https://globalinitiative.net/launch-of-the-iuu-fishing-index/
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/28/699004730/scientists-shocked-by-rare-gian...
Cleveland Water is the lead public water system in the Lake Erie Hypoxia Forecasting Project which began in March 2017. This 5-year grant project brings together inter-agency and university scientists to produce a forecasting system that will predict the location and movement of hypoxic water in Lake Erie.
Partnerships between federal agencies like NOAA and local utilities like Cleveland Water are the key to ensuring clean and safe drinking water for communities across the country.
Each day Cleveland Water’s four treatment plants bring water from offshore in Lake Erie, treat it and then pump clean drinking water through the 5,300 miles of water mains that serve Cuyahoga County and parts of four surrounding counties. As the ninth largest public water system in the United States, Cleveland Water ensures that 1.5 million people and thousands of businesses have reliable access to safe drinking water. NOAA’s tracking of real-time water quality conditions in Lake Erie is crucial because it allows us to adjust our water treatment process and guarantee that our customers never notice a difference at the tap.
Like other public water systems, Cleveland Water depends on data and support from local, state and federal partners. Collectively, our partners have access to billions of dollars’ worth of satellite systems, ships, buoys, aircraft, research facilities, high-performance computing and information management and distribution systems.
Water quality data collected by our partners helps us develop models (like the Lake Erie Hypoxia Forecast Model) that send advance warnings when sub-standard water could enter our system. Being able to adapt quickly to potentially harmful water changes is important to local communities and economies. Ocean Conservancy and Great Lakes Outreach Media captured our problem-solving efforts in the video below, where we show how we work with our stakeholders to monitor the Great Lakes and continue improving our water treatment system.
Cleveland Water is addressing issues head-on with advanced planning and programs. We are implementing a system-wide corrosion control program, removing all lead service lines when disturbed, researching and improving our water treatment process and educating customers about actions they need to take when it comes to water.
Moving forward, we are excited to work with our partners to invent buoys that can be deployed year-round and create sensors that can provide real-time monitoring. These collaborative partnerships—along with innovative technology and tools—are what ensure we can continue delivering safe and clean drinking water to our customers for years to come.
The post Partnering with NOAA to Ensure Safe Drinking Water appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.
Florida’s cultural and ecological diversity is her pride and the keystone of the Floridian identity, and Floridians in their diverse and individual local communities know what’s best for their local coasts and waters. It’s those people that are out on the beaches and out on the water every day, working, living and playing on the coasts and waterways that are their backyards that know what kinds of conservation measures are needed to fix the unique environmental problems their communities face. And so, when Floridians turn to their local governments, to their mayors and city councils, to address coastal problems such as plastic pollution on the beach and in the ocean, the Florida legislature should heed to the will of the local citizens and yield to home rule.
Unfortunately, the Florida legislature is considering some regressive restrictions that would undermine the freedom of local communities to execute their home rule powers on key environmental issues, and worse, that would contravene the desire of Floridians to keep things like single-use plastic bags and plastic straws out of our waterways and off of our beaches.
To the rest of the world, Florida seems like the land of endless summer—a tropical medley of beautiful beaches, giant reptiles, palm trees and colorful characters. Everyone wears flip-flops, goes fishing on the weekends and eats conch fritters for lunch every day while jamming out to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville.
Ok, we’ll admit that a lot of that is true. But the deeper reality is that there are many different Floridas within the state’s borders. As the third largest state, Florida is extremely diverse with more than 20 million people living in different communities ranging from the tranquil southern-accented Panhandle to the fast-paced urban cosmopolitanism of South Florida to the sprawling clash of South-meets-North-meets-Latin-America of the I-4 corridor. Florida also has a tremendous amount of ecological diversity across her 1,300 miles of coastline. The spartina grass salt marshes of Northeast Florida give way to mangroves in the South; the coral reef laced islets of the Keys transition to the Everglades and more mangroves up the Gulf Coast; the Nature Coast’s vast cypress hammocks give way to the rolling dunes of the panhandle.
We know from the International Coastal Cleanup that Florida volunteers have picked up hundreds of thousands of these unnecessary plastic products over the past three decades. In 2017 alone, Florida volunteers picked up more than 14,000 plastic bags and 26,500 plastic straws—each of these items could have otherwise injured or killed an endangered sea turtle nesting on the beach or foraging in waters just offshore. Florida Senate Bill 588 has been introduced and would limit the ability of local governments to pass laws that restrict or reduce the use of plastic in their communities. Even worse, the bill would invalidate regulations already passed by local governments that have been successful in restricting single-use plastics that end up in local waterways.
We believe that locals should retain the freedom to decide what’s best for their communities, especially when it comes to smart policy that keeps harmful plastic pollution and other waste off of Florida’s beautiful beaches and ocean environments. As we’ve said before, Florida’s ocean and coastal environments are at a crossroads, and we are facing an “all hands on deck” moment. Solving Florida’s ocean challenges will require all of us to work together, from Congress to city hall to the actions of individuals—our friends and our neighbors. It just doesn’t make sense for the state legislature to sideline local governments and legally prohibit mayors and city councils from being part of the solution.
Because at the end of the day, we should all be able to sit under a palm on the Florida coast sipping a margarita…sans straw, of course!
The post Let Communities Decide How to Keep Their Beaches Trash-Free appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.
The effects of climate change can range from prosaic to pernicious, from scary to surprising. A recent paper in Nature Communications spurred the imagination of readers and reporters by discussing how ocean color may change due to a changing climate, and what this can tell us about how and where ecosystems are responding. This inspired me to reflect on the different ways our actions affect our environment. My thoughts expanded beyond photosynthesis and phytoplankton to shifting perceptions as well as ecosystem changes. These are likely adverse—for me, they came out in verse:
Our view of the world is colored
by reflection and radiance
and responds as we change—
yellow, orange, red, indigo, violet.
Blue. Green.
Blue-green ocean and our
ocean view; we thought it was
vast, wide, unencumbered,
colored by our memories alone.
We change and we change
its colors.
Still imperceptible, slight shifts
light shifts
swinging greener,
green tides of new communities.
Uncontrolled growth leading to
uncontrolled growth but also,
diving deeper, blue and
less productive.
Changing colors as we change
Our climate; and we ask,
“How does the color of the ocean change?”
(why)
“When will these changes be unambiguous relative to natural interannual variability?”
(what)
Uncomprehending, we don’t see changes,
but we answer as we model
shifting patterns of sea changes,
our world responding to our weight.
We show true colors, blue colors,
green colors, reflections of
our effects, affected by our actions
our sea.
A shimmering chimera
That reflects us.
Review our acts and
re-view our future
colored by reflection undimmed,
uncertain, by chance…
Seize time, change change,
and paint a vision where
we shine.
The post A Sea of Many Colors appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.
Nayyir Ransome builds relationships between the government and the people it serves to support the ocean. As Senior Analyst with Ocean Conse...
