Home › Contributors › Zak Smith
Zak Smith, Attorney, Marine Mammal Protection Project, Santa Monica
I grew up in two areas that have a lot in common but couldn’t be more different: Whitefish, Montana, and Yucca Valley, California. Whitefish is a small town, nestled in the northwest corner of Montana, next to Glacier National Park. It sits on a beautiful lake at the base of Big Mountain Ski Resort. I spent my teenage years in another small town, Yucca Valley, at the southern border of the Mojave Desert, next to Joshua Tree National Park. While both towns are small and rural, next to beautiful national parks, their environments are stark contrasts – forested mountains with rivers and streams in Montana and cactus-filled valleys and arroyos in southern California.
College (UC Berkeley – Go Bears!), grad school (Johns Hopkins), and law school (UCLA) brought me to urban environments, where I explored history, international economics, and environmental law. Along the way, I found my way to NRDC and enjoy working on issues that make a difference, from saving endangered wildlife and wild places, keeping all of our footprints (not only carbon) as small as possible, and being smart about our limited resources. I do my part by working to protect whales and dolphins from dangerous noise pollution (including sonar) and polar bears from extinction.
Recent Posts
Posted February 8, 2012 by Zak Smith in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Reviving the World's Oceans
- Tags:
- arctic, australia, belugawhale, biogems, bottlenosedolphin, britishcolumbia, california, canada, dolphins, endangeredspecies, globalwarming, gulfcoast, harborporpoise, hawaii, humpbackwhale, killerwhale, marinemammals, narwhal, nationalmarinefisheriesservice, naturalresourcesdefensecouncil, newzealand, nmfs, northerngateway, nrdc, NWTRC, oregon, pacificnorthwest, pilotwhales, polarbears, seals, sonar, southernresidentkillerwhale, tarsands, washington
News in the world of whales over the last two weeks (or close to it). Here’s a blowout edition of “This Week in Whales.” I’m sorry for the delay. But, as you’ll see from the first entry, I was a...continued→
Posted January 27, 2012 by Zak Smith in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
- Tags:
- biogems, britain, bycatch, california, canada, chinesewhitedolphin, cod, dna, dolphins, dolphinsafetuna, easternpacificgraywhale, endangeredspecies, endangeredspeciesact, graywhale, killerwhale, pacific, russia, sealion, seals, seaworld, southerncalifornia, southkorea, stellersealion, stranding, tuna, wales, whales, wto
News in the world of whales last week (or close to it). Okay, let’s start with some dolphin news. The big news last week was the mass stranding of dolphins that continued throughout the week in Cape Cod. It started...continued→
Posted January 24, 2012 by Zak Smith in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
- Tags:
- biogems, california, dallsporpoise, endangeredspeciesact, graywhale, harborporpoise, humpbackwhale, killerwhale, marinemammalprotectionact, marinemammals, minkewhale, nationalmarinefisheriesservice, naturalresourcesdefensecouncil, navy, nmfs, northwesttrainingrangecomplex, nrdc, NWTRC, olympiccoastnationalmarinesanctuary, orca, oregon, pacific, pacificnorthwest, pygmyspermwhale, sealion, sonar, southerncalifornia, southernresidentkillerwhale, stripeddolpins, washington
Today, NRDC is suing the government agency charged with protecting marine mammals from the Navy’s harmful use of sonar. That agency, the National Marine Fisheries Service (“NMFS”) has a statutory responsibility to manage, conserve, and protect living marine resources, like...continued→
Posted January 17, 2012 by Zak Smith in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
- Tags:
- antarctica, australia, belugawhale, biogems, cambodia, cookinlet, dolphins, endangeredspecies, endangeredspeciesact, esa, globalwarming, hectorsdolphin, humpbackwhale, iran, irrawaddydolphin, japan, marinemammals, minkewhale, nationaloceanicatmosphericadministration, navy, newzealand, noaa, nrdc, ricobarry, taiji, thecove, vietnam, wales, whales, whaling
News in the world of whales last week (or close to it). Three professors float a market-based approach to managing international whaling. Let’s hope it sinks. Ah, the market. Isn’t it wonderful? Why, it’s already solved so many of...continued→
Posted January 9, 2012 by Zak Smith in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
- Tags:
- alaska, atlantic, biogems, brain, california, canada, carbon, cardiff, climatechange, dolphins, endangeredspecies, extinct, fossil, globalwarming, hunting, ireland, japan, killerwhale, kyotoprotocol, manatee, marinemammals, noisepollution, nrdc, porpoise, seals, seismic, shipping, sonar, southernresidentkillerwhale, wales, whales
News in the world of whales last week (or close to it). First of all, Happy New Year! Let’s hope this is the year humans collectively pull their heads out of the sand and get serious about saving the planet. ...continued→
Posted December 29, 2011 by Zak Smith in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
- Tags:
- antarctica, australia, belugawhale, biogems, bluewhale, bowheadwhale, chineseriverdolphin, endangeredspecies, endangeredspeciesact, esa, finwhale, graywhale, guadalupefurseal, gulfofcaliforniaharborporpoise, hawaiianmonkseal, humpbackwhale, indusriverdolphin, japan, killerwhale, manatee, marinemammals, mediterraneanmonkseal, northatlanticrightwhale, northpacificrightwhale, nrdc, polarbears, russia, saimaaseal, seals, seaotter, seiwhale, southernocean, southernrightwhale, spermwhale, spottedseal, stellersealion, taiji, thecove, wales, whales, whaling
