Response to Presidential Letter Regarding Cape Verde Humpback Whales

The Society received the following response to its presidential letter regarding the risk to Cape Verde humpback whales from explosives in the Port of Sai-Rei from Conor Ryan, a scientist with Marine Conservation Research International who is investigating the seasonality of humpback whales in the archipelago.

Hi all,

This is a brief update to all those who responded to our MARMAM post.

Firstly, many thanks to you all for your support – the response to the our request for help with our campaign was outstanding and very encouraging. Official letters were sent from the CMS, IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group, the SMM to name but a few. We also published a one page open letter translated into Portuguese on ASemana which was kindly sponsored by anonymous donors.

For now, the environment ministry has recommended that the blasting is postponed until after June 15. From correspondence in which I was cc’ed, the relevant Cape Verdean authorities seem to be very aware that there is international pressure to ensure that developments such as this one do not contravene international agreements to which Cape Verde is party.

Best wishes,
Conor Ryan
Marine Conservation Research International
www.marineconservationresearch.org

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