Click image to view poster

A Whale Affair is the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society's (WDCS) annual fundraiser. This year's A Whale Affair, the first of many more outstanding events to come, was held at the Isaac Winslow House in Marshfield, MA on October 2nd, 2008. This year's theme was A Whale of a Good Time art show and auction, based largely on the whimsical work of Theresa LaBrecque connecting us to whales in new and magical ways. Theresa'a artwork and the artwork of other participating artists, is still available on our gallery page.

A Whale Affair was a tremendous success in raising awareness about the plight of the world's whales and WDCS' work in helping to protect them. We are grateful to all the artist, scientist, policy makers,
whale watching companies, local businesses, journalist and WATD radio personnel who helped make A Whale Affair the success that it was.

Whale art by researchers and conservationist

Student art

One of the goals of A Whale Affair is to bridge the gap between science and the arts. So in addition to professional artists, whale artwork by top whale scientists, conservationists, and advocates was displayed.

Another goal is to highlight the fact that any and everyone can help to protect whales and the environment. You don't have to be a scientist or policy maker, we all can make positive impacts everyday. Like Jackie Lander who uses art to teach her students about cetaceans at the Summerhill School, A Specialist Language College in England. We were honored to display some of their work at A Whale Affair.

We also strived for A Whale Affair to raise awareness for the need of increased protection of whales and our oceans. This was done by exhibiting a portion of Peggy Oki's Origami Whales Project (http://www.peggy-oki.com/cu_origami.html), which is a visual statement against whaling and a call to action to help stop the hunt which has taken over 30,000 whales since 1986, the year an international moratorium on whaling went into effect. The complete curtain contains 30,000 origami whales made by men, woman and children all over the world. At A Whale Affair, 2,800 of this 30,000 were exhibited to represent this year's whale
quotas.  
 
We would like to thank the 150 people who attended A Whale Affair, we are excited that you have become part of the WDCS family and we are excited to be part of your community as well. By participating in A Whale Affair, you helped WDCS safeguard whales, dolphins and porpoises (also know as cetaceans) all over the world by providing support for WDCS programs.

These programs operate under the principles of Stop, Protect, Connect. On an international level, WDCS works to Stop whaling.  For the past 20 years, WDCS’ participation at the International Whaling Commission meetings has been instrumental in keeping the moratorium against large-scale commercial whaling in place.WDCS works to Protect whales from vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglements. The North Atlantic right whale is the poster child for the need these protections, with less than 400 North Atlantic right whales left, we know that over 60% of the yearly deaths result from vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglement. Lastly your participation in A Whale Affair allowed us to connect with an ever winding circle of supporters; increasing education and outreach about the threats facing cetaceans and the oceans we all depend upon for life.