Jeff Pantukhoff

Jeff Pantukhoff is the president of and founder of The Whaleman Foundation and executive director of the Save the Whales Again! Campaign. In 1999 he produced the film "Gray Magic: The Plight of San Ignacio Lagoon."

I had heard of the friendly gray whales of San Ignacio Lagoon and for years had wanted to go and experience them so in March 1995, I packed up my 1989 Maxima with a one-man tent and sleeping bag and drove from my home town of San Diego down to San Ignacio Lagoon, (which is a whole story in itself), where I happened upon a small eco-camp called Kuyima, which means "light in darkness." I spent five magical days there among the friendly gray whales and the local people who make this place where mountains and desert meet the sea their home. It was a life-changing trip on many levels, from being eye to eye and getting to touch these magnificent gentle giants and their newborn calves to experiencing one of the most beautiful and virtually untouched places I had ever been.

But on my last night there, I was told by one of the locals running the camp that the Mitsubishi Corporation and the Mexican government were planning to build the world's largest salt plant right in the heart of San Ignacio Lagoon. I had an epiphany there and then and remember saying to myself, "Over my dead body!" That night is when my nonprofit, The Whaleman Foundation, was born, right there among the friendly gray whales of San Ignacio Lagoon.

Returning to San Diego, I immediately asked for a leave of absence from my telecommunications job, which was turned down, so I resigned on the spot and dove into the nonprofit world, never looking back. Its mission is to forever protect and preserve dolphins, whales, and their ocean habitats.

In thinking of what it was that I could actually do to make the most impact, the thing I remembered most about one of my idols growing up, Jacques Cousteau, was how passionate he was about raising awareness of the plight of our oceans and marine life and how he used his films as the vehicle to get that message out.

So in March 1996, I began production of my first film with the intent of helping save San Ignacio Lagoon.

Not long after that, I was introduced to Pierce Brosnan and his wife, Keely. I told them about my film and what I hoped to accomplish with it and asked whether they would help. They said yes and, in 1997, Pierce and his son Sean traveled to San Ignacio Lagoon to join us in a meeting that included several environmental organizations working on its protection, including the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and Mexico's Group of 100.

In summer 1998, I sent my completed film, Gray Magic: The Plight of San Ignacio Lagoon, to Dr. Mechtild Rossler, Director of the United Nations World Heritage sites. She shared the film with her colleagues at the UN and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and, later that year, presented and distributed it to a meeting of the UN in Kyoto, Japan. As a direct result, in 1999, the UN sent an investigative team to San Ignacio and Scammon's lagoons and met with then Mexican president, Ernesto Zedillo. The following year, President Zedillo and his family traveled to the lagoon and, nearly five years to the day after I first found out about the proposed salt plant, the president of Mexico announced that his government was withdrawing its support for the salt plant and signed an executive order to protect San Ignacio Lagoon forever.

One of the things that really stands out to me when I look back on the campaign is what Pierce Brosnan said at our joint press conference in 1999.

There's one thing I do like and that's a good fight, and this is a good fight and I don't like to lose. And I believe in my heart we are not going to lose this fight against Mitsubishi because they know they are in the wrong, and any man or woman who has seen this lagoon would know that they are in the wrong for what they are trying to do down there.

This part of the world is magical; it is sheer magic to see these great creatures out there in this lagoon and to see the trust and to see the love of these creatures to us, you know, mankind, and I was there with my son, and I saw the magic in his face and I saw the magic in every man and woman in these tiny boats when we went out every day, and I saw the trust and the love of these great creatures as they brought their calves up to the surface for us to stroke, to touch, and just the sheer joy of it has never left me, and I know it has never left my son.

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