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Adopt a Whale

You and 99 other donors can adopt a whale to protect it from being hunted or captured and keep it healthy by preventing pollution!

200 points

Overall: 4.7/5 (131 votes)

Donation details Every day, whales are exposed to life threatening conditions such as whale hunting, captivity, pollution, salt mining and explosives. Your adoption will help to preserve the lives of whales and other marine animals and educate others on what they can do to save these animals from death and extinction. You will also help by providing resources toward rescuing whales who have been entangled in fishing nets or injured by fishing boats.

Show your support for the whales who need you by making a donation today!

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About Save the Whale
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Threats to Whales
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Save the Whales

Our purpose is to educate children and adults about marine mammals, their environment and their preservation.

Save the Whales was founded in 1977 when Maris Sidenstecker was 14 years old, and focuses on educating the public, especially children, about marine mammals and the fragile ocean environment.

Save the Whales believes children, the future of the planet, need to be empowered and know that their actions can promote change. Education is the key to saving whales, oceans, and ourselves.

Killings, captures, bombings, and pollution continue to threaten these peaceful creatures. We invite you to become a member of Save The Whales, a widely- admired nonprofit organization that has been working tirelessly to protect marine life for over 25 years.

Your membership enables Save the Whales to continue their valuable work to protect marine animals.

Our Work

Save the Whales Prevents Navy "ship shock" tests and saves 10,000 Marine Mammals
In an unprecedented victory, Save the Whales attorneys and scientific experts stopped the U.S. Navy from detonating 269 "Ship Shock" explosives in waters off of Southern California. Countless marine mammals were saved from death and injury including endangered whales, dolphins, and seals.

Save the Whales Stops Salt Mining Operation
Save the Whales, in conjunction with Mexican and U.S. environmental groups, worked relentlessly to halt Mitsubishi's plan to expand salt mining operations into the fragile San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja California - the last undeveloped gray whale birthing lagoon in the world.

Save the Whales Supports Rescue Efforts
Fishing nets entangle and drown marine mammals everyday. Our support of a rescue boat operation off of Southern California, saves whales, dolphins, seals, and birds that would otherwise die a slow and painful death.

Save the Whales Campaigns Against Whaling
Despite the 1986 moratorium on whaling, the slaughter continues. Please join our letter-writing campaign to government officials and request that sanctions be placed against offending nations.

Save the Whales Works to Stop Marine Mammal Capture and Captivity
Taken from their families in the wild, 50% of dolphins die within 2 years and their estimated life span shrinks from 35 years to less than 5. Save the Whales continues to educate the public about the cruelty of captivity.

Save the Whales Works with Local, State, and Federal Agencies to Reduce Urban Runoff
Sea otters in Monterey, California are dying from diseases believed to be caused by urban runoff. Storm water pollution (urban runoff) is one of the largest sources of water pollution nationwide. Pollutants, including used motor oil, antifreeze, detergents, litter, paint, pesticides, pet waste, and copper, are flushed off streets and into storm drains which lead straight into rivers, creeks, and the oceans. Toxic chemicals (DDT and PCB's) in the ocean continue to affect marine mammals. Educating the public about this serious water quality issue is a priority for Save the Whales.

Save Whales: The Next Generation
No one action will ensure the safety of whales for all time. This is why Save the Whales devotes so much time reaching out to children about marine life. So far, over 275,000 children have learned about whales and how to save sea life through Whales on Wheels "WOW". This innovative hands-on program - taught by marine biologists - brings whale bones, marine mammals artifacts, and conservation messages to the classroom.

"WOW" has traveled across the nation visiting school children in Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, and California. "WOW" is now based in Monterey County, California.

Since 2003, the Save The Whales BWET program has been taking students out in the natural environment to observe their local watershed, take water quality data and use scientific intstruments. This nine-month hands-on opportunity allows students to see how human activities on land caused by pollution can enter creeks and streams and flow to the ocean. Save The Whales focuses on after-school programs in East Salinas, California as it is one of the highest crime areas in Central California. Offering positive opportunities for students keeps them engaged and allows them to see how they can make a difference in their community.

Worldwide and nationwide, we educate the public by disseminating information by snail mail, email, web site, Adopt A Whale kits, newsletters, an award winning TV public service announcement, media and radio appearances, and events.
Threats to Whales

Imagine a century ago when parts of the sea were teaming with whales. But human intervention changed this. The commercial whaling era killed millions of whales and made them into lubricants, cosmetics, margarine, and meal. Today, the sight of a whale is sporadic at best and totally absent in many locales previously populated by whales. For example:
- The Gray whale in the North Atlantic is extinct.
- The Indus Susu, or Indian River dolphin, is barely hanging to its shrunken habitat.
- The European stock of Bowhead whales, between east Greenland and Novaya Zemba, is almost extinct.
- In the Northern Pacific Right whales, the Korean stock of Gray whales, and a small ("cochito") in the Gulf of California may soon be gone.
No marine species remains unaffected by human activities. A viable population depends on the health of the ecosystem in which it exists, and the many forms of pollution extend to all the world's oceans threatening all species. Low level contamination of the smaller prey species becomes concentrated in the tissue of larger marine predators and apexes in marine mammals. Planktonic organisms are carried great distances by winds and sea currents and larger nektonic creatures travel large expanses of oceans on their own accord. Both carry pesticides, heavy-metals, and disease causing organisms to all sea areas. Contamination levels in some toothed whales and dolphins are known to be high. How this affects their individual fitness or their ability to reproduce is still largely unknown.

The Beluga whale population of the St. Lawrence in Canada has been declining since protection in 1979. Through autopsies, researches have discovered high concentrations of PCB and DDT which are stored in the fatty tissues of mammals. Dead Belugas have revealed bladder and liver cancer which has never been seen before in marine mammals. Other diseases found in Belugas are hepatitis, splenic tumors, pneumonia, herpes,skin diseases, ulcers and blood poisoning, all which suggest suppression of the immune system.

Toxicologists based in New York have completed research on Elephant seals off Northern California coasts. they have found high levels of coplanar PCBs and skin diseases in this species. Along the west coast of the United States. Autopsies of Bottlenose dolphins show high PCB and DDT levels.

In addition to chemical pollution, oil slicks are commonplace in the oceans. Somw whales and dolphins in the Western North Atlantic have been surfacing repeatedly through and oil slicked area.In contrast, Gray whales studies off of the Southern California coast changed their migratory path and their swimming and diving behavior when coming into contact with oil patches from seepage. Thousands of marine mammals are killed annually by gill nets and fish traps; Whaling practices common today in Norway, the Faroe Islands and Japan.

Noise pollution also threatens the existence of cetaceans. Large ships and boats make a tremendous amount of noise that falls into the same frequency range of many whales. This could be a contributing factor to the noticeable shift in the migration route of some California Gray whales. Some are making a detour around the west side of the Channel Islands, possible to avoid the noise pollution os Southern California sea traffic. Recent studies done in Newfoundland reveal that Humpback whales entangled in gill nets have damaged ears. Since sound plays a vital role in the life of whales, dolphins and porpoises, noise pollution must be considered significant, especially when it is of the magnitude of the Governments Ship Shock plans off the Southern California coast which were stopped by Save the Whales, and the poorly planned ATOC tests, watered down only after outraged protests by environmental groups and citizens.

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