18 Days Remain Until Hunting Season Ends in Taiji, Japan, Up to Date Killing/Capturing Stats, Wikie, Offshore Drilling “Free-For-All” will Affect Dolphins & Whales, Dolphin Outlook, A Whale Of A Week, Vancouver Aquarium,Microplastics in the Ocean & Churchill Beluga Whales Trip!

Weekly update from #TheCove: Three species of dolphins were hunted in Week #23 of Taiji’s hunts. Take Action: dolphin.fyi/HelpJapanDolphins#DolphinProject
No automatic alt text available.
Trump Administration Announces Plans to Open Nearly All U.S. Waters to Offshore Drilling

Oceana Says Radical Offshore Drilling “Free-For-All” Ignores State and Local Opposition

Today, the Trump administration announced its plans to open nearly all U.S. federal waters to offshore drilling activities. In a new draft five-year program (2019-2024) for oil and gas development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), the Department of the Interior (DOI) outlined its plans to expand future oil and gas leasing to the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans, as well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico. This is the largest number of potential offshore lease sales ever proposed.

In response to the newly proposed plan, Oceana campaign director Diane Hoskins released the following statement:

“This plan opens the floodgates to dirty and dangerous offshore drilling, threatening coastal economies that rely on clean and healthy oceans.

This radical offshore drilling free-for-all is a clear example of politics over people, ignoring widespread local and state opposition. Consider the West Coast, where all three governors are adamantly opposed to expanded offshore drilling. Or the Atlantic, where over 140 East Coast municipalities have publicly opposed offshore drilling activities. Along Florida’s Gulf Coast, there is a moratorium on offshore drilling until June 30, 2022, and the Department of Defense (DOD) has made it clear they need uninhibited access to the area for training, free from oil and gas activities.

Past attempts to drill in the remote and unforgiving Arctic waters resulted in the abandoned drill rig Kulluk grounded near Kodiak Island while the crew were hoisted to safety. There is still extreme weather, no way to clean up an oil spill in sea ice, and very limited infrastructure to deal with any kind of emergency.

The Trump administration’s plan not only ignores the risky nature of dirty and dangerous drilling, but also the people and coastal businesses who would be most affected. The administration’s proposal would put large multi-national corporations ahead of coastal residents and healthy ocean-dependent economies.

Americans have seen the devastation that comes from offshore drilling. Seven years after the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout, the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, the Gulf is still recovering. Will we allow Florida’s white beaches or the popular and pristine Outer Banks to share a similar fate? What about the scenic Pacific coast or even remote Arctic waters?

Giving the oil industry unfettered access to our nation’s oceans is a recipe for disaster. From ocean views scattered with drilling platforms, to the industrialization of our coastal communities, to the unacceptable risk of more BP Deepwater Horizon-like disasters – expanding offshore drilling to new areas threatens thriving coastal economies and already thriving industries like tourism, recreation and fishing that rely on healthy oceans. According to the National Ocean Economics Program’s 2016 report, in U.S. coastal states, 2.2 million American jobs and $108.37 billion in GDP depend on healthy ocean ecosystems.

It’s time for Washington to listen to the communities that have the most to lose and nothing to gain from dirty and dangerous offshore drilling. Secretary Zinke needs to protect our coast, not sell it out to the highest bidder.” 

As of today, opposition and concern over offshore drilling activities includes:

  • Governors of Florida, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Oregon and Washington
  • More than 150 East and West Coast municipalities
  • Over 1,200 local, state and federal bipartisan officials
  • An alliance representing over 41,000 businesses and 500,000 fishing families
  • The North, South and Mid-Atlantic fishery management councils
  • Commercial and recreational fishing interests such as the Southeastern Fisheries Association, Fisheries Survival Fund, Southern Shrimp Alliance, The Billfish Foundation and the International Game Fish Association
  • California Fish and Game Commission, California Coastal Commission, California State Lands Commission and California Senate
  • DOD and the Florida Defense Support Task Force
Today’s draft plan is the result of President Trump’s April 28 executive order on offshore energy, which directed DOI to encourage offshore drilling. The public has 60-days to comment on the draft proposed program, which is the first of two opportunities for public comment on the plan. 

To learn more about Oceana’s campaign to stop the expansion of offshore drilling activities, please click here.

URGENT: Oil and gas special interests in Congress are trying to gut the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), a vital ocean conservation law that seeks to restore and maintain healthy populations of all marine mammals in U.S. waters.

The changes proposed in a new bill could devastate populations of whales, dolphins, seals, manatees and other marine mammals, risk ocean health, and reverse years of ocean conservation. We must speak up for whales and other marine mammals now – this is a fight we must win.

