Florida Campaign for #PlasticFreeCities Begins in Miami

Maddie Kaufman is the Program and Outreach Director for Debris Free Oceans and oversees their main programs including sustainable business consulting, education in schools and community outreach events. She received her Master of Science from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science where she studied coral reef restoration and where she now teaches a restoration course. Maddie also is a PADI Divemaster and American Academy of Underwater Sciences scientific diver.

Emily “Milly” Milton is the Programs Manager for Big Blue & You for which she leads youth recruitment for Plastic Free Cities and assists in the development of other ocean conservation projects utilizing arts, science and media. She earned her Master of Science at University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science and has a research background in chemical pollution.

As a part of our continued focus on marine debris interventions by local governments in the Sunshine State, we are delighted to announce the launch of Plastic Free Cities, a Florida-focused, community-driven effort to keep our ocean and neighborhoods clean by engaging students, businesses and local governments in the elimination of single-use plastics. This collaborative effort among Ocean Conservancy, Debris Free Oceans and Big Blue & You is possible thanks to funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Program.

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Through this project, we are training high school students to help businesses in their neighborhoods eliminate single-use plastics and register them for Miami-Dade County’s Plastic Free 305 program, a certification program for businesses that are voluntarily eliminating single-use plastics. Nearly 40 years of data from Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup^® show that the most common items littering our coastlines are single-use plastic products such as bottles, bags, cups and carryout containers. These items are carried to our bays and ocean through storm drains, canals and rivers, where they persist and pose a threat to marine life, human health and local economies. 

The Neighborhoods

The geographic focus of this grant is on five urban-inland municipalities along the Miami River: Hialeah, Hialeah Gardens, Medley, Miami Springs and City of Miami. This watershed approach serves to highlight how our actions on land impact our waterways. Additionally, a large segment of residents in these areas are Hispanic, and to a lesser extent Black or African American; the most common languages spoken are Spanish, English, Haitian Creole and Portuguese. Many of the area’s diverse communities have been historically marginalized, both socially and economically, and their inclusion—as stakeholders, students and businesses—is vital for an equitable and holistic approach to environmental conservation.

Student Training

Each semester we will recruit a cohort of high school students from one to two schools in our neighborhood of focus. These students will participate in five trainings, during which they will learn all about plastic pollution, the business case for eliminating plastics and the steps that a business can take to reduce plastics and waste. They will also be trained in public speaking and how to deliver an elevator pitch so that they are fully prepared to visit businesses in their neighborhoods, inform them of the Plastic Free Cities program and encourage them to participate. If you are interested in getting your school involved, you can email milly@bigblueandyou.org or read more about the student involvement in the project in this Big Blue & You blog post.

Business Consulting

After training, the students will participate in business canvassing days. They will visit local establishments, collect data on their plastic use, provide recommendations for eliminating specific plastics, and register them for Plastic Free 305. For businesses that are interested, the Debris Free Oceans sustainability consulting team will conduct follow-up visits to provide additional recommendations, check in and gather feedback. If you own a business in one of our target neighborhoods and are interested in working with the students to eliminate plastics, you can email maddie@debrisfreeoceans.org or read more about the sustainability consulting component of the project in this Debris Free Oceans blog post.

Community Events

In addition to business canvassing, each cohort of students will work together to plan and execute a community cleanup event with guidance from the partner nonprofits. These events will be open to the public, including classmates, teachers, friends and family of the students. In addition, the businesses that the students work with will be involved in the events as much as possible through providing plastic-free catering or serving as our meeting point for the cleanup. Participants will collect debris data through Ocean Conservancy’s Clean Swell^® app, enhancing our understanding of what type of trash is most abundant within the specific neighborhoods.

To find out about these upcoming events, subscribe to our newsletters (Debris Free Oceans, Big Blue & You) or head to debrisfreeoceans.org/events

About Plastic Free 305 

Plastic Free 305 is an official business certification program of Miami-Dade County designed to highlight and support local establishments eliminating single-use plastics. This program provides a great way to encourage businesses to eliminate certain plastics in regions like Florida where state government-mandated preemptions prohibit local regulation. Plastic Free 305 was created through the passage of a resolution co-sponsored by Commissioners Eileen Higgins and Raquel Regalado. It was inspired by and mirrored after the City of Miami Beach’s successful #PlasticFreeMB program created by Mayor Dan Gelber, to which Debris Free Oceans, Ocean Conservancy, and Big Blue and You have contributed.

