Global online campaign to save whales

*MEDIA RELEASE*

Greenpeace launches global online campaign to save whales

Sydney, Thursday 01 February 2007:* In a bid to save 945 whales from the harpoons of Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean this year, Greenpeace is harnessing the power of the World Wide Web and has launched a multi-faceted global online campaign.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific whales campaigner Rob Nicoll said, “People worldwide who oppose whaling can get involved in our campaign at the click of a mouse.

“Our online campaign seeks to empower the millions of people who want to see an end to the killing of whales in the name of science. We hope to connect the 69% of people in Japan who oppose whaling on the high seas with the global public who feel the same way,” he said.

Greenpeace will communicate to the global online community via separate websites as part of the campaign to save whales, each with a specific purpose and aimed at different audiences.

In Australia, Greenpeace has launched an Australia/Japan Sister Cities campaign at www.greenpeace.org.au/endwhaling designed to complement Greenpeace’s efforts to build domestic opposition to whaling in Japan. Australians can send a message to their local council urging them to pass a resolution that supports an end to whaling in the Southern Ocean, to be passed to the Australian council’s sister city in Japan.

In Japan, the Greenpeace campaign team based in Tokyo has devised an online TV travelogue project called ‘Whale Love Wagon’, at www.whalelove.org/en, based on the popular Japanese reality TV program /Love Wagon/. The Greenpeace version follows the travels of a Spanish man studying in Japan and a Japanese woman, who will be touring the country onboard the pink bus known as the Whale Love Wagon. Along the way the couple will examine various issues around whaling, including its history and tradition. They will interview people both inside and outside Japan and broadcast the interviews online.

Greenpeace Japan oceans campaigner Junichi Sato said, “More than 92% of Japanese people don’t know that their government is the only one that hunts whales in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary. In addition, many people outside Japan believe that all Japanese people support whaling. We hope the Whale Love Wagon project will dispel the myths and set the record straight on all sides.”

For a global audience, Greenpeace recently launched the “I GO” website at http://whales.greenpeace.org. I GO invites the global community to become whales campaigners in their own right, by ‘virtually’ joining the crew at sea on their journey. People can suggest campaign ideas, discuss whaling, upload their own videos and find political contacts in their country. Greenpeace campaigners will take the best ideas suggested by the public and use them to help defend the whales in the Southern Ocean.

ENDS