Other WDCS work in the Caribbean
Courtney Vail, WDCS Caribbean program lead recently traveled to Saint Lucia as part of our "Live Free in the Sea" Caribbean education program. This year "Live Free in the Sea" focuses on Tobago, Grenada, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent. In partnership with the Eastern Caribbean Cetacean Network (ECCN), the "Live Free in the Sea" 2008 program will educate young people on these islands about how their actions on land affect beaches, reefs and marine life. The program on each island consists of environmental education and action with an artistic component. On Tobago, children took part in a beach clean up on Turtle Beach; the trash collected was then recycled to make functional art. On Saint Lucia, Courtney took children from the Laborie Boys School whale and dolphin watching with Caroline Aimable, who runs Mystic Man Tours on Saint Lucia and coordinates "Live Free in the Sea" on Saint Lucia. On their whale watch they saw Fraser's and spotted dolphins, pilot whales and pygmy and dwarf sperm whales. "It was amazing the see the excitement from the children," Courtney said. "They live so close to the sea, but so many of them had never been out on the water, or seen a whale or dolphin.
While Courtney was visiting she gave the children educational talks, and Year of the Dolphin Diplomas after beach clean ups. They also made origami whales to add to Peggy Oki's Origami Whales Project (http://www.peggy-oki.com/cu_origami.html), which is a curtain of over 30,000 origami whales each signifying one of the whales taken by whaling since the 1986 international moratorium on whaling. Courtney was most excited about encouraging children that their voices are important. She said, "One of the sweetest replies that was offered by a 2nd grader when I asked 'why should we care about whales', was 'because they care about us"
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But kudos to the people who did their best to save him.