There are three tiers of certification of Plastic Free 305:

• Tier One: A business pledges to remove one or more eligible single-use plastic product* during the first calendar year of partnership has already removed one single-use plastic product.
• Tier Two: A business has removed two or more single-use plastic products. *
• Tier Three: A business is 100% single-use plastics-free.

(* Excluded from this certification are single-use plastics products currently prohibited by local ordinance. Check if your business operates within a city that currently restricts certain single-use plastics items such as straws or plastic bags.)

The products eligible for certification upon business removal include the following: drinking bottles and caps, grocery bags, produce bags, cups, lids, straws, stirrers, cutlery, food wrappers, ramekins/sauce containers and takeout containers. Bioplastics are not an acceptable replacement for these items as they persist in the environment and in-home composts; they break down only in commercial composting facilities which currently do not exist in Florida.

You can view a map of Plastic Free 305 members and register your own business at miamidade.gov/plasticfree305. By reducing single-use plastics in our own homes and businesses, we create cleaner neighborhoods, clearer waterways and healthier ecosystems. Miami residents living within the five neighborhoods of interest should connect with Maggie (mwinchester@oceanconservancy.org) about how their schools and businesses can get involved, and everyone can make a difference by reducing single-use plastics in their daily lives or making a pledge to Skip the Straw. Help us build #PlasticFreeCities in Florida!

The post Florida Campaign for #PlasticFreeCities Begins in Miami appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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Effects of Marine Debris on Remote Islands

This blog was written by Kit Cunningham, a graduate student at University of Alaska Fairbanks and an employee for Alaska Department of Fish and Game. She is from and lives in Juneau, and is passionate about sustainability and conservation in Alaska.

Imagine islands full of noise and heartbeats.

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There are thousands of sk’yuuwan, which is the word for Steller sea lions in X̱aat Kí, the language of Haida, the First Peoples of the area. Sea bird burrows cover almost every inch of land. These islands, known as Gasḵúu or Forrester Island Complex, are located on Haida land, off the coast of Alaska. Due to their proximity to the continental shelf, they are perfect habitats for animals to feed and birth.

This is the beautiful Gasḵúu, which is located on Haida land. Its full of steep cliffs, sk’yuuwan (the word for Steller sea lions in X̱aat Kí), millions of seabirds and evidently, tons of marine debris. This photo is taken from the Northern-most island.

Currently, there are no year-round inhabitants of the islands. The islands are part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and haven’t had any permanent human presence since a fish camp was located on the main island in the early 1900s. One would think these islands would remain unpolluted given the remote location and the lack of human habitation, right?

I came to the islands for the first time in 2018 to study the sk’yuuwan that swim to the islands by the thousands to have their pups. The northern-most island in Gasḵúu is home to the largest sea lion mating and bir thing site in North America. During my short time on the islands, it was apparent that there was at least one thing that could be impacting the life on the islands for the sk’yuuwan as well as all other creatures that live in Gasḵúu. Beaches were littered with tires, buoys, plastic bottles—you name it! It was shocking. How could an island that is so far away from any humans be accumulating literally tons of trash?

This is one of the beaches we cleaned up and it took us multiple days. As a reminder, there are no human inhabitants on these islands so this trash is all marine debris and arrived via ocean currents. We collected over 1,500 pounds from this beach, which was approximately 275 feet long.

During the subsequent season, after applying and receiving funding from the NOAA Marine Debris program, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game organized a marine debris cleanup effort to both remove and study the debris. We found that, due to large ocean currents, Gasḵúu collects trash from all over the world. By looking at the items’ language or distribution location, we identified trash from Russia, China, Italy, Malaysia, Canada, the Lower-48 states, Singapore, Taiwan and Italy, as well as from Alaska. The items fell into five main categories; plastic bottles, polystyrene foam (commonly known as the brand, Styrofoam), buoys/floats (which are made of plastics), rope (also usually made of plastics) and miscellaneous hard plastic.

