The Last Days of the Ocean

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The fate of the world’s oceans doesn’t get a whole lot of press coverage these days—if any—but in fact they’re all an utter mess, and it’s a real problem. From Julia Whitty’s now-online cover story from the March issue of Mother Jones: “Science now recognizes that the ocean is not just a pretty vista or a distant horizon but the vital circulatory, respiratory, and reproductive organs of our planet, and that these biological systems are suffering.” Read on for the gruesome details.

You can read this month’s complete oceans package online here, with articles on, among other things, the effects of over-fishing and how the fishing industry is allowed to regulate itself; how polar bears now face extinction; how Navy sonar is killing whales, and how a company set up by George H.W. Bush is killing off the most important fish in America you’ve never heard of.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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