First up, we'd like to thank everyone for being part of the Visual Petition! It has been amazing to see all of your fabulous photos coming in. Thank you for all your comments of appreciation and support.. it's been quite overwhelming! The Visual Petition project is the brainchild of Dave Rastovich and Howie Cooke, the founders of Surfers for Cetaceans, and has been put together on a shoestring by a group of dedicated friends.. so it's great to see our efforts being so well supported.

We've passed the first milestone of 500 petitions, but time is running out! We need to get as many petitions in as possible before the next IWC meeting in Chile May 2008. Can you imagine the impact of a banner of thousands of faces - all standing up for the protection of marine mammals.. it's going to be awesome!

In late November, 2007, Dave Rastovich led an international group of over 30 surfers, celebrities, and musicians on a peaceful paddle-out ceremony to honor the more than 25,000 dolphins killed each year in Japan. The very day after the ceremony, fishermen in the tiny village of Taiji resumed the slaughter that had been delayed by the increased worldwide media attention.

In response, the surfers decided to send a small group on a pre-dawn return mission to the killing cove to recreate the ceremony. The six paddlers, including Rastovich, his wife mermaid model Hannah Fraser, Heroes TV star Hayden Panettiere, Australian actress Isabel Lucas, author Peter Heller and professional surfer Karina Petroni, formed a traditional surfers’ memorial circle situated between the whales and the blood-ridden shallows. Local fishermen converged almost immediately, harassing the paddlers with yelled threats and advancing on them with whirling propeller blades.

You can read more about this mission on the Journal Page, and there is also some must-see video footage on the Visual Petition Home Page.

Here are some more links:

YouTube Videos

Sea Shepherd - Taiji

Save Japan Dolphins

One Voice-Ear

Want to win a trip to the IWC Meeting in Chile with Dave Rastovich? Five people will win this trip, just by collecting petition photos! If you haven't checked it out yet, go to the Competition Top 10 Rankings page and see who's in the lead.

This competition isn't about luck, so you can go out there and make it happen! After you have successfully uploaded a petition photo, you can claim one point for it in the following page by entering your membership username. The people with the most points in each surf zone will win the trip.. simple as that! Go to the Competition Page for more information on how it works.

We've had a good start by shellymerrell in North America with 42 entries, and Skye B is leading in Australia with just 25 entries. So there isn't much to catch up for all of you out there that want to win a free trip!! We really need you all to be proactive and get out your cameras for this petition to have the huge impact we want at the next IWC Meeting. We have a VP Competition Pack you can download  - it contains information about the petition, a form where people can fill in their details and some samples of the petition. The competition closes on May 1st, 2008, so let's get moving!

One guy wrote in and told us that not only did he get some great petition photos, but it also turned out to be the best pick-up line he'd ever used! So get out there, meet some new people and spread the awareness about the plight of whales and dolphins. 

There has been a bit of confusion about what to upload as a petition photo. Photos must include the person's face, and either a cetacean image or a message. This way, the petition photos are undeniably in support of the cetaceans.. not just any images.

Please take photos with just one person in each photo, so that all the people on the petition are counted. Also, people can appear in the petition only once, so please don't upload lots of photos of the same person - we just have to delete them!

We've been amazed at how creative and moving your photos are.. if you haven't had a look at the petition for a while, check back.. it's great to see it's already growing all over the world!

We loved this one of Saori from Japan.... happy dolphins and happy people is what we're all about!

We'll be posting a "photo of the week" on each newsletter.. which may not be every week, but hopefully pretty regularly! So all you creative types out there, see how many ways you can get a person's face and a cetacean image onto a photo!