Nauset Disposal is once again helping lead the conservation charge here on Cape Cod – this time by partnering with The Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown to help find 1,000 Friends of Right Whales and raise $100,000 to help support the Right Whale Emergency Initiative. The hope is to have these funds raised by June 8, which is World Ocean Day, and be able to launch the initiative with those funds in the fall.
“The funds raised by our partnership with The Center for Coastal Studies will allow the Center to help locate and monitor right whales, lower the chances of boat strike, and raise awareness as to how we, as a community, can do better by marine life and the world,” said Kara Boule, Nauset’s Marketing and Community Investment Manager.
“We have a really good relationship with The Center for Coastal Studies,” said Boule. “We work with them on a lot of different levels. Shawn (DeLude, owner of Nauset Disposal) is on the Board. We support the various events they hold, and we partner with them for a lot of events.”
Last year, she said, they did a marine debris removal project, in which they had teams diving down in three of the local harbors to collect old lobster traps, fishing line, trash and whatever else was down there that could potentially harm marine life. Nauset provided roll off dumpsters in which to collect the trash that was accumulated.
Boule said the Center contacted Nauset and asked for help in this initiative. “We have a really high goal of raising this money by June 8,” Boule said. “It’s going to be a challenge, but I think that we can achieve it. We have great customers, and the best way to do this is by connecting those customers with the Center. We have a big audience, and a good voice, and all of that money will go to the Right Whale Emergency Initiative.”
With a population of around only 433 individual right whales (fewer than 100 of which are breeding females), the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales are among the rarest of all marine mammals. The future of the species is precarious at best, according to the Center.
At least 50 whales have died since 2010, and 18 of those were in the last 10 months, alone. Only five new calves were born in 2017. This year, researchers have yet to see even one. These catastrophic losses, coupled with historically low birthrates, have put the right whales on the path to extinction.
Needless to say, raising funds is crucial, and Nauset is has pledged to match the first 75 donations. “Our customers are also invested in their community,” Boule said. “We’re going to have some of our commercial clients spread the word, as well. They care about the environment and they care about this community. They see what we’re doing and want to be a part of that.”
Scientists have said the two greatest causes of whale death are boat strike and entanglement. The funds raised from this endeavor will help allow Center managers to locate and monitor right whales in Cape Cod Bay and in the waters east of the Cape, to expand mariner slow-down warnings and improve seasonal fisheries regulations, increase the probability of finding and freeing entangled whales, and raise public awareness of these critically endangered animals that desperately need our help to survive.
“We know that one of the most important things we can do to help the Center raise these funds is help them get the word out to the community” said Shawn DeLude. “This is ‘go time’ and I encourage our customers, our friends and our community to understand the importance and urgency of this matter. Let’s all step up, dig a little deeper and help grow support for an agency that is speaking for a mammal that can’t.”
To make a gift to the Center’s Right Whale Emergency Initiative and become one of the 1,000 Friends of Right Whales, visit coastalstudies.org/1000friends.
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