Oceana | Protecting the World's Oceans

Big Oil Moves on Florida

Posted Wed, Jun 24, 2009 by Andy Sharpless

In a disappointing move, the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee gave its blessing for offshore drilling in Florida last week, potentially opening Florida’s coasts to oil and gas development.

This is a major reversal that reneges on the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006, which offered the oil and gas industry rights to 8.2 million acres in the eastern Gulf in exchange for the protection of coastal eastern Gulf waters. It also precluded drilling in the remainder of the Gulf Coast and the Florida Panhandle from 125 to 150 miles from shore.

This agreement was supposed to remain in place until 2022, but would be undone if this bill becomes law.

CEO Note: Mercury Bill Clears Major Hurdle

Posted Fri, Jun 5, 2009 by Andy Sharpless

Great news – we’re one giant step closer to ending needless mercury pollution from chlorine plants in the United States.

What are the Oceans Telling Us?

Posted Mon, Jun 1, 2009 by Andy Sharpless

Recently, I read about a professor at Columbia who teaches a course about the signs of the apocalypse. With the financial collapse and threats of a swine flu pandemic in mind, he told the New Yorker he decided to create the class because “now seemed like a good time.”

I don’t know if Professor Taussig’s students have looked toward the oceans for signs of the apocalypse, but if they do, the students will find unsettling news coming from the marine world. Whether you believe in end times or not, the oceans are sending clear signals that they are in distress.

In Chile alone, a trio of strange occurrences has unsettled scientists and observers in recent weeks. More than a thousand dead penguins were found on a southern beach, followed by tons of dead sardines so smelly that schools were forced to close. Lastly, thousands of rare flamingos abandoned their nests, leaving 2,000 chicks to die.

Elsewhere on the planet, the ocean throws up another mystery. In California, hundreds of emaciated seabirds, mostly Brandt's cormorants, littered beaches in a dozen locations early in May in perhaps another example of Hungry Oceans.

CEO Note: The Basic Solution to Ocean Acidification

Posted Tue, May 19, 2009 by Andy Sharpless

At long last, a Congressional committee is poised to approve sweeping climate and energy legislation this week. The American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R.2454) calls for a 17 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels by 2020 and an 83 percent reduction by 2050. While Oceana believes these targets should be strengthened, they are still a giant step forward in global efforts to combat climate change.

Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, the bill’s passage would be a significant milestone for protecting the health of the oceans.

We need your help now. Please take a moment to call the House Energy and Commerce Committee and urge passage of H.R. 2454. Tell them to pass a strong version of this bill to protect our oceans and put America on the path to a clean energy future. You can call the Committee directly at 202-225-2927.

As we speak, carbon emissions are altering the chemistry of the oceans. Ocean acidification, the nasty, under-reported cousin of climate change, is set to wreak havoc on the entire ocean if emissions aren’t curbed, and soon.

Here’s how it works: the oceans absorb an enormous amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which reacts with sea water to produce carbonic acid, reducing the amount of available calcium carbonate that corals and marine life such as crabs, lobsters, clams and oysters depend on to produce their skeletons and shells.

CEO Note: Krill, Baby, Krill

Posted Fri, May 1, 2009 by Andy Sharpless

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a quiet but crucial decision for the future of offshore oil and gas leasing. The court invalidated the Bush administration’s 2007-2012 Five-Year Leasing Program, which had authorized large-scale lease sales in the sensitive and vitally important Arctic Ocean.

In Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Department of the Interior, the court found that the Department of Interior - which is charged with selling the leases while protecting the environment - had failed to appropriately balance potential environmental harm with the potential economic benefits from oil and gas leasing. The government had arbitrarily decided that vast Arctic waters faced the same risks from oil and gas development as the coasts, despite the fact that we know very little about the Arctic’s unique and sensitive ecosystems.

Oceana submitted an amicus brief in support of the petitioners’ case along with the Ocean Conservancy, National Audubon Society, the Wilderness Society and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Our brief is science-based and makes the following case - given how little is known about Arctic Ocean ecosystems, given that they are changing more rapidly than scientists predicted, and given that the communities in the Arctic are dependent on them, the government should not move ahead with leasing there.

CEO Note: Surprise Conservationists

Posted Thu, Apr 23, 2009 by Andy Sharpless

What do Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and the Prince of Monaco have in common? They have both become unexpected world leaders in ocean conservation.

Last month, Venezuela became one of the first countries to outlaw bottom trawling, the most destructive form of industrial fishing. The weighted nets used by trawlers obliterate seafloor habitat and indiscriminately kill marine wildlife. Chavez and his countrymen correctly noted that the industrial trawlers were decimating Venezuela’s fish populations, leaving local fishermen in the lurch while profiting the trawlers’ foreign owners.

Chavez will invest $32 million to convert or decommission the 263 trawlers operating in Venezuelan waters. One local fisherman representative rejoiced: “Our parents’ spirits are watching and celebrating together with us – they’ve finally eliminated the evil practice that destroyed our marine coasts.”

CEO Note: Victory! Protecting Salmon From Pollock Nets

Posted Thu, Apr 16, 2009 by Andy Sharpless

On the heels of Oceana’s success in establishing sensible density and antibiotic usage standards for the Chilean farmed salmon industry comes another salmon victory, this time from Alaska. For the first time, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted to limit the number of Chinook (also known as king) salmon that the Bering Sea pollock industry incidentally kills every year.

Wild salmon populations have suffered huge population losses in recent years, culminating in the decision to cancel the California salmon fishing season in 2008 and again this year. Meanwhile, pollock nets continued to kill thousands of Chinook salmon – a record 121,704 in 2007 – that would have otherwise returned to West coast and Alaska rivers to spawn.

When NOAA Fisheries implements the Council recommendation, the Bering Sea pollock fishing fleet will have to shut down if it surpasses 60,000 king salmon caught and killed in its nets. And while I applaud this critical step in restoring salmon populations, it is not enough. Our team here at Oceana will continue to press for lower limits and more responsible fishing that will allow salmon to recover their historic plenty.

Meanwhile, Oceana has taken a big step forward in protecting marine wildlife elsewhere in the Pacific. The Pacific Fishery Management Council has agreed to deny new fishing permits for swordfish boats along the U.S. West coast whose longlines are infamous for snagging loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles, sharks, dolphins, seabirds and dozens of other untargeted species. Oceana also continues to fight on other fronts to protect all sea turtles endangered or threatened with extinction.

[Andy Sharpless is the CEO of Oceana.]