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Article snippet: LAMALERA, Indonesia — The pilot whales glided through the crystalline waters in neat formation, blue-gray backs glinting in the sun, on their migration through Indonesia’s Savu Sea. Suddenly a small motorboat revved its engine and charged at them, and a man on board launched a harpoon at one of the largest. There was a splash of blood — and then a slow death, as the harpooned whale bobbed in the water, unable to free itself. The sailors plunged more harpoons into it, and about 30 minutes later a crew member slipped into the water and finished off the struggling creature with a knife to the spine. Fishermen from the small whaling village of Lamalera, on a sunbaked island in remote eastern Indonesia, have been hunting whales for centuries. They still do, now with permission from the Indonesian government, as long as it is for their own consumption and not for commercial sale. They may also hunt dolphins and mantas for their own use. But as the government cuts down on illegal fishing in the Savu Sea, trying to conserve a critical migratory route for whale and dolphin species, conservationists are calling for a strict regulation of Lamaleran hunting practices, too. “This is not basic needs. This is really beyond that,” said Glaudy Perdanahardja, an official with The Nature Conservancy, which is based in the United States but has an office in Indonesia that focuses on the Savu Sea. He suggested that islanders were no longer hunting merely for subsistence, but also for... Link to the full article to read more