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Major Focus Funding of Marine Environment Concerns: |
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The Ocean Foundation ($1,750,000)
In 2008, the Pacific Life Foundation created the Pacific Life Foundation Whale Research Fund with a $218,000 grant to The Ocean Foundation. By the end of 2012, over $1.75 million will have been contributed to the Fund. The first grants were distributed from this Fund at the beginning of 2010, totaling $556,607. This funding went to support research that would yield specific results towards protecting some of the most highly endangered marine mammal species in North America, specifically the North Pacific Right Whale, Cook Inlet Beluga, and Vaquita Porpoise.
In 2012, the Fund began providing multi-year grants to seven new research projects that are focused on providing a greater understanding of humpback whales.
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Aquarium of the Pacific: Voices in the Sea ($397,038)
Beginning in 2003, the Foundation funded the development and implementation of Whales: Voices in the Sea, an interactive exhibit that was unveiled in 2004 at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California. The exhibit is a collaboration between the Aquarium of the Pacific, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and the Pacific Life Foundation. The award-winning educational exhibit is housed in a large kiosk and is designed to educate aquarium visitors about whales and porpoises by having them listen and learn about the sounds of the whales, watch videos of the marine mammals in their natural habitat, learn about conservation issues, and view recorded interviews with scientists. An online version of the exhibit was also developed and can be accessed at http://www.voicesinthesea.org/. The exhibit can now be found in six venues with a combined attendance of 5.3 million. The venues include: Aquarium of the Pacific (Long Beach, CA), Birch Aquarium (La Jolla, CA), Georgia Aquarium (Atlanta, GA), National Aquarium (Washington, D.C.), Seattle Aquarium (Seattle, WA), and Tennessee Aquarium (Chattanooga, TN).
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International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) ($300,000)
For the past 20 years, there has been a ban on global whaling. The Pacific Life Foundation contributed a 3-year grant (ending in 2010) to IFAW’s public relations campaign to encourage local governments of selected Caribbean islands to support the international ban on whaling at the International Whaling Commission. IFAW (http://www.ifaw.org/), along with other non-governmental organizations and some governments, have made significant progress to bring several Caribbean and Central American countries over to the anti-whaling side.
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Oregon State University/Marine Mammal Institute ($55,000)
In conjunction with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Northwest Fisheries, the Pacific Life Foundation funded a study by Oregon State University to provide an independent estimate of the illegal and undocumented killings of minke whales and other large whales in South Korean waters. This survey was presented to the International Whaling Commission in 2009 in an effort to counteract South Korea’s efforts to increase their commercial catch allotment.
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SPLASH/Cascadia Research ($260,000)
In 2005 and 2006 the Pacific Life Foundation was a major funder of the SPLASH (Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance, and Status of Humpbacks) Project which was one of the largest international collaborative studies of any whale population ever conducted. It was designed to determine abundance, trends, movements, and population structure of humpback whales throughout the North Pacific and to examine human impacts on this population. This successful study involved over 50 research groups and more than 400 researchers in ten countries. In 2008, a foundation grant was given to begin the process of making all the data that was collected available to future researchers through an online catalog. The catalog is expected to be the largest and most complete catalog of humpback whale identifications ever compiled, with over 10,000 unique identifications.
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American Cetacean Society’s Gray Whale Workshop ($30,000)
A grant to underwrite the Gray Whale Research Workshop which took place following the American Cetacean Society’s Conference in Monterey, CA in November 2008. The purpose of the workshop was to bring together a group of marine scientists with broad research interests to review and discuss gray whale population dynamics and behavior change in the context of environmental changes that are being observed throughout the gray whales’ North Pacific and Arctic range. The goal of the workshop was to assist in the development of a qualitative framework for integrating gray whales and other marine mammals into ecosystem and climate change studies.
