California Coastal Commission Introduces New Whale Tail^® Ecoplate
With a Whale of a Deal For the First 1,000 Who Sign Up
Dana Point Mayor Schoeffel Issues Challenge to Other Cities

Today, the California Coastal Commission and the Department of Motor Vehicles officially launched the state’s new Whale Tail^® Ecoplate by announcing the details of a “whale of a deal” for the first thousand Californians who sign up on www.ecoplates.com for the new specialty license plate. The new license plate was announced at three press conferences held simultaneously in Dana Point, San Francisco, and the Santa Monica Pier. Funds from the sale of the plates support coastal conservation in California.

WHALE OF A DEAL REVEALED
The first 1,000 people to order on www.ecoplates.com will score a standard Whale Tail^® Ecoplate for 50 percent off ($25 instead of $50) or $25 off a personalized plate ($73 instead of $98) plus two tickets to a California aquarium. This special offer is made possible by the Coastal Commission’s Stewards of the Coast campaign sponsors, including convention and visitor bureaus from across the state.

WHALE TAIL CITIES CHALLENGE
Today, Mayor Scott Schoeffel of the City of Dana Point issued an invitation to California mayors to join him in a friendly competition – “The Whale Tail Cities Challenge” – to see which participating city claims the most Whale Tail^® Ecoplate sales, as a percentage of population, before Coastal Cleanup Day on September 17.

The Challenge is to:

• To encourage Dana Point residents to sign up for new whale tail license plates on www.ecoplates.com, especially between Aug. 2nd and September 17 (Coastal Cleanup Day)
• To challenge other cities statewide to accept the challenge for signing up the most license plates in their cities 
• To remind/acknowledge that all California cities are beneficiaries of the whale tail license plate through the ocean-related grant program

ABOUT COASTAL CLEANUP DAY
California Coastal Cleanup Day is the premier volunteer event focused on the marine environment in the country. The event is funded in part by the Whale Tail^® Ecoplate. Last year, more than 82,500 volunteers worked together to collect more than 1.2 million pounds of trash and recyclables from our beaches, lakes and waterways.

For more information, visit the newsroom at http://www.ecoplates.com, follow #whaletailplate on Twitter or visit The California Coast on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaCoast.