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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - September, 2009

DATE SET TO DECIDE HUMPBACK WHALES’ FATE

St. Augustine, Florida, Sept 3, 2009 - The International Whaling Commission has set Dec. 8 - 10 in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA for a meeting that will decide whether Greenland will receive a quota to kill 50 humpback whales. BlueVoice, a St. Augustine based whale and dolphin conservation organization, has denounced the proposed hunts on humpbacks. “These are highly endangered animals facing new challenges due to warming of the oceans. In addition these highly intelligent and social animals are known and loved by people along their migratory route from their breeding grounds in the Caribbean to the northwest Atlantic where they feed in the summer,” Says Hardy Jones, Executive Director of BlueVoice.org http://www.bluevoice.org

BlueVoice has organized distribution of flyers on whale watch boats explaining how to oppose the quota to hunt humpbacks. Whale watch captains have responded enthusiastically from New Jersey to Maine. “I project we will distribute about 25,000 flyers giving contacts people can use to protest this brutal slaughter of highly intelligent and friendly whales,” said Jones.

In addition BlueVoice is asking governors of states along the migratory route of the humpbacks to declare these animals to be of special economic and cultural value to their states and to communicate that to the White House as well as to Greenland.

For further information:
Hardy Jones
707 326-5832
hardyjones@bluevoice.org

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