Ali Chase's Blog: Reviving the World's Oceans

To celebrate Earth Day, see Oceans – a new film is out from Disneynature

2010-04-23T22:03:43Z

This weekend, I’m hoping to see the ocean as never before. Disneynature has created a new film – Oceans – that celebrates the amazing life that lives under the waves. The clips I’ve seen so far seem to live up to the hype that the film provides a whole new look at our seas. In you haven't seen it, check out the trailer for yourself here.

I’m thrilled that this movie is coming out – for far too long, we have simply viewed the oceans as a vast expanse of blue space. In reality, there’s more there than we ever imagined.

For example, carved into the continental shelf you’ll find a series of submarine canyons that stretch from Massachusetts to Virginia. Nearly 5 million people visit the Grand Canyon every year to lean over the edge of the mile deep geologic formation and many of those visitors have no idea that here in the Mid-Atlantic, we have canyons off our shores that are three times as deep as the Grand Canyon and that are largely unexplored. Like the Grand Canyon was shaped by the Colorado River, Hudson Canyon (New York’s closest canyon) and the other submarine canyons were formed by strong currents flowing from underwater rivers or earthquakes in the seafloor. The currents continue to provide microscopic food into and flush waste from the canyons, making them ideal ocean oases for marine life to feed. The canyons’ stone and clay walls provide important structure for corals and other bottom dwelling species to take hold.

Corals and sponges on the seafloor provide shelter and food for marine life. They have also led to medical and technological advances: compounds from deep sea sponges are in clinical trials for treatment of cancer; bamboo corals have been used to synthesize human bone analogs for grafting; and the deep sea sponge Euplectella also served as a model for development of more durable optic cables.

The canyons provide valuable habitat for hundreds of fish and crustacean species, including monkfish, species of hakes and skates, bioluminescent lantern fish, American lobster and red crab. Tuna, swordfish, and billfish travel through the canyons, feasting on schools of fish and squid.

Blue Fin Tuna, Photo Credit: Antonio Medina Guerrero, UCA

One particularly industrious fish that lives in the canyons is the tilefish. This fish constructs large burrows in the canyons walls, making them look like miniature, underwater versions of the pueblo villages of the American Southwest.

And endangered sperm whales and right whales, beaked whales, and dolphins come to the canyons to feed.

Sperm Whale, Photo Credit: NOAA

All this activity – just off our shores. We need to protect special places like this, for our and future generations.

Please take a minute to go to http://savemyoceans.com/pledge.php and sign the pledge to help protect and restore our ocean resources. And please tell others about the movie and about the amazing life beneath the waves – the more people know these beautiful and rare ecologically and economically valuable ocean places that exist, the better chance we have to save them.

NRDC presents on ocean planning & managing the melting Arctic at AAAS Annual Meeting next week

2010-02-09T15:04:55Z

Next week, the scientific community’s AAAS Annual Meeting kicks off in San Diego. The nations’ leading science organization will be bringing together a diverse group of preeminent scientists, engineers, educators, and policy-makers from around the world to share ideas and insight on the most cutting edge science of the time.

NRDC will be sending a significant delegation to the meeting. And its oceans program will be hosting three panels: one on marine spatial planning (aka planning for the industrial uses & environmental needs of our seas); another on international management of new and emerging industrial activities made possible by the loss of sea ice in the Arctic; and a third on the impacts of sea ice loss on the Arctic environment.

NRDC OCEANS PANEL 1: Designing The Future Ocean: Baseline Data Needs for Marine Spatial Planning

Sunday, Feb. 21, 1:30-4:30 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 17A

I’ll be hosting a panel with my colleagues NRDC Ocean Policy Analyst Leila Monroe and NRDC Science Center Director Gabriela Chavarria. We’ll be bringing together six marine spatial planning experts to explain the data sources behind several key ocean planning efforts and share the lessons they’ve learned from their hands-on work. This panel is particularly timely as the White House is in the process of creating a new national ocean policy. As a part of that process, the administration is weighing important decisions about how to move ahead on planning the uses of our ocean.

We ask a lot from our oceans – from food and energy to shipping and recreation. As demand on ocean space grows, we need a way to manage the increasing industrial pressure on our seas while protecting them from further harm and reviving ocean health. Marine spatial planning is the process of allocating spaces in the ocean for its various uses by identifying areas where industrial activities make sense and areas that should be safeguarded. Without such a process, we essentially see “ocean sprawl,” which stresses our ocean resources more than necessary and jeopardizes the food, jobs and recreation they provide. Identifying a smart planning process is especially critical now as America moves forward in developing clean, renewable energy off our coasts. Marine spatial planning can help develop new offshore renewable energy sources right the first time – minimizing conflicts between new and existing uses of the sea from the start so we can get clean energy up and running faster.

