WDCS helps protect the North Atlantic right whale

The "Calvineers", a group of students from the Adams School in Maine that met with Senator Susan Collins asking her to help protect right whales

Last week the world’s leading experts met to coordinate their efforts to save the North Atlantic right whale from extinction. 
Fewer than 400 North Atlantic right whales remain and the population is not recovering.  On average only 11 calves are born per year, this is only 1/3 of the expected birth rate and less than the present annual death rate.
Mortality from ship-strikes and fishing-gear entanglements is driving this species toward extinction.  Right Whale coastal habitat along the eastern U.S. and Canada is heavily industrialized and under increasing negative pressures from human activities.
As chair of the Education Committee, WDCS was able to provide an update of educational resources to the organizations who study and conserve these rare whales.  Because education is key to raising awareness of this critically endangered species, WDCS is also helping to develop a right whale resource database Click here for a preview.

Other educational successes include: 

• WDCS and the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary  co-sponsored Right Whale lecture series  
• Audubon Society of Rhode Island's Earth Day Festival and Beach Clean up which was dedicated to the conservation of the North Atlantic right whale
• Development of educational modules for maritime academies by the New England Aquarium and the National Marine Fisheries Service;
• Construction of two inflatable right whales for educational talks;
• Development of a right whale resource database

Source: WDCS