Update; Book drive to fund expedition

In order to help fund ¡Viva Vaquita!’s photographic expedition scheduled for September 23 – October 16, 2013, they are accepting donations of any marine mammal books. I took this as the perfect opportunity to send Tom Jefferson my book. If you have any marine mammal literature lying around your house, please contact Tom Jefferson (see below). This expedition will be so important for the Vaquita and interesting for Vaquita enthusiasts not only because the scientists will be able to make sure the Vaquita is still alive and hopefully see a bunch, but also because they could get some new photographs that could be very important for Vaquita education in the future. They are also bringing over 1000 Spanish Vaquita coloring books to distribute to the local schools! Here is what ¡Viva Vaquita!’s website says about the book drive:

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MARINE MAMMAL BOOKS AND REPRINTS WANTED

¡Viva Vaquita! is requesting marine mammal books, reprints, monographs, and journals. Literature can be donated or we can purchase sets of books, reprints, and journals. We make the literature available to colleagues working on marine mammals, getting it into hands where it will be actively used, and in the process help to raise funds for research and conservation work on the Vaquita. Donations are tax-deductible, and we may be able to arrange pick-up of large quantities of literature. We are currently collecting literature to help fund our Sept/Oct 2013 expedition to San Felipe, and to conduct education work with local organizations and school groups in Mexico. If you have any literature you would be interested in donating or selling to us, please contact Tom Jefferson at sclymene@aol.com.

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Campaign closed

My Custom Ink t-shirt campaign closed on Monday night, and I ended up selling 12 shirts. Unfortunately, that was not enough for any profit, so I will not be able to donate anything to ¡Viva Vaquita! at the moment. However, I will be donating 25% of my book’s profits to ¡Viva Vaquita!, which should be a lot of money. If you are interested in my Vaquita book, please stay tuned and follow my blog.

Switch-out charity

Thanks to William Whittenbury, the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Cetacean Society has turned our ideas for the Vaquita Conservation Society into reality. Though it is still in the beginnings, they have created a charity that sends its donations to the switch-out program, (where the government gives fishermen alternative, Vaquita-safe fishing gear) and they are the first group to do so. Right now, the only way to donate is to send a check by mail to: P.O. Box 1208, San Pedro, CA 90733-1208. It is very important that you write “Vaquita” on the memo line for it to go to the switch-out. I believe that the best chance for the Vaquita is the switch-out, because the new trawls provide the ideal results for both man and porpoise. Eventually, the charity will be much more public and have a bigger impact, but, as I said, the charity is still taking its baby steps. Please share this post with your friends (click on the title of the post and then scroll down until you see the social media buttons) and donate.

Also, a new idea is forming within the Muskwa Headquarters that could be our biggest project yet. Stay tuned.

 

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TravelSharkPix Winners

TravelSharkPix announced the winners of their charity hunt yesterday, but unfortunately Save the Whales didn’t win. On the bright side, one of the winners was Oceana, a non-profit organization devoted to protecting the oceans and their creatures, including the Vaquita. Hopefully Oceana gets many donations from this event, and the Vaquita gains some more popularity. You can donate by getting a TravelSharkPix account, then uploading your pictures. For the first 100 accepted photos, they will donate 10 cents to either Oceana, The Cheetah Conservation Fund, or People in Crisis United. From the 101st submitter and beyond, they will donate 25 cents! Click here to learn more about TravelSharkPix. You can check out the Oceana site here:

http://oceana.org/en

TravelSharkPix

Vote for Save The Whales in the TravelSharkPix Charity Hunt! Just click on the link below and choose Save the Whales as your favorite charity. The Charity Hunt is a three-week event allowing users to nominate and vote for their favorite charity to have a chance to receive donations from TravelSharkPix for an entire year! The deadline to vote is February 20 at 7 pm Eastern Time. This is monumental for the Vaquita! Thank you for your support!

http://pix.travelshark.com/charity-hunt