Australia celebrates National Whale Day
5 June 2009
As communities prepare to celebrate the second annual National Whale Day across Australia tomorrow 6 June, IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) has renewed calls for the Australian Government to take stronger action to end whaling, including international legal action.
On the eve of National Whale Day, and the upcoming International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Portugal later this month, IFAW Asia Pacific Director, Erica Martin said another year has passed and whales are still being killed by Japanese harpoons.
“While this Government has taken important steps towards bringing an end to so-called scientific whaling, such as collecting evidence that could be potentially be used in a legal challenge, we continue to wait for them to deliver on their promise of legal action,” Ms Martin said.
“Tomorrow thousands of people around Australia will be celebrating National Whale Day—but it will be a bitter sweet celebration as hundreds of these magnificent animals will be killed next season when the Japanese fleet returns yet again unchallenged.”
As part of the National Whale Day 2009 celebrations, IFAW is running a special photographic competition. Tails for Whales was launched earlier this year in Australia, the UK and USA as an online visual petition for people to submit a photo of themselves making the ‘whale tail’ with their hands as a symbol of their support for whale conservation.
Tails for Whales features everyday Australians as well as some familiar faces including stage and screen actors, rock stars, Olympians and supermodels.
For more information
visit www.nationalwhaleday.com.au and
www.tailsforwhales.org
For media-related inquiries, contact:
Erica Martin (IFAW, Asia Pacific)
Tel: (+61) 2 9288 4999
Mobile: +0408 881 607
Email: emartin@ifaw.org
