Save Mister Splashy Pants! Posted by tracy on 10 December 2007.

With a name like that, whose heart can resist the urge to help this incontinent creature?

If you’ve missed out on the internet flurry around Mister Splashy Pants, here’s a quick low-down:

• Our international office started a competition to name one of the humpbacks that was tagged and being tracked to the Southern ocean where hunting for Minke and Humpback whales will begin this month
• There were 11,000 name submissions and our international colleagues whittled it down to about 20 – most of which were worthy, clichéd or just plain naff – except Mr Splashy Pants
• Some guy in Arizona apparently felt the same, figured out how to trick the international voting system and submitted thousands of votes for Mr Splashy Pants
• Our international colleagues removed the “malicious” votes but not before Boing Boing saw it and blogged it
• I came in to work the next day and saw that Reddit had changed their logo to include a whale named Mr Splashy Pants and the maelstrom began
• Over 130,000 people voted, 78 per cent of them for Mr Splashy Pants and he was declared the winner on Friday.

International — Out of 11,000 submissions in our competition to name the humpback whales we were tracking on their migration to the Southern Ocean, we narrowed it down to the final 30. Over 150,000 people then voted for their favourite name.

Mister Splashy Pants is the winner by a nautical mile!

It seems like the world couldn't get enough of Mister Splashy Pants with many websites encouraging their readers to vote for 'Splashy'. And as we all know, once the wonderful world of the internet got hold of Mister Splashy Pants, it was all over bar the final splash.

Mister Splashy Pants got a huge 119,367 votes (over 78 percent of the vote) with his nearest rival being Humphrey at 4,329 (less than 3 percent). The rest of the top ten were Aiko, Libertad, Mira, Kaimana, Aurora, Shanti, Amal and Manami.

To everyone who voted for Mister Splashy Pants, now that you've named him, it's time to save him - he might have a great name but he and his friends are still in danger. The only way to be 100 percent sure that 'Splashy' doesn't get harpooned is to stop killing all whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

With just a few clicks you can help save Mister Splashy Pants and his friends: sign our petition calling upon the Japanese Fisheries Agency to promise not to kill Mister Splashy Pants.

Mister Splashy Pants chalked up a victory when the Government of Japan has abandoned plans to kill humpback whales in the Southern Ocean this season and this is good news indeed.

But whaling has not ended, and Mister Splashy Pants and his pals are still under threat. Japan still plans to kill minke whales and endangered fin whales this year, and has only promised a delay in the killing of humpbacks.  We all need to do more NOW to stop the hunt forever.

On this page you will find the three easy steps to help save Mister Splashy Pants.

STEP 1: Save Mister Splashy Pants

Despite the Japanese reversal of its decision to hunt humpbacks this year, Mister Splashy Pants is still in danger and we need you to save him!

The Nisshin Maru, Japan's factory whaling ship, is an old, unsafe vessel that is due to be retired. The Japanese Fisheries Agency knows this, and knows that the future of whaling may well rest on whether a new super-ship gets built or not.

We believe the Japanese taxpayer has a right to ask whether billions of yen should be invested in this industry -- especially given that it generates no useful science, adds to a mountain of unsold whale meat, poses a diplomatic liability to Japan's foreign relations, and in the end profits only a very few bureaucrats. This ship should not be built. And plans to build it should not be kept secret.

Ask the Japanese Prime Minister to launch an investigation to reveal precisely what plans exist, and how much it will cost the Japanese taxpayer.