I hated the polystyrene foam the most. Each big piece literally bleeds little beads that are extremely labor- and time-intensive to pick up. We found numerous bottomless pits of these “Styrofoam” or polystyrene foam beads. I would like to say that we could get every single bead but we didn’t—it would have taken way more time than was possible for us. Though it would be impossible to get it all, over the course of one month, our team of seven people collected and removed 11,663 pounds of marine debris from the Gasḵúu/Forrester Island Complex. The majority of the debris was recycled.

One of the best parts of the project for me was the people! This is the crew from the first half of the project. We spent 24/7 together for several weeks and I call everyone on the crew my dear friends. Featuring Steve Lewis (top), Kit Cunningham (black jacket, red hood), Elizabeth Hillstrom (bottom) and Symcha Gillette (right).

It might seem like the bigger the piece of debris, the more impact it can have. However, even the very smallest pieces—microplastics—can have big impacts. Microplastics are pieces of plastic that have broken down into pieces smaller than 5 mm and can accumulate in the environment. This is bad for the marine wildlife for several reasons. First, plastics in the water column can absorb and sequester toxins produced by harmful algae, which causes the plastic particles to become toxic. Second, plastics occupy space in digestive tracts, but have no nutritional value. Third, some plastics themselves include harmful chemicals that are endocrine disruptors or hormone mimics. Identifying which plastic is breaking down and integrating into the marine ecosystem will not only help us save time and money in the long term with plastic cleanup and removal, but will protect marine wildlife.

Therefore, this upcoming year, we will examine biological samples from the sk’yuuwan and a seabird called Cassin’s auklets for microplastics. If we find microplastics, we will examine their chemical composition. This process will tell us two things; one, if microplastics are accumulating in the Alaskan marine food web, and two, if the microplastics match the composition of the local marine debris, which will provide insight to the microplastic source.

I know that the debris will return to Gasḵúu at some point and removing 11,663 pounds of debris is nothing compared to the amount that is entering the ocean everyday. But if we can learn about where the debris is coming from, begin understanding if and how it is entering the marine food web, and make an area a little bit more habitable than it was before, then projects like this are worth it!

This work with microplastics and marine debris will help identify which types of plastics are most detrimental and prolific in Alaskan ecosystems. This information can hopefully be used to influence policy change and bring us one step closer to plastic-free seas. With the problems we face today regarding marine debris, there has never been a greater opportunity to bear witness and benefit from the efforts and ingenuity of people tackling this issue. I am excited to see continued development and movement toward a sustainable future and a clean environment.

This is a close-up shot of all the trash we would find on beaches. We found a ton of buoys, high-seas driftnet floats and STYROFOAM! So. Much. Styrofoam! Beneath this top layer in the photo, there was a bottomless pit of Styrofoam beads.

Life finds a way! We found items like this frequently; plants growing through holes in hard plastic, barnacles attaching in the cracks of discarded shoes, moss making a new habitat on top of a fishing float!

The first step in removing the debris was placing like-items in ALPAR bags (the acronym is “Alaskans for Litter Prevention and Recycling,” they provided very hearty bags for the project). After one beach, we would have dozens of bags full of just plastic bottles, or just high-seas driftnet floats. We would then empty the contents into supersaks (in order to reuse the plastic bags). Photo featuring Kristina Sheufelt.

Since the northern-most island of Gasḵúu is the home of the sk’yuuwan (or Steller sea lion) rookery, we often had to move the debris to other beaches that wouldn’t disturb the wildlife! Elizabeth and Symcha are using frame packs to move the debris to an empty beach where we can later pick it up with our skiff.

This is the crew from the second half of the project! Most crew members were from Alaska but came from a myriad of backgrounds, including artist, mechanical engineer and biologist. Featuring Nelli Wayne (left), Steve Lewis (left middle), Kristina Scheufelt (right middle), and Steve McCurdy (right).

The removal of all our debris was accomplished with the help of Alaska General Seafoods, who donated two tenders and a seining skiff, to get all our collected debris off the island. As you can see in the photo, a rope would come ashore which we would attach to our supersaks. The seining skiff, holding the other end of the rope) would pull the supersaks and debris off the beach and out to the two tenders on the horizon.

