The Seal Chronicles

[The Seals of Nam]

Hi All. 

Wow! What an AMAZING couple of weeks it has been. Where to even begin?!

Ok. Firstly, award winning South African performing artist Louise du Toit has rallied to our aid. Louise, who is currently in Greece where she has over 200 appearances lined up, took time out from her busy schedule to write and record a song specifically for our campaign. She also took further effort to set this beautiful piece of music to some stunning imagery. We are absolutely THRILLED with the final product and are deeply indebted to Louise for her kind contribution. See it here  Gives me goosebumps. If you know of any other artists, established or not, who would like to contribute THEIR song, please get them to contact us. Once we have 12 - 15 of these songs, we will compile a CD. The proceeds will then go towards seal conservation. 

We have also managed to get extensive media coverage recently. The Green Prophet, (Middle East Environment News which records around 14 million hits per month) gave us some great exposure. See article HERE Another similar article appeared in The Cutting Edge News which you can read HERE  

Our protest actions have really taken off! Sandra (Foundation for Antarctic Research) flew to New York to make our presence felt at The New York Times Travel Show where Namibia had a stand. Fliers and over a hundred large posters of a seal being beaten to death were handed out over a two day period. Potential tourists were informed about the Namibian seal hunt and reasons for our boycott were explained. I have been informed that African Travel Association and the Namibian Tourism Board are VERY much aware of our activities and our international boycott of Namibia has got them extremely worried. 

Fur Free SA have put together a massive online awareness campaign that will be launched this Friday (9 March) They have managed to garner South African Celebrity support and the campaign will run across Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. Keep your eyes out for that one. It will surely be in the news, so we will update accordingly. You can follow Fur Free on Twitter @FurFreeSA and join in the action by sending A-list celebrities ready made instant Tweets. All you have to do is click!

Cape Town protest will be supported by Beauty without Cruelty as well as World Events to End Animal Cruelty. (WEEAC) I am certain Sea Shepherd folks will attend too. Durban will be hosting theirs near the Dick King Statue. They have their protest listed on East Coast Radio's website. Bite Back will be staging their protest outside the Namibian Embassy in Brussels. Other protests scheduled are London (outside the High Commission) Sydney, Melbourne, San Diego, Toronto, Boston and Denver. More to follow in due course. 

And then some rather disappointing news. Despite all our efforts, despite the ombudsmans meeting in Namibia, Bernard Esau the Namibian Fisheries Minister has announced the slaughter of seals will continue. He also plans to increase the annual quota to over 91 000. We feel this is a complete slap in the face. The ombudsman has yet to release his report. For Esau to jump the gun and make such an announcement leaves a bitter taste. We have responded with a press release where we make it known our efforts at boycott will be intensified.  

And then the biggest announcement yet! We have joined forces with Seal Alert SA on a massive project. We will be undertaking the worlds first complete, independent survey of the entire Cape Fur seal species. This expedition will require enormous funding and is an IDEAL platform for any potential sponsors to gain massive brand exposure. We have already got the interest of a professional film crew. Our plan is to leave Cape Town on 1 June, traveling up the west coast of Africa. We will monitor population dynamics, entanglement issues etc. We will engage with grassroots communities to see how we can get them involved in marine conservation. We will have a blog site up and running so people can follow our progress. Press releases and media interviews will be scheduled along the way and hopefully we will even have a celebrity or two join us on this scientific mission. Our major costs will be the hire of two 4x4's, fuel and getting the use of two large jet-ski's for a month. If you would like to sponsor us, or if you know of any potential company that would like to get involved, PLEASE contact me (Pat) at TheSea...@gmail.com or alternatively on my mobile +27 76 875 3545

Thanks to all for your continued support. 

 

Namibia seal hunt continues to anger people and has a negative impact on tourism

Kind Regards

Pat Dickens

Campaign Manager

The Seals of Nam

Tel: (+27) 76 875 3545

Fax: (+27) 86 512 1149

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