Dear NRDC Action Fund Activist,

Two of America's most endangered whale populations, Rice's whales and North Atlantic right whales, could disappear forever if anti-environment members of Congress — including allies of Big Oil — keep up their shameless attacks on wildlife.

Here are just a few of the legislative attacks on whales that Congress is considering right now:

• Preventing the administration from excluding Rice's whale habitat from new oil and gas leases — or indeed from adopting any new measures to spare Rice's whales from the industry's harmful activities
• Prohibiting the improvement of a vessel speed rule that helps protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from being killed by ship collisions
• Undermining the Endangered Species Act by giving the oil and gas industry unprecedented special access to decision-making

Enough is enough — tell Congress to strongly oppose any and all bills attacking our most endangered whales.

Only about 50 critically endangered Rice’s whales remain. More than 20 percent of the population was lost in the Deepwater Horizon disaster 13 years ago, and their narrow strip of habitat in the Gulf of Mexico is STILL under threat from dirty, dangerous offshore oil drilling — and just recently, a pipeline spilled another 1.1 million gallons of oil into the Gulf, which spread into the whales' habitat.

North Atlantic right whales aren’t doing much better. Fewer than 340 remain in their home along the Atlantic coast, and since calving mothers and their calves tend to rest just beneath the surface, they are at dire risk from ship strikes.

And not only is Congress introducing standalone bills to rescind whale protections and give away whale habitat to the fossil fuel giants, they’re including poisonous provisions attacking whales in must-pass spending bills to give them a better chance at becoming law. This is an all-out assault on whales happening right now in Congress — and it’s time to fight back.

Tell Congress to reject these attacks on two of the most endangered whales in our oceans and stop the blatant giveaways to the oil and gas industry.

When one attack fails, extremists in Congress try to sneak their dangerous, unpopular giveaways into another bill, then another, then another. We must send a resounding message to Congress: NO big polluter giveaways! PROTECT critically endangered whales.

Thank you for speaking up today — for the sake of whale survival.

Sincerely,

Michael Jasny
Senior Advisor, NRDC Action Fund