News in the world of whales this week (or close to it). Happy Birthday Endangered Species Act!!! Thirty-eight years ago, President Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act and it’s been under attack ever since. NRDC has been fighting anti-environmental...continued→
Posted December 22, 2011 by Zak Smith in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
- Tags:
- alaska, arctic, atlantic, belugawhale, beringsea, biogems, BP, canada, china, chukchisea, dolphins, endangeredspecies, europeanunion, gulfcoastdisaster, gulfofmexico, harborseal, harpseal, iucn, marinemammals, narwhal, nunavut, russia, seals, unusualmortalityevent, wales, walrus, whales, worldtradeorganization
News in the world of whales this week (or close to it). More than 100 beluga whales are trapped in ice floes in Russia’s far north-east. The whales face exhaustion and death if a channel doesn’t open up that will...continued→
Posted December 15, 2011 by Zak Smith in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
- Tags:
- antarctica, arctic, beakedwhale, biogems, bluewhale, climatechange, dolphins, japan, pacific, polarbears, solomonislands, sonar, southerncalifornia, spermwhale, taiji, thecove, wales, walrus, washington, whales
News in the world of whales. Here's a last-minute gift idea: holiday gifts that save wildlife. NRDC has a green gifts initiative where you can dispense with trying to find the perfect gift for the caring people on your holiday list. No...continued→
Posted December 13, 2011 by Zak Smith in Moving Beyond Oil, Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
- Tags:
- boem, BP, bureauofoceanenergy, deepwater, deepwaterhorizon, endangeredspecies, fisheries, gulfcoast, gulfcoastdisaster, gulfofmexico, gulfspill, nrdc, oilspill
NRDC initiated legal action today against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) for violating our most basic of environmental laws when it decided to move forward with an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico without...continued→
Posted December 1, 2011 by Zak Smith in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
- Tags:
- alabama, alaska, antarctica, belugawhale, biogems, BP, brazil, canada, cardiff, chile, cookinlet, dolphins, endangeredspecies, endangeredspeciesact, europeanunion, extinct, gulfcoast, gulfofmexico, killerwhale, mississippi, nationaloceanicatmosphericadministration, noaa, northatlanticrightwhale, nrdc, rightwhale, seals, spinnerdolphin
News in the world of whales this week and from last week (or close to it). The endangered North Atlantic right whale (there are likely less than 400 left in the world) is heading south for the winter....continued→
Posted November 17, 2011 by Zak Smith in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
- Tags:
- australia, biogems, dolphins, endangeredspecies, entanglement, gangeticriverdolphin, minkewhale, pilotwhales, riverdolphin, spermwhale, tuna, wales, whales
News in the world of whales this week (or close to this week). Great news for the Gangetic river dolphin living in the Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary in Bihar, India. The endangered species’ population in the sanctuary has grown from...continued→
Posted November 10, 2011 by Zak Smith in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
- Tags:
- biogems, california, coastguard, dolphins, dolphinsafetuna, endangeredspecies, extinct, humpbackwhale, mexico, nafta, newzealand, northamericanfreetradeagreement, porpoise, santacruz, tuna, wales, whales, worldtradeorganization, wto
News in the world of whales this week (or close to this week). Forty-million years ago, the circle of life played out with a shark chomping on a whale. An Italian stonecutter discovered the 40-million-year-old fossil of a whale...continued→
Posted November 8, 2011 by Zak Smith in Moving Beyond Oil, Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
- Tags:
- alaska, biogems, boemre, BP, bureauofoceanenergy, deepwaterhorizon, dolphins, endangeredspecies, globalwarming, gulfcoastdisaster, gulfofmexico, gulfspill, marinemammals, noisepollution, nrdc, oilspill, seismic, spermwhale, whales
The Obama Administration has announced its blueprint for offshore oil and gas activities for the next five years (2012-2017). See the Proposed Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017. From the looks of it, we’re back...continued→
Posted November 4, 2011 by Zak Smith in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
- Tags:
- biogems, bottlenosedolphin, BP, california, canada, coastguard, deepwaterhorizon, defendersofwildlife, dolphins, endangeredspecies, entanglement, europeanparliament, europeanunion, finwhale, gulfofmexico, humanesociety, humpbackwhale, hunting, japan, nationalmarinefisheriesservice, nationalmarinesanctuary, northatlanticrightwhale, rivertweed, santabarbara, scotland, seals, seashepherd, seiwhale, shipping, shipstrike, southerncalifornia, southernocean, wales, whaleanddolphinconservationsociety, whales, whaling
News in the world of whales this week (or close to this week). Three cheers for the three groups (Humane Society of the United States, Defenders of Wildlife, and Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society) who sued the National Marine...continued→
Posted November 3, 2011 by Zak Smith in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
- Tags:
- biogems, canada, climatechange, extinct, globalwarming, greenland, harvest, hunting, internationalunionforconservationofnature, iucn, norway, overharvest, polarbears, russia, sustainableharvest
Most everyone wants to do the right thing for polar bears: ensure that the species survives the threats posed by global warming. Unfortunately, that’s where agreement ends. For while most people have the best of intentions for the species...continued→
