Celebrate the Wins, Get Ready for the Hangover

Time to assess the battle for ocean conservation over the past 365 sunsets. Let's celebrate the wins but get ready for the hangover.

We're batting even, five for five, according to esteemed Blue Frontier Campaign founder David Helvarg. His editorial in the Huffington Post summarizes five major wins in 2010 that are worthy of celebration: New Oceans Policy; Census of Marine Life Completed; New Shark Protections; New Marine Reserves; Medium Offshore Drilling Protections.

He also notes five significant losses to sober us up: BP's Massive Disaster; Bluefin Tuna Condemned to Extinction; Plastic Waste Everywhere; More Fishing Down the Food Web; Big Time Climate Change Failures.

Climate change losses could be at the top of the list of losses since it has the potential to adversely impact the whole of the oceans as the atmospheric changes acidify the seas. But no need to be completely grim on a day of celebration.

In that spirit, Oceana's Tatiana Marshall points out four 2010 wins: Belize's trawling ban (trawling is a fishing method that drags massive fishing gear along the bottom of the ocean, which kills mostly everything in the way), the aforementioned passing of the Shark Conservation Act, and getting the Olin Corporation of Cleveland, Ohio, to spit much less mercury into the air.

Here is Helvarg's editorial reprinted from the Huffington Post.

WINS

• New U.S. Ocean Policy: President Obama issued an executive order in July to implement conservation-based management of our public seas -- based on marine spatial planning, or what former Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen calls, "urban planning into the water column." It would try to coordinate everyone (government agencies, ocean industries, environmentalists) to better manage our public seas for healthy ecosystems and sustainable development of our coastal economies.
• Census of Marine Life completed: A decade long exploration of the world's seas; "an international observational program to assess and explain the diversity, distribution and abundance of life in the oceans" was conducted by several thousand scientists between 2000 and 2010. It found there's still new and amazing critters and habitats out there.
• New Shark Protection Laws: First Hawaii banned the trade in shark fin that endangers a 600 million year old keystone predator of the sea in order to sell soup to rich people in Asia. Then, just before recessing, our Lame Duck Congress lent a hand (or wing) and passed a bill that all but prevents any new shark finning in U.S. waters.
• New Ocean Wilderness Parks created: California established new no-take protected areas off southern California in December, part of a network of marine wilderness parks under its Marine Life Protection Act. In doing so California joins a number of nations including the U.S. Britain, Kiribati and Australia who have set aside vast areas across the Pacific, Indian, Atlantic and Southern oceans to protect and restore the seas natural bounty. Still, only about one percent of the world's oceans have been given wilderness status. Scientists suggest 20-25 percent ought to be.
• Some offshore drilling protection: In the wake of the BP disaster, the Obama administration walked back the dogfish saying there will be no new drilling off the Atlantic seaboard or in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. While that's an advance from the President's pre-Gulf blow out proposal to open extensive U.S. waters to oil development, it's still less than what was protected under the drilling moratorium in effect for a quarter century until rescinded during the Bush administration. 

 LOSSES

• BP Disaster: Flying over the Gulf of Mexico in June seeing oil spills out to the horizon and 100 dolphins and a whale trapped and dying in the slicks, even as the oil blowout continued, it was hard to believe this would not have profound impacts on U.S. energy policy, but it doesn't seem to have. Still, few Gulf locals I continue to talk to believe the government's claim that most of the 200 million gallons of oil released, "went away." Likely impacts will be in the water column, fisheries and wildlife reproduction and bottom habitat for years to come.
• Bluefin condemned to extinction: Japan served endangered Bluefin Tuna sushi at the Convention on Endangered Species meeting in March where it blocked attempts to protect this top ocean predator whose population is collapsing, with 80 percent of the biomass fished out since the 1970s. In the wake of the CITES failure, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas was expected to take bold action in November, but it also failed to act.
• New study says nowhere left to fish: A new scientific study by the University of British Columbia and National Geographic found that we're now overfishing everywhere from the deep ocean to Antarctica, stripping the last previously unfished populations of marine wildlife out of our seas. Few nations appear willing to constrain this global buffalo hunt.
• Plastic waste now found everywhere in ocean: The 2010 '5 Gyres' expedition launched by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation is finding plastic refuse and debris in all ocean gyres or whirlpool currents, while in the central Pacific gyre the amount of plastic has gone from 6 pounds per pound of plankton to over 40 pounds in just the last decade.
• Climate failures mean rough seas ahead: The failure of the U.N.'s 2009 Climate Meeting in Copenhagen and token progress in Cancun this year on addressing fossil-fuel fired climate change means continued trouble for the world ocean including Arctic melting, sea level rise and more destructive storm surges, coral bleaching, shifting wildlife populations and ocean acidification that's changing the very chemistry of the sea, none of which is good for man or fish.

