Clean & Green: Our Promise to the Ocean
The Hermanus Whale Festival isn’t just about celebrating the whales — it’s about protecting the very ocean they call home.
Each year, we launch powerful campaigns to change how people treat our marine wildlife. We’ve teamed up with conservation organisations, eco-conscious businesses, and passionate individuals to make sure our festival leaves nothing but happy memories — not harmful waste.
Our Pledge
We’ve committed to keeping the festival Clean and Green. Every year we roll out new initiatives to keep rubbish out of our oceans, because every piece of litter we stop here is one less threat to ocean life
Why It Matters
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Balloons: Brightly coloured fragments look like food to birds, turtles, fish, seals, dolphins, and whales. One bite can lead to choking, blockage, and death.
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Plastic clip ties: Mistaken for food, they lodge in stomachs and can cause fatal obstruction or malnutrition.
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Ribbons and strings: Cause entanglement, injury, and often death.
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Plastic straws: Used for minutes, polluting for centuries. They end up on beaches, in rivers, and in the stomachs of sea creatures.
Do we really need these? The ocean certainly doesn’t.
Action at the Festival
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No Balloons: In partnership with stallholders, sponsors, and local businesses, we’ve banned the sale, giveaway, or use of balloons during the festival.
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Straw-Free Drinks: We’ve partnered with restaurants and takeaways to stop automatically handing out plastic straws. If you truly need one, you can ask — but let’s make that the exception, not the rule.
Your Role
Protecting the ocean starts with small changes. By saying no to single-use plastics, you’re saying yes to whales, dolphins, and all the marine life we’re here to celebrate. Together, we can USE LESS and WASTE LESS — and keep our shores as clean and wild as nature intended.