Tell your member of Congress: Defend whales, dolphins and other marine mammals! Reject all proposed changes to the MMPA.
Trump Administration Announces Plans to Open Nearly All U.S. Waters to Offshore Drilling. The Trump administration announced its plans to open nearly all U.S. federal waters to offshore drilling activities. In a new draft five-year program (2019-2024) for oil and gas development on the Outer Continental Shelf, the Department of the Interior outlined its plans to expand future oil and gas leasing to the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans, as well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
This is the link to the main form image. 1200x628
The Center for Biological Diversity is fighting to make our coastlines and oceans, and the wildlife that call the oceans their home, safe and clean. Please join the fight for our coasts by making a gift to our Trump Resistance Fund.

When oil spills in the ocean, the bodies of sea turtles, dolphins, whales and hundreds of species of birds and fish wash up on beaches for years.

Trump and his super-rich friends couldn't care less. He's launched a new offshore drilling plan that exposes nearly every inch of our coastlines to more spills.

Please join our efforts to ban offshore drilling by the Center's Trump Resistance Fund.

Years after the largest oil spill in U.S. history — Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico — dolphins are still suffering from severe lung injuries and lesions linked to the spill. Whales have shown increased levels of chromium and nickel, which could affect their ability to reproduce.

New data crunched by Center scientists shows that Trump's new plan could lead to over 5,000 oil spills pouring more than 34 million gallons of oil into our waters — a long, oil-soaked nightmare for our coasts and wildlife. And more than half of the expected new spills would occur, like Deepwater Horizon, in the Gulf of Mexico.

With Trump wanting to let Big Oil suck dirty fuels out of every last corner of our oceans, it's only a matter of time before another large spill occurs off both the Atlantic and Pacific, as well as the Gulf and the Arctic.

Clean-up efforts only work on a fraction of the oil and gas spilled. The remainder, including millions of gallons remaining in the Gulf, will keep poisoning wildlife for generations.

We're mobilizing a resistance against this disastrous plan. We're already fighting Trump's oil and gas giveaway in the courts, and we're organizing protests and engaging activists to tell Trump and his golfing buddies that we won't let them turn our oceans into oilfields.

With you by your side, we'll save our coastlines from their greed.

Please help to shut down Trump's disastrous offshore drilling plans with a gift to the Trump Resistance Fund.
Free Wikie, Captive Orca Forced to Mimic Human Speech! In January, scientists announced that orcas can imitate human speech, releasing audio of 16-year-old captive orca Wikie saying words such as "hello," "one, two, three," and "bye bye." The discovery grabbed headlines across the globe, but how impressed should we actually be that Wikie was forced by humans to mimic human behavior while imprisoned by humans in unnatural conditions?

Please join in demanding that Marineland in Antibes, France release Wikie from captivity now!

Sure, it's an interesting discovery, but we already knew that orcas were highly intelligent creatures. That is exactly why orcas don't belong in tiny cement cells where they can barely move and why they shouldn't be forced to perform for human beings. They should be in their natural habitat, living freely. Instead of trying to make orcas more like us, perhaps we should be studying their own sophisticated language.

Marineland is simply trying to distract from the fact that Wikie is living a horrible life in captivity. Sign now to urge Marineland to free Wikie now!
In Defense of Animals
Vancouver Aquarium is Giving Up on Cetacean Captivity! Excellent news! Thanks to people like you who understand how much dolphins and whales suffer in captivity, the Vancouver Aquarium has announced that it has given up its fight to continue to exploit cetaceans in tanks. LEARN MORE

Churchill, Manitoba may be best known for its polar bears, but summer brings a whole different view on the Canadian Northland -- and close encounters with another Arctic animal species that’s equally charming!

I’m talking about belugas, of course. Every summer, more than 3,000 of these small, amiable whales congregate at the mouth of the Churchill River on Hudson Bay. They are gentle and curious, swimming up to our rafts where we meet them at arm’s length on our Churchill Arctic wildlife adventure.

Normally, I’d be a little concerned if a whale came up and bumped my boat. But in this instance, it’s nothing but fun when a few belugas glide up and nudge us!

New for 2018, we’ve added kayaking with the belugas. Take a look at our video to see what it's like! And if that doesn't get you close enough, choose the option to snorkel with them (wearing wetsuits provided, of course).

Belugas are nicknamed "sea canaries," since they’re among the most vocal of whales, and we enhance your experience with a chance to listen to their otherworldly songs through a hydrophone.

Our naturalist Expedition Leaders take you in search of other wildlife, too -- including polar bears! The King of the Arctic roams the edge of Hudson Bay in summer, waiting for autumn's freeze, and the odds are good we'll spot them. We also look for Arctic fox, Arctic hare, ptarmigan and caribou as we explore the tundra, boreal forest and coastline.

...And if we're lucky, we might even see the northern lights! Especially on our later departures, when the skies are darker, we're often treated to the magic of the aurora.

Churchill’s history and culture add to the adventure. Learn about its past as a fur trading post on a visit to Fort Prince of Wales, and talk with local indigenous residents who have thrived in these remote northern environs for centuries. We also meet a local dog musher and his team.

If you’re looking for an accessible Arctic adventure that’s easy to reach but off the typical tourist track, join us in Churchill! Call 800­-543­-8917 for the dates of your choice.