This is of F/V Polar Lady hoisting our debris onto their deck space. The AGS crew was awesome to work with and we were able to remove all 11,663 pounds of debris off all the beaches on one day!

This is the deck space of F/V Polar Lady. The fishing vessel is normally a crab tender the rest of the season and is 110 feet long. We filled the entire deck space with marine debris. Ninety-nine percent of the marine debris collected on this project was recycled.

The post Effects of Marine Debris on Remote Islands appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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Announcing Ocean Conservancy’s First Ocean Justice Community Grants Awardees

Ocean Conservancy’s Ocean Justice team is proud to announce the first Ocean Justice Community Grants cohort. Ocean Justice Community Grants are a critical part of our commitment to ocean justice, which we define as the fair and equitable distribution of both the benefits of the ocean’s bounty and the burdens of its complex care. Climate change and ocean injustice present dual crises that disproportionately impact marginalized coastal and ocean communities. These crises cannot be solved without simultaneously addressing the systemic social and economic inequalities that make those impacts disproportionate, including a lack of available funding to help support local ocean advocates in their fight. The Ocean Justice Community Grants are Ocean Conservancy’s contribution to righting this wrong by applying resources that amplify and uplift the work of historically marginalized ocean advocates.

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We are committing resources to spotlight and amplify the excellent conservation work led by frontline community members and to connect these grantees to Ocean Conservancy’s network as well as to each other. In addition, these grants aim to cultivate a space for empowerment and expertise-sharing among grantees, as well as for the creation of authentic partnerships as we all work together to seek innovative solutions to climate and ocean challenges at the local level. These recipient organizations are advancing ocean justice in one or more of the following areas:

• Strengthening coastal communities
• Promoting sustainable fishing and traditional Indigenous practices
• Protecting communities’ connections to the ocean
• Advancing ocean innovations
• Developing new ocean leaders

Ocean Conservancy thanks each of the amazing organizations that applied through our first—and very competitive—Ocean Justice Community Grants cycle. There is so much good work being done from coast to coast.

We are pleased to introduce this year’s ocean champions and inaugural Ocean Justice Community Grants awardees:

Diving with a Purpose:  Washington, D.C and Key Biscayne, Florida

Diving With a Purpose (DWP) is a community-focused nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation and protection of submerged heritage resources by providing education, training, certification and field experience to adults and youth in the fields of maritime archaeology and ocean conservation. A special focus of DWP is the protection, documentation and interpretation of African slave trade shipwrecks and the maritime history and culture of African Americans who formed a core of labor and expertise for America’s maritime enterprises.

Gullah / Geechee Angel Network & Gullah/ Geechee Sea Island Coalition: St. Helena, North Carolina

The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition advocates for the rights of all Gullah/Geechee people while promoting the preservation of Gullah/Geechee history, heritage, culture and language. The coalition continues its work for land reclamation and maintenance for coastal communities that have thrived from North Carolina to Florida for more than 300 years.

Kua’aina Ulu Auamo: Kaneohe, Hawaii

Kua’aina Ulu Auamo (KUA) works to empower Native Hawaiian and rural communities to improve their quality of life through the care of their environmental heritage to better Hawaiʻi and achieve “āina momona”— an abundant, productive ecological system that supports community well-being. KUA employs a community‐driven approach that supports three statewide networks: 1) E Alu Pū (landscape restoration), 2) Hui Mālama Loko Iʻa (fishpond caretakers) and 3) the Limu Hui (native seaweed gatherers). The organization’s collective network efforts touch more than 70 nearshore communities statewide.

OceansAlaska: Ketchikan, Alaska

OceansAlaska’s ongoing holistic projects focus on preparing young people to become the next generation of ocean and community leaders through mariculture hatchery/nursery training, research and development. By combining Western science and Indigenous values, OceansAlaska is creating multidisciplined ocean champions. The organization provides educational and social opportunities through local National Ocean Science Bowl teams and hatchery/farm internships for high school students.

