Hi NRDC Supporter,

I'm Francine Kershaw, a senior scientist here at NRDC. And I just recorded this message for you because I need you to know just how much whales need our help.

Will you take a minute to watch?

I remember my first time seeing a whale. It was simply unbelievable. The sheer size and majesty of this amazing animal lunging and breaching in and out of the water... that memory stays with me even now.

There's an injustice in what's happening to whales right now.

After centuries of industrial whaling... after all the apparent love for these highly social giants... whales are struggling to survive.

They are being entangled in fishing gear that drowns them or causes them to slowly die from excruciating injuries... they are being struck and killed or permanently mutilated by speeding ships criss-crossing the Gulf... and they are even being tortured to death by ear-splitting seismic blasts louder than anything you can imagine.

I hate to say it, but we've pushed whales to the very edge. And for the last 50 or so remaining Gulf of Mexico whales, extinction is knocking at the door as fossil fuel companies push for more climate-wrecking oil and gas drilling in their habitat.

If you love whales — if you think they deserve a chance at survival — then I hope you'll listen to my personal message to you.

Thanks,

Francine

P.S. We've got until September 30 to unlock a $50,000 gift to help save whales and defend our environment. The catch? We need 1,000 donors to respond by then. Say you'll be one of them with a gift of just $5 today.