THE BIG BLUE WHALE PUMP
Weightlifting for Whales!
Are you an ocean advocate? Want to work out to save the whales?
The Big Blue Whale Pump is happening on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th January 2024 and we are inviting you and your family to lift weights for the whales!
You don’t need to be an Olympian to get involved. Our aim is to collectively lift the weight of the Great whales that are present in our project locations.
Our three ‘Celebrity Cetacean’ mascots, Notch the Humpback, Zamie the Sperm whale and Springer the Orca, tip the scales at 100,000 kilos. But the challenge doesn’t stop there….we want to lift as many cetaceans as possible on the day to highlight how important whales and dolphins are to maintaining healthy oceans for all of us!
What will The Big Blue Whale Pump achieve?
- Raising funds to support our cetacean project that will improve the welfare of stranded whales and dolphins by providing training to dedicated local community volunteers to effectively manage beaching incidents
- Raising awareness about the incredibly important role that cetaceans play in mitigating climate change. You can learn more about how they do that below
Did you know that some amazing ocean animals, like whales, dolphins and porpoises, are like superheroes in the sea?
They have a special power called ‘The Whale Pump’ that plays a crucial role in mitigating climate change.
So, what’s this ‘Whale Pump’ thing? Well, it’s like a fantastic underwater recycling system. Big whales, like the Humpbacks and Sperm whales, take deep dives to get their meals in the sea. On their way back up, they release special nutrients in their poop (yep, you heard it right!). These nutrients, like iron and nitrogen, make tiny plant-like creatures called phytoplankton super happy and they grow in their millions where whales are present.
These miniature heroes are like the cleanup crew of the ocean. They gobble up almost 40% of the world’s annual CO2 emissions and produce almost 50% of the world’s oxygen for us to breathe. So, whales and their poop, really do help to combat climate change.
But that’s not all. Whales also work as amazing carbon collectors. In their lifetime, they can capture as much CO2 as 30,000 trees. And when they reach the end of their lives, they sink to the sea floor and all of their carbon with them It’s like they’re hiding carbon treasures deep in the ocean for hundreds of years!
We need to make sure our whale and dolphin friends are safe and sound so they can keep doing their awesome jobs for our planet.
Oh, and guess what? Cabo Verde, one of our project locations, is like a vacation spot for whale families, especially North Atlantic Humpbacks that visit every year to raise their calves in the waters around Boa Vista island. These same North Atlantic Humpbacks then swim an astonishing 5,000+ km to their summer feeding grounds near Norway and Iceland. Some of them, like Notch, are the ocean’s gentle giants, weighing more than 40,000 kilos!
Cabo Verde is a whale & dolphin hotspot in the Atlantic, with more than 20 different species recorded, including our three celebrity cetacean species: Humpbacks, Sperm whales and Orcas.
Now, here’s where you come in! The Big Blue Whale Pump is a fantastic opportunity for you to help these energetic ocean sentinels. We’re raising money for our three NGO partners in Cabo Verde to help stranded whales and dolphins. These events are becoming more common, so we have invited professional Instructors from BDMLR to Boa Vista to teach enthusiastic local volunteers to become Marine Mammal Medics. This in-depth qualification, along with the specially developed rescue pontoons that we will donate, will better equip our community partners to save the day when a whale or dolphin needs help.
So, when you join The Big Blue Whale Pump, you’re not only supporting local communities to help these incredible animals, but you’re also helping the whole planet. Let’s all warm up our muscles to protect our cetacean friends so they can keep making our world a better place!
