Words and music by Kern Stephens, ©January 10, 1980

Ike Hvaal

Well, there's no more whales in the cold grey sea,
Ike hvaal! Ike hvaal! Ike hvaal!
Writhing to death in agony,
Ike hvaal! Ike hvaal! Ike hvaal!
There's no more soundings to the harpoon's thud—
There's no more blows of bright red blood—
There's no more blubber in the flenser's tubs,
Ike hvaal! Ike hvaal! Ike hvaal!

In many countries and many lands…
There's murder at the hands of man…
From Greenland to the Coast of Perth,
The largest mammals of the Earth,
Are slaughtered before they could give birth…

Sperm and Right and giant Blue…
Cachalot and Humpback too…
For ambergrease and blubber and bone,
They've been hunted from their ocean homes,
And all their ancient breeding zones…

Now there's no more giants in the early morn…
Cruising for krill off the craggy Horn…
Mammoths with their giant span,
Who knew no fear and never ran,
Their fight for life just never began…

I hoped I'd never hear the cry…
The last large whale was here to die…
Gentle giants of the fin,
Forty tons with larger kin,
In two hundred years we've finished them…