This Earth Day a Cartoonist and Conservation groups use humor to lighten the sad plight of Wild Salmon

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This Earth Day a Cartoonist and Conservation groups use humor to

lighten the sad plight of Wild Salmon

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This Earth Day a Cartoonist and Conservation groups use humor to

lighten the sad plight of Wild Salmon

VENICE, CALIFORNIA, Apr. 22 -/E-Wire/-- The day was like any other, until cartoonist Denis Thomopoulos opened his copy of the Los Angeles Times and read an op-ed written by former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt titled "Shred the Roadmap to Salmon Extinction." Upon learning about the dire situation of imperiled Northwest salmon, Thomopoulos teamed up with the conservation company Wildlife Works and Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition to create an online petition addressed to Congress and to sell t-shirts to raise money for wild salmon recovery efforts.

"Bruce Babbitt's article made a very compelling case that it would be beneficial to salmon, Native Americans, businesses and taxpayers if the four dams on the lower Snake River were removed," says Denis Thomopoulos, cartoonist, hippoworks.com. The article inspired Thomopoulos to create a cartoon about the dams from the perspective of several talking salmon. He sent it off to Pat Ford, Executive Director of the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, and to Mike Korchinsky, Founder and CEO of Wildlife Works. "Pat and Mike loved the cartoon," says Thomopoulos, "and we realized that if our three groups came together, we might be able to help the grassroots efforts being made to get Congress to seriously address this issue."

"The cartoon is funny and thought provoking," said Darcie Larson, development associate, Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition. "The salmon plead their own case in a charming way, explaining the difficulty of swimming past the dams. It's a great informational and inspirational tool to engage new audiences, using humor to illustrate the very serious plight of Northwest salmon."

At the end of the online, animated cartoon, viewers can purchase a "Save Our Wild Salmon" t-shirt through the Wildlife Works website, with proceeds benefitting efforts to restore these endangered fish.

"Wildlife Works' mission is 'Consumer Powered Conservation'," said Mike Korchinsky, founder and CEO, Wildlife Works. "We've done successful fundraisers for seals with the Humane Society and for 'Free Flora' the elephant. We're very excited to now fundraise for wild salmon, which are in urgent need of help."

"The goal of the cartoon is to push Congress to pass the Salmon Planning Act," said Thomopoulos. "We're hoping the cartoon educates and inspires people to urge Congress to pass this important legislation. Otherwise impending salmon extinction will mean the loss of a billion dollar salmon industry and the keystone of the fragile ecosystem of the Northwest."

Editors Note: To view the cartoon, visit http://www.hippoworks.com/cgi-bin/cartoonlets?ctnid=59 Photos of the flash action cartoon are available for your use. Please contact Denis Thomopoulos, Hippoworks.com, [REDACTED-EMAIL] [REDACTED-PHONE] to obtain.

Hippoworks.com is a leading environmental 'edutainment' company. In addition to AOL, clients include ConEdison, EarthDayNY, The Lightspan Network, Whole Foods, and KidsRegen.org. Clothing is produced with organic cotton, paper products with kenaf/recycled papers, and the company webstore is managed by Wildlife Works, with proceeds benefiting its 80,000 acre animal sanctuary in Africa.

Wildlife Works is the world's first business designed from the ground up around a consumer brand that stands for wildlife conservation. They use the proceeds of product sales to save wildlife, protect wilderness, provide jobs, develop schools, and provide other economic benefits for those people that must share their land and resources with wild animals.

The Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition (SOS) is a nationwide coalition of conservation organizations, commercial and sportfishing associations, businesses, river groups, and taxpayer advocates working to restore self-sustaining, healthy, harvestable, and abundant wild salmon to the rivers and streams of the Pacific Northwest.Save Our Wild Salmon supports the Salmon Planning Act, a bill in the House of Representatives that will study how best to remove the dams, build the local economy, and restore the fish on which the people and economy of the Northwest depend.

Save Our Wild Salmon/Hippoworks.com/Wildlife Works

Erin Barnes, Save Our Wild Salmon, [REDACTED-PHONE] x 13

Denis Thomopoulos, Hippoworks.com, [REDACTED-PHONE]

London Davies, Wildlife Works, [REDACTED-PHONE] x 221

Darcie Larson, Save Our Wild Salmon, [REDACTED-PHONE] x 10

http://www.hippoworks.com/cgi-bin/cartoonlets?ctnid=59

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