Hello, my name is Victoria Woodward and I am from Liverpool. I am a Volunteer for a Non Government Organisation called Salvage Blue which is based in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Our mission is the END in inhumane slaughter of hundreds of Whales and Dolphins which happens unnecessarily every single day.

We are a team of volunteers comprised of ordinary people who share a deep and dedicated passion for protecting the ocean and its precious inhabitants. We share a diverse set of skills ranging from scientists, journalists, photographers, divers, sailors, entrepreneurs and artists. With these combined skills, minds and hearts each of us is ready to do what ever it takes to stop this absolute devastation. We have witnessed and unwittingly hold in our hearts the horrific memories of these magnificent being being slaughtered and we have to try everything in our power to stop this.

We have all invested everything we can into making Salvage Blue a success. We have spent thousands of hours and thousands of our own money in trying to end Whaling but we have run dry.

We have had many conversations with the Whalers and they are willing to give up slaughtering all these precious animals only if we can provide them with an alternative. This is how these poor people survive and make the little money they can. Unfortunately at the expense of their own health and at the expense of every single one of these lives inhumanly taken.

Not only is the killing of these sentient beings horrific in ever way imaginable, the locals also get instant Mercury poisoning when it is consumed and Mercury is the second most toxic poison in the world. If consumed Mercury attacks the brain and nervous system basically causing every issue you could imagine. Eyesight loss, hearing, coordination, memory and overall cognitive ability.

Furthermore is a pregnant mother eats the whale meat it attacks the foetus leaving it with brain damage and all the above issues too. Mercury is also passed onto the child through breast feeding so these innocent beings are doomed from the very beginning and throughout the first stages of their life.

There have been thousands of studies done on the affects of whale meat, specially in Japan where is this an issue on grave proportions. It just so happens that Japan has a major part to play in St. Vincent and the Grenadines stand on slaughtering these mammals, and quite frankly any animal they deem lesser than themselves.

Fishermen use speedboats with mounted harpoon canons donated by the Japanese Government to chase down and kill their prey. The species of the hunted include Humpback Whales, Orcas, Pilot whales, False killer whales, Bottlenose, Spinner and common dolphins, to name a few. All small cetaceans are on the menu and large cetaceans too.

Many animals miraculously survive capture but are kept wounded and alive in the baking sun for as long as possible to keep their meat fresh and from spoiling. Others are attached to floatation devices such small mooring buoys and fenders and then left to bleed out while the fishermen continue hunting the rest of the pod; a technique used to maximize the number of kills. The fishermen then circle back to retrieve the harpooned animals, however, many are never recovered because they often swim over the horizon to die a slow and agonising death. Every now and then, sailors from St. Lucia and Martinique heading for the Grenadines tell stories of finding the dead and bloated bodies of dolphins floating around on the ocean’s surface with tackle still embedded in them.

The Japanese have built Whaling stations and donated millions of dollars to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Why... So St. Vincent will vote alongside them at the International Whaling Committee in favour of bringing back Commercial Whaling.

After investing everything we have and own, we need your help. The tasks of implementing our dream is endless from being able to campaign to managing our 'Hope Spot', we would like to be able to work on ending whaling full time. We would like to make a documentary about Whaling here in St. Vincent inspired by documentaries 'The Cove', 'Shark Water', 'Mission Blue', 'Chasing Coral' etc. We would like to educate the communities on the dangerous of consuming whale meat. We would like to raise enough funds to join the sustainable seafood industry which benefits all communities and ocean inhabitants.

"The real cure for our environmental problems is to understand that our job is to salvage Mother Nature. We are facing a formidable enemy in this field. It is the hunters… and to convince them to leave their guns on the wall is going to be very difficult./ We must plant the sea and herd its animals using the sea as farmers instead of hunters. That is what civilization is all about - farming replacing hunting." - Jacques Yves Cousteau

We are in the process of writing up a business plan for open water fish farming in which the whalers will be stakeholders and therefore give up the slaughtering of these sentient marine mammals once and for all. But none of this is possible if we do not have the resources or money.

We very humbly ask for your help in ending Whaling.

Website: www.salvageblue.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/salvageblue/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/salvageblue/