Tag Archives: Save the Whales

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November 13, 2014

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Vaquita gift ideas

With the holidays right around the corner, now’s the time to start buying gifts for your loved ones. Money is tight these days, so gifts where some the proceeds go to a good cause is a great deal. Luckily for you, there are many such gifts that are related to the Vaquita! Let’s take a look.

The CEDO Eco Shop is a wonderful place to buy awesome gifts for the holiday season. From Vaquita t-shirts to booklets, to even a special link to Amazon that gives a portion of any purchase to CEDO, they have it all.

CEDO works extensively with the Vaquita, so it is one of the best charities to donate to.

Another wonderful holiday gift for that special someone would be CEDO wine, complete with one of six creatures of the Gulf on the label (of course including the Vaquita). And a portion of the proceeds goes to CEDO!

http://www.benefitwines.com/CEDO-Intercultural_c_1826.html

The VIVA Vaquita La Tienda has some wonderful Vaquita-specific items, with a new collection by Memuco: http://www.printfection.com/vivavaquita/NEW–memuco-vaquita-items/_s_583346

A perfect gift is the Adopt-a-Vaquita kit from Save the Whales. For $25 you get:

  • An 8 x 10 glossy color photograph of a Vaquita in the wild
  • Adopt-a-Vaquita certificate personalized to your specifications
  • 4 page color newsletter about Vaquita
  • A letter to the United Nations for your signature
  • Save The Whales window sticker
  • VIVA Vaquita window sticker
  • A Vaquita dog tag necklace (suitable for all ages and both sexes)

With the second edition of the world’s only Vaquita book coming in the near future, you might want to keep it in mind: https://www.createspace.com/4268018

And my final suggestion is a Save the Vaquita! t-shirt from the Muskwa Club’s campaign, with 100% of the proceeds going to this non-profit. Remember, if 34 t-shirts are not bought, none will not be printed. So please, support a great cause and look stylish while you do it: https://www.booster.com/savethevaquita97

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July 28, 2014

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The painting is finished!

Despedida Vaquita

Frédérique Lucas’ masterpiece is complete. Four months in the making, the 17-year-old artist revealed her photo-realistic painting to the world yesterday. Titled “Despedida (Goodbye) Vaquita,” the work manages to capture raw emotion like few other paintings do. It depicts an entangled, washed up Vaquita on a Mexican beach, while the sun vanishes just as the porpoise’s life did. Please share the link below with everyone you know to inspire them to help the Vaquita. We need artwork like this to light a fire in us all to try our hardest to protect this porpoise. Thank you Frédérique and everyone that shares this painting and the Vaquita’s story. I have yet to hear of someone who was not moved by the Vaquita’s predicament, so the problem is that not enough people know. If they did, it would be a whole lot easier to save these little guys.

http://namu-the-orca.deviantart.com/art/Despedida-Vaquita-Goodbye-Vaquita-470879101

In other news, Save the Whales is running a Vaquita drawing contest for students, with the deadline being August 15: http://www.savethewhales.org/STV_StudentContest.html.
The prizes are either 4 tickets to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, or an “Adopt-a-Vaquita Kit” if you can’t make it to California. Those are outstanding prizes, especially for only drawing a picture! This is an opportunity not only to get great cetacean prizes, but also to support the Vaquita while making artwork. I won’t be submitting anything, but I will be making some larger Vaquita paintings soon, where I will put them up for auction with the proceeds going to the Vaquita, as always.
🙂

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May 26, 2014

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World Oceans Day 2014

Happy Memorial Day!

Sunday, June 8th, is World Oceans Day 2014! Like last year, my family will be hosting a table in Boston’s New England Aquarium for their World Oceans Day celebration! Please join us between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm for a day of fun, learning, and conservation!

World Oceans Day Vaquita

The New England Aquarium is big on ocean conservation, and has created the live blue™ Initiative, a project that protects endangered marine species and their habitats. I look forward to educating the public on one of the planet’s rarest and least-known species, the Vaquita, at this wonderful aquarium.

Please check out this really neat website about bycatch, with great statistics and graphics: http://www.bijvangst.org/en/home

Elaborating on my last post, Project #ChangeOurPerception, here is Anthony Bourdain’s blog, which talks a lot about the evolving food culture of Mexico, and The Truth About Mexico, a great Facebook page showing the positive truth about this extremely misunderstood and under-visited country.

Below are some photos of the Vaquita-related things that I have gotten in the past few months:

My dad’s Vaquita calf carving, to go with the mother he made earlier:

Calf Carving

Stephen and Anthony Palumbi’s book, The Extreme Life of the Sea, which contains a few pages about the Vaquita:

The Extreme Life of the Sea cover

The Extreme Life of the Sea interior

Jean-Pierre Sylvestre’s Dolphins & Porpoises: A Worldwide Guide, which we found in an old book shop:

Dolphins and Porpoises

Dolphins and Porpoises interior

Beach Bar Radio and Save the Whales/VIVA Vaquita’s awesome shirt from their Booster campaign:

Save the Whales back

And this cool t-shirt from Vince Radice’s Vaquita documentary Indiegogo campaign:

Vince Radice Shirt Front

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March 30, 2014

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T-shirts and more

Hurry up! There are only a few hours left to buy an awesome Save the Whales/VIVA Vaquita t-shirt with the profits going to the Vaquita!

https://www.booster.com/vivavaquita

For the entire month of April, VIVA Vaquita will be the recipient of Mahalo Mondays at Hula’s Island Grill and Tiki Room in Monterey, California, so please eat and/or drink there on Mondays in April. 10% of Hula’s sales from 4:00 pm until closing on Mondays will go to VIVA Vaquita this April!