image credit: uploadimages4free.com

Sharks Get Some Protection

Another reason to celebrate -- shark finning is now illegal in the US. Congress took the lame out of lame duck and passed the Shark Conservation Act. It's actually difficult to believe there's good news coming out of that legislative body these days but we'll take this one good step in a great direction.

Thank your Representative and Senator via Oceana and read more about the Shark Conservation Act.

Shark finning kills millions of these great and important apex predators essentially for soup prized by many Asians. But pop the top and toast the small victory for now.

Energy Independence Saves the Seas & Americans

Face it, some people need reasons other than biodiversity and beauty and common sense to move to a clean energy economy. Here's two words for them: Energy independence. Don't sell it as anything but that. Except for maybe saving American lives. The US military agrees and they're already looking furiously for better ways to power their armies.

"In 2008, we sent $386 billion overseas to pay for oil — much of it going to nations that wish us harm...It puts us in the untenable position of funding both sides of the conflict and directly undermines our fight against terror," said Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn, retired Deputy Chief of Naval Warfare Requirements and Programs10 in a recent National Wildlife Federation report on offshore wind. 

Energy independence frees us from having to send anymore young Americans to die simply so we can control our access to that precious black gold, the source of our addiction.

Holiday with the Tortuga

Holiday greetings from Nicaragua. On the Caribbean coast in a sleepy fishing town called Pearl Lagoon, inspiration thrives. Here, where green sea turtles are fished for food and have been for years, the Wildlife Conservation Society is making small but important gains. With the friendly people, the palm trees swaying, and the reggae beat riding the tropical breezes, it does not feel like the front lines for marine conservation.

The WCS has a two room office here on a dusty street, painted a refreshing pale blue. The brass gate in front has images of two turtles or tortuga, swimming on it. I stopped by today but like most places they have Christmas day off. But their pamphlets in English and Spanish are posted in every restaurant hut and store.

It looks like their program to compensate fishermen for live turtles, which are tagged and released, is working. Hopefully it's having a positive impact on the active but unsustainable turtle fishery here. The message of conservation, especially for the hawksbill, is out there. If I'm lucky, I'll have an opportunity to talk to and most importantly, thank those invovled with the program, those on the front lines fighting the good fight.

On the panga, or water taxi, out here from Bluefields, speeding through the back estuaries and openings in the jungle, I could not help imagine when the waters were filled with hundreds of thousands of sea turtles. It will never be that way again but it would be really sad if they were gone altogether.

Take the Bite Out of Finning

Definitely the more the merrier. Another celebrity, Kristin Bauer of True Blood, implores people to take the bite out of shark finning. Hopefully she can hit a vein with those millions of vampire lovers.

With a hundred million sharks killed annually, mainly for their fins for soup, sharks need all the help they can get. She's calling for people to act now -- contact your senators and tell them you support the Shark Conservation Act. If Congress could pass it, that would take some of the lame out of those ducks.

Her last line in the editorial has a nice, well, bite: I suspect sharks aren't here just to be an appetizer.

Read the full editorial from the Huffington Post here.


Soup Sucks



Green Drinks a Tonic for the Bad News

On a really frigid night in the city, Green Drinks NY recently threw their holiday party in New York City. The event was packed and people were in good spirits. Green Drinks monthly puts "green" people in the same room to network, mingle, and hear what some people and organizations are doing in and around the green world. It's highly recommended for anyone.

The theme this month was ocean conservation so I was particularly excited. Many exemplary organizations attended including Oceana, Shark Savers, and Plant a Fish. We heard from Fabian Cousteau, grandson of the one and only, and from David De Rothschild, who built and sailed the Plastiki to bring attention to the disgusting onslaught of plastics in the ocean environment. He highlighted the 5 Gyres, which alone should make anyone reconsider their use of single use plastics.

