Michael DeVries Case 6-3 October 21, 2013 Save Flipper: Dont Kill the Dolphin Deadline SUMMARY:

The Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed more than 30 years ago by congress, which protected dolphins, whales, and other ocean animals from harm by human activists, for example commercial fisherman. Congress set a strict timeline for this to occur, however the deadline was reached without achieving the goal of safe waters. Instead of reenacting the law, some of Congress set out to do away with the Dolphin Deadline altogether. Over the span of three years Congress had successfully made strides to diminish the Dolphin Deadline, however in 2006 Oceana took on the challenge and was prepared with sophisticated political strategy and a highly targeted PR and advocacy program to Save Flipper Oceanas research strategies included Political Analysis, constituent/voter targeting, and polling. Primary research was done to assess the impacts on marine mammals of not enforcing the Dolphin Deadline, this provided important scientific information supporting Oceanas advocacy message. Oceanas execution was very political, they went after many of the powerful republicans in Congress who had a strong opposition of the Dolphin Deadline and tried to swing their opinion using their primary and secondary research. Which proved to be useful being that Oceana in the end, won. STRENGHTS:

They did their polling specifically in Ohio because it was the home state for key Republican leaders, other key targets were in neighboring states and the poll results could be used in those states, Ohio represents Americaa bellwether state for testing anything from toothpaste to elections.

They separated their primary and secondary research completely, primary was focused on the science of the marine life in danger, and the secondary was focused on the politics behind the case.

After other organizations realized how much of a chance of winning Oceana had, they jumped on board to help the cause.

WEAKNESSES There are millions of marine life lovers in the US population, if they tried to get the support of the people along with using their political research, Oceana could have won much sooner. The use of social media was not implemented at all, which would have helped get the message to the unknowing public on the situation SUGGESTIONS Oceana could have reached out to other countries about the issue and got worldwide support. Oceana could have done more advertising than just brochures, billboards, and newspapers. Oceana could have placed their advertisements in more places than just Washington DC, to raise the awareness of the issue.