Whales Arriving - A New Season Begins

This unusual photo shows the President of the Maldive Islands at an underwater cabinet meeting, signing a document calling on all countries to cut their carbon dioxide emissions. Rising sea levels could put the Maldives under water. See Story.

We at Whalesong Project remain committed to raising awareness about ocean health issues, and to promoting activities that will protect the worldʻs oceans. We cannot have a healthy planet without healthy oceans.

I am in Thailand right now, where the ASEAN Community just completed their annual conference. They have made a strong unified commitment to dealing with global warming. Not far from here, the new Prime Minister of Japan has made a promise of aggressive cuts of carbon dioxide emissions, and a new generation of electric cars are being showcased. China is making great strides in solar cell production. But the challenges sometimes seem daunting, with the ice caps melting at unanticipated rates.

Switching topics, I, for one, am happy that our President received the Nobel Peace Prize. Without nuclear arms control and trust building, itʻs hard to imagine how we are going to be able to reduce the amount of sonar being used by the military powers of the world. Sonar is a problem if you are a whale or a dolphin, and use of sonar is growing. Congratulations President Obama! And thanks for recognizing global warming!

This picture was taken during a recent system upgrade meeting, as we prepare for season 10. Rich Shipley, shown on the computer desktop talking to me by Skype (Iʻm in Thailand), has been a vital part of the project since the beginning. Heʻs in California, and heʻs adding 100 more 64K audio streams. We plan these streams to be launchable from more platforms, easier to use, more reliable. Behind Rich is the new Whalesong German website http://www.whalesong.info, which was put together by Markus Enderle and his crew in Germany. We might be spread out, but we are committed. The whales are already arriving. New challenges await us all. Letʻs pull together and do the best we can, okay?

Getting ready for Season Number 10

The Whalesong Project is preparing for Season Ten! We continue to hear from teachers and students, and all kinds of people who are listening to our live webcast every year. We continue to operate as an all-volunteer organization focused on inspiring people to care for the oceans. We feel we made progress recently when the first necropsy was performed on Maui that looked at the ears of the beached whale for acoustic trauma. This is something we have been talking to numerous politicians and agencies about for the past nine years. We also are making progress on a new initiative to model sustainable living ideas on our home Island, Maui. We need to change our lifestyle as a species if we are going to slow the melting of the glaciers and keep the oceans healthy. We are calling this project Haleakalā Institute. Please join us in our work by volunteering, or by pushing the Paypal button on the right top side of this page.

Your donations will give our volunteers some money to work with on this labor of love. Last year was a challenging one financially and we are hoping for more support from our listeners this season, so we can make improvements and move our new projects forward. Thank you!!!