Save the
 Gray Whale
 Nursery
SAVED! Thanks to everyone who wrote!

SACRAMENTO:

November 2, 1999 -- Sacramento City Council Passes Motion Calling on Mitsubishi to Abandon Salt Factory Plans and Takes First Step to End All Contracts Between City and Mitsubishi. 
 

Sacramento City Council Member Lauren Hammond:
"There are no compelling reasons why this salt plant must be built in Laguna San Ignacio. It's just too risky to build a salt plant twice the size of Washington, D.C. near this delicate ecosystem. Sacramento needs to send the message that until Mitsubishi changes its plans, we don't buy it."

From the International Fund for Animal Welfare

November 2, 1999 -- City of Berkeley Passes Resolution Calling on Mitsubishi to Abandon Salt Factory Plans and Takes First Step to End All Contracts with Between City and Mitsubishi. 

Amendment introduced by Council Member Dona Spring: Request legislators on the state and federal level to co-sponsor legislation to boycott Mitsubishi and encourage them to take all possible steps to assist the campaign against Mitsubishi.
 

Resolution amended 2 times before passing unanimously (9-0) as an item on the consent calendar

The Gray Whales migrate from their Alaskan feeding grounds to nurseries in the warm waters of the Sea of Cortez in Baja California, Mexico. Now the last untouched whale nursery in North America -- in the San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja California -- is being threatened by Mitsubishi corporation of Japan.

Mitsubishi plans to build a massive desalination plant in the last refuge of these magnificent animals. This will involve displacing millions of gallons of ocean water a day from the whale's nursery waters and salt transport freighters crisscrossing the sanctuary.

We simply can't stand idle by while another corporate raider destroys one of Earth's last remaining rare environmental treasures! Please join in the global campaign to save the great Gray Whale's nursery waters.

According to Natural Resources Defense Council, the lagoon was named a World Heritage Site in 1993. Now the whale sanctuary is threatened by a massive salt works proposed by Mitsubishi.

                   The best chance to protect it at the international level lies in getting the
                   World Heritage Committee to add it to the "In Danger" list.
                   Presented with compelling evidence that Mitsubishi's plan poses a
                   dire threat to the sanctuary, and with an unprecedented outpouring
                   of public concern, the Committee agreed to dispatch an
                  investigative team to Laguna San Ignacio.

                   That means that the Committee could vote by the end of the year to
                   declare the sanctuary "In Danger" -- a move that could deliver the
                   death blow to Mitsubishi's proposal. But the World Heritage
                   Committee isn't likely to take that step -- and Mitsubishi certainly
                   won't back down -- without a continued showing of support from
                   concerned citizens around the world, like yourself.

               Mitsubishi already operates a salt factory at Guerrero Negro,
                   another calving lagoon (there are 3 in all). A spill of toxic brine
                   wastes from this facility caused the death of 94 endangered sea
                   turtles in December 1997. And in May, scientists observed another
                   spill of more than 4 million gallons that resulted in large fish kills.
                   These incidents, which prompted more than 50 environmental
                   groups to file criminal charges, clearly illustrate the danger posed
                   by the proposed plant at Laguna San Ignacio, which each year
                   would produce one billion gallons of wastes containing deadly
                   concentrations of magnesium, bromides and other chemicals.

With millions of dollars in export income at stake, the Mexican Ministry of Environment will be under enormous political pressure to allow Mitsubishi to go ahead. That's why its important that the World Heritage Committee declare the whale sanctuary "In Danger" and we rally a global call to action now.
Construction could begin as early as the end of the year! Mitsubishi has received thousands of letters of protest. Let's makes it millions with a global Internet campaign! We must act now.

•   Email the World Heritage Committee
•   Send a letter of protest to Mitsubishi
•   Write to Mexico's Secretary of Environment

Sample letters (please feel free to use or personalize):

Dear Ambassador Matsuura,

I want to applaud you and the entire World Heritage
Committee for agreeing to dispatch a delegation to
the Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino in order to study
the threat posed by construction of a massive,
industrial salt works by a Mitsubishi joint venture.

I urge you to appoint the highest-level delegation
and to make the success of this fact-finding mission
an absolute top priority in 1999. By doing so you will
send a signal that the World Heritage Committee is
seriously committed to protecting the unique natural
and cultural treasures that belong to all humankind.

Send a letter of protest to Mitsubishi:
                   Mr. Hiroaki Yano
                   President
                   Mitsubishi International
                   520 Madison Avenue
                   New York, NY 10022

                   Dear Mr. Yano:

                   I strenuously oppose Mitsubishi's joint venture to build the world's largest salt
                   factory at Laguna San Ignacio -- the Gray Whale's last unspoiled nursery and a
                   World Heritage Site that belongs to all humankind. As you know, the World
                   Heritage Committee has decided to dispatch a fact-finding delegation to the
                   Whale Sanctuary to study the threat posed by your facility. In the wake of that
                   decision I implore you to protect our World Heritage -- and Mitsubishi's good
                   name -- by scrapping your plans now. 

                   Sincerely,
 

For more pictures of Gray Whales, see:
Gray Whale Advocate

To hear more whale songs, see:
Whales!
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