Join us on a wonderful journey into the world of Cetaceans, those mysterious animals that spend their entire lives in water.

Dive down to the greatest depths and discover the Blue whale, the Right whale, Sperm, Humpback, Sei, Gray, Bowhead, Fin, Minke, Orca, Dolphins and more. Pick your favourite whale or dolphin and find out what it is doing, what it looks like and where it lives.

Read all the latest news from strandings to releases to research to whaling. It's all here! You'll find a photo gallery and links to other Cetacean Sites all over the world. View our Whale Watching List and see what kids have drawn in our competition. We are expanding all the time. Just visit again and see for yourself.

If you think it'll be all right in the end, think again.

There is a Moratorium on whaling but since 1993 the slaughter of whales has steadily increased. Slowly at first, a few whales here, a few whales there. Not including Canada and other pirates there will be more than 1600 whales slaughtered this year.

Annual Whale Deaths Year 1995 1996 1997 1998 IWC Approved 388 388 388 388 Norway 218 382 503 671 Japan 330 440 540 540+ Total 936 1210 1431 1599+

Now the Makah Tribe of Washington State is gearing up to slaughter California Gray whales, in the waters of Neah Bay. If the Makah succeed in their efforts to claim treaty rights to kill Gray whales - an action which is illegal for all other US citizens - coastal whaling will break out world wide under the guise of indigenous whaling. Already over a dozen tribes are lined up in Canada waiting to see how the Makah fare.

"You pull at one thread, and everything starts to come undone."

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has allocated a kill quota but that doesn't give anyone the right. There are Local, State and National laws to consider. For the Makah Tribe to kill just one whale they will have to break numerous US laws. What a massive breach of faith for your government to defy it's own laws and allow whaling in US waters.

The killing of Gray whales by the Makah tribesmen will break The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Marine Sanctuaries Act, (MSA), the Whaling Convention Act, (WCA) and other statues and promote an unlawful act within the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary in Northwest Washington State.

In addition, the US government has failed to complete a proper environmental impact study, a five year monitoring program, required under the Endangered Species Act. The agencies' authorization and continued promotion of Makah whaling runs foul of numerous statutory obligations, including the consultations requirements of the MSA and the permit issuance procedures under the WCA. In Addition, the agency's authorization and promotion of Makah whaling is arbitrary and capricious, and in contravention of the purposes of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the International Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna (CITES).

What is being done?

Americans are doing NOTHING! The only legal hindrance to the Makah beginning their grisly kill is a lawsuit, filed in Washington DC on October 17, 1997 initiated by "Australians for Animals", (AFA - one of Australia's longest serving wildlife and marine advocacy groups) and Breach Marine Protection (an English marine group). This legal challenge is now supported by two US groups Cetacean Society International in Connecticut and the Great Whales Foundation in California but WHERE are all the rest?

A US attorney who has worked for a number of major US environmental/animal rights groups is advising these same groups that the lawsuit is merely " a procedural matter" and has no hope of stopping the Makah from whaling and therefore is not worth supporting. Her talking down of the matter has deflected attention from the real substantive issues which accompany this case. The implications of this are quite profound and seek to starve the lawsuit of funds.

I encourage you to support the AFA and Breach lawsuit both morally and financially. It is enormously difficult for two non US grass roots groups to raise the necessary legal fees. The fact that only two US groups have donated funds must surely speak volumes for the damage which has been wreaked on an enormous effort to stop the killing of these wonderful creatures. Believe me when I say "This is IMPORTANT".

MORE ON THE MAKAH LAWSUIT from Australians for Animals

MORE ON THE MAKAH LAWSUIT from Breach Marine Protection

Funds can be sent directly to:
Meyer & Glitzenstein at #405, 160l Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington DC 20009.
(Please ensure that donations clearly indictate their purpose.)
Australians for Animals, PO Box 673, Byron Bay. NSW. 2481, Australia.
Breach Marine Protection UK, 3 St John's Street, Goole, East Yorkshire, DN14 5QL, United Kingdom.