TakePart and WWF have teamed up to create a March Madness-like bracket for endangered animals! Please vote on the matchups and TakePart will donate up to $2,500 to WWF! The World Wildlife Fund is one of the biggest Vaquita supporters, so it really is important that you vote once a day until April 9!

http://www.takepart.com/animalbracket

Also, my book will soon be for sale in the Hau’ula Gift Shop on the Windward side of Oahu, Hawaii, in the Ching Jong Leong store building in Punaluu. The gift shop is run by Fawwaz Jubran, and is mentioned in this article: http://www.hawaiibusiness.com/Hawaii-Business/January-2008/Roadside-Attraction/.

If you are in the area, please join the Muskwa Club at their Vaquita table during the Point Vicente Interpretive Center’s ‘Whale of a Day’ on April 5 from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm! The event promises to be informative, exciting, and simply a whale of a time. 😉

Finally, thanks to everyone who participated in the Post-a-day Challenge. I hope that many people learned about the Vaquita this month, but let’s not stop! Keep sharing the Vaquita love!

Thanks

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February 12, 2014

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¡VIVA Vaquita!

*The Muskwa Club has also accepted their offer: http://vivavaquita.org/aboutus.html!

It all started on August 8th, 2010, when I was 10 years old. At the time, I had a really strong fascination with Sperm Whales. I was looking for a way to symbolically adopt one, which led me to the Save the Whales website. In the top right corner of the page, I noticed a picture of a little gray porpoise that said “Help Save the Vaquita!!! The World’s Most-Endangered Cetacean.” I had heard of the Vaquita before from one of my marine mammal field guides, and I remember loving how they looked. But I had no idea they were endangered. I started to read about this mysterious creature called the Vaquita. Something about it evoked an emotion that I had rarely felt before. A mix of fear, curiosity, vulnerability, sadness, and determination. I could not believe it was so rare, and that is was still decreasing. How could this be happening? I knew that I had to help it.

I scrolled down and clicked on the link to ¡VIVA Vaquita!, where I was captivated even more. I entered this into the contact box, “How much money is usually donated? Is $30 good? And can I learn more about vaquitas? Thanks!” A few days later, I received a package from Dr. Thomas Jefferson, containing a bunch of things to help me learn about the Vaquita, such as some brochures and a magazine that focused on them. I was hooked. A little over a year later, on September 27th, 2011, I started the website that you are reading this post on. I have always been obsessed with ¡VIVA Vaquita! and look up to them like a celebrity, which they are, in my eyes.

They are the world’s leading Vaquita conservation group, and their work is unparalleled in the activism community. That is why their email to me last night completely shocked me. They invited V-log to become an official member of ¡VIVA Vaquita! I hope our new partnership will create some amazing new opportunities, and I will be sure to keep everyone updated. I would like to thank ¡VIVA Vaquita! again for continuous inspiration and for asking me to join their incredible organization!

In other news, the Muskwa Club will have some big announcements coming within the next few months, so stay tuned.

VIVA Vaquita

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March 1, 2013

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Tribute

I want to give a huge tribute to the amazing Mexican artist Memuco. His beautiful work has raised much awareness and money for the Vaquita over the last few years. His art is absolutely amazing. Please look him up or search him on this blog to see some of the things he has done. He has also been very kind to me, even volunteering to illustrate part of my chapter book!

I would also like to thank the awesome people at ¡Viva Vaquita!, Cetos, Save the Whales!, CEDO, the American Cetacean Society Monterey Bay Chapter, WWF, earthOCEAN, NOAA, and many more that I forgot the names of for working so hard to protect this amazing creature and for answering all of my questions.

I would finally like to thank Dr. Tom Jefferson for replying to every email I have sent him since I was ten. I remember when I used to send him about 5 emails a day. I have no idea how he stayed so patient with me. 🙂 He has always been my #1 resource on Vaquita info.

All of these people and organizations have played a huge part in inspiring me to do this blog and all of the other stuff that I’ve done over the last 3 years. I feel like I know all of these people so personally, yet I have never met any one of them. One day I hope to meet you awesome humans.

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February 13, 2013

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Endangered Species Chocolate

Please click here to download an awesome flyer and listen to a public service announcement about the Vaquita.

You may have heard of or eaten Endangered Species Chocolate. They are an awesome and delicious chocolate company with a great cause. I recently emailed them with the idea of creating a Vaquita chocolate bar and having a portion of its sales go to the Vaquita. If you agree with this idea, please email them at this address: info@chocolatebar.com and say so. You can also include flavor ideas. They seemed perceptive of my email so hopefully if they get enough emails they will consider it much more strongly. I may create a polite petition eventually. It would be amazing for the Vaquita to be on a popular candy bar and have money going to it at the same time! Please help me make this happen! Thanks from the Vaquita!

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December 1, 2012

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Monterey County Gives! fundraiser

If you’ve been wanting to donate, now’s a great time! As seen on ¡Viva Vaquita!’s Facebook page, Save the Whales is one of the donation options for Monterey County Gives! 2012’s fundraiser. The money donated to STW will go directly to the Vaquita! Please go to: https://www.montereycountygives.com/Donate.aspx, and under Animals please select Save The Whales and donate ($5 minimum) before December 31! Thank You!
Another great way to donate, especially for the holidays, is with the ¡Viva Vaquita! La Tienda. 100% of proceeds from the wonderful Vaquita items you can buy there goes to our favorite porpoise!
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August 28, 2012

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Sign my petition

Thanks to everyone who has signed my petition on Change.org, but if you haven’t yet, you can at http://www.change.org/petitions/save-the-elusive-vaquita. If you have a Change.org account, you can just sign it, but don’t worry if you don’t: you can simply just fill in your name and some other information, and voilà. While you’re at it, it would be greatly appreciated if you also signed the ¡Viva Vaquita! and Save the Whales petitions.