Blue Notes

Blue Notes #68

2010-01-03T21:23:48Z

Blue Notes #068

A Blue Date, a Fallen hero, Gambling with SF Bay and more

Jan. 1, 2010
By David Helvarg

Be the Blue January 13.

The best way to overcome post-holiday blues is to be the blue, to Wear Blue For The Ocean and Great Lakes Wednesday January 13. In a show of support for strong environmental protections weeks before the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force delivers its final recommendations to President Obama (see Blue Notes #63-67) a coalition of citizens and conservation groups including Ocean Conservancy, Ocean Champions, Ocean River, Ocean Defenders, BFC, NRDC, Conservation Law Foundation, Gulf Restoration Network, Pacific Environment and many more are looking to create a wave of action and a media splash to show support for restoring the blue to our red, white and blue. We'll need to keep spreading the word with the speed of a Bluefin however. So far events and rallies are planned for San Franci sco and Seal Beach, California, Washington D.C., Cambridge, New Orleans, Tampa, Houston and Honolulu. To learn more about them or plan your own event - go to wearblueforoceans.org There are also Wear Blue Facebook and Twitter pages. Other options for the 13th -- go to school or work in blue (like the Coast Guard) and explain why. Videotape yourself and your friends in blue, post it and send it to the website. Forget the green flash and create a blue flash mob. Talk about wearing blue to Oprah, Ellen, Ed Begley, Laird Hamilton and Jack Johnson. Whatever you do, do something. Also keep spreading the word through blogs, facebook pages, emails, action alerts, newsletters, you tube, you name it. Remember, you can't judge a person by what they wear, unless it's blue on January 13.

Blue Carbon and Copenhagen

We could still turn the tide and avoid the worst impacts of climate change if we mobilized allied nations as we did in World War Two. Instead the recent UN Summit in Copenhagen suggests we're treating our greatest global threat like the invasion of Grenada. One of the few solid agreements to come out of the talks was for the establishment of a multibillion-dollar fund to reduce deforestation. The burning and clearing of forest is the second largest source of human-generated carbon after the burning of fossil fuels. A recent UN report on "Blue Carbon" suggests that funding needs to be expanded to protect carbon sequestering coastal habitats, specifically mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass meadows that also function as the nurseries, filters and storm barriers of the sea. Sea turtle hatchlings need healthy coastal and marine ecosystems in order to survive. It just so happens that we also need the same healthy ocean ecosystems to survive on this blue planet," notes coral scientist Steven Lutz who's organized an international 'Blue Climate Coalition' working to bring the Blue Carbon discussion into the mainstream of policy and action.

For a more detailed story on this see my "Blue Bayou Climate Solution" in Huffington Post at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-helvarg/the-blue-bayou-climate-so_b_388065.html

Dery the Daring

Dery Bennett passed away on December 15, 2009 at the age of 79. Executive Director of the American Littoral Society for over 40 years, he was also a founder and president of New Jersey's Clean Ocean Action for 25. Dery was a mentor and leader to the ocean and coastal community of the Mid-Atlantic and well beyond. A tall, lanky clam digging ex-Navy sailor, reporter and author with laconic good humor, unwavering principles and brown eyes that could turn from mirthful to mournful in the changing of the light, he was once asked if he was optimistic or pessimistic about the future. "I'd have to say it depends on what day you ask, or what time of day," he replied before going on to explain the Homeric life cycle of the American Eel, part of his encyclopedic knowledge of the ocean and shore that he loved to hike. He impressed the hell out of me and almost anyone else who ever met, knew or loved him. He leaves huge imprints in the sand for all of us to follow. A successful defender of coastal open spaces against rapacious developers, I know one bit of guff he wouldn't have tolerated for a moment...

What's the Point Molate?

I'm finely getting to fight City Hall. As a resident of Richmond California I only became aware of one of my city's treasures in recent weeks: 422 acres of the last open green space and largest intact eelgrass beds on San Francisco Bay (see Blue Carbon note above). Point Molate contains a historic winery (with an early 20th century brick castle) that later became part of a Navy fuel oil depot before the Navy sold it to the city for a dollar in 2003. The Point Molate headland is an example of the resiliency of nature left unpaved, rapidly reclaiming its terrestrial area as hilly coastal grassland, range-managed by mule deer with colossal Toyons - Christmas Berry shrubs -- the size of live oaks, also live oaks, federally protected Suisun Marsh Aster, native Molate Blue Fescue, a unique local bunchgrass horticulturists have bred for landscaping, coyote brush, wild mint, Dutchman's pipe vine and its rarely seen companion, the pipe vine swallowtail butterfly. "This is the most beautiful area imaginable for grassland geeks," Botonist Lech Naumovich who's showing me around, grins happily. I'm hoping a San Francisco State marine biologist might soon show me the 50 acres of submerged plant habitat just beyond the beach. I'm also thinking this could be the third emerald jewel of Bayside green parks along with the Presidio of San Francisco and Fort Baker in Marin.

Unfortunately with its million dollar views of the bay, the city and Mount Tamalpais Point Molate has generated a more predictable plan the city council seems to favor. On January 15, despite opposition from the Mayor, the Governor, the State's two Senators and what seems to be a lot of Richmond residents, they could vote to transfer title to Upstream LLD, a private consortium put together by Berkeley developer Jim Levine that represents a small band of Pomo Indians he hopes will become California's next gaming tribe. Levine, who has already paid the city fifteen million non-refundable dollars towards a possible $50 million purchase price, has promised to build the greenest most eco-sustainable Gambling Casino resort, retail shopping, hotel and 300 housing unit complex this side of Las Vegas. He's also promising tens of millions more dollars from future gambling revenues to the city, county, environmental critics and others. Along with the city land transfer Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar would have to agree to convert Point Molate into reservation land for urban gaming to begin. If Salazar doesn't but the city has already sold the land Levine could then sell it to a third party like Chevron that has a huge production facility just over the ridgeline and has made an $80 million offer in the past. I think I've seen this movie before.

Some on the city council seem to believe the promise of Casino jobs for maids and security guards at a city mandated 'living wage' is the best they can hope to provide their low-income constituents, even though I see no indication that this is what the people of Richmond support.

Unfortunately the council's been given an incentive not to look at the job-generating capacity of working parks like the Presidio and Fort Baker. In Fort Baker, along with a Coast Guard Station, marina and children's Discovery Museum you have Cavallo Point Lodge, a destination luxury resort that was built on an existing historic site within the park but that didn't require loss of public ownership, didn't have to tear down a hillside, impact offshore living resources, pave over a major watershed, install thousands of slot machines or generate wall-to-wall traffic to achieve success.

While our recession and addiction plagued city and state already have dozens of casinos there's only one undeveloped headland left on San Francisco Bay that could still be a local and world center for natural ecosystem services, youth recreation, education, jobs and opportunities as Point Molate Park.

People fighting to save the bay (yet again) include the all-volunteer Citizens for a Sustainable Point Molate. Check out their website at www.cfspm.org or contact them at info@cfspm.org

In addition feel free to call Ken Salazar at the Department of Interior 202-208-7351 to discourage any land transfer at Point Molate (while you have him on the line you could tell him increased offshore oil drilling may be part of a reasonable climate strategy, just not on this planet).

If my Memoir serves us correctly

My next book, 'Saved by the Sea -- A Love Story with Fish,' comes out with Thomas Dunne Books (an imprint of St. Martin's) in May. Ocean Explorer Sylvia Earle says, "This book has the power to change the way you think about the world, about yourself, and the future of humankind." Others I admire including Ted Danson, Philippe Cousteau and Carl Safina praise the book in ways that would make me blush except I only wrote what I know about the changes in my life and our Ocean world over the last half century.

Blue Frontier Campaign will be sending me on a book tour this spring and summer from Boston to Miami, San Diego to Seattle and points beyond. The hope is to not only do bookstore appearances but to work with seaweed groups and organizations to stage book parties and media events that can also highlight the work they (you) do every day to protect and restore healthy oceans and coastal communities from sea to shining sea. If you'd like to be a part of the 'Saved by the Sea Tour' please contact BFC at info@bluefront.org

(no subject)

2009-12-05T12:59:43Z

cworrall[at]waterfrontalliance.org

Blue Notes #67

2009-12-03T22:51:02Z

Blue Notes #067

Wet Wonks, Seas of Data, Tuna Fished Out and Blues you can wear

Nov.28, 2009
By David Helvarg

Obama's New Frontier

More than a quarter century after President Reagan established a U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone stretching 200 miles out from America's shoreline, a vast marine domain six times the size of the Louisiana Purchase, President Obama is moving towards a unified national ocean policy to oversee it. In June he established the Interagency Ocean Policy Taskforce to protect and manage this largest, most challenging wilderness frontier in our nation's history and gave it until December to develop a plan for his approval.

Right now our public seas and waters are administered by more than 20 federal agencies, along with a welter of state, local and tribal authorities under 140 separate laws with little or no regard for the cumulative impacts of competing and often overlapping uses of our coasts and ocean. The result: citizen stakeholders are drowning in red tape even as our marine ecosystems continue to degrade.