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Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans (CEDO) ($54,400)
A foundation grant supported the Corsair Project, a component of the 2008 Vaquita Expedition which monitored the critically endangered vaquita (also known as the Gulf of California harbor porpoise) who are only found in the Northern Gulf of California. The vaquita is the world’s most critically endangered marine mammal with about 150 remaining. Under current fishing practices, it is estimated that 40 vaquita are killed each year in nets. This number far exceeds the number of calves that are produced by the remaining mammals. At this rate, vaquita are likely only two years away from declining to a level where extinction may be inevitable. The Corsair Project surveyed the vaquita population in fall 2008 by acoustic detection of vaquita vocalizations using a passive hydrophone arrays towed behind a sailing vessel (Corsair) and we expect a report to be published on this survey in early 2009.
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Scripps Hildebrand Lab/University of California, San Diego ($15,000)
This grant was used to hire an undergraduate research assistant (Sara Kerosky) to produce a report that summarizes current cetacean research and conservation efforts worldwide and also U.S. government policy regarding marine mammals. This report highlights current research needs and ongoing conservation issues. To view a copy of the report, please click here.
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University of Alaska Southeast ($30,000)
This grant was made in collaboration with the Whale Fund of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which provided $89,000 towards the survey. These two grants funded the collection of data about whale-ship encounters from observers on cruise ships in Alaska and the creation of models to test how factors like ship speed influence these encounters. The project’s aim was to implement more effective, evidence based management strategies and influence cruise ship itineraries or routes in order to reduce encounters or strikes of humpback whales.
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Pro Peninsula ($68,000)
A two year grant designated to the Laguna San Ignacio Ecosystem Science Program to help fund the 2006 and 2008 field studies of gray whales by Dr. Steven Swartz and Dr. Jorge Urban.
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The Whale Center of New England ($30,000)
This center was founded in 1980 to study whales using the waters off the coast of Massachusetts. In 2007, this pre-eminent research institution was in need of a larger vessel to increase its capacity to conduct whale research further offshore. A one-time grant from the foundation helped to make the purchase of a new research vessel possible.
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Pacific Marine Mammal Center ($110,000)
Pacific Life Foundation contributed $40,000 in 2005 & 2006 towards the center’s Americans with Disabilities Act upgrades, which included installation of a wheelchair lift and other capital improvements. In 2009, Pacific Life Foundation contributed an additional $20,000 to support their renovation of the center’s nursery and ICU. At the end of 2010, the Center received considerable damage from rainstorms and mudflows, and the Foundation provided a $50,000 emergency grant to the Center's Flood Relief Fund in an effort to reopen the facility as quickly as possible.
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Ocean Alliance ($500,000)
A multi-year grant from the Pacific Life Foundation helped support the Voyage of the Odyssey, a five-year (2000-2005) research trip conducted aboard the Ocean Alliance’s research vessel Odyssey (www.oceanalliance.org). The Odyssey circled the globe to gather baseline data on levels and effects of synthetic contaminants in all of the world’s oceans by taking thumbnail-sized tissue samples from more than 900 sperm whales. The sperm whale was chosen because they are a species that can be found in every ocean on the planet, have long life spans, and feed high on food chains thus making them a good measure of ocean pollution. The research turned up shocking evidence of contaminants in marine mammals including high levels of toxins such as DDT, PCB, HCB, mercury, chromium, and aluminum, among many others.
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The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation ($150,000)
The Pacific Life Foundation supported the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s (NFWF) (http://www.nfwf.org/) National Whale Conservation Fund in 2002 and 2003. The fund supports research, management, and education to protect and restore whale populations in the U.S. waters.
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Whale Conservation Institute / Ocean Alliance ($129,000)
In 1998, the Foundation funded the W.H.A.L.E. (Whales Higher Appreciation Learning Experience) education program, presented to 100 primary and secondary schools in the fall of 1998 to educate teachers and students about marine mammals. WHALE '99, the second phase of the program, was a collaborative effort between the Whale Conservation Institute/Ocean Alliance (WCI/OA), Destination Cinema (national distributor of the IMAX film, Whales), and ten science museums in major metropolitan areas throughout the nation which hosted the project. WCI/OA staff visited museums to show the IMAX version of Whales and then presented a lecture following the screening to educate and inspire 600 students at each museum to learn more about marine mammals and how to protect them. In addition, each participating student’s classroom received the W.H.A.L.E. program materials, which included classroom curriculum, reference books, CDs, a CD-ROM, video tapes and a poster. |