‘Whale Tail’ License Plates Meet Deadline

The whale made it, the sea otter didn’t.

An eleventh-hour campaign generated enough orders to ensure the launching of a new state license plate featuring a whale’s tail. Designed by Laguna Beach artist Wyland, the plate will help fund coastal protection.

But a plate featuring a sea otter and intended to fund a Monterey Bay sanctuary appears to have mustered too few orders.

The future of the “Whale Tail� plate was assured when the required 5,000 orders were received before the Tuesday midnight deadline, said jubilant staff members at the California Coastal Commission, the plate’s sponsor.

The 5,000th order arrived about 5 p.m. Tuesday, seven hours before the deadline, after a last-minute push by coastal staffers who worked weekends and nights drumming up support and taking orders.

Half the plate’s fee will go to projects such as beach cleanups and adopt-a-beach programs, with the remainder going to a special state environmental fund.

Under state law, the commission had to receive 5,000 orders by the end of 1996 for the plates to be produced. So plate supporters grew worried last week when the tally stood at about 3,000. They contacted media statewide, and Coastal Commission planners and managers took turns taking telephone orders.

In the final days, hundreds of calls flooded the phone lines, said Christiane Parry, the commission’s public education director.

“Everyone had to have one,� she said.

After the Department of Motor Vehicles verifies the count, the “Whale Tail� plates will go on sale at motor vehicle offices statewide, and the actual plates should be available in about nine months, a department spokesman said.

Another new plate featuring a cowboy astride a bucking bronco and sponsored by the American Heritage Rodeo Foundation also met its goal for orders this week, a DMV official said. Those two plates proved more popular than a third plate supporting the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary that featured a sea otter playing in a bed of kelp. That plate also faced a Tuesday deadline but has only mustered about 3,800 orders.

Some speculate that the environmental-plate market may be growing saturated in California, which already boasts Yosemite and Lake Tahoe plates. And supporters of the sea otter plates say they had problems attracting media interest in Southern California and the Central Valley, even though they believe that Monterey Bay has advocates statewide.

The sea otter plate may still survive, said Nick Papadakis, executive director of the Assn. of Monterey Bay Area Governments, which promoted the plate. He said that supporters are appealing to state legislators in hopes of winning an extension.

To order a whale tail plate, call 1 (800) 262-7848. For information about the rodeo plate, 1 (310) 284-9069. For information about the sea otter plate, 1 (888) OTTERS1.