemed an hour did not go by without Wayne Wyatt undertaking some action that put the crew on edge. He would make a point of crossing the deck to the rubbish bin before throwing plastics over the side. Or he'd manhandle undersized fish before returning them to the water – squeezing their eyes or pushing a thumbnail into their gills.

The Ha'Penny was run differently from other fishing boats and the excesses of the fishing industry were not to be found under Lou's command. It became necessary, early in the trip, to pull Wayne into line. Lou was lured into a shouting match with Wayne Wyatt. This was resolved only by Wayne Wyatt's recognition that Lou was likely to break his bones if he continued.

In the evenings once the fish were processed and the decks hosed down, one of the crew would cook a meal and all would crowd around the galley table. The talk would move back and forth between Lou, Joaney and Kevin (Macco rarely spoke but followed every word) until Wayne Wyatt had wolfed down his meal.

Once he had eaten, he would shove the plate away and start talking. He would start with a criticism of the food and of the way the Ha'Penny was run. Then he would extol his own virtues by describing a vessel upon which he had worked where there came to be some profitability in brutalising fish or tipping the most harmful waste in the most sensitive marine environments. His favourite story was how, because he was such a proficient fisherman, he had wiped out an entire snapper fishery in New South Wales.

Any attempt by another to enter the dialogue merely caused Wayne Wyatt to raise his voice and reiterate the last statement as though he were delivering a punishment for interrupting. In short order the crew would leave the table and his aggressive voice would follow them all over the sixty-eight foot vessel.

In the evening, Joaney would speak in low tones with Lou in the wheelhouse, resting her back against the ship's chair from which Lou observed the moonlight reflected on the ocean waves. She would roll thin Champion Ruby cigarettes and watch the smoke turn green as it passed the starboard navigation light on the side of the wheelhouse.

“What can we do about that bastard, Wayne Wyatt? ” she asked for the tenth night running.

“ Bear with him, Joaney”, said Lou. “We'll off-load him in Broome on the spring tide comes ”.

Joaney reached for the tide table and did her calculations. Another week before the currents ran too fast to catch the spanish mackerel. Then the ship would head for port, off-load the catch and the crew would get drunk in bars.

“I can't believe that such an vile moron could exist, he should be in jail”, she said.

“He's too smart for that”, said Lou.

Kevin came into the wheelhouse, he smiled at Joaney and put his hand on her shoulder affectionately.

“Where is it now?” she asked her boyfriend.

”It…” , laughed Kevin, ‘‘… it is berating poor Macco in the fo'c'sle. Apparently it's better to fillet fish while they are still alive, as the pain makes the flesh more valuable ”.

“I can't bear it”, said Joaney, “Lou, promise me, you'll let me vet any new crew you want on board. Everything's gone backwards since he's been on the ship…we're not filleting the fish cleanly, were leaving more flesh on the frames than when we first on board … were dropping fish overboard… Kevin sliced a chunk out of his arm the other day… everything's out of whack”.

Lou had seen these things too. “I know Joaney, I made a bad call, we'll offload him in Broome at the end of the week. In the meantime”.

“I know, just bear with him, right? ”

“ End of the week”, said Kevin. “ Not a moment too soon”.

----------------

In the dory, Wayne Wyatt's eyes bulged and a thick curly vein protruded from his forehead. The whale surfaced, spouted a volume of foul smelling air in his face and rolled over with it's beady eye showing out of the water.

Wayne Wyatt thrashed around in hysterics.

”Don't accuse me, you fukken ugly fish!”, he shrieked, banging his hand on the side of the boat.

He throttled the dory to full speed and pulled the tiller over sharply to try and hit the whale. But the dory, a one-ton fibreglass vessel with a small inboard diesel, had neither the manoeuvrability nor speed to allow Wayne Wyatt to ram the whale or inflict any injury on it that would cause it pain. He was now hoarse from screaming.

Wayne Wyatt was not educated, but he had an uncanny perception of how to get what he wanted. He knew that with a minimal amount of mental exertion he could be perceived as knowledgeable and use this to his advantage. For this reason he had on one occasion read up on the Humpback Whale. He had learned how to pronounce its scientific name and nothing else.

