Great Lakes Council's Adopt a Whale project

Thanks to all the schools that participated in our Whale Naming Competition - We had a great response.

We now have a winner - Congratulations to Year 5 at St Josephs Primary School, Bulahdelah for coming up with the winning name, being:

~ WORIMI ~

The panel choose Worimi, because of its local aboriginal connection and its recognition to the traditional custodians and country of the Worimi people, that covers most of the Great Lakes area and coast.

There was an official naming ceremony and celebration for our adopted whale “Worimi” on Saturday the, 5^th July. Council invited all the schools and community to come and share the day’s program to celebrate and commemorate the naming of our whale “Worimi.

It was lots of fun... hope we saw you there!

here are a few pictures from the day.

The artists - Mandy Davis & Donna Rankin
The 'Worimi' mural

The winning School - St Josephs Bulahdelah

Great Lakes has recently joined the growing number of Councils along the East Coast who have adopted a whale under the Humpback Icon Project (HIP).

The aim of the Icon Project is to bring Australian communities together and raise awareness of the threat facing our whales and generate action to protect them. A key part of this Project is to enable communities to adopt and name a whale.

Identification and therefore adoption is possible as each whale has a unique tail fluke. They are identified by the shape, markings and colour.

We are currently running a competition within the local schools to find a name for our adopted whale.

More information for schools below.

The HIP is a collaboration between Three organisations:

Surfers for Cetaceans;
The Oceania Project;
International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

Great Lakes Council's adopted Whales' Tail Fluke

For more information on this project please email library@greatlakes.nsw.gov.au

For information regarding the Eastern Australian Humpback population please go to The Oceania Project at www.oceania.org.au

For information regarding whaling and whale watching please look at the International Fund for Animal Welfare site at www.ifaw.org