University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science: Miami, Florida

Dr. Maria Cartolano and Dr. Jill Richardson lead the Ocean Kids Project, which is designed to engage and inspire the children from local neighborhoods who are disproportionately affected by pollution and other environmental stressors, by providing otherwise inaccessible access to hands-on STEM activities through the lens of the ocean. With this grant we hope to achieve the goal of working collaboratively with the target schools during the spring semester to develop lesson plans and activities that address the coastal issues most relevant to their communities, culminating in an outdoor event, hosted at the Rosenstiel campus.

Thank you again to all who applied for our initial grant cycle. We encourage you to apply for the next grant cycle in Fall 2023. Learn more about the program and its requirements here.

University of Miami Rosential

Diving with a Purpose

Gullah Geechee, Queen Quet

Kua aina Ulu Auamo

The post Announcing Ocean Conservancy’s First Ocean Justice Community Grants Awardees appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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5 Ocean Victories of 2022

As 2022 comes to a close, I am reflecting on everything we’ve accomplished together on behalf of our ocean throughout the last 12 months.

It’s been an incredibly busy year here at Ocean Conservancy, to say the least. I am ending this year feeling excited—and grateful—for everything we did to promote ocean health and productivity this year. Most of all, I so appreciate all the ocean advocates who stood alongside us to make these wins possible. 

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Join me in reflecting on five tremendous ocean victories from the past year: 

1. California passed a landmark plastics bill.

In June, California passed SB54, also known as the Plastic Pollution Producer Responsibility Act. This bill, which reduces single-use plastic packaging and funds restoration efforts, will eliminate about 23 million tons of plastics over the next decade. That’s equivalent to the weight of almost 1 million redwood trees or 150,000 blue whales. Dr. Anja Brandon, U.S. Plastics Policy Analyst here at Ocean Conservancy, said it best:  “The United States is the number-one generator of plastic waste in the world and a top contributor to the ocean plastics crisis. We can’t solve this problem without U.S. leadership, and by passing this law, California is righting the ship. This is a huge win for our ocean.” Learn more about what is in this historic bill. 

2. We launched a new program to support locally-led climate and ocean justice action. 

In August, Ocean Conservancy launched our Ocean Justice Community Grants program, which amplifies and uplifts the work of historically marginalized ocean advocates. We will fund projects that strengthen coastal communities, promote sustainable fishing, advance ocean innovations and more. We received an impressive range of applications and are excited to share updates on the grantees in 2023. These grants are one way we’re working towards our vision of a healthier ocean, protected by a more just world. Read more about our commitment to advancing ocean justice. 

3. Parties across the globe made strides for our climate. 

In 2022, we joined representatives from around the world at COP27, the annual gathering of countries to advance the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change. One of the biggest outcomes this year was the recommitment to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which means countries have a renewed incentive to reduce emissions. This is a critical threshold: Above 1.5°C, our ocean and coasts are severely threatened by acidification, storms, sea level rise, warming and more. We were happy to see that our ocean played a big role in the COP27 conversations, as ocean-based solutions are an imperative part of a sustainable climate future. Read the recap from my Ocean Conservancy colleagues who attended COP27. 

4. The Biden administration invested in ocean-based climate solutions. 

When the Inflation Reduction Act passed in August, it marked the largest investment in climate change solutions in U.S. history. The bill includes steps to decarbonize our ports, increase coastal restoration and incentivize offshore wind efforts. Although there are some parts of the bill that aren’t as positive—measures to prop up the oil and gas industry, for example—it represents a big step in the right direction towards meaningfully addressing climate change and an opportunity to advance ocean justice. We look forward to working with the Biden administration to implement the beneficial parts of the bill and continue to move away from the destructive oil and gas industry. Learn more about what this bill means for our ocean. 

5. Ocean Conservancy celebrated 50 years of ocean conservation. 

This September marked our 50^thanniversary—that’s five decades of advocating for our ocean. Ocean Conservancy has seen so much in the last 50 years—many victories and many challenges. But one thing is for sure: Our network of dedicated ocean advocates has grown tremendously. It’s thanks to you that we’re able to look back on all the ocean triumphs we’ve celebrated together over the years and look forward to what comes next. See my post of some of the highlights over the last 50 years of ocean conservation.

