Join Katherine Sayler, Southeast Representative, at the 2024 North Atlantic Right Whale Festival to celebrate and raise awareness for this critically endangered whale!
Transcript:
We are at the North Atlantic Right Whale Festival in Fernandina Beach, Florida chatting with folks today about right whales and what they can do to help them. The North Atlantic Right Whale Festival brings together vendors, NGOs, there’s folks here from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and NOAA, to educate the public. Clearwater Marine Aquarium and other great partners are also here. There’s beautiful North Atlantic Right Whale artwork being sold, as well as food and music, there is a dog costume parade and all kinds of really cool activities for kids.
This is the anniversary of the North Atlantic Right Whale Festival, and it’s grown exponentially every single year. Sadly, the fewer whales we have, the bigger the festival’s gotten because I think we’re doing our jobs out here. We’re educating people to let them know how imperiled this species is. It’s extremely family oriented because we need the next generations educated in order to protect the species. I’m excited to be here and engage with our youth, to represent Defenders of Wildlife and tell them more about our mission, why these whales are important and kind of create the next generation of whale ambassadors.
My name’s Camilla, and I am eight years old and my favorite thing at the festival was helping protect the right whales.
I want to protect them because they’re going extinct and they’re really nice
and they help our ecosystem.
I love right whales and dolphins and sea turtles. My favorite thing is, at the festival is coloring this picture.
I’m hoping that the festival will really educate people, especially young people, about the importance of North Atlantic Right Whales and what we can do to protect them. And really come away with the concept that the biggest threat to North Atlantic Right Whales are human activities. So if we can stop leading to mortality, killing whales, essentially, and more whales are born than die, then we can really recover the species. It’s been a great day here at the North Atlantic Right Whale Festival and it’s been a wonderful opportunity to engage with so many young people and really get them interested in conservation and in North Atlantic Right Whales and wildlife more broadly.
Defenders Of Wildlife works on the ground, in the courts, and on Capitol Hill to protect and restore imperiled wildlife and habitats across North America.
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