Dear Friend,
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Ripple is dead -- help the remaining Southern Resident orcas and donate $24 today to help us reach our $3,200 goal by midnight TONIGHT!
If you've saved payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
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Southern Resident orcas Cappuccino, Marina, and now young Ripple are all presumed dead. That leaves only 73 Southern Resident orcas left in the wild -- many are starving, grieving, and growing weaker every day. But Big Oil tankers and shipping megaprojects pose a serious threat to the remaining whales. Friend, if we don’t act now, we could be the last generation to share the earth with these majestic creatures. Will you donate $24 today to protect the remaining orcas and our planet?
Ripple was the youngest whale in his pod for a decade before a new family member was born this year. But he hasn’t been seen with his family in months -- and recently, a young, emaciated male orca’s body was found entangled off the coast of Oregon, tragically believed to be Ripple.
Southern Resident orcas function in close-knit, sensitive family communities known as pods. When they lose a family member, their chances of survival plummet as their grief can push them into starvation. That’s why we can’t stand to lose even one more of these precious whales.
Don’t let Southern Resident orcas grieve another death. Donate $24 and help us reach our $3,200 goal before midnight tonight.
If you've saved payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
Southern Resident killer whales are the only endangered species of killer whales in the United States -- with only 73 left in the remaining pods. Once thriving in the waters of Washington and British Columbia, this precious species has been on the decline since the mid-1990s.
One key contributor -- food availability. You see, orcas rely on Chinook salmon as their main food source, which were once abundant in their ecosystems but have substantially declined in the last decade and are now threatened or endangered themselves -- leading these orcas to starvation, stress, and even miscarriages.
Yet, catastrophic Big Oil and shipping megaprojects are in the works -- and they would be devastating to the remaining Southern Resident orca population.
The Roberts Bank T2 shipping terminal project would significantly increase cargo ship traffic and disrupt Chinook salmon migration patterns -- driving them further away from orca habitat.
The proposed expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline will also increase oil tanker traffic in Southern Resident critical habitat SEVEN-FOLD -- from one tanker a week to one per day! Worst of all, it will also be shipping millions of barrels of toxic tar sands oil -- the dirtiest kind -- in oil tankers through this already delicate orca habitat.
The increased noise from shipping traffic resulting from both these projects would also disrupt the orcas’ sonar, their primary tool for hunting. Between the chronic lack of salmon and the disruption of their hunting methods, orcas will starve to death and be driven to extinction.
We can’t let Big Oil push vulnerable orcas further toward the brink. Make your $24 contribution now.
If you've saved payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
Orcas are crucial to a thriving ocean habitat and our own health. They release vital nutrients for phytoplankton, which in turn provide half of the oxygen we breathe while absorbing hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon each year. We depend on this flow of nutrients for healthy ecosystems and a functioning planet, which is why we must protect these orcas at all costs.
But orcas are just one oil spill away from extinction. Proposed Big Oil megaprojects like the expanded Trans Mountain Pipeline could be fatal -- orcas can’t detect oil spills, so when the next oil spill occurs, they may swim through toxic tar sands oil, leading to infection and death. Even the fumes alone can knock out and drown a full-grown whale.
Friend, how long will we let Big Oil and the shipping industry further endanger helpless, vulnerable Southern Resident orcas? Your membership support today would go a long way toward stopping these reckless megaprojects that have the potential to wipe out the remaining 73 orcas and protecting our planet.
Orcas are at a tipping point -- and if we don’t act soon, we could lose them forever. Friends of the Earth is doing everything we can to fight against greedy corporate interests and save these precious whales and our planet, but we can’t do it without your help. Please, Friend, join us in this fight and rush your $24 contribution today before the clock strikes midnight and we lose any more of these majestic creatures.
Don’t let Big Oil and corporate greed exploit our oceans anymore. Make your $24 donation now to stand up for our planet and help us reach our $3,200 goal.
If you've saved payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
Standing with you,
Marcie Keever
Oceans and vessels program director,
Friends of the Earth