“Megaptera fukken novaeangliae – I'm gunna fukken kill you”, he bellowed.

After twenty minutes of torment, Wayne Wyatt was certain that the whale was not going to leave him alone and that the mackerel were off the bite with the whale around.

There was no way that he was going to return to the Ha'Penny without a catch fish and say: “The whale, scared all the fish away”. That was a recepie for disaster. If that happened, he probably stick a knife in Macco, then the skipper would punch him to near death and he would wake up in a police cell on the way backa to prison. That wouldn't work.

He eased back the throttle, crossed his arms and stared at the Ha'Penny. He could see the crew lined up on the beam, he could see they were laughing. They were laughing because they knew he hated whales and dolphins, flying fish and sunsets and all the things that make people revere the ocean.

His fury and screaming had exhausted him and he started to get light-headedness . Then a calmness came over him.

“Violence from the skipper is inevitable now, anyway”, he resolved.

The humpback whale rose to the surface again. It spouted a rank fishy smell into the air.

As he stood there in the dory, with the stench of the whale's breath wetly drifting over him, his calmness bought him a fresh insight. Almost like a cloud had lifted, a thought came to his mind.

Wayne Wyatt remembered something.

He remembered that on this trip he had bought with him his favourite fishing tool. Stowed in the dory, wrapped in an oil cloth, at his feet. He had his answer. The cold mask of his face didn't change, but inside an evil smile grew.

“That'll fukkem," he thought.

He hesitated a second as he considered the consequences to his own well being. In particular he considered the inevitable beating from the skipper.

“Yeah. Fukkem”, he resolved.

“Fuck the crew. Fuck the skipper. And fuck the fucking whale!” .

On the Ha'Penny, all work had stopped as the skipper and crew holidayed at the expense of Wayne Wyatt's obvious frustration.

“I can't believe it”, said Joaney, wiping tears from her eyes, “it's like karma”.

Even Macco who rarely made any noise was laughing.

“I was hoping a shark would bite his arse”, said Lou. “This is much better, who would have thought that a whale would stitch him up”.

“He must be livid ”, said Kevin. “He's been driving around for ages, he can't even run it over in the dory”.

“Look at him now”, laughed Joaney, “He's pulled up. Look at the silly bastard, he's crossed his arms in a huff… hoomph, the bloody humpback whale is really pissing me off… I never though that bastard would ever make me laugh”.

“I think he's thinking,” said Macco, unexpectedly, which only exacerbated the laughter.

“What's he doing now”, questioned Joaney as she took the binoculars from Lou and steadied them. “Looks like he's coming in… it would be worth having the camera, he looks like he has exploded”.

“What's Ahab up to now?”, questioned Kevin.

“Ahab… ha ha… I don't know, looks like he's digging around for something down by his feet”.

“Probably looking for a harpoon” commented Kevin again. He jumped up on the gunwale and hollered theatrically towards the dory, “ Has anybody seen a white whale….!?”.

Joaney could barely see through the binoculars for the jostling. “He's found something. He's got something in his hand”.

Kevin jumped down of the gunwale and reached for the binoculars. Joaney pulled them away from him.

“What's he doing then”, she said, “the bastard's up to something? ”.

As the dory pulled closer, Wayne Wyatt was busy putting his plan into action. He shielded his actions from the crew of the Ha'Penny by turning his back to them. He could sense the movement of the whale deep below. It was all coming together quickly now. His pulse was rising.

“What's that bastard doing”, gasped Joaney, the laughter gone from her voice. She lowered the binoculars and handed them to Kevin.

Wayne Wyatt was close now, they could see his eyes, they could see his blank look and his calmness. They could see a pureness, the evil intent of his approach.

Her voice was strained, Joaney stammered, “ What's that bastard doing… what's he up to… Lou stop him, he's going to do something, STOP HIM LOU !”

The dory was within twenty metres of the Ha'Penny. Wayne Wyatt lolled his head over to the side and looked at his shipmates perched on the gunwale. He could see they were panicked. He didn't allow himself to smile. Time for that later.

Sensing the whale was close, he turned the dory to starboard and throttled back, the vessel coming to rest parallel to the Ha'Penny about fifteen metres away. He had his right arm stretched across his body.

