Attention Toolkit: All You Need to do the IWC Thing Right on the Internet

The International Whaling Commission meets in Panama July 2-6. Look for a rundown of the issues in tomorrow's Tide Report.

The toolkit below was built to make it easier for you to amplify the IWC conversation online. 

We like feedback.

This toolkit is a living, breathing thing, so feel free to send us suggestions for additions and alterations.

Also, let us know what this tooklit helps you do, and we'll repay the favor by driving more attention to your content.

Ideas for online content:

• Storify key tweets
• Clog a backgrounder and a wrap up with great photos. Just kidding. *Blog* that stuff.
• Use Twitter to track down a hot Skype interviewee
• Use an image and do a text overlay to evoke conversation on Facebook

Voters in the U.S. strongly oppose commercial whaling and want the U.S. to enforce whaling bans, but many do not know that countries like Japan, Norway and Iceland are still killing whales. Many don't know it's a problem. Share image macros and quotes that help to overcome this lack of knowledge. The American Cetacean Society does that here. 

Whaling and IWC-Related Images and Videos to Amplify

We have curated photographs, infographics, and videos that bring the whaling issue to life on an IWC Pinterest board. Use these graphics and videos on your website, your facebook and twitter feeds, and your own Pinterest boards, but don't forget to attribute them! Heads up: many have restricted licenses.

Want to pin to our board? Awesome. Email us.

Upwell's IWC Pinterest board. Images to consider for posting to Twitter, Facebook and using in blog posts.

More Recent Whaling News (to use as a hook)

Greenland's Whale Meat Going More to Tourists Than Locals (Treehugger, June 26)

Seventy-Five Percent of Japanese Whale Meat 'Unsold' (Telegraph, June 14)

Whale Sanctuary Bid Falls Short (BBC News, July 2)

On Twitter

Hashtags to Watch and Use

• #IWC2012 (This is the one we'd recommend. That wine thing is so over.)
• #IWC64
• #savewhales

Who to Follow

Upwell has compiled an IWC 2012 Twitter list of people who will be tweeting from the meeting. 

Want to be part of it? Have other suggestions? Let us know. If this list had a hundred people on it, we wouldn't complain.

Organizations Active at IWC

• American Cetacean Society. On the web. On Twitter. ACS's IWC blog.
• Animal Welfare Institute. On the web. On Twitter. 
• Environmental Investigation Agency. On the web. On Twitter. EIA's blog from the meeting.
• Greenpeace. On the web. On Twitter. On their IWC 2012 Tumblr. On the web: IWC 2012 page.
• Humane Society of the United States/Humane Society International. On the web: HSUS / HSI  On Twitter: HSUS / HSI. Read their opening statement. 
• International Fund for Animal Welfare. On the web. On Twitter.
• Natural Resources Defense Council. On the web. On Twitter
• NOAA. On the web. On Twitter.
• Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. On the web. On Twitter.
• WWF. On the web. On Twitter.

Background Information and Documents

• The International Whaling Commission's meeting homepage.
• A list of all available documents being presented at the meeting.
• NOAA's IWC 2012 page.
• ECO, the daily newspaper produced during the meeting by NGOs.
• The International Fund for Animal Welfare's Blueprint for U.S. Whale Conservation.
• IFAW's background briefing on the South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary
• An EIA briefing for the IWC on marine debris.
• A poll on U.S. attitudes toward whales and whaling
• Text of a bill introduced to the House of Representatives on June 28, expressing support to end commercial whaling and strengthen measures to conserve whale populations.