If you don't like the words "network" or "mingle" try "inspiration" because one of the best things about Green Drinks is the opportunity to be inspired by what other people are doing. It is also easy to come away deeply encouraged -- despite all the bad news out there around green issues -- by all these generally like-minded people fighting the battles on land and sea that need to be fought. There's camaraderie in the air, like one big team.

Wave Energy Facilities in Marine Reserves

Two marine scientists object to citing wave energy facilities in marine reserves off the Oregon coast, citing protection of ecosystems. Seems right -- the activity to build and maintain the infrastructure for a wave energy facility seems incompatible with a sanctuary for marine life. However, the other side of the story needs to be told because wave energy, and offshore wind, are two ways to fight climate change and move us toward energy independence.

This is also an interesting glimpse into the future. We will likely see more of these "disagreements" going forward where the two parties seem to be on the same team. If sound research, clear communication, and cooler heads prevail, successful solutions should follow.

Read the opinion piece from OregonLive.com here.

Reefs are the Ocean's Canaries

 

Feelin Woozy

 Australian marine scientist J.E.N. Veron for Yale Environment 360 sounds the alarm.

What's refreshing about his editorial is that he acknowledges his own initial skepticism about climate change, and he puts it in the context of geological time. Whenever anyone claims current climate change is natural citing past natural extinctions in the Earth's history, they have forgotten about time. 

In the past, extinctions occured over millions of years, not the 200 plus years of the industrial revolution. It's the pace -- the rapid pace -- at which humans are heating up the climate and increasing the acidity level of the oceans that is unprecedented and destructive.

Two excerpts: A decade or so ago, we thought that mass bleaching was the most serious threat to coral reefs. How wrong we were. It is clear now that there is a much more serious crisis on the horizon — that of ocean acidification. This will not only affect coral reefs (although reefs will be hit particularly hard), but will impact all marine ecosystems. The potential consequences of ocean acidification are nothing less than catastrophic. The ultimate culprit is still CO2 but the mechanism is very different.

Reefs are the ocean's canaries and we must hear their call. This call is not just for themselves, for the other great ecosystems of the ocean stand behind reefs like a row of dominoes. If coral reefs fail, the rest will follow in rapid succession, and the Sixth Mass Extinction will be upon us — and will be of our making.


Read the full story here.




image credit: irrefutablesuccess.com

More Marine Reserves in US Pacific Northwest

Good news. More marine reserves, these are in Oregon. Keep them coming please.

According to Sightline Daily, this is modest but good news for the Oregon coast. It's modest because the proposal is far short of what Governor Kulongoski originally called for. But it's good news all the same because reserves will protect the region's wildlife and natural heritage. They can also, at least in some cases, actually boost the fish stocks for commercial and recreational harvests by providing fish with sanctuaries that boost their numbers. And it's about time that Oregon's marine ecosystem begins to see some of the level of protection that is enjoyed by all of its West Coast neighbors.

Read the full story here.

Foamy Words Inspire

A photographer is seeing actual words in the white foamy surf that lingers momentarily on the sand as waves recede. David Paul Bayles photographs words like "joy" and "love" before sink into the sand.

First, I'm glad to see the Oceans speak English.

Second, I'm surprised we haven't seen "Help Me" or "Save Me" wash up. Now that would be something.

Third, one more -- surprise -- way that the oceans inspire.  We'll take it anyway we can.

Read about this watery lexicon here.

Boats to Conservation

Celebrate the people who inspire and care. The founder of West Marine and his wife, Randy Repass and Sally-Christine Rodgers, have won Conservationists of the Year by the Land Trust of Santa Cruz county.

The couple also founded Sea Life Conservation, a local nonprofit that works with the Monterey Bay Aquarium to take people out on the water to learn about marine conservation. At Duke University, they created the Marguerite Kent Repass Ocean Conservation Center and endowed a professorship in marine conservation.

Nice symmetry there as money made selling boats and boat products goes toward saving the seas. 

Read more here.

Sea Horse Honeymoon

As part of their wedding ceremony, couples in Hong Kong have vowed to love and cherish not only each other but also seahorses. An idea as whimsical as the creature in question. But how about we add a phrase into these nuptials, something about "to have and to hold and to protect sharks forever" being that the primary market for shark finning, which killed over 100 million of them last year, is Hong Kong, China.