In six regional Task Force 'listening sessions', around the nation, some 2,000 people turned out to be heard. Hundreds gave testimony while many more submitted written statements to the White House Council on Environmental Quality that's leading the effort. Each meeting reflected its own set of geographic concerns, whether over the need to protect Arctic resources in Alaska, restore coastal wetlands in Louisiana or deal with invasive species like Asian Carp in the Great Lakes. Still, a common theme among 75-80 percent of those who testified was support for the government taking a more unified approach in addressing environmental and safety concerns and the need for a single point of federal contact and collaboration for people working on solutions at the local, state and regional levels.

An example of why a comprehensive approach is needed was reflected in a recent decision by Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke (who oversees NOAA) to ban commercial fishing in 250,000 square miles of climate-impacted Arctic waters north of the Bering Sea until the effects on this rapidly changing ecosystem are better understood. His decision was supported and encouraged by both commercial fishermen and environmentalists. At the same time the Department of Interior continues to issue oil and gas drilling permits in these same high-risk waters ignoring the precautionary principle ("first, do no harm") being practiced by its sister agency. A comprehensive National Ocean Policy will prevent this kind of inconsistent stove piped approach to managing our public waters.

On November 19 Blue Frontier Campaign sponsored a Lessons Learned/Next Step meeting for Seaweed Activists at the Carnegie Institution in Washington D.C. Some 40 people representing several dozen groups participated live and by phone. We agreed that the ecosystem-based unified management message sent to the Task Force during the public meetings must be carried into their next report on Marine Spatial Planning due for release in December and their final report to the president expected some time in January. We also agreed that if, as expected, we have good recommendations from the Task Force, we should support an action-oriented Presidential Executive Order to carry them out.

Just as the 1983 executive order establishing a new EEZ ocean frontier may be one of Ronald Reagan's least known but most significant actions as president, an executive order establishing a national ocean policy for the practical use and long-term protection of our public seas could be one of Barack Obama's outstanding achievements. After all it's not every president who gets to redefine a frontier or restore the blue in our red, white and blue.

Our November 19th meeting also came up with a colorful way to churn the waters of Public Opinion during this critical time.

For my Huffington Post Version of this please go to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-helvarg/obamas-blue-frontier_b_373117.html

Wear Blue January 13

Like a sneaker wave this idea came out of the blue, really out of our meeting's desire to take action and show support for the ocean at the time the President gets his recommendations for how best to save it. Wednesday January 13 is a hump day, so for the Humpbacks and all the other ocean critters (including ocean loving humans) why not wear something stylishly blue? In the season of swine flu we need to take this viral in a good way. Use your social media, make You Tube videos painting yourself blue, ally with the Blue Man Group and other celebrities like Ted Danson, Jack Johnson, Daryl Hannah, Sponge Bob and Sherman. Go to the Wear Blue website being established by Aaron Viles of the Gulf Restoration Network or the new Wear Blue for the Ocean! Facebook page or just start tweeting on Twitter (so we can re-tweet even as we adwance). But come January 13, whether in front of the White House or on the beach where you live, WEAR SOMETHING BLUE!

No Analog Ocean

Sunday November 8 was a very upbeat day for Blue Frontier. We spent it with our new partners from Digital Ocean and about 200 guests at Pier 39 in San Francisco premiering the half hour 'Students Saving the Ocean' video. It profiles young people around the Bay working on marine solutions inspired by our book '50 Ways to Save the Ocean.' Sherman's Lagoon cartoonist Jim Toomey then illustrated some examples using the book's stars Finley the fish and Clawdia the crab while I talked. We'll soon post the show-and-tell video of this along with the SSO video produced by Outhink Media. Jim and I were followed by speakers from Digital Ocean that will be an online portal to link young marine scientists' cutting edge research to the activists and policy makers who by combining best available science to society's shared values can help expedite solutions for saving our seas. We also heard about solutions to overfishing being worked on at UC Santa Barbara's Marine Science Institute before going on to demonstrate mammalian schooling behavior at the Aquarium of the Bay. Thanks to Oracle for sponsoring the day. The next day silicon entrepreneur and surf dog Dave Toole, the salty driver behind much of this, gathered 40 folks for a charette, which I think is architect talk for a planning session, on the utility of Digital Ocean and its relationship to larger forces such as Google Ocean and Ocean 1.0 (the actual ocean).

Crossing the Bar

I'd be remiss as the author of the 'Rescue Warriors' book on 'America's Forgotten Heroes' not to extend late but heartfelt condolences to the families and fellow service members of the seven Coast Guard C-130 crew members from Air Station Sacramento, along with the two Marine aviators killed, when their aircraft collided off Southern California on October 29. The Marines were on a training mission in a Cobra helicopter. The C-130 crew was, not surprisingly, involved in a Search and Rescue mission for a missing sailor at the time of their deaths. The missing sailor was not found though the Coast Guard continued searching for him right through its recovery effort for its own lost people.

The Blue Beat

The declining state of tuna (the buffalo of the sea) made feature appearances in Time magazine and the New York Times this month even as fishing nations met and declined to put a moratorium on fishing Bluefin Tuna. That's what scientists say is the only way to prevent Bluefin's commercial extinction in the next few years... The New York Times also ran a story on how the Pacific garbage patch is being replicated by plastic waste fields in other oceans and on the challenging work being done by our friends at the Algalita Marine Research Foundation...In brighter news AP's Dina Cappiello reports that the Brown pelican has been removed from the endangered species list. This is one of the few birds whose bill is said to hold more than its belican though scientists remain uncertain how the helican... Green Author and Blue Vision Summit speaker Bill McKibben wrote a good piece in the Outlook Section of the Washington Post November 22 on how President Obama could learn from President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives. Threatened with the loss of his low-lying island nation to rising seas Nasheed has become a leader in the climate fight, even holding an underwater cabinet meeting to highlight the threat of sea level rise...One possible adaptation in the news, combining elements of both the Titanic and the iceberg, has been the launch of the world's largest cruise ship, the seemingly top-heavy 'Oasis of the Seas' that can handle over 6,000 "guests" and 2,000 crew and will soon be joined by its sister ship Allure just in time for James Cameron's next epic disaster movie.

Oceanic Inspiration --

Our usual Blue Note Inspiration
Must be replaced by a solicitation
We'd toast you with holiday cheer
but can hardly afford a salty dog beer
To continue to promote seaweed solutions
we really need your Tax-deductible contributions
Just go to www.bluefront.org and give where it says 'Donate'
If you think our blue world's in trouble but it's still not too late

Blue Notes #66

2009-11-02T22:20:43Z

Blue Notes #066

Task Force listens, shark tooth glistens, smart fish, dumb science, etc.

Nov. 1, 2009
By David Helvarg

From Big Easy to Lake Erie

The last two of the President's Ocean Policy Task Force sessions took place in New Orleans on October 19 and Cleveland October 29th. This was my first return to New Orleans since covering Katrina four years ago and it felt odd seeing much of the city's life returned to normal (and much not), still, the 'Po Boys' were tasty. Over 250 people turned out for the public listening session at the Audubon Aquarium. Most expressed concern for the loss of Louisiana's protective and productive wetlands. "It's not just a wetlands, it's not just a swamp out there. People live there. When we lose all that we lose our culture, and our livelihoods," explained Louisiana Bayoukeeper Tracy Kuhns. A few folks from Shell and other parts of the offshore oil industry argued that they were such good environmental stewards we don't really need the feds (except Mineral Ma nagement Service to keep giving them what they want). A few folks from the recreational fishing organization CCA also used the public listening session to complain that they'd been excluded from the public process. My hope is that rank and file recreational fishermen and women will continue their historic commitment to ocean protection through constructive engagement with the administration and fellow marine conservationists.

Cleveland, rustbelt town of wide streets and few cars, perch butcherer to the world, home of the nation's first worker owned industrial laundry (see BFC board member Ted Howard's website www.Community-Wealth.org )...In Cleveland just over 100 people turned out for the final of six task force sessions at the downtown Marriot. There was a good set of panels ("we don't need any more plans, we need action") followed by over 30 public comments on invasive species and other threats to the lakes but also on how the Great Lakes restoration effort (that's just won $475 million from Congress) could be a model for how to engage a broad range of stakeholders to begin improving and cleaning up all our public waters, salty as well as fresh. I remember as a child when the Lake Erie beach I visited every summer was closed down and there was detergent foam, tar and dead fish washing ashore. Then Cleveland's Cuyahoga River caught fire. Today, despite ongoing problems, Erie and the other lakes have made an incredible turn around thanks to a convergence of public will, good policy and the natural resiliency of even badly degraded ecosystems. Today our oceans are badly degraded ecosystems. The Great Lakes by the way contain 90-95 percent of the nation's fresh water and, no Las Vegas, the locals say you can't have any of it.

The task force's six hearings have been attended by over 1,750 people with more than 400 who commented live (and many more in written statements to CEQ). The overwhelming majority have been supportive of the need for an ecosystem based U.S. ocean and great lakes policy to protect the health and bounty of our public waters. The task force is due to submit its final recommendations to the president on December 9.

