The Last Whale Hunter: A Fight for the Soul of a Caribbean Island

By Justin Vibbert

One man. One harpoon. One season to land the whale an entire island needs to survive.

Here is the story of the modern day Moby Dick.

A whale is spotted off the remote Caribbean island of Bequia and a boat launches in pursuit. In the bow is Bruce Ollivierre, the last hand-thrown harpooner on Earth and the unofficial leader of his struggling community. His family has hunted these waters for generations to keep the island afloat.
Journalist Justin Vibbert follows Bruce and his crew--displaced fishermen and port workers Nico, Junior, Baby, and Eustace--as they risk their lives to kill an animal five hundred times their size. Without the money from the catch, the island's fragile economy collapses, supplies of fresh water and food dry up, and schools and hospitals remain closed. As the US and China carve up the Caribbean for their elite tourism and shipping industries, the men fight to hold on to what's theirs.
With the hunting season drawing to a close, all eyes turn to the Easter Regatta, where a final, high-risk hunt unfolds in full view of locals, tourists, and Louise Mitchell, the island's powerful anti-whaling crusader. Aligned with millionaire environmentalists and luxury real estate developers, she is hell-bent on shutting Bruce down for good. Failure could mean death for him and his men--and the end of whaling on Bequia altogether.
An intimate, harrowing story of life, death, and cultural survival, The Last Whale Hunter asks who gets to decide the future of a Caribbean island. For the islanders threatened with losing their homes and their autonomy, Bruce Ollivierre is the last hope.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H58NK4QL
• ISBN13: 9798895152638
• Release Date: March 2027
• Publisher: Diversion Books
• Length: 320 Pages