As we look to implement marine spatial planning, people are wondering: “What information do we need to plan responsibly? In this time of government belt-tightening, what can we do with limited resources?” This panel should provide recommendations for how we can manage our ocean resources so that they can support us and future generations.

NRDC OCEANS PANEL 2: Management and Governance in a Melting Marine Arctic: Challenges and Opportunities

Saturday, Feb. 20, 10:30 a.m.-12 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 17A

NRDC’s International Oceans Director, Lisa Speer will be hosting this panel on international management of new and expanded industrial activities made possible by the retreat of the Arctic sea ice. Arctic warming has been front and center in the climate debate, but much less attention has been devoted to managing the accelerating human activity made possible by the sea ice retreat – from new oil drilling and fishing, to the opening of new shipping routes.

This panel will focus on international management and governance options that can best promote resilience for Arctic ecosystems in the face of ocean warming, loss of sea ice, acidification, and the additional impacts of new industrial activities. It will look at the existing international governance regime and offer a range of options for improving it.

NRDC OCEANS PANEL 3: Arctic Sea-Ice Loss: What This Means for the Conservation of Arctic Marine Ecosystems

Saturday, Feb. 20, 1:30-3 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 17B

NRDC Arctic Science Fellow Tara Connelly together with Chuck Clusen, Director of NRDC's National Parks and Alaska Projects, will also host a panel on the Arctic - but with a focus on the impact of melting sea ice on polar and marine organisms. Present-day sea-ice loss is fundamentally altering the structure and function of Arctic Ocean ecosystems, from algae to top predators. And the new industrial activity will also have an impact.

Understanding the current science and recognizing the limitations in what we know is an important first step in addressing these impacts for future conservation efforts in the Arctic. This symposium will explore sea ice conditions in a melting Arctic, offer background on the links between sea-ice and Arctic ecosystems, examine how they may be responding to ice loss, and discuss the data and steps we need to develop a strong conservation plan.

Governor’s environmental raid is bad for New York’s economy, ocean and Great Lakes

2009-10-21T15:14:52Z

Last Thursday, Governor Paterson announced a two-year, $5 billion deficit reduction plan (DRP) to eliminate the state's current budget without raising taxes. Among other things, the plan calls for a transfer of $10 million from the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) to the state's General Fund. The New York Legislature is holding hearings this week on the budget proposal, and NRDC is strongly urging our legislators to say "no" to further environmental funding cuts.

New York is facing serious budget woes. Even as the recession begins to recede, we're all - states and the average American alike - facing the challenges of balancing what remains of our bank accounts. But cutting corners on the EPF is bad for our state's economic and environmental health.

The EPF is funded through a dedicated revenue source that was established so that our critical environmental programs can be carried out in both good and bad economic times. And New York's ocean and Great Lakes provide millions of dollars for the state's economy and thousands of jobs. In 2004, New York's coastal counties had 17,558 ocean sector establishments, such as seafood markets, boat and ship building, and tourism, which contributed more than 356,200 jobs and $11.5 billion in wages. And ocean sector industries contributed a total of more than $24.6 billion to the state's gross domestic product. Long Island Sound alone contributes roughly $8.5 billion a year to the regional economy through boasting, fishing, swimming and sight-seeing activities. These jobs rely on healthy ocean resources.

The Governor is also being deceptive about the scale of his actions. His press release states that "... it is fully expected that after implementation of the DRP, the State would still be able to meet its original 2009-10 EPF cash spending plan of $180 million, which is equal to record 2008-09 levels." The problem is - the Legislature passed, and the Governor signed, a budget that promised $222 million to the EPF in 2009-10, and, in addition to this $10 million cut, he already withheld $42 million earlier this year from what was promised to New York citizens.

That's $52 million - nearly 25 percent - the Governor is actually taking back in total from the EPF, and the fund can't take the cut. Repeated "sweeping" of funding from the EPF into the General Fund over time has led to largely unbalanced books, where state agencies are struggling to pay past due notices and shortchanging important research projects and on the ground actions that will restore and protect our ocean health. Over the past 7 years, close to half a billion dollars that was dedicated to restoring the state's environment has been taken for other purposes. Scientists, not-for-profit partners, and local governments aren't getting paid on time, despite delivering the work the state approved and promised to fund.

Already the state's failure to deliver on EPF funding has resulted in the loss of the state's whale monitoring project. This multi-year project uses acoustic buoys to monitor the migration paths whales are taking off our shores so that we can help prevent ships from running over them and make sure we're developing our offshore energy resources outside of their routes. We learned a lot in year 1 - including that the whales are much closer than we ever thought to our shoreline. But we need two more years of research in order to establish the trend and make our initial down payment scientifically worthwhile. Around $400,000 was needed to fund year 2 of the research - and the time to get the buoys out this season has come and gone.