A dark shadowy form appeared in the water between the Ha'Penny and the dory. In between the two vessels rose the glistening bulk of the humpback whale. Its head broke the surface of the water and the rushing noise of its breath shocked Joaney. She choked, bile rose to the back of her throat, almost losing balance. Kevin grabbed her arm to steady her.

Everything happened fast. Kevin asked if she was alright. She turned to show her face, all pale and drawn. The whale rolled on its side and its dark beady eye came to the surface. The whale's eye looked in the direction of the Ha'Penny and then moved across to Wayne Wyatt in the dory.

Opening his mouth wide, stretching his lips against his teeth, Wayne Wyatt slowly drew his right arm from across his body revealing a long metallic object with a wooden handle. It was a shotgun with its barrel sawn short half-way down the length.

Lou Winter gasped in shock.

Wayne raised the blue-grey weapon into the air. He bought his left hand up to the action and cocked the gun with a distinct ‘click'. With his eyes fixed on the crew of the Ha'Penny, he slowly lowered the shotgun toward the whale.

Joaney shrieked, and beat the air. Kevin grabbed her to stop her going overboard.

From the barrel of the shotgun there was a loud crack!! and a flicker of orange flame. The shotgun pellets burst into the whale's eye, tearing it open, throwing out a pucker of torn flesh. A thick pulse of blood pumped out of the wound and stained the sea. A shudder ran the length of the whale. It raised its tail and slammed the sea surface, throwing hard spray over the crew of the Ha'Penny who were belted off their feet by its force. Joaney writhed on the deck, shrieking.

The whale convulsed in the water, creating a wave that violently rolled the Ha'Penny and the dory in the water. With violent action, the massive animal threw its tail in the air again and this time sounded, diving straight down, disappearing from view in a pool of red foaming water.

Joaney struggled against Kevin who restrained her from leaping across the sea at Wayne Wyatt's throat. She fought and tore and bruised and shrieked against Kevin who held her tight. Then she broke free and butted Macco aside who stood between her and the side of the boat. She rushed at the gunwale toward Wayne Wyatt and screamed: “ FUUUU…!! ”, then she fainted, and fell overboard into the foaming water.

Leaning back in the dory, rolling with the waves, with the shotgun resting on his lap, Wayne Wyatt watched Joaney fall face first into the water.

“That stopped the bitch laughing”, he said.

He ejected the spent cartridge into the water and stowed the shotgun in its oil cloth. Out of sight of the crew, he lowered the weapon quietly into the sea and let it go, removing the only physical evidence of his atrocity.

He calmly watched his crew-mates scramble over the side to prevent Joaney from sinking below the surface. She had fallen in adjacent to where the dories pulled alongside. The Ha'Penny was rolling in the waves set up by the whale and threatened to trap her under the black rubber sheets used to protect the vessels from damaging each other when lashed alongside.

Wayne Wyatt slowly circled in the dory watching the frantic efforts to get the unconscious woman back on board. Lou and Kevin awkwardly dragged Joaney onto the deck and she came to, shuddering and twitching. Kevin, rubbed her face but she pushed him away.

Macco was standing on the deck and looked at Wayne who bumped alongside in the dory.

“Someone going to help me tie up, or what?”, demanded Wayne Wyatt.

Macco remained motionless.

“Fukken do it myself then”. Wayne Wyatt clambered to the bow of the dory and tied up. He jumped off the gunwale onto the deck and observed the scene.

Standing with his hands on his hips he said out loud: “Situation report. One crying, one sympathising, a third standing there like a fucking lemon, and looks like the skipper's getting ready for some ultra-violence ”.

Lou Winter, skipper of the Ha'Penny, hauled his shirt from over his head and tossed it on the deck. He pulled his belt tight a notch and advanced on Wayne Wyatt.

Just before the skipper landed the first punch on Wayne Wyatt's face, the deckhand had time to speak.

“You know what?” he shouted at Lou, backing away. “This reminds me of a ship I sailed on - out of Victoria it was - we were after bluefin tuna, and everywhere we went there were these fukken pilot whales!”