Dear friends,

The whales need our help. Please share this message far and wide.....

The international vote that could legalize commercial whale hunting is
just days away. 650,000 of us have signed the petition to protect
whales, and an Avaaz team is on the ground to make sure we're heard --
let's super-charge this campaign by hitting 1 million signatures! Add
your name and then forward this message:

Sign the petition!
In one week, the International Whaling Commission will hold its final
vote on a proposal to legalize commercial whale hunting for the first
time in a generation

The outcome rests on whose voices are heard most clearly in the final
hours: the pro-whaling lobby -- or the world's people?

More than 650,000 of us have signed the petition to protect whales --
it's time to reach 1 million! At the whale summit in Morocco, an Avaaz
team is setting up billboards, front-page newspaper ads, and a giant,
constantly-updating petition counter -- all to ensure that delegates,
from the moment they step off the plane until they cast their votes,
will see from our explosive numbers that the world will not accept legal
whale slaughter. Click to sign, and forward this email to everyone:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/whales_last_push/?vl
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/whales_last_push/?vl

Thanks to the worldwide outcry, many governments have already pledged to
oppose the proposal. Each time the Avaaz whale petition added 100,000
signatures, it was sent again to the IWC and key governments -- some,
like New Zealand, thanked all of us who had signed on.

But pressure from the other side has been relentless. Now other
governments, especially in Europe and Latin America, may abstain... or
even support the proposal. The vote could go either way.

Citizen pressure is our best hope. After all, it was an explosive
worldwide social movement in the 1980s that led to the commercial
whaling ban we're now trying to protect. As the International Whaling
Commission meets in Morocco -- starting this Thursday, the 17th, with
the crucial vote less than a week away -- let's make sure the world's
voices are there to greet them:

After the global ban was first implemented on commercial whaling, the
number of whales killed each year plummeted from 38,000 per year to just
a couple of thousand. It's a testament to the power of humanity to move
forward. As we move to confront the other crises of the modern age,
let's cherish this legacy of progress -- by joining together now to
protect our majestic and intelligent neighbors on this fragile planet.

With hope,

Ben, Ben M, Maria Paz, Ricken, Benjamin, David, Graziela, Luis, and the
whole Avaaz team

P.S.: Despite the ban, Japan, Norway, and Iceland have continued whaling
-- and are now pushing to make the IWC proposal as lenient as possible.
Expecting permission to catch more whales than ever, Japan is reportedly
planning to buy its largest whaling ship yet. Click here to sign the
petition against commercial whaling!
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/whales_last_push/?cl=615499325&v=6631

https://secure.avaaz.org/act/index.php?r=act
https://secure.avaaz.org/act/index.php?r=act