EPF funding is essential to ensuring that the economic and environmental engines that are our oceans are healthy and able to support us. The Legislature must act to protect our environmental resources, and the health and wellbeing of this and future generations, by preventing further cuts to the EPF and encouraging the promised funding to be paid out.

Tomorrow in Providence I’ll Testify that a National Policy Can Help Protect the Atlantic Coast

2009-09-22T00:09:09Z

As a child, my summer revolved around my family's week-long vacation to Cape Cod. My brother and I loved jumping in the waves, searching for beach glass along the shore, and threading small shells together into necklaces that my grandmother would actually wear. I took for granted having a clean beach to play on and the fresh seafood we ate. The ocean was so vast - it seemed capable of handling anything that was thrown at (or into) it. But that's not the case.

Worldwide, our oceans are under enormous strain as a result of overexploitation, habitat degradation, coastal pollution and climate change. Globally, 80 percent of the world's fish stocks are either fully exploited or overexploited and highly migratory species of large tunas, marlin and sharks have declined by as much as 90 percent in some regions. Stormwater runoff from streets and nutrient-laden fertilized lawns contributed to two-thirds of the U.S. beach closing/ advisory days in the 2008 beach season. Ocean waters are turning increasingly acidic from their intake of carbon dioxide: average surface ocean pH has already decreased by about 0.1 units in seawater pH compared to preindustrial levels, equivalent to a 30 percent increase in acidity. A more acidic ocean could wipe out species, disrupt the food web and impact fishing, tourism and other jobs that rely on healthy seas.

One major obstacle to protecting our marine and Great Lakes wildlife and ecosystems is the fact that these resources are currently governed by a mix of more than 140 laws and 20 different agencies, each with different goals and with no single unifying conservation mandate. We have a Clean Water Act for our water and a Clean Air Act for our air; we need a national policy to similarly protect our oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes.

In June, President Obama called together an interagency Ocean Policy Task Force to fix this problem. The 23-member federal Task Force is directed to create a unifying oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes policy and design an effective marine spatial planning framework in 180 days. This Thursday, I'll be at the Ocean Policy Task Force's public hearing in Providence, R.I., with my colleague Sarah Chasis, to talk about why President Obama should issue an Executive Order formally establishing a national oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes policy to protect, maintain, and restore the health of these valuable ecosystems.

The Atlantic Coast's underwater canyons are a great example of why this kind of national overarching policy is needed. A series of ancient submarine canyons line the continental shelf offshore, under the waves, from Massachusetts to Virginia. The canyons plummet down several miles and their solid undersea walls, combined with the fact that fast flowing currents carry in microscopic food and remove waste from the canyons, make these areas oases for an astonishing diversity and abundance of animals - from various species of flounder, hakes, and skates to American lobster, colorful corals, sponges, and anemones. Endangered sperm whales, beaked whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals come to the canyons to feed on the schools of squid and fish that congregate there.

But these remote sanctuaries are in danger of irreversible damage from advanced fishing technologies and renewed oil and gas exploration. Bottom trawling technology advances are making it increasingly possible to fish challenging seafloor landscapes like the canyons as commercial fishing enterprises seek out new populations or species to catch. Trawling nets stretching up to 40 meters in width and held open by pairs of seven-ton steel trawl doors crush or rip out habitat as they are dragged along the seafloor, removing in a few brief acts what took nature centuries to build and leaving bare, scarred sand, mud and rock where corals and abundant sponges once were. The canyons also need protection from oil and gas exploration and development. Between 1959 and 1983 dozens of exploratory oil and gas wells were drilled in or near several major submarine canyons off the Atlantic continental shelf. Until recently, the Atlantic Coast was protected from oil and gas drilling by Presidential and Congressional actions, but during the Bush Administration these measures were removed and new oil and gas exploration, including drilling and seismic surveys, would introduce significant oil, toxics, and sound pollution into the canyons.

With our haphazard system of laws and agencies in control of ocean resources there's no way to address simultaneously both the problems posed by bottom trawling and oil and gas exploration and drilling. Offshore energy issues are the purview of the Department of the Interior, while the regional fisheries councils and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration address fisheries issues.

Without being able to tackle both challenges at the same time we run the risk of the situation that is playing out right now in South Carolina. The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is trying to protect from destructive fishing gear a remarkable 23,000-square-mile forest of coral reefs that stretches from North Carolina to Florida. Simultaneously, a South Carolina feasibility study committee set up by the state legislature has been looking at where exploratory drilling should occur off the coast - in this same coral landscape.

A national policy to protect and restore our oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes would establish a unified, underlying structure for addressing such issues. Additionally, protecting the submarine canyons from bottom trawling and oil and gas development would be a prime early initiative that would help translate the new national policy into action.

