Whaleman...Bringing Whales and Mankind together
to preserve and protect our World.


The Whaleman Foundation is a public IRS 501 (c) (3) non-profit research, education, conservation, and wildlife film production organization dedicated to preserving and protecting our ocean world. Whaleman's primary mission is to educate key decision makers, while raising public awareness, on the issues that affect cetaceans (dolphins, whales & porpoises) and their critical habitats through our films and media outreach.



"Pierce Brosnan with Whaleman Founder Jeff Pantukhoff celebrating the victory for San Ignacio Lagoon."
 Since its inception, Whaleman has presented films to the United Nations, Congress, and the International Whaling Commission. In addition, our film footage and photographs have been featured worldwide in over 200 news stories airing on CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, the BBC, and Reuters.
Our first victory came when our film "Gray Magic: The Plight of San Ignacio Lagoon", was presented to the December 1998 meeting of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This film was key in stopping Mitsubishi Corporation from building the world's largest salt plant at Mexico's San Ignacio Lagoon - a United Nations World Heritage Site and the last pristine mating and birthing grounds for the California gray whale.

Our film "Deadly Sounds in the Silent World", Best Short winner at the 2003 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, was presented to Congress in 2002 and played a pivotal role in banning the worldwide deployment of a lethal sonar system called LFA Sonar.

The films we presented to the International Whaling Commission in 2000 and 2002 on the Makah Tribe's illegal gray whale hunt helped to revoke the Makah's US permit to hunt gray whales in the Olympic National Marine Sanctuary.

In Hawaii, we advocated for the creation of the Hawaiian Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary and its 5-year renewal. We worked closely with Maui County officials ensuring that dolphins and other marine mammals could not be held in captivity on Maui. We also opposed the expansion of Ma'alaea Harbor which would have destroyed coral reefs and vital sea turtle habitat.


Currently, through our "Save the Whales Again!" campaign, Whaleman is focusing its efforts on the following issues:

· Protecting Southeast Alaska's Tongass Forest from a massive clear-cutting initiative recently approved by the Bush Administration's deceptive "Healthy Forests Initiative". The Tongass' watershed, which encompasses Glacier Bay, a United Nations World Heritage Site, is the primary feeding grounds of the endangered North Pacific humpback whale and the spawning grounds of Alaska's endangered salmon.

· Japan, Norway's, and Iceland's continuing blatant defiance of the international moratorium on commercial whaling and Japan's ongoing slaughter of over 20,000 small cetaceans a year including bottlenose dolphins, orcas, and Dall's porpoise.

· The plight of the Southern Resident Orcas of the Pacific Northwest, whose population has declined nearly 25% over the past 6 years. These orcas have the dubious distinction of being the most contaminated whales in the world. We recently completed our film "Orcas in Crisis" in our effort to get the US Government to follow Canada's lead in placing the Southern Resident Orcas on the Endangered Species List.
 
Along with our conservation efforts, Whaleman continues its ongoing support and participation in field research projects including Dr. Marsha Green's study of endangered humpback whales in the Hawaii and Alaska and researcher Anna Hall's long term study of harbor porpoise in the San Juan and Gulf Islands. We are also supporting beach clean-ups with the "Clean Water Now" coalition of California.


All of us at Whaleman strongly believe that international cooperation is the key to success on these issues. We are committed to capturing the rare and priceless images found in our ocean world in order to continue to preserve and protect it for ourselves and for all future generations, but we can't do it without your help!