‘Save Whales, Don’t Eat Fish’: Humpback Migration Route Gets PETA Billboards
Gold Coast—People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has taken aim at fishing with two new billboards—one on Marine Parade, Southport, and one on Ferry Road, Southport. The billboards, which feature a whale ensnared in a tangle of fishing nets beside the text “Save Whales. Don’t Eat Fish,” remind the public that as long as we consume the bodies of dead fish, whales will continue to be entangled and die in fishing gear.
More photos are available here.
The ads come after marine experts at Griffith University reported that at least 45 whales were entangled by fishing ropes and lines on the East Coast in 2024, with dozens more likely caught but unreported[ER1] . Most whales fall victim to fish traps and crab pot lines, but trawling, during which giant nets sweep the ocean, also kills non-target species or “by-catch.” In addition to billions of fish, fishing nets capture dolphins, sea turtles, seabirds, and whales. Globally, it’s estimated that more than 500,000 marine mammals are incidentally captured every year[ER2] .
“Commercial fishing is indiscriminate, scooping up any animals in the nets’ path, causing animals to drown and die, and destroying delicate corals,” says Mimi Bekhechi, Senior Campaigns Advisor for PETA. “Simply put, whenever you eat fish, you’re sentencing millions of other marine animals—including whales— to agonising and protracted deaths.”
In addition to the mass deaths caused by active fishing operations, discarded fishing equipment (“ghost gear”) also poses a danger to marine animals. Ghost gear is known as the deadliest form of marine plastic debris, comprising 10 percent of marine plastic [ER3] and mutilating and killing millions of sea animals annually.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.au and follow PETA onFacebook andInstagram.
Contact:
Sascha Camilli [email protected]
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