Join me in sending your support for a national policy for healthy oceans by taking action here.

Funding Needed for Year 2 of New York’s Whale Monitoring Program

2009-09-14T16:29:17Z

As our wonderfully long summer draws to a close, Cornell scientists should be out in New York's ocean setting up the acoustic buoys that monitor for endangered whales. October signals the start of the whales' southern migration from the rich feeding waters of the Northeast.

Knowing what paths whales take up and down our shorelines is important. It can be used to help prevent ships from running over them as they swim just off our shores - sometimes as close as 10 miles from Times Square. We also need to make sure we're developing our offshore energy resources outside of their migratory routes.

The whale monitoring effort was designed as a multi-year project, and we learned much in the first year. Whales have been found much closer than anticipated to our shores. North Atlantic right whales (of which only around 300 remain) have even been heard off New York Harbor. And there's a population of fin whales that has made New York their year-round residence.

But we've never really explored the whale migratory paths in our neighborhood before last year, when the state began funding a program to understand where these endangered animals travel off the city's shores. It was designed as a multi-year effort and we need funding for two more years of research in order to establish the trend and make our initial down payment scientifically worthwhile.

Unfortunately, one key casualty of the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) crisis in Albany is the loss of the state's whale monitoring project. This spring $222 million was committed to the EPF, which funds New York State environmental initiatives. But it hasn't been released. Right now, the amount expected for FY 09-10 is only $180 million - $42 million less than the amount voted by the Legislature and agreed to by Governor Paterson just a few months ago.

This means scientists, not-for-profit partners, and local governments aren't getting paid, despite delivering the on-the-ground actions and important research goals the state approved and promised to fund. They need and deserve timely payment for their important work.

The state's budget woes and the repeated "sweeping" of funding from the EPF into the general fund over time has led to largely unbalanced books, where state agencies are struggling to pay past due notices and shortchanging important projects, like the whale monitoring program.

The EPF was established as a dedicated revenue source so that our critical environmental programs can be carried out in both good and bad economic times. And without it, we will lose much of the progress New York State has made to restore our natural resources.

Cornell needs to get the buoys out in October to start year 2 of the project. They have the equipment on hand and would love to make all the arrangements. Around $400,000 is needed to fund year 2 of the research.

New York has become a true leader on ocean issues through the visionary efforts of the New York Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Council and Governor Paterson's leadership in establishing the Governors Mid-Atlantic Council on Oceans, which allows five coastal states to work together to protect the Atlantic. But much work remains ahead, and the EPF funding is essential to ensuring that we fund the programs that are helping restore to health the economic and environmental engines that are our oceans.

The state's Department of Environmental Conservation has done all it can with the EPF money it's being allotted - other contracts must be paid off as well. We need Governor Paterson to keep his word to the scientists and others working on the projects he said he would fund.

Four Underwater Canyons in Atlantic Get Federal Protection from Bottom Trawling

2009-08-28T19:42:56Z

Far offshore, miles underneath the waves, are miniature replicas of the pueblo villages of the Southwest. They have been created by tilefish - our "ocean engineers" - that industriously burrow into the clay to form these amazing structures that provide homes for lobsters, crabs and eels. Many of these "cities" are in a series of ancient submarine canyons that line the continental shelf offshore from Massachusetts to Virginia.

The canyons plummet down several miles and their solid undersea walls provide a hard substrate foundation for bottom dwelling species. This structure, combined with the fact that fast flowing currents carry in microscopic food and remove waste from the canyons, make these areas island oases for an astonishing diversity and abundance of animals - from various species of flounder, hakes, and skates to American lobster, colorful corals, sponges, and anemones. Endangered sperm whales, beaked whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals come to the canyons to feed on the schools of squid and fish that congregate there.

But these remote sanctuaries are in danger of irreversible damage from advanced fishing technologies and renewed oil and gas exploration.

While the hearts of the Atlantic's submarine canyons have generally not been commercially fished because of their steep and rocky topography, bottom trawling advances are making it increasingly possible to fish challenging seafloor landscapes as commercial fishing enterprises seek out new populations or species to catch. Trawling nets stretching up to 40 meters in width and held open by pairs of seven-ton steel trawl doors crush or rip out habitat as they are dragged along the seafloor. Bottom trawling can remove in a few brief acts what took nature centuries to build, leaving bare, scarred sand, mud and rock where corals and abundant sponges once were.

This past Monday, the Obama Administration acted to close off 4 submarine canyons - one in the mid-Atlantic and three in southern New England - to bottom trawling. Many environmental organizations, including NRDC, worked over the course of a decade to encourage this outcome and we're thrilled that these precious places now have a degree of protection. We congratulate the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council on this important act. We hope they'll extend these same protections to the other canyons dotting the continental shelf that remain without protection from destructive bottom gear that would irrevocably damage the area's marine life with just one pass of the net.

