Oceana Launches SaveHappyFeet.org

As viewers across the country enjoy the blockbuster film hit "Happy Feet" on DVD, Oceana, the largest international organization solely dedicated to advocating for the world's oceans, has launched SaveHappyFeet.org. The website addresses issues raised in the blockbuster movie, making viewers aware of the plight of real emperor penguins in the South Pole, and giving them a way to get involved.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) May 29, 2007 -- As viewers across the country enjoy the blockbuster film hit "Happy Feet" on DVD, Oceana, the largest international organization solely dedicated to advocating for the world's oceans, has launched SaveHappyFeet.org. The website addresses issues raised in the blockbuster movie, making viewers aware of the plight of real emperor penguins in the South Pole, and giving them a way to get involved.

"I commend Warner Brothers and George Miller for making such an enticing and successful film -- it is rare that movies with such popular appeal are also educational," said Oceana's CEO, Andrew Sharpless. "Oceana is pleased that this movie has generated interest in the problems that are threatening penguins and other wildlife in our oceans -- we wanted to create a special website to serve this interest and to give people who care an easy way to get involved in the fight to save our oceans," he continued.

I commend Warner Brothers and George Miller for making such an enticing and successful film -- it is rare that movies with such popular appeal are also educational

Oceana is pleased that this movie has generated interest in the problems that are threatening penguins and other wildlife in our oceans -- we wanted to create a special website to serve this interest and to give people who care an easy way to get involved in the fight to save our oceans

Although Antarctica may seem a world away, our actions have a direct impact on the size of global fish populations. If we hope to increase the amount of fish in the ocean -- in Antarctica and elsewhere -- we need to start by changing how we manage our own fisheries

It's nice to be able to start a conversation with people that would normally go into a technical scientific food-web explanation, and instead just say, 'you know, like 'Happy Feet,'

Now, everyone will get it.

Adding to the urgency of the emperor penguin's plight in the South Seas, a landmark article published in the international journal, Science (November, 2006), projects that all commercial fisheries around the world could collapse by 2048 if the current rate of fishing were to continue.

To reverse the current trend, Oceana's team of marine scientists, economists, lawyers and advocates focus on specific and concrete policy changes. Oceana's campaigns seek to: protect essential ocean habitat such as corals from destruction by bottom trawling; reduce the accidental killing of marine wildlife as bycatch from industrial scale commercial fishing; reduce fish contamination from mercury pollution; and eliminate government subsidies that promote over-fishing. From its South American office in Santiago, Chile, Oceana is able to channel its resources in a strategic manner to protect and restore the abundant oceans that have direct impact on the penguins featured in Happy Feet.

"Although Antarctica may seem a world away, our actions have a direct impact on the size of global fish populations. If we hope to increase the amount of fish in the ocean -- in Antarctica and elsewhere -- we need to start by changing how we manage our own fisheries," added Sharpless.

Through SaveHappyFeet.org, the organization is giving ocean advocates an easy way to get involved and feel good about protecting emperor penguins and their surrounding habitats. Supporters can sign up online and send a letter directly to the US administration, urging the government to enforce ocean conservation laws. Visitors are also able to purchase their own copy of the Happy Feet DVD on the website, thanks to the group's DVD affiliate program. Through this special offer, up to 4% of the purchase price goes toward saving the oceans and creatures like Emperor Penguins.

"It's nice to be able to start a conversation with people that would normally go into a technical scientific food-web explanation, and instead just say, 'you know, like 'Happy Feet,'" said Mike Hirshfield, Oceana's chief scientist. "Now, everyone will get it."

Oceana campaigns to protect and restore the world's oceans. Our teams of marine scientists, economists, lawyers and advocates win specific and concrete policy changes to reduce pollution and to prevent the irreversible collapse of fish populations, marine mammals and other sea life. Global in scope and dedicated to conservation, Oceana has campaigners based in North America (Washington, DC; New York; Juneau, AK; Los Angeles and Monterey, CA; and Portland, ORE), Europe (Madrid, Spain; Brussels, Belgium) and South America (Santiago, Chile). More than 300,000 members and e-activists in over 150 countries have already joined Oceana. For more information, please visit www.Oceana.org.

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