Save Sea Turtles
Eleven human deaths. [1] Dead sea turtles and fish washed ashore. [2] Whales swimming through oily, toxic waters, [3] poisoned as they surface for air. [4] And potentially billions of dollars lost to already-struggling fishing- and tourism-dependent communities along the Gulf Coast. [5]
We’ve seen enough. It’s time to act.
Urge Obama to Restore the Ban on Offshore Drilling
Experts say at least 400 species of wildlife are threatened by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Dead sea turtles have already been photographed on Mississippi’s beaches.
Help us send 50,000 messages to President Obama by Friday. Take action now…
Even as I write this, our staff experts are preparing to fly to the Gulf to document the impact of the spill on wildlife and advocate for the animals and habitat now imperiled by the spill. Defenders board member and world-famous wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin is already on the scene.
Whether you live on the Gulf Coast or elsewhere, this is a tremendous environmental emergency, and our Gulf Coast wildlife is going to need Jeff, our staff experts… and you.Please take action right now and urge President Obama to restore the presidential ban on harmful drilling off our coasts.
At least 400 wildlife species (not counting micro-organisms) and 19 essential wildlife refuges – one of which hosted some 34,000 birds just days before the spill – are already threatened by the Gulf spill. [6]
And the remnants of the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling operation continue to spew at least 5,000 barrels (more than 200,000 gallons) of toxic oil into the Gulf of Mexico each day… with no end in sight. [7]
For the Wild Ones, Worse, Big Oil and their political allies are tenacious, well-funded and committed to industrializing our coasts… even at the cost of another ecological disaster. As the Gulf Coast crisis continues to grow, drilling proponents like former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (who should know better!) continued the call for more offshore drilling. [8]
For 27 years, a congressional ban on offshore drilling largely protected our coastal wildlife from offshore drilling disasters like this. But that all changed in 2008, when then-President George W. Bush rescinded the ban his father put in place after the Exxon Valdez tanker spill – and Congress quickly followed suit by lifting their own ban on drilling in certain areas.
President Obama – who just weeks ago called for more offshore drilling – has issued a temporary halt to drilling activities in new areas in the wake of the Deepwater disaster, granting a temporary reprieve to sensitive areas like North Carolina’s Outer Banks and the only known calving grounds for the North Atlantic right whales off the coast of Georgia and Florida.
But the President has not yet said that he’ll stop drilling activities planned for this summer in Alaska’s pristine Chukchi and Beaufort Seas – home to polar bears, walrus, and bowhead whales.Now is the time to stop them… and protect our sea turtles, whales and other wildlife. Please take action right now.
 |
 Rodger Schlickeisen President Defenders of Wildlife |
Defending Wildlife
 |
One month before the Deepwater Gulf oil disaster, President Obama called for more offshore drilling… and Defenders responded. We mobilized hundreds of conservationists along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts to testify against a proposal that could lead to more dangerous dirty drilling at public hearings. And today, we’ve delivered more than 47,000 comments from caring people like you urging the Department of Interior to abandon the plan altogether. |
Notes