Read the whole story here.

Horsing Around

Gulf of Maine Not Pristine, Actually

Bloomberg news reports that the Gulf of Maine will need $3 billion to be cleaned-up. Who knew? I did not even know it was in need of restoration. I'm not the only one because the misperception that the Gulf of Maine is pristine is noted in the story. Which is interesting. Where did this positive misperception, that apparently more than a few people have, come from? Will this misperception impact the efforts to raise the money and complete the projects necessary to restore the Gulf? 

This small tidbit of reality is a welcome reminder that it's wise to always be careful about what we think we know. Perceptions inform our actions. Perceptions influence what people hear. Until today, I might have written off the Gulf of Maine as pristine, and so on. Something to mull over.

And if that's not enough, here's something more to chew on:

Reality is what we take to be true.
What we take to be true is what we believe.
What we believe is based upon our perceptions.
What we perceive depends upon what we look for.
What we look for depends upon what we think.
What we think depends upon what we perceive.
What we perceive determines what we believe.
What we believe determines what we take to be true.
What we take to be true is our reality.

-- Gary Zukav

Read the full Bloomberg story here.

US Atlantic Coast Great for Wind Power

Steady Wind

The National Wildife Federation's recent report calls the US Atlantic coast from Florida to Maine a wind hotspot. It's the mother lode for US offshore wind with abundant shallow water and yes, lots of wind.

The stretch from New Jersey to North Carolina is the gustiest of the lot with 298.1 potential Gigawatts. With one Gigawatt powering roughly 260,000 American homes, that's more than enough to get Marty McFly back to the future and to give climate change a kick in the pants.

Of course, appropriately recognizing the value of marine life and habitat is essential when siting offshore wind turbines. This appears well-understood.

According to the report, "while the most extensive European study concluded that offshore wind farms do not appear to have long-term or large-scale ecological impacts, major data gaps for the Atlantic Ocean still exist and site-specific impacts need to be evaluated. The report goes on to encourage a "coordinated, comprehensive, and well-funded effort" to address these gaps.

Also, the report notes how the US is already behind Europe and China in producing wind power. Come on!

The Portland Press Herald provided some good coverage of the wind report. Read the full story here.

The study is a great read too. Peruse it here.

Sharing All the World

Today's the day John Lennon died thirty years ago on the NY sidewalk outside his apartment. That's not a happy thought but there are plenty of happy or at least inspiring thoughts in his music. The two verses below from Lennon's probably most famous song, Imagine, touch the beauty of a sustainable world.  It's heavily idealistic stuff and only a pop song after all, but we're allowed to dream aren't we? 
  
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

Full Imagine song lyrics here.

Action or Bust

Two siblings are driving a bus from Alaska to Argentina to raise awareness and to inspire people to take action on social issues. Ryan and Kassidy Brown started in Alaska to highlight ocean conservation. Nice work. Sounds like a great adventure and Eco Ocean is not only envious but also hope they have stories to tell that will help us all keep an eye on the big picture.

Click here to read more and to follow their journey.

Marginalized Mercury

Mercury. Oh yes, that's an issue too. Not Freddy Mercury, lead singer for Queens who left a legacy of fat bottom rock and roll. And not the Greek god because he has cool wings on his feet.

Mercury, the heavy metal, is a persistent and serious problem, especially with high concentrations embedded in many large pelagic fish such as tuna and swordfish, which of course are eaten by people. High levels of mercury in people is a health issue. According to the EPA, mercury can cause a variety of problems including impaired neurological development in fetuses and various serious cognitive problems in adults. There is no direct cause and effect with cancer currently but the jury is still out.

The EPA also says that "coal-fired electric power plants are the largest source of human-caused mercury air emissions in the U.S." Another solid motivation for the US to get off the fossil fuel economy and onto the renewable energy economy as soon as possible.

The other big contributor of mercury in the oceans is chlorine manufacturing plants. That's why Oceana has recently asked the Olin Corporation of Ohio to convert its plant to mercury-free technology, according to the Cleveland Daily Banner.  It seems they're dragging their heels though. That's irresponsible and unacceptable.

Sometimes with the onslaught of overfishing, climate change, and habitat loss, it feels like there's no more room for another issue but clearly unnatural and toxic levels of mercury in the marine environment cannot be marginalized.