We also need to ensure that these 4 canyons - and the others - are safe from oil and gas exploration and development. Until very recently, the entire Atlantic Coast was protected from oil and gas drilling by Presidential and Congressional actions, but during the Bush Administration these measures were removed and new oil and gas exploration, including drilling and seismic surveys, would introduce significant oil, toxics, and sound pollution into these delicate marine environments.

Right now, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is trying to protect from destructive fishing gear a remarkable 23,000-square-mile forest of coral reefs that stretches from North Carolina to Florida. Simultaneously, a South Carolina feasibility study committee set up by the state legislature has been looking at where exploratory drilling should occur off the coast - in this same coral landscape. Our canyons of Southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic face the same pressures from energy development.

Without swift action to protect our canyon habitats from the dangers of bottom trawling and oil and gas exploration and development, these ecosystems could disappear forever. We need to act now to protect them. You can let Department of the Interior Secretary Salazar know that the Atlantic Coast canyons (and other important biological areas) should be shielded from oil and gas exploration and development. The agency is accepting comments until September 21. Also, contact the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean at marco@dep.state.nj.us and let them know that you support their efforts to protect offshore canyons from bottom trawling and oil and gas development. The Mid-Atlantic governors from New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia recently formed this council precisely to tackle issues that overlap state boundaries and have highlighted the need to protect sensitive areas, like the canyons, as part of their work.

Earlier this summer, the Obama Administration also announced it would develop a national policy to ensure the protection of ocean ecosystems. An interagency ocean policy task force is collecting public comments now on what that policy should look like. NRDC and other leading environmental groups have submitted their recommendations and hope the President will issue an executive order formally establishing a national policy to protect, maintain and restore the health of our oceans, coasts and Great Lakes. Like the Clean Air Act for our air, and the Clean Water Act for our water, we need a national policy for our oceans, coasts and Great Lakes. Join us in telling the White House we support their efforts to create a policy like this: https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1341. Also, tell the President that you support protecting the submarine canyons from bottom trawling and oil and gas development as an early initiative that would help translate the new national policy into action.

Think Global, Wish Local – My Top Asks This World Oceans Day

2009-06-08T20:13:50Z

Today is the inaugural celebration of an official World Oceans Day! It will be interesting to witness what traditions to celebrate World Oceans Day build up, and whether or not this will become the Earth Day of the year-2020 crowd. I would love to see this happen - after all, more than 70% of the earth's surface is ocean. It's about time these watery "giving trees" of the globe got some attention! For all they give us - food, recreation, jobs, every other breath of oxygen - our oceans deserve a holiday.

And they need a break. Our oceans are in a silent state of collapse caused by increased strain on fish stocks, pollution, and destruction of productive marine habitat.

We must act - quickly - to protect our oceans.

In the spirit of creating new traditions, and "think global, act local", I'd like to share my top regional and state asks to protect and restore my "home ocean" - the Atlantic. I'm not sure that there's a Santa of World Oceans Day, but this is what I'll be looking under waves for:

1. Save the our submarine canyons and seamounts

Last week I was able to witness the creation of an important new entity: the Governors Mid-Atlantic Council on Oceans. This new body will together tackle critical regional issues, such as developing properly sited offshore renewable energy, increasing protection of important offshore habitats, addressing climate change and sea level rise, and working to increase federal support for water quality infrastructure improvements.

I would like to see this entity provide permanent and meaningful protection for the mid-Atlantic's extraordinary submarine canyons and seamounts. Far offshore, under the waves, are seamounts and a series of ancient canyons that stretch from New York to Virginia. Our canyon structures provide complex habitat able to support a range of ocean life - from corals, sponges, and anemones (which need a hard surface to attach to) to wonderful crevices where tilefish - one of our "ocean engineers" - industriously build burrows that shelter lobsters, crabs, and eels in pueblo-like homes. Catsharks and other marine life dart around the seamounts which contain rare species, as well as provide essential habitat, prey, and spawning grounds for other animals like red crabs.

As bottom trawl gear rapidly evolves and oil and gas development is examined for the Atlantic, these special, sensitive areas grow more threatened to disturbance. Many of the coral species that inhabit these fantastic oases are very slow growing and do not recover easily; we need to keep these areas intact and respect the unique and critical roles they serve as part of the ocean ecosystem.

