News From The Frontier

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.

: The Associate Director (AD) of BLUE FRONTIER is the Washington D.C. based chief operating officer of a preeminent marine grassroots ocean protection organization working to build a better world. The AD reports to the President. The President provides the vision and the direction for BLUE FRONTIER, fundraises, and maintains a relationship with a national and international network of activists concerned with these issues. The AD maintains current expertise regarding the issues germane to BLUE FRONTIER and helps maintain work operations at all key levels. Working with the BLUE FRONTIER President and Board of Directors, which sets policy, the AD implements board policy and is responsible for overall management, administration and fundraising for BLUE FRONTIER. The AD is responsible for operations, budget and finance, development, and select programs. The AD supervises any additional staff. To effectively accomplish these tasks, the AD delegates responsibility to staff as appropriate. As a senior management person of BLUE FRONTIER, the AD (in coordination with the President) represents BLUE FRONTIER at local, national, and international conferences and meetings and prepares or directs the preparation of a variety of written materials including annual reports, editorials, an online newsletter and other publications. Board and General • With the President, organize Board agendas and meetings • Attend Board meetings and Board committee meetings as time permits or at the instruction of the Board • Prepare and distribute all reports as required and directed at Board and committee meetings • Keep AD materials/files such as Board minutes available, up to date, and organized • Supervise Assistant to the Director and/or BLUE FRONTIER interns • Represent BLUE FRONTIER at key meetings • Write for annual reports, editorials, and general publications • Negotiate leases and contracts • Complete or oversee the following periodic items: - Monthly financial reports - Periodic reports for the Board - Periodic division reports from division directors - Annual Plans from the Staff, Annual Report, Longer Range Planning Document Administration and Finance • Consistent with Board policy and recommendations, prepare annual budget and periodic budget updates • In coordination with the President recruit, select, employ and evaluate, staff and volunteer network except as delegated • Oversee financial management and bookkeeping • Oversee performance of independent contractors such as auditors Development (Fundraising) • Consistent with Board policy and recommendations, fundraise for the organization • Oversee fundraising activities including designing and carrying out fundraising efforts necessary to meet the annual operations budget of the organization • Ensure that proper records are maintained and that all fundraising activities comply with state, federal, and other requirements • Oversee performance of independent contractors Program • Consistent with Board policy and recommendations and in coordination with the President, develop program/campaign policy and strategy on ocean protection issues • Oversee any program or media activities/staff • Stimulate national and international coverage of key related issues • Meet with state, federal and international government agencies affecting BLUE FRONTIER issues • Oversee performance of independent contractors Please send letter of interest and resume to: Info@bluefront.org

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Oil-covered birds look even worse in real life than they do on TV. Not the dead ones so much, except when a gull has ripped open a floating grebe and is pulling at its toxic guts.

LEON E. PANETTA and retired Adm. James D. Watkins were on Capitol Hill last week lobbying for a treaty that, depending on how you look at it, is three to 25 years overdue for a Senate vote. As co-chairmen of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative and former heads of two major blue-ribbon panels on the state of our seas, they recently gave the government a C-minus in ocean policy. One of the categories that helped drag that grade down was international leadership — in which the U.S. was given a D-minus because of its ongoing failure to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

"I commend the Blue Frontier Campaign and its continuous efforts to strengthen ocean and coastal conservation. The Campaign's commitment to providing resources to grassroots organizations working to protect and restore our seas, and raising public awareness of the challenges facing these groups is greatly appreciated."

- Representative Nancy Pelosi

"Aw Shucks," - Blue Frontier Campaign

When it comes to the global ocean the best available science is projecting the worst imaginable scenarios. In 2003 Fisheries Scientists Ran Meyers and Boris Worm reported that 90 percent of the large predator fish like sharks and grouper had disappeared from the world's oceans since 1950. Actually they didn't disappear. We know where they went. Onto our dinner plates as a result of industrial overfishing. Now a new study with Boris Worm as lead author has appeared in the journal Science. This one, as widely reported, projects that after millennia of human dependence on wild fish as a source of protein and livelihood, commercial species of saltwater fish and shellfish could be wiped out on a global scale by 2048.