On November 19 Blue Frontier Campaign will be holding a "Lessons Learned/ Next Steps" meeting in D.C. for seaweed (marine grassroots) folks to review what's been accomplished to date and strategize beyond December 9 on how the blue movement can remain engaged and help turn the tide to restore the blue in our red, white and blue.

Shark is the new Dolphin

I recently attended a "Sharktober" fest at San Francisco's Aquarium of the Bay where Sherman's Lagoon cartoonist (and BFC board member) Jim Toomey was given a shark saver award. Groups in attendance included the pro-shark 'Sea Stewards' and 'Dorsal Friends.' Last month the President of the Pacific island nation of Palau went in front of the U.N. to announce the creation of the world's first "shark sanctuary", banning all commercial shark fishing in its 230,000 square miles of water, an area about the size of France. CITES, the international Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species has given protection to three species of shark: Great Whites, Whale Sharks and Basking Sharks and will consider six more, including the less charismatically named spiny dogfish at next year's meeting. And just as environmentalists campaigned in the 1990s to guarantee dolphin safe tuna two groups recently formed to certify "shark safe" restaurants that can still serve tuna as long as they leave sharks unharmed.

In the midst of this new shark makeover I've even seen footage of two advocates who free dive, touch and ride tiger sharks and white sharks to demonstrate that they aren't really "man-eaters." Since one of the divers is a woman, even if she's eaten her supporters could still argue sharks aren't "man-eaters."

I tend towards the more cautious advocacy of naturalist author Ed Abbey who used to say, "If there's not something bigger and meaner than you are out there it's not really wilderness."

The odds of course are unfairly stacked. Every year some five to eight humans are killed by sharks worldwide, while we kill 100 million of these sleek, slow-growing carnivores emptying the seas of sharks just as we once emptied our terrestrial frontier of wolves and bears.

While I believe a global moratorium on shark fishing would be both right and justified in terms of maintaining marine diversity and ocean health, I cant' go along with the trend that anthropomorphizes sharks as sleek but harmless swimming buddies, a misunderstood breed of toothsome Flippers. Not that dolphins are all that sweet natured, but that's another story. For more on this go to my Huffington Post blog site. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-helvarg/

Brainy Fish

They always said fish is brain food. Now it turns out fish are pretty brainy in their own right, at least reef dwelling damselfish. A research team at the University of Queensland in Australia found that fish they removed from the reef could learn to discriminate shapes in order to feed themselves from a tube. The shapes included bars, stars, discs and circles. They were even better at distinguishing colors. This makes sense given the range of prey and predator stimuli they face in the fish eat fish world of the coral reef. And of course some damselfish will hide or downplay their intelligence when hanging out with jock fish.

In addition, according to the same article in the New York Times, cleaner fish attract other fish and avoid being eaten by showing their colors. Cleaner wrasses attract client fish like barracuda with their blue, yellow and black coloration. I once was surprised to see a coral grazing Parrot Fish about to eat a smaller fish until I realized it was just keeping its mouth open for a cleaner wrasse that was removing parasites from inside its beak. A smart, motivated cleaner can collect and eat up to 1,500 parasites a day. Yummy.

Science inspired by John Belushi

Smart Antarctic fur seals are learning to keep their distance from marine scientists. I've been to Antarctica where I've watched U.S. researchers making penguins puke for science. But now French scientists have gone a step beyond, pulling out fur seals' whiskers, claiming that by chopping up and analyzing the protein keratin in the whiskers, and based on ratios of isotopes of carbon and nitrogen, they can identify the seals' migratory prey (krill, fish, duh) and travels (subtropics, high Antarctic, maybe something we don't already know). The longest whisker they plucked and measured was 13 inches. Ouch.

Oceanic Inspiration

This time it's an excerpt from poet T.S. Elliot's 'The Dry Salvages.' Remember to keep sending in your favorites.

The river is within us, the sea is all about us;
The sea is the land's edge also, the granite,
Into which it reaches, the beaches where it tosses
Its hints of earlier and other creation:
The starfish, the horseshoe crab, the whale's backbone;
The pools where it offers to our curiosity
The more delicate algae and the sea anemone.
It tosses up our losses, the torn seine,
The shattered lobsterpot, the broken oar
And the gear of foreign dead men.
The sea has many voices.
Many gods and many voices

Blue Notes #65

2009-10-10T13:04:39Z

Blue Notes #065

Tasks at Hand, Turtles Grand, Sailors' Stand and the Bard's last words

Oct. 5, 2009
By David Helvarg

Full Steam Ahead

Providence Rhode Island and Honolulu Hawaii were the third and fourth of six public "listening sessions" to be held by the President's Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force following up on their interim report of Sept. 17 (See Blue Notes 63 & 64). To review the interim report itself go to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/initiatives/oceans/.

It's a quite hopeful read but then again the devilfish is in the details to be spelled out in a final report to the President December Ninth. The next hearings are in New Orleans Oct. 19 and Cleveland Oct. 29.

Close to 400 citizens showed up in Rhode Island and over 60 gave testimony on Sept. 24 including teachers, environmentalists, fishermen. lots of New Englanders, a goodly New Jersey Delegation and folks from as far away as South Carolina, with almost all of them wanting the federal government to do more to protect the ocean. Over 400 people turned out during a workday in Honolulu and despite a Tsunami warning (Hawaii was spared but the Islands of Samoa took a terrible impact from one of the few ocean disasters not linked to human activity). The Sept. 29 Honolulu meeting also had video links to other islands and territories though there were technical problems on the audio side. Also it was poorly moderated for time so that only 60 of 90 people who wanted to testify had the opportunity. In both meetings a good 80 percent of the testimony was favorable to a new national policy based on restoring a healthy and abundant blue frontier. There was more passion in Hawaii and some very specific concerns about marine debris and the need to end the trade in tropical fish collecting for the aquarium trade. Several Native Hawaiians spoke of the need to link science with traditional knowledge while speakers from the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (recently faulted for lack of transparency in a GAO report) claimed the Pacific has more protected marine monuments than any other federal fishing region. Given their adamant opposition to the establishment of these ocean wilderness parks that's kind of like John Dillinger claiming credit for improved bank security.

I stayed on for a day after the Task Force session to visit the University of Hawaii's Institute of Marine Biology on Coconut Island in Kaneohe Bay. Educational Director Mark Heckman took me on an 18-foot skiff to visit a patch reef that was home to numerous large sea turtles. I spotted nine plus a man-o-war who stung my hand before a turtle could take it out (Go Turtles! Eat Jellies!). When I first came to Hawaii in the 1980s these big marine reptiles were a rare sight. Now they're making a come back thanks to successful conservation efforts. At the same time University researchers are studying the rapid growth of coral diseases in Hawaiian waters similar to those that have devastated the Florida Keys reef line. The present state of our ocean is both inspiring and scary, a reminder that we don't have much time to get our national policy and management right or to engage the millions of our fellow citizens needed to help assure it works for all of us.

Take a risk sailor

If you think cliques were tough in High School imagine what 4-5 national security players can do if they band together to impede the progress of 15 other agencies and departments directed to restore the blue in our red, white and blue. That seems to be what's happening internally within the Task Force despite the Commander in Chief's clear directive to give this nation a coherent new approach and leadership structure for the protection of our public seas. The Navy, Department of Defense, Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and National Security Council are having a hard time embracing a new vision of what constitutes the national interest on our ocean frontier, while the Coast Guard is having a hard time distinguishing itself from the other uniformed services. While Ecosystem-Based Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning could potentially have some marginal impacts on where and how the Navy trains in U.S. waters in order to maintain its needed lethal edge, it could also provide far greater benefits by helping the Navy and the other sea services increase transparency on our ocean commons through new partnerships across many agencies and sectors and by delineating the behaviors and locations of all ocean users. This could rapidly reduce the available cover for bad actors in our maritime environment, be they terrorists, poachers, pirates, migrant smugglers or hostile naval forces including small boat forces. But to achieve EBCMSP (see, civilians can also create unpronounceable acronyms) the U.S. needs a unified ocean governance approach to coordinate federal, state, local and tribal management of our coasts, ocean and great lakes. The interim Task Force report proposes our new (really first) national ocean policy be overseen by a White House Ocean Council. Personally I'd shoot for the whole barrel of fish -- a Department of the Ocean made up of the U.S. Coast Guard on the operational side and NOAA for policy, resource management and science (see Blue Notes #64).

The Blue Beat --

Props to The Ocean Conservancy's Vikki Spruill who has a Q&A in the October issue of Coastal Living magazine along with a nice picture of her and her family in a new line of Lilly Pulitzer beach wear that will help raise funds for TOC. Blue Frontier's Seaweed Rebel Roz Savage, who's completed the second leg of her three phase effort to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific (See Blue Notes #63), is beginning her book tour for "Rowing the Atlantic," the story of her 2006 row across that deep blue ocean. She's planning a second book on her Pacific row that will also focus on ocean health and climate change.

I recently wrote about two impressive new ocean docs, 'The Cove' and NRDC's 'Acid Test.' Two others have now won honors. "Wyland: Earth Day' is a half hour on the Marine Artist's 24 hour rush to paint the earth (including lots of blue paint) on the roof of the Long Beach Convention Center where he'd already painted the world's largest mural (of the sea). This just won producer Chris Morrow the Best San Diego Filmmaker Award at the San Diego Film Festival. At the same time the enchanting 9-min. 'Once Upon a Tide' won the Best Children's Film Award at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. Congrats to Kathleen Frith and the folks at the Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment among others.

