A Small Gift as a Token of Our Appreciation

Show Them How You Feel About Salt Water!

Be among the first to get one of our brand new “I Turtle the Ocean” bumper stickers, featuring our very own and always-adorable Ocean Doctor sea turtle. They’re not available anywhere else and won’t be in our online store until Spring 2013. It’s a gift as a token of our appreciation for your donation made by December 31st, 2012.  Donations are made through our fiscal sponsor, The Ocean Foundation Donations over $51 are fully tax-deductible in the U.S.; donations under $51 are tax-deductible minus the estimated fair market value of bumper sticker, $4.50. Cool red vintage car not included.

Dear Friend,

I hope you are enjoying a peaceful and meaningful holiday season.

If you missed our previous email, you may have missed an important 2-minute video we prepared. I hope you’ll take a few moments to watch it now.

Our video celebrates not only the arrival of this year’s holiday season, but also the fact that in October, Ocean Doctor was officially incorporated in the District of Columbia and over the next few months will be fledging from its current home as a fiscally-sponsored project of The Ocean Foundation as a fully-independent nonprofit organization!

We are also honored to announce a very exciting Board of Directors of renowned movers and shakers, including Dr. Sylvia A. Earle. We’re equally honored to be joined by an incredibly talented and esteemed international Advisory Council.

As you may already know, “Ocean Doctor” was a nickname given to me by my daughter, Anna. I liked it so much that it became the name of my blog and eventually the name of the organization I had established in 2004 as “1planet1ocean.” (You can read the full history here.) And now begins the next chapter in Ocean Doctor’s journey, with an opportunity to take our ocean conservation work to a new level.

During these quiet days before the new year, I am working around the clock to prepare for our busiest year ever. And I need your help. Building an organization is incredibly rewarding and exciting, but also a daunting challenge. Please consider an end-of-year gift to help me assemble a world-class team of professionals and volunteers so we can hit the ground running to take on an ambitious agenda of “hands-on conservation” projects in the year ahead.

Here are just a few of the critically important efforts ahead for us in 2013:

• Working in Cuba to Save Coral Reefs Everywhere.  As featured on 60 MINUTES, Cuba’s coral reefs are incredibly healthy. This “living time machine” may hold the key to protecting and restoring the decimated coral reefs around the Caribbean and the world. Through our Cuba Conservancy Program, we are planning several scientific expeditions and workshops with leading experts from as far away as Australia. Learn more.

• Ocean Doctor’s 50 Years – 50 States – 50 Speeches Expedition. In 2013, our expedition to provide engaging multimedia programs about the oceans to schools in all 50 states continues, with stops planned in Utah, Vermont, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Nevada and Illinois among others. We are working to inspire our next generation about the oceans and careers in science the way the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs inspired many of us. Learn more.

• Helping Communities Through Sustainable Aquaculture. Two sobering factors have combined to underscore the need for a different approach to the way our species feeds itself. First, it has become painfully evident that the oceans can not support a growing human population indefinitely. Second, the combined impact of a dismal economy and natural and man-made disasters, such as Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, have left many U.S. coastal communities struggling to survive. We plan to continue our efforts to help communities adopt responsible, sustainable forms of land-based fish and vegetable farming, to help take pressure off of wild stocks while helping to make communities more independent and economically resilient. Learn more.

• Protecting the Grand Canyons of the Bering Sea: In 2007, Greenpeace launched a groundbreaking expedition to explore the two largest underwater canyons in the world, in the heart of the Bering Sea. I served as a submersible pilot and scientific consultant on that expedition. It was the first time manned submersibles ever entered these canyons and human eyes gazed directly upon their treasures. The expedition revealed an extraordinary tapestry of life thousands of feet below the surface, including beautiful, brightly-colored deepwater corals, sponges, anemones, octopus and fish and resulted the discovery of new species and species ranges. The expedition also revealed the terrible damage being done to these intricate ecosystems by trawling nets. What may take decades, centuries or millenia to grow can be wiped out in the blink of an eye by a factory trawler net. Ocean Doctor has committed its participation to a coalition of organizations led by Greenpeace to secure permanent protections for these treasures of the Bering Sea. Learn more. 

As a small token of appreciation for your support, we invite you to be among the first to receive our brand new “I Turtle the Ocean” bumper stickers, not available anywhere else. It’s yours with your donation made by December31st, 2012.

Again, thank you for your support and I look forward to continuing our work together in the new year!

Sincerely,

David E. Guggenheim, Ph.D.
President, Ocean Doctor
Director, Cuba Conservancy

Our brand new bumper sticker is a gift as a token of our appreciation for your donation made by December 31st, 2012.

Donations are made through our fiscal sponsor, The Ocean Foundation Donations over $51 are fully tax-deductible in the U.S.; donations under $51 are tax-deductible minus the estimated fair market value of bumper sticker, $4.50. Cool red vintage car not included.

The Ocean Foundation is the fiscal sponsor of our work.