These international students were fascinated by the live whale songs we shared at Whale Day this year. We have been heartened to connect at Whale Day, Whalequest, Celebration of the Arts, Earth Day Maui, and other events, with people from all over the world who use our site in their schools, homes, and special events to share these beautiful and mysterious songs with their children, family and friends, students, co-workers, politicians, community leaders.
We seek, in our sharing of these songs, to inspire people to care about the oceans and the environment. It is important that we understand also that the ocean is an acoustic environment and that some human acoustic activities are dangerous to the whales, dolphins and other marine life. And there are also other serious issues going on right now related to ocean health. How to do something positive that is inspiring and intelligent and effective becomes our important task.
Our buoy needs repair at this moment and I am looking for a boat to get out there and fix her. I am playing a tape we recorded earlier until repairs are made. We have had a good season so far, with a long run of reliable performance by our system, which received a lot of tender loving care before going out into the ocean.
My goal at the beginning of this season was to get a zodiac for needed repairs, as making repairs by kayak is very difficult, and I injured my back doing that before Earth Day last year. A standard runabout is good for launching and bringing the buoy in, but does not work so well for repairs because of the height difference relative to the electronics compartment on the buoy, and the combined motions of the two create a sometimes difficult dynamic. A boat of the type we need costs about $5,000 used. This type of boat can tie up to the buoy at the proper height without damaging it, and thus facilitate ease of maintenance.
I also planned to put up a $2,000 webcam this season so you can see the buoy and the ocean around it, maybe some whales and dolphins. And we planned to introduce a new project of ours that we hope will help move us towards a world above water that better supports life in the ocean. We are calling the project Haleakala Institute. It is now functioning as a "think tank" on issues of importance to supporting a healthy environment. We plan on a resource center and demonstration project. We need about $5,000 to move it to the next step.
Our donations to support The Whalesong Project have declined dramatically this season. We are a volunteer organization, and we have been operating on about $15,000 per year. I think we have received less than $800 in donations over the past 9 months. With the economy the way it is we are all challenged, and I am no exception. I may not be able to complete the season using my credit cards to keep this all going. So we need $15,000 to pay off our debt and get ourselves through this season and into next with the live webcast. And we need $12,000 more to move our other initiatives forward.
We are doing everything we can to keep our work going because we think it is important. What we could really use right now is a donation or donations that would allow us to really go forward with our work.......beyond maintaining this system that allows us to connect with the ocean and whale world, and move further into education and demonstration of sustainable ways to live and protect the oceans and whales at the same time....The Haleakala Institute.
We have a team that loves the oceans and wants to do good things, and has the intelligence and energy and good will to do it. If you know anyone who can help support the project financially please connect us!
Thank you,
Dan
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