2. Speedy delivery of the $6 million recently allocated in New York's budget for ocean and Great Lakes projects

I would love to see the record $6 million allocated in this year's budget move out of the state's coffers and into the hands of the contractors working on important ocean and Great Lakes projects. New York has become an aggressive advocate on ocean issues through the visionary efforts of the New York Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Council and with Governor David Paterson's leadership in establishing with the regional ocean council mentioned above. And this spring, the Governor and the New York State Legislature committed $6 million to ocean and Great Lakes priorities in this year's budget to help revive New York's ocean and Great Lakes. This is not only good environmental news; New York's ocean and Great Lakes are our economic engines and numerous studies have proven that the health of our marine and freshwater resources will determine the health and prosperity of our coastal communities.

But many of the ocean and Great Lakes programs are in dire financial straits and, without continued funding, contractors may be forced to end their projects or lay off staff. Multi-year projects are in particular crisis, as the initial financial investments will be wasted if projects stall. For example, funding directed to monitor the passage of whales through New York's waters has received national acclaim and proven that migrating humpbacks, fin and right whales traverse just a stone's throw from the Statue of Liberty. The scientists who review the whale recordings recently announced that the recorders picked up sounds from a blue whale - one of the ocean's kings - just 70 miles off Long Island. The data is exciting and will help advise the proper siting of marine industry, but is not scientifically conclusive until it is carried out for its final years. We need to fund the remaining research for this project and others, now.

In the coming months, NRDC will continue working to ensure that these actions are not simply dreams, but reality. (But if they arrive gift-wrapped for World Oceans Day, we'll be thrilled).

New NJ Report on Ocean Water Quality

2009-05-21T18:14:09Z

I don't think anyone needs a reminder that this weekend is Memorial Day weekend (hello, long weekend!) and with it comes the beginning of summer, a reminder to students (and parents) everywhere that long days of freedom are ahead, and, for many of us, prime time to hit the beach!

Every year NRDC releases an annual beachwater quality report, Testing the Waters, which looks at the health risks and safety of water for beachgoers. Nancy Stoner leads NRDC's "Testing the Waters" effort and will be conducting a live chat today at 2:30 p.m. to share tips about protecting yourself and your family from waterborne illnesses.

But even when we know the water is safe for swimming, it may not be healthy for ocean life. Yesterday a coalition of environmental groups including NRDC released a report that takes an in-depth look at the state of New Jersey's ocean health, and all is not well. Ocean Water Quality in New Jersey: Redirecting the Management Effort notes that while the water may be fine for swimming, our ocean is sending us signals like brown tides and increased jellyfish populations to let us know that fast action is needed to turn the tide and protect the resource from ecological collapse.

New Jersey's ocean and coastal areas provide food, recreation and valuable jobs: in 2004 New Jersey's ocean sector industries contributed a total of $8.3 billion to the state's gross domestic product. But these marine resources are in a state of silent crisis caused by pollution, destruction of productive marine habitat, over-development and increased strain on fish stocks. When healthy ocean and coastal ecosystems suffer, so does the New Jersey economy. Fishing, wildlife watching and shore tourism industries all depend upon healthy coastal and ocean ecosystems.

The NJ report makes a number of recommendations on how the state can manage its valuable resource better - one key recommendation is for the state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to adopt an ecosystem-based management approach. Ecosystem-based management moves beyond traditional stove-piped species-by-species, problem-by-problem management approaches to take account of factors such as the interplay between and among different species, including food web interactions, and the availability of suitable habitat like submerged aquatic vegetation to sustain ocean life.

In January 2008, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine signed into law new legislation creating a nine-member New Jersey Coastal and Ocean Protection Council to help recommend to the DEP new ways to advance protection of the state's marine resources and manage in this holistic manner. The Council would also host public hearings to provide a forum for new ideas of how the state can more effectively and efficiently manage its coastal and ocean resources.

Unfortunately, the Council's six members of the public have not been named yet. It is critical that a solid, conservation-oriented group be appointed by the Governor and approved by the state Senate as soon as possible so that this important effort can get underway. What better time to jumpstart this effort than the start of summer? Knowing that the state is taking steps to help ensure the health of our ocean and coastal resources, we'll all enjoy the shore just a little more this beach season.

New York finalizes blueprint to protect its ocean, Great Lakes resources

2009-04-13T17:25:34Z

New York State achieved a milestone in ocean and Great Lakes protection last Wednesday when the final blueprint for how the state intends to protect and conserve these precious resources was delivered to the Legislature and the Governor's desk (this is the final version of the draft report released in January). As the report's very first line notes, "Despite the grandeur of New York's ocean and Great Lakes ecosystems, they are in trouble." Expeditiously acting on the report's recommendations will go a long way to redressing this sorry fact.

The report makes a few strong additions - including the promise that in two years' time there will be a progress report issued - and largely retains the excellent recommendations found in the draft plan. The New York Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Council, made up of nine state agencies, have called for the following important, ground-breaking actions to change our course and save our resources:

Developing an offshore renewable energy siting and habitat protection plan to help us safely and properly implement the clean energy of the future that will repower America.
Creating an Ocean and a Great Lakes Health Index of regular assessments of their health to help pinpoint where improvements are needed and where investments will get us the greatest bang for the buck.
Creation of overarching regional protection strategies - "action zones" - for New York's ocean and Great Lakes.