Shout out to Oceana for staying on top of this.

image credit: helpourautisticchildblog.com

Share the Love & Save the World

"All you need is love...love is all you need." -- The Beatles

Once again, the fab four said it simply, and with a good hook and melody. People prefer love over death. Pretty obvious but it's easy to forget, especially by people trying to communicate the importance of conservation to anyone. Be it neighbor, friend, colleague, politician, communication professional, or woman on the street. Messages about conservation tend to go on and on about the death of nature. The result is no result. Most people can only hear that for so long before they stop hearing it.

The progressive and excellent professional communications organization out of the UK, Futerra, proposes that we share the love instead. According to their Branding Biodiversity paper, presenting the awe and fascination and yes, love, of nature is more effective at stirring positive action and inspiring people than any other methods, especially doom and gloom.

At Eco Ocean, we employ a combination of methods but it's nice to know love is the answer. Because, put simply, I love nature and I'm not afraid to say it. Share the love.

Futerra suggests the following tips to get this "love content" right:

Personalize

Biodiversity is a global issue but local messages are far more likely to resonate with people. Local plants and animals provide a more familiar, relevant and visceral connection for your audience, and local biodiversity provides a platform from which to connect to global issues.

• Integrate pride in local places, plants and wildlife into your messages.

• Use pets as a starting point to remind people that they already care about nature.

• Remember that locals don’t look at their environment like tourists do, and the touristy depiction can actively turn them off. Learn why they love their natural surroundings and start there.

• Sell actions that relate to your audience’s lifestyle, and highlight the personal benefits of doing something for nature, like guerrilla gardening.


Kiss me

Humanize

Most of your audience value nature as it relates to people. People are what they know and understand, so don’t be afraid to anthropomorphise the species you are communicating about. Make sure you don’t slip back into selling conservation for nature’s sake; acknowledging the feel-good factor is essential for inspiring action.

• Turn your studies into soap operas, and give individual species a lead role.

• Talk about the people behind conservation success stories, as well as the plants and animals. Use testimonies and case stories to reinforce your Love message.

• Talk in human timescales. If you’re communicating conservation plans, tell us what you’ll do in 5, not 25, years.

Publicize

Conservation actions need great publicity. As well as picking the right actions for your audience, you need to make the actors and their successes visible. This will shift the focus of biodiversity action from avoiding Loss to celebrating Love, and it will help move all conservation actions into the mainstream.

• Use everyday role models, the people who are taking action in their daily lives.



• Showcase success, what we’ve managed to save rather than what we’ve lost.

• Show people what a difference they have made, and say thank you. This will reinforce the feelgood factor and help turn one-off conservation actions into lifestyle habits.

Take a moment to read the entire Branding Biodiversity paper here.

image credits: dawnoftomorrow

Climate Change Chatter in Cancun

The diplomats are squeezing hands in the Cancun sun. The United Nations emblem shines. Polished quotes from 180 plus world leaders abound half a year after the big fizzle in Copenhagen and thirteen years after the vaunted Kyoto Protocol was supposed to take us into a new era. Hope springs eternal? Not really.

Fueled by Cancun

Little has happened and there is little hope that anything will get done with this approach. It would be great to be wrong, but the issues are too complicated and there are too many parties involved to believe otherwise. China and the US alone tend to suck all the air out of the room. Raising the profile of climate change on an international scale is important but in the end, it may simply a whole lot of hot air (sorry, couldn't resist).

Climate Change remains one of the most important issues of our time if not the most important. The marine environment will see direct impact including increased ocean temperatures, ocean acidification, and melting polar caps. A more effective way to deal with climate change is to get the US off the petroleum economy and onto the renewable energy economy, which means widespread government -- state and federal -- and citizen support of renewable energy projects including solar, wind, and tidal power. Come on people!


Photo credit: faqs.org

Teenager Knows the Score

Shout out to Bonnie Lei, a 17 year-old whiz kid who studied sea slugs for three years to better understand biodiversity's importance to the environment. According to Whittier Daily News, the California teen has won all sorts of awards of course, and even did some field studies in Brazil's Pantanal wetlands. Her words have a mature sense of the big picture:

"Being immersed in the Pantanal for two weeks opened my eyes to the pressing need for conservation efforts. The call for action needs to be answered now, before the awe-inspiring environment is lost forever," Lei explained.

Read the whole story here.