Local Campaigns
We run or participate in a number of local campaigns. These include beach cleanups, competitions, rallies, speaking in schools, and other events. Below are videos from a few of these. The haka was at a primary school where Captain Bethune spoke at recently – A rare privilege indeed. Here is our YouTube Channel for more videos.
The NZ Longfin eel is under threat from many sources, including commercial fishing, habitat loss, pollution and hydro dams. We’re running a kids competition with $1,000 in prizes to change Kiwi’s attitude towards this extraordinary animal (more).
When Captain Bethune was released from Japan, he was invited to attend Ric O’Barrys’s Save Japan Dolphins rally outside the Japanese Consulate in Miami. Above is a really awesome video of the event, featuring Moby, and edited by Kendra Silvera.
The Rena grounding was one of the worst environmental disasters to ever hit NZ. Captain Bethune and volunteers went to assist with the cleanup. The video above shows how a community can simply rally together and work constructively, despite government inaction.
Captain Bethune and our volunteers often speak at Schools about the environment, leadership, and standing up for things we believe in. We recently spoke at the Otamarakau Prinamy School in New Zealand, and after the talk, kids all got up and did an impromptu haka.
We had a team protest the Martha’s Vineyard Monster Shark tournament. We don’t believe our society should be promoting the wanton killing of sharks when they are increasingly under threat from many sources. The event has now stopped.
Captain Bethune visited the predator-free Kapiti Island Sanctuary that has several of the World’s most endangered birds. We have several future campaigns assisting governments to remove predators such as rats and stoats from key nesting Islands similar to this.
Captain Bethune was invited to Nantucket to evaluate the seal population after a number of locals began complaining about excessive numbers. As is often the case, the problem is more the humans rather than the seals.
We ran a campaign for several years in Costa Rica where volunteers rescued the eggs from turtle nests before they could be raided. 150,000 baby turtles were released over 3 years. But the raccoons are very clever, and remained a constant threat to the hatchery.
A humpback whale washed ashore dead in New Zealand. It had a huge number of barnacles still present on its skin, suggesting she had missed her breeding migration to tropical waters, and hence had probably been sick for considerable time.
Sequarium in Miami has the dubious honor of having the oldest orca in captivity. Lolita (Tokitae), was captured from the wild as a 4 year old, and has been in captivity since the 1070s. We attended a high-energy rally there in 2011.
Captain Bethune visited the Mundo Marine theme park in Argentina recently that has the only South American captive orca. There is increasing resistance to cetacean captivity and long-term, we hope that places such as Mundo Marine will cease their captivity of dolphins and whales.