The Council report also encourages:

Continuation of key scientific monitoring efforts to advise management decisions, such as the acoustic whale monitoring project to determine migration routes for endangered whales so that action can be taken to protect these animals from ship collisions and the development of an on-board fishery observer program to scientifically quantify and address where, when, and how many fish species are being unnecessarily tossed back as "bycatch" that the commercial fishery doesn't want to or can't keep. American shad, in particular, is a species that unites management objectives in the ocean and Hudson River Estuary.
Implementation of the ecosystem-based management pilots in the Great South Bay and the Sandy Creeks Watershed.
Enhanced development of the ocean and coastal "Atlas" that provides a one-stop shop for accurate information about these resources to all levels of government and the public.
Partnering with other Mid-Atlantic states on issues of common concern, such as offshore energy siting, climate change, and habitat protection.

The state's work to actualize ecosystem-based management - a more holistic approach that factors in the interplay between different species and their habitats (as opposed to only evaluating things on a species-by-species, problem-by-problem basis) - is cutting-edge. The report promises that the nine agencies will continue to ensure that their ecosystem-based management guidelines are incorporated into their day-to-day decision making. This is essential to work going forward - the agencies must provide a clear and enforceable direction.

It's not always easy to get everyone on the same page, and we congratulate the nine agencies for their hard work in finalizing this critical report. Their coordinated effort and action is one of the reasons New York has emerged as a national leader in ocean protection.

These are challenging fiscal times, but the state just approved $6 million for ocean and Great Lakes projects to help the state continue on the progress we have made to restore the healthy ocean and Great Lakes projects that provide New Yorkers' jobs, income, food, transportation, beaches to lie on and waves to swim in.

There's much work to be done to restore our resources ... but now the state has a path forward.

Want to see more action toward healthy oceans nationwide? Tell your representatives in Congress you want a national Healthy Oceans Act here.

NY budget restores EPF funding for ocean & Great Lakes programs

2009-04-03T22:33:20Z

Has Spring finally arrived? After a long winter spent pressing the New York State Governor and Legislature to ensure the funding necessary to protect the state's ecologically and economically important ocean and Great Lakes resources, today was a breath of fresh air.

When the dust finally settled in Albany today the Legislature passed a FY 2009-10 budget that includes $222 million for the state Environmental Protection Fund (EPF), up from the $205 million Governor Paterson had proposed. But that $222 million will actually feel like more than $252 million, since $30 million of state park funding is being pulled out of the EPF to be separately bonded. Environmental advocates were fearing the worst as we faced a severely stripped down version of funding that would have jeopardized the state's important clean water and air projects, which benefit both our environment as well as create new jobs and make the state's communities more attractive to businesses and people.

Today's EPF is something worth celebrating. In particular, we're thrilled to see that the line item for ocean and Great Lakes projects was increased to $6 million - tripling the Governor's proposed $2 million. This amount is an increase even from last $4.5 million. The Legislature also rejected the Governor's proposal to completely eliminate funding for the state's zoos this year - instead supplying $9 million to keep them running and protect the jobs they support.

And the good budget news doesn't stop there. We've also protected the EPF in FY 2008-09 from a $45 million "sweep" of cash into the state's general fund. This would have reduced the EPF to the point of insolvency, essentially erasing any funding for environmental projects for the rest of 2008 and continuing into 2009. Without funding, our success in restoring line items in the 2008-09 budget would be reduced to a pyrrhic victory. Multi-year projects would have stopped dead in their tracks - wasting the initial effort and funding. One of these threatened projects the state's whale monitoring program at Cornell that will help set the course for New York to protect its endangered whales from lethal ship collisions. Monitoring of our state's fisheries and for important research into the state's bycatch problem would have ceased as well.

Without the restored funding, we would have lost much of the progress New York State has made to restore our ocean and Great Lakes resources. Just this January, a council made up of nine state agencies released a report that called for immediate action to restore New York's ocean and Great Lakes resources because of severe environmental and economic decline. The New York Ocean and Great Lakes Coalition, which NRDC is a part of, has demonstrated $25 million worth of ocean and Great Lakes projects that need funding right now; today's $6 million investment is an important step, as the longer we wait to fix these problems, the harder and more expensive it will be.

The chairs of the environmental committees in both houses - Senator Thompson and Assemblyman Sweeney - especially deserve a huge THANK YOU from all the state's citizens for recognizing the significance of these programs and standing up to the Governor's cuts.

