On 8 April 2016, SpaceX reached a milestone when, for the first time, a Falcon rocket launched into space returned to Earth and autonomously landed on a pad. That same day, Whale Sanctuary Project was incorporated in Washington D.C. In the time since then, SpaceX’s first generation Dragon cargo vehicle delivered over 94,000 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station during 20 flights over a nine year period, there have been eight successful launches of the second generation Dragon Cargo, and ten successful launches of humans aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Recently, on 28 July 2023, the heaviest commercial communications satellite in history, weighing 19,842 pounds, was successfully launched into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle.

28 July 2023 also marked a milestone for Whale Sanctuary Project and its sister organization Friends of Toki. It marked 2,667 days since the incorporation of Whale Sanctuary Project, 1,249 days since the announcement of Port Hilford, Nova Scotia as the site of the organization’s proposed sanctuary, 535 days since Charles Vinick and Jeff Foster wrote NOAA on behalf of Whale Sanctuary Project urging that Tokitae be removed from her tank due to concerns with her “health and inadequacies with her pool,” 521 days since The Dolphin Company announced to the USDA that it would not exhibit Tokitae nor the Pacific white-sided dolphin in the tank with her and were offered an arrangement to remove her AWA protections by not including her nor the dolphin, Li’i, in the park’s license, 520 days (yes, only one day later!) since Friends of Lolita was incorporated by Pritam Singh and Charles Vinick, 519 days since Friends of Lolita was publicly announced on the anniversary of Dawn Brancheau’s death, 142 days since Canada’s lone killer whale Kiska died in a back pool at Marineland of Canada, 120 days after the announcement to send Tokitae to a sea pen in Washington state waters, 88 days since we sent a proposal for a standalone intermediary tank to Jim Irsay that included a med pool with a lift, facilitating rehabilitation while preparing her in a clean and safe environment for transition to a sea pen, all under the control of the existing project partners, 80 days since we were advised by Jim Irsay’s attorney that the proposal had been handed over to Charles Vinick and Pritam Singh, 33 days since Charles Vinick on a streaming broadcast stated that the hurricane evacuation plan for Tokitae was to have her ride out the storm in place yet again, and 8 days since Charles Vinick speaking on Tokitae to an audience at the Superpod conference stated that “animals die.”

It is currently 2:00 am in Miami and 3:00 am in Port Hilford on 19 August 2023. SpaceX will be launching 21 Starlink satellites on Monday, aboard a booster rocket being launched on its 15th flight into space. Also on Monday, Whale Sanctuary Project will still have yet to construct a single whale sanctuary in the United States or Canada and Tokitae will have been dead for three days.