OCEANS: ‘Wear blue for oceans’ activists call for new executive order (Wednesday, January 13, 2010)

Allison Winter, E&E reporter

Environmental activists across the United States held rallies and donned blue attire today in a show of support for a proposed new national oceans policy.

Seventeen environmental groups collaborated for the “Wear Blue for Oceans Day,” intended to raise awareness and show grass-roots support for a national policy to protect the oceans and the Great Lakes. They held rallies in 10 U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C.; San Francisco; New Orleans; Anchorage, Alaska; and St. Petersburg, Fla.

Jim Toomey’s nationally syndicated daily comic strip, “Sherman’s Lagoon,” featured animals promoting the “Wear Blue for Oceans” effort for the past three days.

The effort — largely promoted through social networking Web sites like Facebook — was intended to help goad President Obama to issue an executive order in the coming months to enact the recommendations from the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force.

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Activists gather outside the White House for “Wear Blue for Oceans Day.” Photo by Allison Winter.
“We wanted to do something positive to show our support,” said David Helvarg of the Blue Frontier Campaign, one of the groups behind the effort. “We want to see final reports that are as strong as the interim reports and see the president issue an executive order.”

Obama last summer created a task force of two-dozen, top-level administration officials charged with drafting national ocean policy and developing a framework for marine planning. In September, the group released draft recommendations for ocean policy that would set ocean conservation as a top national priority and create a new council of top-level administration officials to oversee oceans issues.

Last month, the task force released a second draft report that lays out plans for a new system of marine planning and zoning. The group is expected to issue its final recommendations in the coming weeks but will need an order from Obama to put the new recommendations into action.

The “Wear Blue for Oceans” effort saw some support across the country but not the overwhelming numbers that some activists had hoped for.

“Next time, I hope we’re going to get 10,000 people,” sharks advocate Wendy Benchley said with a laugh as she looked at the group of about 50 people assembled for the Washington, D.C., rally.

More than 1,600 people joined a “Wear Blue for the Oceans” Facebook group. By comparison, a group promoting action at the Copenhagen climate summit had nearly 10 times as many members. And 28,000 people joined the Facebook group “Team Conan” so far this week to advocate for comedian Conan O’Brien as host of “The Tonight Show.”

In Washington, a small band of activists huddled in front of the White House in the cold this afternoon, many wearing blue T-shirts over their coats and some donning large fish costumes. They called on Obama to issue an executive order in the coming months to enact the recommendations from the oceans task force.

The group walked over to the headquarters of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where aides peered out from behind curtains to watch them assemble on the sidewalk. One aide came to the door and called out to the group: “Thank you so much for coming.”

Helvarg said he was not bothered by the relatively slim turnout in Washington.

“Washington people tend to stay indoors and try to do policy from there,” Helvarg said. “To get them out of their overheated offices and into the streets is a real challenge.”

And Phil Kline, senior oceans campaign director for Greenpeace, said the group showed increasing interest for oceans issues, especially compared to 30 years ago.

“We have more people in this spot than we had advocating for oceans in the entire nation in the 1980s,” Kline said.