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Ask President Obama to Protect the World's Whales

Send a letter to the President today!

 The world's whales are at risk from multiple threats: ozone depletion, chemical and noise pollution, marine debris, vessel strikes, entanglements with fishing gear, prey depletion, increasing offshore industrial development, escalating threats from climate change, and continued human exploitation. Please contact President Obama today to ask his administration to use its influence to better protect these wonderful animals! 

The world's whales are at risk from multiple hazards: ozone depletion, chemical and noise pollution, marine debris, vessel strikes, entanglements with fishing gear, prey depletion, increasing offshore industrial development, escalating threats from climate change, and continued human exploitation.

Fortunately, the International Whale Conservation and Protection Act of 2009 (IWCPA)- currently before Congress - will reaffirm the United States’ leadership on whales and ensure their survival for generations to come. I trust you will sign this legislation into law when it comes across your desk. Whale populations were decimated by centuries of unregulated hunting.

In 1986 a global moratorium on commercial whaling was introduced by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) as an attempt to save whales from extinction.

Most whaling countries adhered to the ban and stopped whaling. However Norway, Iceland and Japan continue to whale for profit by exploiting loopholes in the ban while putting pressure on the IWC to overturn the ban. The IWCPA calls on the US to lead the effort to stop these countries from continued whaling, to close the loopholes and reform the IWC into a whale conservation treaty.

Whales are the barometers of the ocean. The IWCPA will allow for much need protection of these magnificent creatures from increasing threats such as climate change, entanglement in fishing gear, over-fishing of prey species, pollution and targeted catches.

President Obama, not only do we need you to sign the IWCPA into law, but we need your administration to lead IWC member-nations to maintain and build upon the current moratorium, to eliminate loopholes in the IWC rules, and to modernize the IWC into a 21st century whale conservation body; and With the use of political, economic and diplomatic influences the United States can also help end all forms of commercial whaling, including “scientific” whaling.

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