National Whale Day 2013 - Saturday 01 June

1st June marks IFAW's sixth National Whale Day

What is National Whale Day?

Launched in 2008 by IFAW, National Whale Day is a celebration of the whales and dolphins that migrate to our coastlines annually and Australia's position as a world leader in whale conservation.

National Whale Day provides an opportunity to raise awareness of, and discuss solutions to, the threats facing whales and their environment including commercial whaling, threats posed from noise pollution, climate change, vessel strikes, marine debris and by-catch and entanglement.

National Whale Day 2013

This year’s theme is “The (not so) Silent Threat” and aims to draw attention to the dangers our whales face today from man-made underwater noise pollution.  Noise sources include seismic exploration, sonar technology, marine construction, dredging, seabed drilling and commercial shipping.

Find out more about underwater noise pollution by watching our video – Ocean noise pollution explained. Kids tell it as it is:

You can also read our newly released report Breaking the Silence: how our noise pollution is harming whales’ and see how noisy our whale hotsposts are.

How you can help?

This National Whale Day IFAW is launching 100 days of action and we need your help to demand silence from Australia’s politicians! Man-made ocean noise is increasing around Australia’s coast. Whether the constant thunder of shipping through the Great Barrier Reef, deep-sea drilling off Ningaloo, deafening seismic surveys in blue whale feeding grounds off South Australia and Victoria or naval sonar exercises in the Perth Canyon, humans are now ratcheting up the volume levels in whale hotspots around Australia.

We need a long-term and coherent strategy to deal with this invisible threat. With the federal election approaching, we need your help to demand a plan of action to deal with ocean noise pollution from whichever political party forms the next Australian government. Tell the politicians to keep it down; whales need peace from their human noisy neighbours!

With your help, we’ll be keeping the pressure on for the next 100 days. Together we can find a way to have our voices heard in order to have our whales hear less!

Please support our National Whale Day action today!

For more information on National Whale Day, please contact us at info-au@ifaw.org