Protecting icons of the ocean

Having escaped extinction at the hands of deliberate hunting, now whales and dolphins must cope with a changing climate, noise disturbance, pollution and entanglement in fishing nets.

What HSI is doing

For decades HSI has been at the forefront of the fight against commercial whaling, taking the Japanese whalers to court and winning. We are ever vigilant at the International Whaling Commission to ensure the commercial hunting of whales is consigned to the history books.

Now we go into battle for whales and dolphins against climate change, pollution and fisheries bycatch. Scientists estimate that globally a staggering 300,000 whales and dolphins are caught as bycatch in fishing nets every year, and it also happens right here in Australia. HSI holds fisheries agencies to account to stop dolphin deaths occurring in Australian fisheries. We lobby the New South Wales and Queensland governments to remove the shark nets that needlessly entangle whales and dolphins who cross their path.  HSI also nominated Marine Debris to be recognised in law as ‘Key Threatening Process’ to marine wildlife with a Threat Abatement Plan to tackle it.

Humpback whale stuck in a shark net
In Australia, ineffective and outdated shark nets post a major hazard to migrating whales.

 

What you can do

You can help us to persuade governments to remove the shark nets on ocean beaches that act as a death traps for whales and dolphins.

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Here’s why the global ban on whaling is as essential as ever

Here’s why the global ban on whaling is as essential as ever

More than forty years since the global moratorium on commercial whaling was adopted, it is justly regarded as one of the most important conservation and animal protection measures of all time. By most estimates it’s…

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Entangled whale calf in Gold Coast shark nets makes seven for the year

Entangled whale calf in Gold Coast shark nets makes seven for the year

Humane Society International (HSI) has received confirmation that the whale calf entangled in a shark net at Currumbin Beach has been freed after its ordeal. This is the seventh whale entanglement of the season.  HSI…

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Forty years ago, the world did something amazing for whales

Forty years ago, the world did something amazing for whales

This week marks the 40th anniversary of the global moratorium on commercial whaling, a momentous achievement that turned the course for long persecuted cetacean species. Slow to reproduce, whales were nearly wiped out altogether in the…

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