Our Petition delivered to the International Whaling Commission
June 24, 2010 Agadir, Morocco
Hey everyone,
First, I want to thank the over 230, 000 of you who signed our petition to stop all commercial and scientific whaling by Japan, Norway and Iceland and end the brutal dolphin and porpoise hunts by Japan and the Faroe Islands.
Earlier today in Agadir Morocco, at the 62nd annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), my personal hero and Whaleman Foundation founder, Jeff Pantukhoff, was there to represent all of us and deliver our petition to the IWC.
On all of our behalf, Jeff presented our petition to Monica Medina, the United States Commissioner to the IWC, who gladly accepted it on our behalf.
Jeff then delivered the following statement to the all the delegates representing IWC’s 88 member nations:
“On behalf of The Whaleman Foundation and its membership, we are pleased to participate as a non-governmental observer to the 62nd meeting of the International Whaling Commission and thank the Government of Morocco and the city of Agadir for hosting this meeting. On behalf of the over 230,000 people from all around the world who have signed our petition, we take this opportunity to present our petition to the member nations of the IWC and their respective government leaders.”
To: All Member Nations of the International Whaling Commission and their respective Government Leaders
“We, the undersigned, call on all member nations of the IWC to vote to immediately stop all commercial whaling and lethal scientific research whaling by Japan, Norway, and Iceland and to enforce the current global whaling moratorium. Furthermore, we call on the Governments of Japan, Denmark, and others to cease their hunting of dolphins, porpoises, pilot whales, and other small cetacean species. Whaling poses an unnecessary and unacceptable risk both to the health and recovery of surviving cetacean populations and to the people who consume cetacean meat which has been shown to contain extremely high levels of contaminants including Mercury, Dioxin, DDT, PCBs and is unsafe for human consumption. The Whaleman Foundation urges all delegates to vote against the ‘Chair’s Proposal’ and to vote against any proposal unless it truly upholds the whaling moratorium and ramps down and ends all commercial and scientific research whaling by Japan, Norway, and Iceland.”
Our petition was the only petition that was formally presented to the IWC and the good news is your voices have been heard and the “IWC Chair’s Proposal” to overturn the moratorium and legitimize whaling by Japan, Norway, and Iceland was defeated!!!
The bad news is that Japan, Norway, and Iceland are going to continue to kill thousands of whales in their blatant defiance of the whaling moratorium so we are going to need your help now more than ever.
Very soon, we will be once again calling on each and everyone one of you to continue to help us in our efforts to stop this brutal and needless slaughter once and for all!!!
Its time to Save the Whales Again!!!
Here’s what you can do:
1. Write, e-mail, or call President Obama and let him know that you want the US to use its sanctioning powers available under the Pelly Amendment against Japan, Norway, and Iceland until they stop whaling. White House Comment Line: (202) 456-1111. White House Fax Line: (202) 456-2461.
Compose and Send a message directly to President Obama:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
President Obama’s mailing address:
President Barack Obama, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20500.
2. Write or call your US Representatives and Senators and let them know that you want the US to invoke the Pelly Amendment against Japan, Norway, and Iceland until they stop whaling.
US Capitol Switchboard: (202) 456-1414.
