We are excited to announce that we are supporting WDC, Whale and Dolphin Conservation for World Ocean Day!
The WDC World Ocean Day Sale runs until 15th June, 10am PDT 2024, where you can play the fin-tastic Selfloss demo!
Who is WDC?
WDC, Whale and Dolphin conservation is the leading global charity dedicated to the protection and conservation of whales and dolphins.
Their expert-led teams in the UK, Europe, the Americas, and Australasia work across the whole spectrum of threats, from climate breakdown to accidental entanglements in fishing gear. They bring together, and work hand-in-hand with, businesses, philanthropists, scientists, NGOs, governments and grassroots communities to find solutions to the problems faced by whales and dolphins.
Their aim is to reverse the global decline in whale and dolphin populations by creating safe seas for these majestic creatures.
Entanglement in fishing gear, or ‘bycatch’ as it’s known, is the biggest threat whales and dolphins face. Many hundreds of thousands die in nets or get tangled up in fishing gear every year. As air-breathing mammals like us, when they get trapped in a net, panic can take over and they can sustain terrible injuries before either escaping, or suffocating. It is a massive problem and so WDC are working on some innovative solutions.
What WDC has been doing so far
WDC have been working across the globe to protect whales, dolphins and porpoises from dying in fishing gear:
- They’re collaborating with creel fishers in Scotland to trial new types of fishing gear to reduce entanglements of humpback and minke whales.
- They’re working with colleagues and partner organisations in the Central Baltic Sea to develop a recovery plan for a critically endangered group of Baltic harbour porpoises.
- On the west coast of the United States, critically endangered North Atlantic right whales are facing extinction. Entanglement is a massive threat to their survival, and WDC have been working with fishers to trial alternative gear types. In Hong Kong WDC have been supporting local community efforts and working with fishers to save the remaining 200 Indo-Pacific finless porpoises from extinction due to bycatch.
These projects are saving lives, and they are powered by inspiring people working together for the ocean.
How your support will help this year
By purchasing games from this year’s World Ocean Day sale, you will help WDC continue these vital conservation projects across the globe, as well as enable WDC’s team to embark on new efforts to bring further protections for whales and dolphins, like the Sri Lankan gillnet fisheries project:
- Sri Lanka is home to many species of whales, dolphins and porpoises as well as a myriad of other sensitive marine species like sea turtles that are vulnerable to entanglement in gillnets – these are nets that hang in the water like a wall. With funding, WDC hopes to collaborate with Sri Lankan artisanal tuna fisheries that use gillnets to trial new gear types and reduce the impact their fishing has on marine life, while still enabling them to earn their living.