Meanwhile EarthEcho co-founders (and Discovery Channel pop ups) Philippe and Alexandra Cousteau were at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York where they announced a partnership with Discovery Communications and Planet Green to bring a "Water Planet Challenge" for youth action to middle and high school classrooms across the nation starting in 2010. For more go to Earthecho.org.

On a more modest scale Blue Frontier is working with the newly created Digital Ocean organization that has middle and high school students in the SF Bay Area making short videos based on our '50 Ways to Save the Ocean' book (Foreword by Philippe Cousteau). More on this in a future Blue Notes.

Oh, and one more thing. I've started doing ocean blogs for Huffington Post. If you want to check them out they're at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-helvarg/

Oceanic Inspiration

Dan Reineman of Rep. Sam Farr's office suggested we do Shakespeare this time, from Will's stormy classic, 'The Tempest.'

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell
Burthen Ding-dong
Hark! now I hear them,--Ding-dong, bell.

Blue Notes #64

2009-09-23T22:30:41Z

Blue Notes #064

Turning the Tide, Surfing Salvador, Killing Swords for Couch Potatoes and more.

Sept. 18, 2009
By David Helvarg

"A Sea Change We Can Believe In"

That is how NOAA Administrator and chief science mermaid Jane Lubchenco put it at a press conference Thursday Sept. 17 held near the San Francisco waterfront. She, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley, Coast Guard Admiral Sally Brice-O'Hara and other Ocean Policy Task Force members had just released their interim report to the President (See Blue Notes #62 & 63). It calls for a National Ocean Policy that: Takes an ecosystem based approach to managing the nation's public seas, uses Marine Spatial Planning to resolve user conflicts (See Blue Notes #62 for a definition), focuses on building resiliency based on healthy non-polluted habitats and bountiful wildlife - and adaptation (planning for the worst) to respond to impacts including ocean acidification and Arctic ice loss brought on by climate change.

On my way from the press conference to the Task Force's public "listening session," with a guy from Earthjustice we ran into a Michael Moore rally on the Embarcadero Plaza held for his latest movie, 'Capitalism, a love story." "Participation is what democracy is all about," he told the large lunchtime crowd. At the back of the crowd were over a dozen dolphin, turtle and rockfish costumed seaweed rebels (marine grassroots activists) also on their way to the Task Force hearing at the Hyatt hotel. Some 500 people participated on a workday afternoon saying Yes to the promise of a new (first ever) national ocean policy to protect, explore and restore our last great and endangered frontier. Some 160 people gave testimony that, after two panels of experts, was limited to two minutes per speaker, kind of like speed dating for the ocean. Most of the speakers represented West Coast elected officials such as Senator Boxer and the West Coast Governors who strongly endorse the plan along with environmental advocates ranging from fishermen, scientists and surfers to sea otter and clean ocean energy advocates. In my 120 seconds I thanked the Task Force for implementing what many before them including two major ocean commissions that reported in 2003 and 2004 have called for without result, a coordinated federal approach to support sound oversight of our living seas. I also suggested that just as the Department of Interior was created in 1849 to oversee the Western frontier, our oceanic Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) that is six times the size of the Louisiana Purchase ought to have its own place at the cabinet table. I'm thinking if you took the Coast Guard, our nation's multi-mission maritime operator on the Ocean and Great Lakes and pried it from the Department of Homeland Security and took NOAA, the lead civilian agency for marine science and management, out of the Department of Commerce where Richard Nixon sank it back in 1970, you'd have the makings of a pretty decent Department of the Ocean that could oversee and help restore the blue in our red, white and blue. And yes, I did have to talk fast.

The Task Force itself is moving on a fast current with its next (and only Eastern Seaboard) meeting in Providence RI on Sept. 24 to be followed by a Honolulu meeting Sept. 29 followed in October by two more meetings in New Orleans and Cleveland. Their final report is due December 10. We'll be meeting and strategizing in D.C. before then.

The Blue Beat

The NY Times recently reported some things many of our highly informed readers may already know. On Sept. 10 William Broad reported on how Hoki is the latest slow growing deepwater fish to be overexploited by the same (New Zealand) folks who crashed Orange Roughy not too long ago. As with almost all new commercial fisheries, Hoki created a global boom that's probably killed 90 percent of its biomass and now government fisheries managers realize it's time to regulate the last 10 percent to make it "sustainable."

,p.The next day Andy Kramer and Andy Revkin reported on the first commercial ships (German) to take advantage of the melting, increasingly ice-free Arctic to use emerging northern shipping routes between Europe and Asia that fossil-fuel fired climate change has opened up for the first time in thousands of years. 25 years ago I was bodysurfing El Salvador as a war reporter figuring with so many bodies it was a natural (and a way to escape the daily horrors). My photographer friend John Hoagland loved surfing the left break at La Libertad till he was killed while shooting the war for Newsweek in 1984. On Sept. 13 the Times Travel section reported the emergence of post-war El Salvador as a cool new surfing destination. John would have liked that. Speaking of killings, the Discovery Channel, having made a hit of crab fishing in Alaska ('The Deadliest Catch') has a new show 'Swords' that profiles long-line fishing for Atlantic Swordfish in the same light, without mention of the global decimation long lining has caused marine wildlife or the toxic mercury loads top predators like swordfish carry in their flesh. Next likely Discovery series: Pirates, the story of the heroic hard working boatmen of Somalia who risk their lives to hijack monster ships for the fabulous ransoms they can earn.

And finally, hot off the press, the National Climatic Data Center reports worldwide sea surface temperatures this summer were the warmest since records were first compiled in 1880. It's like that experiment where you put a frogfish in the ocean and slowly turn up the heat...

Oceanic Inspiration

Having finished writing my 'Saved by the Sea' book (St. Martin's 2010) I'd like to start including a Blue Notes section of inspired words and poetry about our mother ocean. This week it's lyrics from Australian Folkie Paul Kelly. Feel free to send in your own suggestions and we'll try and post them.

Deeper Water -- Lyrics and music by Paul Kelly

On a crowded beach in a distant time
At the height of summer see a boy of five
At the water's edge so nimble and free
Jumping over the ripples looking way out to sea

Now a man comes up from amongst the throng
Takes the young boy's hand and his hand is strong
And the child feels safe, yeah the child feels brave
As he's carried in those arms up and over the waves

Deeper water, deeper water, deeper water, calling him on

Let's move forward now and the child's seventeen
With a girl in the back seat tugging at his jeans
And she knows what she wants, she guides with her hand
As a voice cries inside him - I'm a man, I'm a man!

Deeper water, deeper water, deeper water, calling him on

Now the man meets a woman unlike all the rest
He doesn't know it yet but he's out of his depth
And he thinks he can run, it's a matter of pride
But he keeps coming back like a cork on the tide

Well the years hurry by and the woman loves the man
Then one night in the dark she grabs hold of his hand
Says 'There, can you feel it kicking inside!'
And the man gets a shiver right up and down his spine

Deeper water, deeper water, deeper water, calling him on

So the clock moves around and the child is a joy
But Death doesn't care just who it destroys
Now the woman gets sick, thins down to the bone
She says 'Where I'm going next, I'm going alone'

Deeper water, deeper water

On a distant beach lonely and wild
At a later time see a man and a child
And the man takes the child up into his arms
Takes her over the breakers
To where the water is calm

Deeper water, deeper water,
Deeper water, calling them on

Blue Notes #63

2009-09-07T15:13:41Z

Blue Notes #063

Ocean Task Force, Something Fishy, A Peaceful landing on Tarawa, the Blue Beat and more

Sept. 4, 2009
By David Helvarg

I Don't Know -- Alaska

President Obama's Ocean Task Force is underway (see Blue Notes #62). What struck me about watching the first hearing in Anchorage August 21 - on NOAA streaming video - was both the civility, and the unique pride of Alaskans in their largely intact though threatened marine environment. No 'town hall from hell' shout downs, no talk about Ocean Death Panels with government bureaucrats deciding which fish will live and which will die. People disagreed but with respect.

But mostly those who testified in front of CEQ Chair Nancy Sutley, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen and other Task Force members who'd just completed a multi-day tour of the melting Arctic (including the whale bone pile outside Barrow where Polar Bears f eed) agreed on the need to better protect our northern waters. The hearing was dominated by Native Alaskans, Environmentalists and Fishermen who wanted no part of oil drilling in the Arctic or Bristol Bay, ocean acidification and other fossil-fuel driven problems, and were skeptical of mining and other threats to what many Eskimo witnesses referred to as "our garden," the ocean that gives them their sustenance. A few witnesses from the oil industry repeated the mantra that it'll be a long time before oil and gas stops being, " part of the energy mix," especially when there's so much offshore oil still to be drilled. Personally I'm improving my diet, its just there are so many snickers bars still left in my fridge. A few state officials and tourism folks bragged on how well Alaska did things and the need for federal state partnerships. And then a few folks inevitably talked about their own agendas and fears. What was great was after an hour of panels and two hours of open mike statements the task force members were willing to stay on till everyone who wanted to speak had their chance. They better bring a lot of coffee when they come to San Francisco Sept. 17.

