Posts by Sabrina Braunlich
Amazon Announces End of AmazonSmile Program
Amazon announced on January 19th, 2023 that it is ending its AmazonSmile donation program by February 20th. The program allowed Amazon customers to make donations while shopping online. 0.5% of each qualifying purchase was donated to the charity of their choosing with WDC being one of the charities available. In a statement, Amazon said “with…
Read MoreOrca Found Dead on Florida Beach
Credit: Flagler County Sheriff’s Office On January 11th, a 21-foot-long female orca died after stranding on a beach in Palm Coast, Florida. WDC’s Stranding Coordinator, Sarah McCormack, was in a meeting with rescue, response, and rehabilitation organizations across the country when news broke about this extremely rare occurrence. “I’ve been doing this for 30 years,…
Read MoreEleventh hour push in Montreal secures hope for the protection and restoration of Ocean biodiversity
After four years of discussion, the second and final part of COP15 took place in Montreal, Canada from 7th to 19th December. Over 20,000 people came from all corners of the world to secure a deal that will set us on a path to living in harmony with nature. WDC representatives, Vanesa Tossenberger and…
Read MoreSurvivor Series: Meet the North Atlantic Right Whales
Time to meet some of the endangered right whales under the water! North Atlantic right whales are constantly threatened by being hit by vessels…here’s some stories of some of the survivors. Georgia DNR Wildlife with NOAA permit 20556-01. Meet Calvin! Calvin is a female born in 1992 from a whale named Delilah. When Calvin was…
Read MoreCaptive Orca Nakai Dies at SeaWorld San Diego
credit: SeaWorld San Diego An orca has died while in captivity at SeaWorld San Diego. Nakai, a captive orca died of an infection this past Friday. He is the second orca to die at the park – Amaya, a 6-year-old female died in August 2021 and before that Kasatka, a 42-year-old female died in August…
Read MoreFederal Proposal Aims to Protect Endangered Right Whales From Ship Strikes
For Immediate Release, July 29, 2022 WASHINGTON— The National Marine Fisheries Service proposed a rule today to better protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales from being run over and killed by vessels in U.S. waters. Vessel strikes are one of the two primary threats to right whales; the other is entanglement in fishing gear.…
Read MoreWest Coast Whale Watching with Maya Higa
“We need someone to go on a whale watch in Monterey.” Well, I’ve never been to California and I love watching whales! As we chatted about an incredible outreach and fundraising opportunity with WDC-UK and the Twitch streamer Maya Higa, it was a simple “yes!” for me! We first partnered with Maya Higa in 2020…
Read MoreI signed a petition…now what?
What happens after you sign a petition? Luckily, we have some incredible people on our staff to answer some of my questions so I called up Colleen, one of our policy pros. Our petition might be closed but that doesn’t mean you can’t keep helping right whales! Raise your RIGHT hand and sign our pledge!…
Read MoreNew Kid in the Office
When I held the crown of “New Kid in the Office” back in summer of 2017, there were only four other full-time people working here at the North American office. Missy, Michelle, Monica, and Regina seemed to juggle communications, fundraising, administrative tasks, donation processing, program management, grant management and more. When I started, everyone was…
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