Press Conference/Media Advisory
Friday May 18, 2007
For Immediate Release
USA Media Contacts
Leslie Morava (310) 428-9380
John Quigley (310) 927-3013 (JQ@SpectralQ.com)
Human Whale S.O.S. Project Launches in Loreto, Mexico Uniting Thousands of Children from Baja to Alaska
Giant ‘Human Whale Migration’ Aerial Art Project Calls For Action in Response to the Escalating Threat to Whale Survival
Loreto BCS, Mexico – On Friday May 18, youth and celebrities launch an environmental ‘aerial art’ project involving eight coastal cities from Baja to Alaska calling attention to the mounting worldwide crisis facing whales and dolphins. Mexican actor Fernando Sarfati and special international guests will join 1,000 Loreto school children to clean the beach and form a giant baby Blue whale and “SOS” with their bodies. The launch is being hosted by the Loreto Bay Foundation, Grupo Ecologista Antares, Wildcoast, Malibu Foundation, and Spectral Q. The Human Whale S.O.S. takes place on the shore of the National Marine Park of Loreto, in the Sea of Cortez.
Whales are increasingly threatened by the human impacts of global warming affecting their feeding grounds, over fishing, pollution, sonar abuses and an increased push to overturn the whaling moratorium of 1986 by commercial whaling nations. “As the home to Blue whale calving grounds and what Jacques Cousteau called ‘the world’s aquarium’, Loreto is the natural launch site for this critical campaign”, said John Quigley, aerial artist and producer of Spectral Q. “The proximity to the gray whale sanctuaries on the Pacific coast frame Baja California as the perfect place to send out this call. Global action is required now to stop the acceleration of the whale die-off.”
View images on the Whale S.O.S. Project
Nearly 10,000 children will participate as the Human Whale S.O.S. Project moves north to San Diego, Huntington Beach, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Humboldt for Ocean Day May 22. On May 24 the project reaches Victoria, BC then heads to Anchorage, Alaska May 27 for the International Whaling Commission’s 59th annual meeting where there will be renewed attempts by whaling nations to increase commercial whaling.
A diverse group of celebrities supports the Human Whale S.O.S. campaign including Daryl Hannah, Esai Morales, and Save The Whales Again! Campaign spokespersons Pierce Brosnan, Alexandra Paul (Baywatch), Hayden Panettiere (Heroes) and Stephen Colletti (MTV’s TRL).
The Human Whale S.O.S. Project sponsor list includes local and international environmental organizations. The Loreto Bay Foundation, Grupo Ecologista Antares, Wildcoast, Malibu Foundation, California Coastal Commission, I Love a Clean San Diego, Earth Resources, Headlands Institute, Friends of the Dunes, The Whaleman Foundation, Save The Whales Again! Campaign, Animal Welfare Institute, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee and Greenpeace are on board supporting the Human Whale S.O.S. Project as an effective way to link children from Mexico to California, Canada, and Alaska in protecting the oceans to save the whales. The organizers would like to extend a special thanks to the Loreto Bay Company for its support and ongoing commitment to conservation in Baja California. The campaign builds unity between children and brings international awareness to the current plight of whales and their very urgent need for outright protection worldwide. See www.spectralq.com for samples of human aerial art images.