Clearly we are experiencing a more than challenging fiscal time, but the EPF is funded through a dedicated revenue source that was established so that our critical environmental programs can be carried out in both good and bad economic times. And New York's ocean and Great Lakes provide millions of dollars for the state's economy and thousands of jobs. In 2004, New York's coastal counties had 17,558 ocean sector establishments, such as seafood markets, boat and ship building, and tourism, which contributed more than 356,200 jobs and $11.5 billion in wages. And ocean sector industries contributed a total of more than $24.6 billion to the state's gross domestic product. Long Island Sound alone contributes roughly $8.5 billion a year to the regional economy through boasting, fishing, swimming and sight-seeing activities. These jobs rely on healthy ocean resources.

In these tough financial times, both of the FY2008-09 and 2009-10 funding for our ocean and Great Lakes resources are truly a great success, and show the state legislature knows their importance to both a healthy environment and a healthy economy.

Join me on Monday to help set the course of America's offshore energy future

2009-04-03T19:42:17Z

This Monday in Atlantic City, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar kicks off a series of four regional public hearings to discuss the future of energy development off our coasts. This is the only hearing that will be held on the East Coast (other meetings will take place in New Orleans, San Francisco and Alaska).

"The purpose of these meetings is to have an open, honest conversation with the American people to solicit the best information possible about an offshore energy plan," Secretary Salazar recently stated.

And so, bright and early on Monday morning, I will be in Atlantic City to make sure the Administration hears NRDC's message that offshore drilling poses serious environmental and economic risks to our nation's coastline, and will only prolong our unhealthy and needless addiction to fossil fuel development.

Secretary Salazar will start the meetings by providing a brief overview of the survey of OCS energy resources that the agency released yesterday. Among other things, the survey revealed enormous potential for wind power off the Atlantic Coast. The remainder of the day, Interior Department staff will be listening to what America wants included in our nation's new comprehensive energy plan. Please join me in attending!

These hearings give everyone a chance to weigh in as the new Administration determines America's energy future and that of our country's beaches, shores, and Arctic resources.

President Obama has called on Congress to double our renewable energy supply in the next three years. And Secretary Salazar has indicated he is committed to developing the clean energy we need to repower America. Unfortunately, he has also indicated the U.S. is not done with offshore oil and gas drilling. We have to break this bad habit that will do nothing to significantly lower energy costs, but instead risks devastating our beaches, waves and the industries that rely on them (like our more than $12 billion commercial fishing and more than $116 billion ocean and coastal tourism and recreation industries). It's time to focus on new energy sources that can't spill, run out or harm public health.

I agree with President Obama that science should be the basis for our coastal policies. We must build on the Interior Department's recent survey by collecting more environmental baseline information and further documenting the impacts of leasing and development on ocean and coastal ecosystems before we move forward on important and long-lasting decisions about America's energy portfolio and the future of our ocean life.

I will be asking that the Administration:

Not open up new offshore lands to oil and gas leasing, exploration, production, or development until the findings of two important assessments are made available: 1) An assessment by the National Academy of Sciences of current environmental baseline information and the impacts of leasing and development on ocean and coastal ecosystems. The independent NAS should review all relevant information, including from academic scientists, coastal states, and natural resource agencies such as the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and build on the Interior Department's recently released report. 2) An assessment by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) of the impacts of OCS leasing and development on the price and supply of oil and gas.
Suspend new leasing and any drilling activities and seismic activities on existing leases in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas on Alaska's Arctic coast until we have the necessary information to make sensible energy policy decisions. In the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, there should be a "time out" on all oil and gas activities until an Arctic conservation and development plan is prepared by a presidentially appointed interagency task force. (Even routine exploration and drilling activities bring harm to many marine species. For example, seismic surveys designed to estimate the size of an oil and gas reserve use ships to tow multiple airgun arrays that emit high-decibel explosive impulses to map an area - the loudest human-generated noise in the oceans besides explosions. Fish and marine mammals that rely on their sense of sound to find mates, locate prey, avoid predators, and communicate suffer damage to their sensitive organs as a result. Seismic surveys have been implicated in numerous whale beaching and stranding incidents.)
Ensure that offshore renewables are developed without jeopardizing the health of our already-stressed, valuable ocean systems. By using a marine spatial planning (MSP) process, the Department of the Interior can identify areas suitable for offshore renewable energy development and associated transmission lines. (MSP is the process of analyzing and allocating ocean space for specific uses in order to achieve specified ecological, economic, and social objectives.) Properly developed, a marine spatial plan could steer development towards those areas best suited to alternative energy projects, while protecting areas more vulnerable to serious environmental impacts. These plans should be developed in partnership with NOAA, and in coordination with willing states.

If you're interested in attending any of these historic hearings, more information can be found at: http://www.doi.gov/ocs/.