The latest dates for Task Force 'Listening Sessions,' including a new one, are:

San Francisco - Sept. 17- 2:30-6PM Hyatt Regency Embarcadero
Providence RI ("The Ocean State") -- Sept. 24 - Convention Center 4-7PM
Honolulu -- Sept. 29
New Orleans -- Oct. 19
Cleveland ("the Buckeye State") -- Oct. 29

Blue Frontier Campaign is planning a follow-up 'Lessons Learned' session in Wash. D.C. tentatively set for late November.

Fish Oil

On August 20th Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, following up on the recommendation of Alaska's federal fisheries council, banned commercial fishing in a 150,000 square nautical mile area of the U.S. Arctic Ocean north of the Bering Sea where sea ice has retreated. "This plan takes a precautionary approach to any development of commercial fishing in the area," he explained. With fossil fuel driven climate change melting the Arctic ice fishermen, regulators and environmentalists all agree we shouldn't be depleting the living resource until we better understand what's happening in this extremely cold but fragile marine ecosystem. Too bad some resources seem more equal than others. While the Department of Commerce (home to NOAA) is taking the precautionary approach ("first do no harm") the Department of Interior's Mineral Management Service continues to lease oil-drilling sites in the Chukchi and Beufort Seas like it's Dick Cheney's birthday. These kinds of contradictory agency approaches make an even stronger case for the comprehensive national ocean policy approach advocated by the President in his marching orders to the Task Force. Of course it may just be a case of different perspectives. NOAA sees the melting Arctic as half empty, MMS sees it as half full of oil.

Roz on a Postage Stamp.

I would like to see Blue Frontier Seaweed Rebel and rowing phenomena Roz Savage on a postage stamp (most likely a British one) but that's not the kind I'm talking about. By the time you read this it may be the postage stamp sized (though still historic and well inhabited) island of Tarawa where Roz will finally have landed after more than 105 days of rowing the second part of her 3-phase sojourn across the Pacific to help raise awareness of our blue planet at risk. Roz had been aiming for the island of Tuvalu that is expected to sink beneath the seas in our lifetimes thanks to the fossil-fuel posse, but the ocean will do what it will, particularly with a 23-foot rowboat. Tarawa's proving a good destination with her advance team led by Nicole Bilodeau doing amazing prep work and I bet a hot meal and warm freshwater shower will do the trick for Roz once she pulls her final strokes (for now). For the latest go to rozsavage.com

The Blue Beat

I attended the Green Forum on the Ocean in Miami August 26-27 under the auspices of the Americas Business Council. Organized by the Latin business magazine PODER it included the support of Grupo Televisa, the largest Spanish language media conglomerate in the world. The hope is that having heard from leading ocean voices, from Sylvia Earle to National Geographic and others, the leaders of Hispanic media will do more programming addressing the ocean crisis and its solutions. Audience demographics suggest this would make sense. A recent study by the Ocean Project on U.S. public attitudes towards the state of the sea found there is greater concern within non-English speaking (mainly Hispanic) households than among English speaking folks when it comes to protecting the ocean. Si Se Puede - Save the Seas!

Speaking of Sylvia and Nat Geo, her latest book, "The World is Blue -- How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One," will be out shortly with National Geographic. I got an advance read. The good news, if Sylvia Earle believes there's still hope for saving the ocean, you'd have to be a fool to despair.

Plus the ocean remains a place of mystery, adventure and discovery as Dr. Peter Rona a Professor at Rutgers and star of "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea" has discovered in his more than 30-year quest for Paleodictyon Nodosum, one of the oldest life forms on the planet. William Broad tells a good story about Rona's search for and recent proof of the hexagonal tube boring micro-critter's ongoing existence in the Aug. 25 Science section of the NY Times. I once spent a week at sea watching Rona dredging for P.N. in the Deep Atlantic which entranced me for a few hours before my ADD kicked in. Congrats Peter.

Louie Psihoyos' 'The Cove' (Blue Notes #62) continues to garner critical acclaim and such widespread global attention that the annual opening of the mass slaughter of dolphins (for mercury contaminated meat) at Taiji Japan has been delayed - and may be cancelled - due to a heavy media presence.

As if one great blue documentary isn't enough the NRDC's refreshingly brief half-hour "Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification," recently aired on Discovery's 'Planet Green.' Narrated by Sigourney Weaver, it is visually stunning and brilliantly edited with a finely balanced message: 'We're doomed but there's hope.'

I also did an hour on Diane Rehm's NPR show Sept. 3 talking about my "Rescue Warriors," book and the forgotten heroes of the Coast Guard that was also taped by C-SPAN Book TV. My next book with St. Martin's is tentatively scheduled for an Ocean Day, June 8, 2010 release. Its titled, "Saved by the Sea -- An Autobiography with Fish." Luckily there's still more fish than Helvargs in the sea and so I use my life as a narrative device to measure the decline of our ocean world in the last five decades and describe what I've seen and experienced that still gives me some confidence we can turn the tide.

Our next opportunity to do this will be in San Francisco, Sept. 17. There will also be a pre-Task Force "Ocean Party" on the evening of Sept. 16th where we will have an opportunity to drink like fish.

Blue Notes #62

2009-08-14T23:04:44Z

Blue Notes #062

Summit Video, Ocean Task Force, Green bullets, Bloody Sharks, etc.

Aug. 10, 2009
By David Helvarg

Blue Vision Online

David McGuire of Sea Stewards Studios has completed a ten-minute video of the Blue Vision Summit narrated by Sylvia Earle. Whether you were there for the historic four day gathering of over 400 ocean leaders in D.C. March 7-10 or not, you can now view a fast-paced documentary about it on our bluefront.org website, also on Facebook and Vimeo. You can also click from our website onto the Blue Vision Summit website at www.bluefront.org/bluevision where we have updated reports, transcripts, and notes from many of the Summit's Plenary Sessions and Panels as well as the Explorers Evening and Peter Benchley Awards.

Click through th e Summit site's Day-to-Day Agenda and its Media section and you will also find links to additional videos and photographs.

The Summit's three major themes were Federal Action for Healthy Seas, the Ocean and Climate and Marine Solutions that work.

Along with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D RI), Rep. Sam Farr (D CA) and Madeleine Bordallo (Delegate, Guam) the March 9 Plenary on "Advancing Federal Ocean Policy," included the newly appointed Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley. It must have been a bracing plunge into ocean politics for the southern Californian whose work history made her more familiar with air quality and climate issues. It had to be helpful as only three months later on June 12 President Obama named Sutley to lead his new Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force that's now underway (see Blue Notes #61). Along with CEQ the task force includes 20 other federal agencies and offices all of which have some claim or interest in our public seas and Great Lakes.

Two if by Sea! Ocean Task Force Goes Public!

Historic opportunities are rare as seared Ahi. But now it looks like we're going to have at least five in the next couple of months as the Interagency Task Force assigned to come up with a plan to protect and sustain the ocean "for current and future generations," begins holding regional public hearings or "listening sessions," around the country. The ocean and coastal community will have to move quickly to promote public participation and help educate folks on how a unified federal ocean policy based on restoring ocean health and that of the Great Lakes will also help restore coastal economies and enhance national security. The tentative meetings schedule includes the following dates:

Anchorage - Aug. 21, Dena'ina Civic Center (confirmed)
San Francisco - Sept. 17
Providence Sept. 24
Cleveland - Sept. 28 or Oct. 7
New Orleans - Oct. 19
Possible Pacific Islands meeting to follow

Blue Frontier Campaign is planning to hold a mini-Blue Vision Summit in D.C. shortly after these for folks to review how the meetings went, follow up with the agencies and elected representatives who participated in them, and plan our next steps to assure the restoration of the blue in our red, white and blue.

Already a small group of regional and national groups have started networking to help realize the aims of the Task Force and build a massive wave of public support at these meetings. We'll need more folks from marine conservation, recreation: boating, surfing and diving, maritime labor, business, sustainable tourism, clean energy, clean fishing, youth, artists, local officials, coastal tribes, etc. to let the government agencies on the Task Force know there is a seaweed (marine grassroots) movement out there ready to work with them for a sensible unified approach to the management of our last great public commons.

A coalition of Alaskan groups has taken the initiative on organizing for the Anchorage meeting. The Conservation Law Foundation has taken the lead on the Providence meeting. I've volunteered Blue Frontier's West Coast office to start networking around the San Francisco meeting on condition we not be parochial. Sure we could turn out hundreds of seaweed citizens just from the Bay Area but we need groups from Southern California, Oregon and maybe Hawaii, Guam and American Somoa to also be heard.

Groups like the Gulf Restoration Network are likely to play a significant role in the New Orleans hearings and both Great Lakes Conservation groups and progressive farm groups are being approached about the hearings on our fourth fresh water coast. I just returned from Grand Haven, Michigan where I was surprised to find an entire coastline without rust, corrosion or sharks. I'm now reading, "The Living Great Lakes" by Jerry Dennis.

