2009 September

Letters followed up with personal calls to the mayor's office. Some are still discussing it. Three negative responses to date.

2009 August

Emails sent to the Mayors were followed up with letters and copies of the Japanese translation. Two further positive responses and three negative ones.

2009 July

Emails sent to the 36 New Zealand Mayors with Sister City relationships with Japanese cities requesting they pass our message on. Two positive and three negative responses.

A member of the group is working on a Japanese language film, for distribution in Japan, about the connection between humans and whales based on on Māori myths.

2009 June

Article in the "Cook Strait News" as part of the lead up to IWC meeting in Portugal

1st 2008 October

The campaign to stop “scientific whaling” in the Southern Oceans was launched at the Beehive. The event was hosted by Metiria Turei, the Green Party spokesperson for conservation. The event was well attended and TV One and the Dominion Post carried out media coverage on the event. Click on the Launch for more details.

2008 July

Letter translated from English into Japanese through the New Zealand Translation service. Website work almost complete.

2008 May

Modified version of the letter sent to Japanese contact seeking feedback. Better response.

2008 March

Work started in earnest on the website. An initial version of the letter to go to Japan was sent to a contact in Japan, seeking feedback. The feedback was that the letter would not achieve what we wanted and would alienate people. More work was required.

2008 February

The team assisted in getting people to Sign the Sail outside of Te Papa, New Zealand's national museum.
A New Zealander had sailed to the Southern Ocean to protest against whaling and donated sails for people to right their messages on. A group of Japanese school children signed the sail. The sails were then presented to parliamentarians.

2008 January

First meeting of the project team. The name “Friends of Tangaroa” was adopted. A DVD of the whale visit was circulated to the team.

2007 December 8th

An article appeared in Wellington's daily newspaper the Dominion Post, advising Wellingtonian's of the launch of the project to stop whaling in the Southern ocean.

2007 December 15th

A festival to launch the project was held at Wellington's Frank Kitts Park. The event opened with a karakia (a Māori blessing) and music and speeches filled the day.

Pictures from the inaugural meeting at Frank Kitts Park

2007 October 15th

During the initial planning for the project, a rare albino Southern Right Whale came close inshore to Wellingtons South Coast. This was considered a good omen for the project.

There is a report by Lindsay Gault who swam out and filmed the encounter.Click on the web links to view the DVD of the encounter and the Newspaper Article that appeared in the Dominion Post.