Harpseals.org is a grassroots 501(c)(3) charitable organization with worldwide reach
Our mission
Harpseals.org seeks to bring about a permanent end to the massacres of harp seals in Canada . We are utilizing mass media and grassroots activism to raise awareness about the continued killing of the seals in Canada and are promoting a boycott of Canadian seafood to pressure the sealers (who are fishermen) to call for an end to the killing. Harpseals.org is focusing on the power that Americans have to stop this slaughter because Americans buy about 70% of Canadian seafood exports.
Harpseals.org is working to spread the message about the Canadian seafood boycott through mass media advertising, such as billboards, radio and television commercials, and print ads and through grassroots outreach, including leafletting, tabling, speaking engagements, and demonstrations. We also seek to educate the public and raise funds through special events that generate media attention. We welcome volunteers of all ages with all kinds of skills and interests and creative ideas.
Our Board of Directors
Diana Marmorstein, Ph.D., Chairperson. Diana led campus animal protection groups and vegetarian groups at MIT and the University of California, Berkeley. She is CEO and webmaster of Harpseals.org. She has a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering with experience in lithium battery research and pollution control technologies.
Ian Robichaud, Founder of www.harpseals.org. E-commerce entrepreneur, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society volunteer who has served on two Sea Shepherd missions on the high seas, including the 2005 mission to the Canadian seal hunt, where he was attacked by sealers wielding hakapiks while filming and photographing the sealers clubbing seal pups.
Karin Braunsberger, Ph.D., University of South Florida at St. Petersburg professor of entrepreneurship, who teaches courses in social and sustainable entrepreneurship as well as new venture creation. Her research interests are in the areas of consumer behavior and consumer activism. Currently she is working on introducing marketing into the wildlife conservation area, consumer boycott behavior, and edible ethics. She has published a number of research papers focusing on the Canadian Seal Hunt.
Robert Watson, retired from the aviation reinsurance business and the auto industry, is a wildlife and environmental activist. Robert has been advocating for seals and for ending of the slaughter for many years. He has conducted outreach for Harpseals.org in the Dallas area since 2011 educating many people about the campaign to help seals at Earth Day Texas, the Texas State Veggie Fair, and other events.
Our U.S. IRS Tax ID Number (TIN) is 61-1467370.
How Harpseals.org began
Harpseals.org began as an informational website developed by Ian Robichaud. Ian volunteered to work on this project after participating in Sea Shepherd's spring 2003 voyage to the ice floes to save the seals.
"The hours on the ice with the seals were simply magical and life transforming. In fact, it was the seals themselves that spurred me on to try and build the mother of all anti-kill websites. In several long research sessions on the computer, I was finding many good sites about the seal hunt opposition efforts, but decided that it would be beneficial to compile all the information into one, easy to use, research station... a kind of one stop shopping for anybody wanting to know more. "Ian is a seal lover, but this project went beyond that basic emotional response to these amazing creatures.
"To me, these magnificent seal beings are more than just 'another threatened animal species'... they are symbolic of a much greater phenomenon; indeed, the future well-being of our planet itself." Of course, it goes without saying that the actual horror and insanity of the killing go far beyond what this website could possibly convey... but that is, in fact, precisely the reason why it exists: we try to do everything in our power to convey the facts, truth and details of the situation because I believe this annual seal slaughter is a story that must be told in order to retain our dignity as compassionate human beings."
-Ian Robichaud, Harpseals.org
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