School adopts Turo the whale

Pretty Beach Public School has adopted Turo, an Australian humpback whale, to "demonstrate the importance of whales to the community" according to school principal Ms Vicki Redrup.

Ms Redrup said the school urged people to do more to protect whales and the whale watching industry from "the threat of Japanese whaling".

"Each year, Turo joins the annual migrating of humpback whales that move north along the east coast of Australia to breed in the warmer waters of tropical Australia and the Pacific," Ms Redrup said.

"Pretty Beach has adopted Turo as the new mascot to show how strongly we feel about protecting whales.

"The whales are an incredibly important part of our community- we look forward to the return of these magnificent creatures on migration each year.

"Many people here at Pretty Beach have seen them near Putty Beach over the years."

The school has joined the Humpback Whale Migrating Icon project by adopting and naming one of the migrating whales, identified by its unique and distinctive tail markings.

"Our whale, Turo, is named after a local aboriginal identity, Turo Downes, who lived in the area up to the1940s," Ms Redrup said.

"The school had a competition for naming the whale and this name was suggested from a kindergarten child, Rosie Drewett.

"Every student made a miniature whale this week and has placed their whale in the playground in the shape of a whale to support the National Day of Action to Protect Whales on Saturday, May 12."

"The Humpback Whale Migration Icon Project has been made possible by Trish and Wally Franklin, who for the past 18 years have used photographic methods to identify and database almost 3000 individual humpbacks that migrate to Australian waters every year."

Press release, 11 May 2007 Vicki Redrup, Pretty Beach Public School