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New Alliance to Make Sailing Safer for Whales
The partnership between London based campaign organisation, Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Global Ocean Race 2011-2012 (GOR) was announced at the annual Solo Racing Festival and Boat Show at the Royal Southern Yacht Club, in Hamble, Southampton, on Saturday.
The alliance hopes to create an education programme for greater environmental awareness among the international sailing community.
Both organisations want to have codes of best environmental practice for ocean races as well as for pleasure sailing, day racing and sailing regattas. The partnership would like to increase awareness of whales being struck by yachts and the importance of reporting such incidents. It will also develop new strategies to reduce whale strikes.
Jennifer Lonsdale, EIA Director, said: “Collisions between whales and sailing yachts threaten the lives of both whales and sailors and can cause catastrophic damage to vessels. The EIA/GOR partnership aims to increase awareness of this threat and to work with the international sailing community, scientists and experts to find ways to prevent collisions.
Director of EIA, Jennifer Lonsdale and GOR communications director Oliver Dewar
“Also, ocean sailors go to places other mariners do not; we wish to build a programme of data collection to which they can contribute, to enhance our knowledge of the oceans and the species inhabiting them.
“This is an exciting new opportunity to set high standards for environmental responsibility among the sailing community – standards we hope will be adopted by other race organisers and sailing clubs around the world.”
Josh Hall, Race Director of the Global Ocean Race 2011-12, said: “It is almost impossible to overstate the importance of our oceans and the effect they have on the overall health of our planet.
“Offshore sailors have the privilege and challenge of sailing across vast, remote areas of the sea and often witness, first-hand, signs that the wellbeing of our precious marine environment is under threat.
“This partnership between the Global Ocean Race and the Environmental Investigation Agency is a vital alliance that will highlight crucial issues and help educate a new generation to the irreparable damage that may be inflicted on marine ecosystems. I sincerely hope it will encourage other offshore racing organisations to act responsibly, confront the impact our sport has on the oceans and assist with valuable scientific research.”
The Global Ocean Race 2011-12 begins on September 25, 2011 in Palma, Mallorca and is a 33,000-mile circumnavigation for 40ft, high-performance Class 40 racing yachts. Each boat will be crewed by two co-skippers to sail through some of the most remote areas of the planet during the nine-month race, split into five legs with stopovers in South Africa, New Zealand, Uruguay and the USA.
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