Meanwhile, People for Puget Sound and others from the Pacific Northwest, not wanting their coastal cultures and iconic salmon to be slighted, have begun working with Senator Maria Cantwell's office (Cantwell heads the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard) about a possible hearing either in Seattle or Washington D.C. Other regions should feel free to express their desire to be heard. As Dr. Roger Payne, the man who discovered Whale Song (for our species) stated in his Blue Vision Keynote address: "Our present predicament is actually the most singular opportunity for greatness ever offered to any generation...let us seize that opportunity to save the ocean." (see video)

Time is critical. Feel free to contact us at info@bluefront.org or Sean Cosgrove at CLF scosgrove@clf.org if you'd like to get more involved.

Along with outreach we'll also need to do more "inreach" to the myriad agencies and individuals involved in the Task Force including the armed ones: the Coast Guard, Navy, Department of Defense, Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and National Security Council (see below)

Green Bullets and Blue Seas

If the military can come up with a green bullet made of tungsten instead of lead (still kills people but leaves ducks unharmed) there's no reason we can't have an ecosystem based ocean policy that protects both our living seas and our national security. I believe there is a strong and positive correlation between Marine Spatial Planning as an evolving ecosystem management tool for the United States and Maritime Domain Awareness as a technology-based systems approach to securing real time and actionable national security intelligence on our ocean frontier. I also believe the Coast Guard, as a multi-mission agency involved in maritime safety, security and stewardship (see my book, 'Rescue Warriors') is best placed to expand on this possibility, linking the four other defense and national security task force members with those from EPA, Departments of interior, Energy, Health and Human Services and others overseeing America's environment, energy and public health. More on this MSP/MDA link in the next Blue Notes.

The Blue Beat

Blue Frontier friend Steve Chapple has a good article in the new Reader's Digest (can you use 'new' and 'Reader's Digest' in the same sentence?). It's on the state of the world's Coral Reefs with a two-page photo spread that includes this year's Peter Benchley Science Award winners Jeremy Jackson and Nancy Knowlton... 'The Cove,' has just been released with much deserved fanfare and more media than any ocean documentary since Jacque C. was around (one reviewer calls it "a combination of Flipper and the Bourne Identity."). Whether you agree with its main protagonist Ric O'Barry that keeping captive dolphins is always wrong or think it might make sense for some former military dolphins now retired in the Florida Keys, it's pretty certain no one's going to leave the theater thinking its OK for Japanese fishermen to trap and secretly massacre thousands of these charismatic marine mammals... Speaking of charismatic megafauna, '60 Minutes' just did a nice piece on sharks while The Ocean Conservancy got shark conservation public service announcements scattered like chum on the water throughout Discovery Channel's 'Shark Week.' Steve Colbert had fun with this on his show, suggesting a more cruel and bloody series might be titled, "Human Week."

Monterey's Loss

During the Bush administration I noted that no good science went unpunished. Nowadays it seems like good science has become rewarding again. First our bodysurfng President named Jane Lubchenco of Oregon State, a marine ecologist and former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to head NOAA (see Blue Notes #53). Now Marcia McNutt, who ran the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (a leading center for the study of ocean acidification), has been appointed to lead the U.S. Geological Survey. USGS is where the Department of Interior's rock hounds (and coral cats) provide reliable earth science to the nation. Two flippers up on this choice!

Blue Notes #61

2009-07-22T23:26:05Z

Blue Notes #061

Obama, SpongeBob, the CIA, Sea Shepherds and so much more

July 17, 2009
By David Helvarg

Task Force Clears the Dock

Things are moving forward on the president's Ocean Policy Task Force that is supposed to create a new (first ever) unified marine policy for the United States. The background goes something like this -- The United States has always been a maritime nation, its wealth derived from sea-borne trade and the natural abundance of its coastal and offshore waters. In 1793 Thomas Jefferson, as Secretary of State, announced a three-mile territorial limit for the United States (the standard range of a cannon-ball at the time, or so he claimed). In 1983 in one of the most significant but least noted acts of his administration President Ronald Reagan declared a 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone stretching out from our shores. At 3.4 million square miles it's the largest resource-based EEZ in the world, a new saltwater frontier six times the size of the Louisiana Purchase. Belatedly in 2003 and 2004 two major n ational commissions reported on the state of America's ocean domain and how the ecological collapse of our ocean waters now pose a threat to our security, economy and environment. Most of their recommendations for a unified "ecosystem based" approach to management of our public seas were ignored by the Bush Administration. Bush did, however, establish the first fully- protected marine wilderness parks in U.S. waters.

On June 12 President Obama not only proclaimed June to be Ocean Month (see Blue Notes #60) but in an impressive display of multi-tasking also announced a 23-member federal task force to establish a comprehensive U.S. Ocean policy. He even said the same thing twice, and they both sounded good, "This policy will incorporate ecosystem-based science and management and emphasize our public stewardship responsibilities," and, "My Administration also is working to develop a systematic marine spatial planning framework for the conservation and sustainable use of ocean resources."

Of course some of the 23 representatives to the Task Force including the Navy, Joint Chiefs of Staff and Office of Management and Budget (that got two reps) may not be keen for an ecosystem based approach to our public seas unless it's revenue neutral and allows for the continued killing of whales by military sonar in the name of national security.

The Task Force's first meeting was held June 22. While everyone was represented, the only agency and service chiefs to show in person were Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco and of course the White House Council on Environmental Quality's Nancy Sutley who's leading the effort. The meeting was addressed by three members of the U.S. Ocean Commission including its Chair Admiral Jim Watkins (Ret.) Lubchenco had also been a member of the Pew Ocean Commission, whose chair, Leon Panetta now heads the CIA.

While the Task Force is only convening once a month (next meeting July 22) some 40-50 people are involved in its five working groups on public engagement, policy, governance, implementation and marine spatial planning.

At the end of 90 days (late September) they will issue an initial report to the President saying what should be in a national ocean policy. Since marine spatial planning is understood to be at the core of any such policy they will have another 90 days to come up with a practical blueprint for implementing this (Massachusetts by contrast spent four years getting to this point with its ocean planning agenda that still had to exclude fisheries management because of the political difficulties involved). Nonetheless, public hearings around the country are planned to get underway beginning this fall and will continue through the end of the year.

While scientists and some others like the sound of Marine Spatial Planning I'm always nervous about initiating major policy changes based on concepts not first made familiar to the general public (like 'Cap and Trade' for climate policy). My own understanding of Marine Spatial Planning is as a kind of ocean and coastal zoning that would incorporate a system of cleaned up watersheds and estuaries, offshore shipping lanes and greener ports, wildlife migration corridors, clearly delineated clean energy, national defense and fishing areas, recreational and marine wilderness parks and other public benefits. For planning purposes it recognizes humans are a part of the marine ecosystem but also that the basic laws of nature including biology, chemistry and physics are not amendable to negotiation and trade offs. Dead oceans don't respond to market incentives, which, given the best available science, means the time for action has to be now.

That's the good news. I can also see potential contact mines in the water including a coalescing of Salt Water special interests such as the offshore oil industry and coastal real-estate developers with the same right-wing extremists who've blocked Senate ratification of the Law of the Seas Treaty for 30 years fearing it's a plot to empower the U.N. (even though, or perhaps because, both the Pentagon and Greenpeace agree on the treaty's necessity).

In 1994 I wrote 'The War Against the Greens,' a book that documented how mining, timber and other public lands industries helped create a violent backlash that effectively blocked public lands reform during the Clinton administration. I could see a similar thing happening on our public seas unless the ocean and coastal community recognizes the vast potential for good of a new ecologically sound U.S. Ocean Policy and begins both giving its active input and reaching out to the public to get it done right from sea to shining sea.

10-year old Sponge thriving

Sponge Bob just turned ten and is still living in a pineapple under the sea according to Nickelodeon. With all the money he's made you'd think he'd have a plantation by now. Actually it's his creator, marine biologist Steve Hillenburg who's managed to parley the many strange wonders of the sea and innocence of his cartoon characters into a global franchise.

Of course those who trade on fear for power can find "evil" lurking even in the wide-eyed friendships of a cartoon sponge. In early 2005 a major political evangelist claimed SpongeBob was pro-gay. I responded with a January 26 editorial in the Los Angeles Times, part of which I reprint below in honor of the 'oh so pretty' Porifera's birthday.

"James Dobson of Focus on the Family has tossed a new harpoon in the culture wars, claiming that SpongeBob SquarePants is being used to promote a homosexual agenda. He doesn't know the half of it. When it comes to sex outside of marriage, the oceans that cover 71 percent of our planet are rife with reproductive strategies and behaviors that would make Caligula, or even Bill Clinton, blush. SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg, who has a background in marine biology, had to be aware that in creating a cartoon sponge he'd be opening himself up to charge of marine-based immorality. Sponges can reproduce asexually, for example. And if Dobson's followers don't object to that, I'm sure they'll be distressed to learn that they also can be hermaphrodites. Single sponges not only produce both sperm and eggs but are broadcast spawners, indiscriminately releasing sperm in such profusion as to turn seawater smoky white. Life in the sea, in fact, is largely about reproduction, not traditional family values. Take the blue crab, pound for pound one of the most fearsome creatures on the planet, yet when the female undergoes her molt of puberty, she releases a scent that makes the male's aggression dissipate like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the presence of Maria Shriver. They'll then copulate for between 10 and 48 hours before regressing to single-crab combat. The sex life of the blue crab raises the question, do marine organisms have orgasms? Which leads to related questions such as, do they need to? And how does that make you feel when you order a tuna fish sandwich?

