HSI’s work to protect whales and dolphins runs to the very depths of our oceans, not only in Australia but across the globe.
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.
In Australia, ineffective and outdated shark nets post a major hazard to migrating whales.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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A humpback whale has been entangled in a shark net off Snapper Rocks, Gold Coast this morning. This is the first whale entanglement of the season in what has become a recurring incident during…
By Mark Simmonds OBE and Nicola Beynon Humpback whale populations that migrate between Antarctica and Australia have been staging a recovery since commercial whaling of them ended in the mid-1960s. HSI pays great credit…