This year, the International Day of the Baltic Harbour Porpoise coincides with International Museum Day, which will occur on 18 May 2008. Once again, numerous institutions in the region of the Baltic Sea are honouring the day with various activities and events revolving around a common theme and striving towards a common goal: disseminating information, promoting understanding and generating interest on the preservation of the Baltic Harbour Porpoise.
Below you will find a selection of some of the activities culminating on this day:
The Göteborgs Naturhistoriska Museum (Goteborg Natural History Museum) will be hosting an exhibition showing a frozen porpoise found stranded off the west coast of Sweden.
In Finland, the Särkänniemi Dolphinarium in Tampere will be offering children's activities including puzzles, drawing competitions and selling dolphin balloons to raise funds for porpoise research in the Baltic Sea.
Since this year's International Day on the Baltic Harbour Porpoise coincides with the International Day of Museums, the National History Museum in Latvia is planning joint activities to educate visitors on issues regarding the Baltic Harbour Porpoise. The Lithuanian Sea Museum in Klaipeda, in partnership with the Ministry of the Environment of the Republic of Lithuania and the Coastal Research and Planning Institute is organising public a seminar on a range of topics regarding small cetaceans in the Baltic Sea, followed by a night event in the Dolphinarium on "The Truth about Baltic Harbour Porpoise".
In Germany, the NGO GSM Gesellschaft zum Schutz der Meeressäugetiere (Society for the Conservation of Marine Mammals) is holding its annual press conference at the Zoological Institute and Museum of the University in Hamburg on 15 May.
Then, on the International Day of the Baltic Harbour Porpoise itself, 18 May, the German Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund is planning a variety of activities, at least one of which will inform visitors about International Baltic Harbour Porpoise Day.
The ASCOBANS Secretariat team will make use of the unique outreach opportunity presented by the 9th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP9, 19-30 May), which will take place in Bonn. ASCOBANS will share a large tent with CMS and the other Agreements along the Plaza of Diversity outside the conference venue. During the first few days, special room will be given to drawing attention to the Baltic Harbour porpoise. A new IDBHP banner will be used as an eye-catcher and matching postcards will be distributed to the visitors.
Last updated on 25 March 2014