For the full article go to our homepage link at www.bluefront.org

On the Blue Beat

The 'Wild Pacific,' documentary series on the Discovery Channel is an amazing tribute to the almost one-third of our planet that is the Pacific Ocean both above and below the water, including great reporting on the threats from climate change, overfishing and other recent changes to the everlasting sea. Whale Wars on Animal Planet about the Sea Shepherd Society's at-sea campaign against Japanese whaling off Antarctica is another must-see series, showing how strong commitment and occasional poor seamanship on the Southern Ocean can create engaging video. The very thorough "Watching Whales Watching Us," by Charles Siebert was also the cover story in the New York Times magazine July 12. Living on Earth's Jeff Young did a nice segment with me about the Coast Guard's environmental work 'Duck Scrubbing Heroes' that aired July 3 and CBS Evening News had a biting report on July 15 about nine shark attack survivors lobbying congress for shark protection. And then there is "Fierce Heart," the new book from my 'Rescue Warriors,' publisher St. Martin's all about Oahu's wild West Side culture where surfing, hula and Hawaiian music helped the locals reclaim their heritage and share it with other watermen and women. It's written by Surfrider Foundation's Hawaii Regional Coordinator Stuart Coleman and is triple-overhead with Aloha spirit. And speaking of blue ocean books...

The CIA Doesn't Always Lie

If you don't believe your president (see ad) listen to CIA Chief Leon Panetta who's says, "Our oceans are in crisis. These great natural treasures can be saved if the nation is committed to their protection and each of us are committed to their preservation. This book is an important guide for the public to saving our oceans."

Blue Notes #60

2009-06-28T14:31:36Z

Blue Notes #060

The Ghost Reefs of Kadavu

June 19, 2009
By David Helvarg

The Ghost Reefs of Kadavu

In 2002 I went to Fiji to report on coral bleaching. I've just returned to find that while the corals have recovered from major bleaching events in 2000 and 2002 most of the marine wildlife, including almost all the middle sized and large fish have disappeared, at least where my friend Scott Fielder and I dove among the ghost reefs of Kadavu, Fiji's fourth largest island.

There are healthy and extensive hard and soft coral communities on the island's Matanuku and Astrolabe Reefs that are also home to small nursery fish but few if any sea stars, sea cucumber, urchins, eels, parrotfish, snapper, grouper, trevally, sharks or turtles. By our third dive we began wondering what was going on. "I've dived all through the Indo-Pacific for 30 years and have never seen anything like this," Scott noted. Amidst spectacular 9 and 10 story high underwater pinnacles, swim thru caverns and deep canyons, mes as and vertical walls dropping into the abyss we find the first indicators of algal disease as corals cannot maintain themselves without schools of large parrot fish, urchins and other grazers to control the algae growth.

Outside the reef line big longline fishing trawlers are taking thousands of tons of tuna, shark and other open water species, having paid small licensing fees to deplete Fiji's waters. The Fiji Hotel Association has written a letter of protest to the military government but gotten no response.

After five days of diving ghost reefs I convince Scott that we ought to cut out early and head over to the capital of Suva on the "mainland" island of Viti Levu to do some interviews and see if our suspicions bear out.

We fly from the Vunisea airstrip into Nadi on a Twin Otter prop plane over a string of offshore atolls and reefs. There we rent a car to drive across the big island to Suva. Despite the latest political tensions there are few troops visible in the Capitol. In fact Suva has hardly changed in the seven years I've been away. The Centra hotel on Victoria Parade is now a Holiday Inn and the big rusty Taiwanese longline fishing vessels in the harbor have been joined by others from mainland China, Korea and Indonesia. We count over 15 that among them can put more than 50,000 hooks in the water on any given day.

We stop at the Greenpeace office located in the old municipal building above a Chinese restaurant. There Steve Shallhorn and Seni Nabou tell us that the local chapter has a harbor watch program that often spots ships whose (identification) numbers have been painted over or have numbers that don't match the vessel's registered name, sure signs of illegal pirate fishing. Seni says there are also reports of sea cucumbers being stolen in the isolated Lao island group where her family is from.

Between its Coups the Australian government gave Fiji three patrol boats to help with Fisheries enforcement but since Commodore Frank Bainimarama, head of Fiji's 400-man Navy, is also head of the military government I figure he has bigger fish to fry.

At the Fisheries office in the village of Lami a few miles outside of town we meet and talk with Sunia Waqainabeter, the Senior Research Officer in the Fisheries Department of the Ministry of Primary Industries (fishing, farming and logging). Sunia is a brown-eyed, gray haired Fijian, about 5'10" with a friendly, informed manner, faded blue Aloha shirt and blue sulu skirt. Even as a leader of FLMMA, the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area Program, a bottom-up effort to merge customary marine claims with an ecosystem based approach to ocean protection, he's still worried about the future of his people and the ocean wildlife they depend on.

"The two major issues are poaching and depletion of resources where most communities are telling us it's taking them longer to catch fish and they're seeing a decline in catches, and the trend just keeps going down. We had a big drop in inshore fishing data between 1998 and 2004. In some areas you have had 10,000 tons (of fish caught) drop to 2,400 tons in one year."

He tells us our suspicions of overfishing are correct, that unregulated poaching is widespread inside the reef lines with urban fishermen from Suva raiding customary (traditional) fishing areas in Kadavu. "But its now everywhere in Fiji. Our local (appointed) fish wardens don't have the boats and engines to catch them."

He thinks unscrupulous business people are funding up to 1,000 night divers with spear guns (Fiji's population is just over 800,000). The fisheries department has 154 employees.

He tells us how his uncle was killed on his home island in the Lao group after stopping one of the poacher's boats.

A few days earlier the dive group we were with had brought school supplies to the Drue village primary school on Kadavu at the end of a long afternoon. There we were serenaded by 20 students who sang in beautiful two-part Harmony hymns and songs both in English and Fijian about 'waves on the ocean' and 'paradise goodbye to you' and as the fading light turned their blue and white school uniforms to shadow gray the dive tour leader told them, "We think you children are the best ambassadors of the islands and hope you grow up to become divers so you can enjoy what you have in your front yard."

And I couldn't help but think how much of their front yard ocean paradise had already been stolen from them.

Ocean Week Getting Stronger

This year the U.N. officially declared June 8 World Ocean Day and D.C. did its annual ocean week thing, until President Obama declared the entire month of June Ocean Month. Personally I think the other 71 percent should get two thirds of the year. The week started for me and Jim Toomey (Sherman's Lagoon) at the Smithsonian's Sant Ocean Hall. I talked while he drew examples of our book's "50 Ways to Save the Ocean," on screen. Also volunteer scientists explained the briny blue to the hall's many other visitors. The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation had its annual dinner and Capitol Hill Ocean Week with numerous panels and the release of a report on the economic value of healthy public seas. SeaWeb and the United Nations Environmental Program held a reception at the National Press Club with Senator and Sandra Whitehouse, Delegate Madeleine Bordallo of Guam, Mike Boots of the Council on Environmental Quality and others. NOAA had its annual fish fry where the artist Wyland, cartoonist Toomey and myself got to briefly say hi to NOAA's new chief Jane Lubchenco (see pix). The next day Wyland did a nice mural by the Mall with Smokey the Bear, Sam the sanctuary sea lion and many paintbrush wielding kids around a forest to ocean theme. The Secretary of Agriculture and heads of the Forest Service and National Marine Sanctuaries also attended. The week culminated Friday with President Obama, our first bodysurfing President, announcing his new ocean policy. The White House's Blue Memorandum calls for an interagency task force led by the Council on Environmental Quality to protect, maintain and restore marine ecosystems by identifying the steps needed to implement that goal (OK, it's a taskforce to create an ocean policy). Additionally, the task force is charged with developing science-based, comprehensive ocean ecosystem planning to balance competing uses of our oceans. We'll all need to pull our oars together to make this happen. Speaking of which...

No Business Like Row Business

Got to credit Roz Savage for that title -- Three weeks into the second leg of her Trans-Pacific solo row as the first woman (and Seaweed Rebel) to cross an Ocean in order to save it, Roz has made (no jinx intended) remarkable progress to date with the worst incident involving a pair of rude Albatrosses who sat and then shat upon her rowboat. Apparently the immunity conveyed them by Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem has given them an overdeveloped sense of entitlement. For more on Roz go to rozsavage.com or link through www.bluefront.org

With support from NRDC, The Gulf Restoration Network, two strong arms and one supportive family Margo Pellegrino has also completed her Gulf Paddle against pollution this month that took her from Florida to New Orleans, her second major coastal outrigger paddle to bring seaweeds together. For more go to Miami2Maine.com

Matchmaking

During Ocean Week I got to meet with Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen and asked him if he'd met Jane Lubchenco of NOAA yet (only briefly he said). The next evening I saw Jane at the NOAA Fish Fry (is there a better way to celebrate the ocean than to eat a ton of marine wildlife?). There she thanked me for the copy I'd sent her of my new 'Rescue Warriors' book on the Coast Guard (available at your local bookstore). In it's final chapter, "The Next Surge" I promote the idea of an independent Department of the Oceans that would include the Coast Guard and NOAA. It may not be what's politically feasible at the moment but it's what I believe is in the best public interest. Meanwhile Admiral Allen tells me he'd like to invite Dr. Lubchenco, CEQ's Nancy Sutley, Climate Czarina Carol Browner and others to the Arctic this August to see the open waters of a melting ecosystem that the Coasties now must guard. Sounds like a great first date to me.

