Today, I read "Mystery deepens on decline of the right whale" by Susan M. Larsen: http://www.capecodtimes.com/opinion/20180309/mystery-deepens-on-decline-of-right-whale She made the case for "the decline is linked to the environmental disaster on April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill". And I have no doubt that oil spills cause dire health impacts on marine mammals. What alarmed me was the quote: "from 2010 through September 2016, there were 43 significant oil spills." Because when I accessed the list of oil spills: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oil_spills there was nothing in that time frame (over 10,000 tonnes) that occurred in North America other than the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. So, I decided to look up and plot what is at least 10,000 tonnes of oil spilled — what I consider "significant"— and plot them alongside the North Atlantic calf counts. I used the graph from this NPR post: https://www.npr.org/2018/02/28/589439219/researchers-havent-found-a-single-endangered-right-whale-calf-yet-this-season And yes, I did find it odd that there were 0 calves counted in 1989, especially since Dr. Hamilton, "who has been specializing in right whale photo identification since 1986, said they have NEVER seen a year without calves, which is particularly alarming combined with the right whales’ high death toll." Source: http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/scientists-have-not-seen-any-north-atlantic-right-whale-calves-in-usual-areas I used the data from The Largest Oil Spills in History, 1901 to Present. Source: http://chartsbin.com/view/mgz The red stars remind you of 2009 and 2016; the dates when the U.S. gov't (knowingly) released Wolbachia into our environment via Wolbachia-infected Aedes. I found this amusing: Peter Corkeron of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, wrote: “They’re (female right whales) dying too young, and they’re not having calves often enough.” This study found the females are struggling to reproduce. What's missing here? The females cannot reproduce all by themselves. So, why leave out the males (who are likely infected with Wolbachia). Facts Worthy of Note . . . "Wolbachia has long been recognized as widespread in terrestrial isopods such as woodlice ... Caution in interpretation of the current data is warranted, however, as screening of Wolbachia in marine organisms appears to have been limited to date." Source: The 2016 book, Rickettsiales: Biology, Molecular Biology, Epidemiology, and Vaccine Development, pg. 467 The 2003 study Culture and Phenotypic Characterization of a Wolbachia pipientis Isolate by Fenollar F, La Scola B, Inokuma H, Dumler JS, Taylor MJ, and Raoult D clearly states: "Bacterial growth could be obtained in C6/36, another A. albopictus cell line, at 28°C and in a human embryonic lung fibroblast monolayer at 28 and 37°C, confirming that its host cell range is broader than was initially thought." That should alarm everyone in the scientific and medical communities because 37 degrees C (98.6 F) is normal human body temperature. And North Atlantic right whales have a body temperature very close to ours (36 degrees C or 96.8 F). So, it's been known, since 2003, that Wolbachia can grow in lung cells at 37 degrees C. This makes it willful negligence to NOT test these mammals (or humans) for Wolbachia via a broad-range PCR screen for infection by Rickettsiales (Wolbachia genes in blood and tissues). Clearly, the U.S. gov't does not want to be found responsible for these magnificent creatures' demise. We cannot let that happen because what is happening to these whales is going to happen to us. I believe it already is. I'll be in touch, Rose Authors note: I cannot use italics or hyperlink on petition updates. Ergo, links are not hidden and I used CAPS for emphasis. How your signature helps: each time a supporter signs our petition, an email is automatically sent directly to those being petitioned (governments, companies and individuals). When hundreds or even thousands of emails arrive in their inboxes, our message is impossible to ignore.