Organizers Deliver Thousands of Petitions to Yamaha headquarters
Last week, Mighty Earth organizers delivered over 3000 petitions to Yamaha headquarters locations. Thousands of activists are calling on Yamaha to stop supporting policies that threaten oceans and the delicate marine ecosystems that sustain so much of the planet’s life.
U.S. fisheries management has been largely successful, and dozens of fish populations have bounced back in recent years. This progress was only possible because the U.S. set up management systems for fishing that balance ocean health with recreational and commercial angling. The Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), the primary law governing marine fisheries management, uses science-based evidence to establish catch limits for fish to balance recreational and commercial fishing goals with the long-term sustainability of the nation’s fishery resources.
But Yamaha and other big corporations have recently engaged in a lobbying effort to undermine the law. In pursuit of short-term profits, these companies are willing to undermine sound science and risk the hard-won accomplishments of this bipartisan effort.
Across the country, anglers, environmentalists, musicians who play Yamaha instruments, their fans, and other potential Yamaha customers know that responsible management is critical to the health of our oceans. They do not want Yamaha pushing for laws that lead to overfishing and empty oceans.
And so, after this anti-ocean lobbying effort was discovered, Mighty Earth sent organizers out into the field. Our team is on the ground now in Long Beach, California, a city near Yamaha’s corporate Headquarters; Kennesaw, Georgia, home to the headquarters of Yamaha Motor; and New Orleans, Louisiana, a musical hotspot and a coastal community that is inextricably linked to the ocean and its fisheries. For months, we have alerted the public to this corporate lobbying effort and collected signatures from concerned citizens.
In anticipation of the petition delivery, Mighty Earth organizers requested to meet with Yamaha executives. Both Yamaha Corporation of America President, Tom Sumner, and Yamaha Marine Group Government Relations Manager, Martin Peters, refused to schedule a meeting with Mighty Earth. In the lobby of Yamaha’s Kennesaw Headquarters, Peters again refused to sit down and discuss the concerns of his customers and abruptly left in the middle of our activists’ statements; although he did take the stack of petitions with him.
We know they can hear us, last month Yamaha Marine Group posted on Twitter in reaction to a series of rallies Mighty Earth hosted. And now, we have just delivered 3000 signatures right to their door. But the fight continues, and it’s not too late to add your voice. People are rising up to call on Yamaha to stop driving overfishing. Join us – sign the petition to protect our oceans today!