From the Commander In Chief

"I call upon all Americans to learn more about the oceans and what can be done to conserve them," -- President Barack Obama June 12, 2009

"Read '50 Ways to Save the Ocean," -- Me

Blue Frontier Campaign (through it's publisher, New World Library) continues to offer the book '50 Ways to Save the Ocean' to non-profit groups at only 40 percent of cover price so you can take your President's advice and fundraise at the same time, a good way to raise awareness and cash in these hard times (minimum order of 20). Contact Amy@newworldlibrary.com

Blue Notes #59

2009-06-03T22:40:57Z

Blue Notes #059

Greening the Coast Guard, Pirates, Fish and more

May 23, 2009
By David Helvarg

Greening the Coast Guard

My Coast Guard book 'Rescue Warriors' hit the stores in mid-May. It takes a comprehensive look at the "Coasties" their history, how and why they were able to save over 33,000 people after Hurricane Katrina when the rest of the federal government was immobilized, how they've changed since 9/11 a day on which they coordinated the evacuation of half a million people from lower Manhattan, and why they need to change again in the face of a melting Arctic and other global challenges including overfishing, marine pollution, pirates and pandemics.

Plus writing it gave me an excuse to ride along with them from the Aleutians to the Persian Gulf to Hurricane Ike in Texas and many spots in between profiling their on the job mix of patriotism, altruism and adrenaline.

If it wanted to the Coast Guard could make a good case that it's the olde st environmental agency in the United States. After all, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was only created in 1970 and the Department of the Interior in 1849 while the Revenue Cutter Service, the Coast Guard's predecessor, got its first resource protection assignment in 1822. That's when Congress directed it to guard stands of live oak trees on public lands along the coast of Florida. Government warships were built using the strong, dense wood of these trees and by the early 19th century timber thieves and "scoundrels" were cutting them down and shipping the lumber north. The arrival of well-armed revenue cutters discouraged the thievery.

Since Congress established the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the Oil Spill Prevention Act of 1990 the Coast Guard has been responsible for a range of prevention and response activities including management of the billion-dollar Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund used for emergency cleanups, and the investigation of illegal dumping of oily waste at sea that has led to multi-million dollar fines against the shipping industry.

Still, since 9/11 much of the Coast Guard's expanded operations and funding have focused on port security and counter-terrorism.

"We shifted assets to security, and we've failed to keep pace on the safety and environmental side," (since retired) Admiral Craig Bone, commander of Coast Guard District 11 in Alameda, California told me a few hours after a container ship hit the San Francisco Bay Bridge in late 2007, spilling fifty-three thousand gallons of toxic bunker fuel and inspiring widespread criticism of the Coast Guard's response.

While trying to restore its oil spill response capabilities the Coast Guard is also taking on new responsibilities for approving sites and guarding shipments of highly flammable Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). In Boston I rode along with the Coast Guard as it conducted a high security escort of an LNG tanker, something it now does at least once a week. I also went along with its inspectors checking commercial tankers for oil and sludge safety compliance.

Besides dealing with oil and gas the Coast Guard's other big environmental responsibility is protecting living marine resources.

Along with patrolling the United States' north Pacific boundary line with Russia to keep out foreign factory trawlers Coast Guard representatives sit on eight U.S. regional fisheries councils that establish fishing quotas and regulations on federal waters from 3 to 200 miles offshore.

The Coast Guard also does boardings of commercial fishing vessels at sea to make sure rules and catch limits are followed on how much and what kind of fish or shellfish is taken, how many days at sea are allowed and what type of gear is used. They also protect the fishermen by making sure they have the right lifesaving equipment onboard and save their lives when things go bad as they did for 42 of 47 people when the factory trawler Alaska Ranger sank in the Bering Sea last Easter.

The Coast Guard played a key role in busting a multi-million dollar 'fish laundry' that was illegally taking high-seas salmon as part of a 1,000 ship driftnet fleet that laid out 40 mile long "walls of death," in the 1980s and early '90s devastating the North Pacific ecosystem until a UN sanctioned global ban on high-seas driftnets finally went into effect in 1993.

In the years since the service has continued to chase down driftnet pirates. Recently there's been a small resurgence of this now illegal activity in the Western Pacific by Mainland Chinese fishermen. The Coast Guard has helped counter this by working in close alliance with the Chinese Fisheries Law Enforcement Command (FLEC) and also has had FLEC observers ride on some of its cutters out of Kodiak Alaska.

In addition they set up a new rescue station in Barrow, Alaska in summer 2008 to respond to increased maritime traffic on the Arctic Ocean, where fossil-fuel fired climate change is creating a dangerous, ice free 5th open water coast for the service to guard.

Still, despite the importance of the Coast Guard's marine stewardship mission some others in the service refer to members of its environmental Strike Teams and fisheries enforcement agents as "Duck Scrubbers" and "Fish kissers," their humor reflecting a certain macho disparagement. And yet no one on the stewardship side refers to 'Coasties' working surf stations and security missions as "boat tippers" or "gun huggers." Given their relative contribution to the health of our public seas perhaps they should.

Pirates & Fish

A Coast Guard Cutter is patrolling and Coast Guard Law Enforcement boarding teams riding on U.S. Navy ships off the Coast of Somalia searching for Pirates, one of whose bands also calls themselves the "Coast Guard." According to a story in the New York Times, some Pirate leaders, worried about an Islamic backlash ashore, are offering to negotiate an end to ship hijackings if they are given aide and employment including jobs as a Somali Coast Guard to protect their waters from illegal foreign fishing and toxic waste dumping.

Some of the piracy can in fact be traced back to artesian (small boat local) fishermen who seized Egyptian and other foreign trawlers overfishing their waters. Of course when they started getting paid ransoms for their return they realized that piracy might be a more lucrative career path than hand-line fishing and the worst of them are now grabbing hostages and headlines.

PlastiSeas & PlastiSand

On May 21 I was honored to moderate a half-day workshop on Plastic Pollution of the Sea by the State House in Sacramento California put on by the Algalita Foundation. The Junk Raft (see Blue Notes #49) was there on display as were the intrepid mariners who sailed the plastic bottle based craft from LA to Hawaii last summer Marcus Eriksen and Joel Paschal and their Algalita Foundation boss Charles Moore. Also participating was Bridget Luther, head of the State Department of Conservation, Jeff Wong who runs the California Department of Toxic Substance Control and others Seaweed activists and "revolutionary bureaucrats" (as one of them referred to themselves). Also there was a plastic "Bag Monster."

While the horrors of a plasticizing ocean were discussed, along with some hopeful signs (spreading legal bans on single-use plastic, bags, development of bio-plastics based on agricultural waste) what stuck with me was Charles show-and-tell exhibits including Pacific water sample bottles full of floating plastic fragments like a bowl of Campbell's toxic soup, also a big bucket full of "sand" from the Big Island in Hawaii made up mainly not of shell and coral fragments but of tiny pieces of plastic brought in on the mid-Pacific Gyre, basically, Plasti-sand. Yikes. We've got our work cut out.

Good News

Nancy Knowlton of the Smithsonian just followed up on our March Summit "Seaweed Solutions" panel that she moderated with a day-long event, "Beyond the Obituaries: Success Stories in Ocean Conservation" held May 20th at the National Museum of Natural History. Stories ranged from the recovery of Sea Turtles in the Caribbean to water quality improvement in the Black Sea where I once got a terrible ear infection while swimming with other environmental journalists from the region who should have known better, but the sea is so attractive...

And inspirational...Some good news is Blue Frontier friend Margo Pellegrino is completing her Gulf of Mexico paddle from Florida to New Orleans Memorial Day Weekend just as Blue Frontier's Roz Savage takes off from Hawaii to the South Pacific on the second phase of her historic Trans-Pacific rowboat voyage as the first woman to solo row across the Pacific from California to Australia. Both of them are doing their wild adventures to raise awareness of our blue marble planet in peril and what each of us can do to make a difference.

More on Roz and Margo and other news of Mermaids and other sea creatures in the next issue.

And Good News for Me

If this Blue Notes seems a bit rushed it's because I'm rushing off to the airport for a week's diving in Fiji. Last time I was there I was covering coral bleaching and just missed a military coup (as a reporter all I could say was 'shucks'). This time I'll just be diving and communing with the turtles and rays over a nice cup of Cava. The down side of trying to save the ocean Iv'e found is you seem to spend less and less time in it. This next week should restore the balance. Remember, if you like Blue Notes feel free to post or pass them on.