Together, we’ve done amazing things for our oceans in 2014. But a batter
can’t dwell on past victories the next time he steps up to the plate. He has to
focus on the task at hand. And let me tell you, looking at this list of five
enormous ocean threats in 2015 it’s obviously our turn to step up.
1. Indiscriminate fishing gear killing thousands of threatened or
endangered sea turtles. Gear like drift gillnets and trawls trap and
drown turtles, causing them to die a cruel and painful death. Turtle excluder
devices can decrease these senseless deaths of sea turtles by 97 percent – but
we need laws at the state and national level requiring fisherman to use them.
How much pressure we can apply on these government officials depends on how much
you can support our efforts right now.
There
are three days left before 2015. Renew your commitment to Oceana now and your
tax-deductible gift will help fund our work to protect sea turtles and our
oceans around the world >>
2. Drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean. Despite
Shell’s
disastrous attempt to drill off the coast of Alaska in 2012, the company remains
determined to drill in the
Arctic regardless of the threat to the environment.
Thanks to your support, Oceana has helped keep Shell out of the Arctic for the
last two years, but we need you again now to keep polar bears safe from the
threat of oil spills.
Click
here to renew your commitment to Oceana now to help protect polar bears from
potential oil spills caused by Shell’s reckless pursuit of drilling in the
Arctic Ocean >>
3. Barbarically slicing off sharks’ fins – just for soup.
The brutal practice of shark finning has caused some shark populations to
decline by as much as 99 percent in the last few decades. With Oceana this year
you helped uphold shark fin bans in a number of U.S. states and told
GrubHub to
take shark fin off the menu. But there’s still much work to do to protect our
sharks by eliminating shark fins from the marketplace.
Will
you renew your commitment to Oceana today to help take shark fin off the menu in
2015 >>
4. SEISMIC BLASTS. Used to located oil and natural gas
deposits below the ocean floor, seismic blasting off the
United States East
Coast threatens the few remaining critically endangered
North Atlantic right
whales with hearing loss. For these whales, which rely on their hearing to find
food, communicate and reproduce, this could be a matter of life or death.
Renew
your commitment to Oceana now to help protect critically endangered North
Atlantic right whales from seismic blasting in 2015 >>
5. Know what seafood you're eating? Think again. You could
unknowingly buy frozen shrimp not meant for consumption but display in
decorative tanks – that's just one example of the sort of seafood fraud Oceana
uncovered this year. Illegal, Unregulated, and
Unreported Fishing and seafood
fraud will continue to lead to overfishing, rip off consumers and hurt honest
seafood businesses in 2015. But with your support, Oceana can continue to expose
these abuses and help ensure that all seafood is safe, legally caught and
honestly labeled. Don’t you want to know what you’re eating?
By
renewing your commitment to Oceana now, your tax-deductible gift will help
tackle Illegal, Unregulated, and Unreported Fishing and Seafood Fraud in the New
Year >>
These challenges are great – but that only means we need to be greater. For
the sake of the oceans’ amazing wildlife, mesmerizing underwater habitats, and
for ocean lovers everywhere, I hope you can support us as we look to 2015 and
the work ahead.