These are just a few of the many ocean wins we celebrated this year, and it makes me more hopeful than ever to see what we can accomplish in 2023. As always, this work wouldn’t be possible without the support of ocean advocates like you. Kick off 2023 by taking action for our ocean.

The post 5 Ocean Victories of 2022 appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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Building Climate Resilience Through Ocean Justice

Speaking in October at the National Adaptation Forum (NAF) in Baltimore, Gullah/Geechee Nation Chieftess Queen Quet (recently Ocean Conservancy’s cultural ambassador for promotion of environmental justice and insight into the culture and preservation of the Gullah/ Geechee Nation) shared that there’s no word in Gullah for “collaboration” because working together is completely ingrained in the Gullah/Geechee culture. The NAF, meeting biennially, brings together leaders in the public and private sectors to share ideas on strengthening climate resilience across the nation. 

Queen Quet is the recipient of the Order of the Palmetto in 2021 and more than 300 awards of environmental justice; she is the embodiment of a lifetime of achievement of being a steward of the land and sea. Chieftess’ oral storytelling centers the spirit of collaboration as it relates to solving climate change, the greatest global issue facing us today, and build up resilience and solutions to its growing impact. The ocean’s critical role in climate change—both as a victim and an essential part of the solution—has received more attention, as is its due, in the past several years. One issue extremely important to Ocean Conservancy is the advocacy of ocean justice and equity, too long ignored, in developing ocean policy. 

This year’s NAF was especially important to our organization as it afforded the Ocean Conservancy Ocean Justice team the opportunity to meet with peers in the Ocean Justice Advocacy Group (OJAG)—a terrific representation of the collaboration espoused by Queen Quet. OJAG was born out of the 2021 Capitol Hill Ocean Week and a shared desire to advance ocean policy in a way that better includes the perspectives of coastal Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) communities, increases representation and creates more equitable outcomes.

Since then, the OJAG member organizations have focused on partnering with community-led groups and influencing policy at federal, state and local levels to protect the ocean and coastal communities. Ocean Conservancy defines ocean justice and the mission of our ocean justice work as the fair and equitable distribution of both the benefits of the ocean’s bounty and the burdens of its complex care. Inequalities accelerate ocean harm, strain people’s relationships to the ocean and undercut innovation. Our success depends on our ability to address multiple challenges and remain agile in our work.

Gathering at NAF gave us an occasion to reflect on our efforts to build up climate resilience. Climate change threatens the ocean, our world’s biodiversity and human wellbeing. However, the ocean itself is an immensely powerful resource that can help us protect our world and ensure a safe future. Together, we’re working alongside community-led organizations to advance equity and justice. We’re committed to using community-centered solutions that we share with these groups. And we’re working to ensure our partners get access to directly shape ocean policy. 

Ocean Conservancy’s Ocean Justice team, in this first year of inception, is proud to lead efforts that support climate resilience and is enthusiastic to grow further in this work. A manifestation of our efforts is the recent launch of the Ocean Justice Community Grants program. We acknowledge that there are gaps in funding for local community-led organizations that we can help fill. We’re working to ensure these organizations get the resources they need as these partnerships are invaluable in our shared efforts.

These grants support frontline coastal communities. Our goal is to prioritize the ongoing work in these communities around fishing sustainably, advancing ocean innovation and developing new ocean leaders, all of which will support efforts towards climate adaptation. 

As we continue to embed justice and equity in all our conservation work, one important focus is on our Climate Policy team which tracks the climate resilience work and federal funds in Justice40. This federal initiative aims to address inequities in how federal funding and benefits of federal programs reach marginalized or disadvantaged communities. The goal of Justice40 is to see at least 40% of the overall benefits from federal investments in climate and clean energy realized in disadvantaged communities. We’re focusing on Florida, a state with huge economic and community ties to the ocean and where coastal communities will face threats to drinking water, stormwater and wastewater systems from climate impacts like sea level rise and storms. In its initial phase we will work with local officials and community members to understand how federal funds can benefit the communities facing these threats and those who need them most. Ocean Conservancy’s work in Florida is helping bring new voices to marine conservation and support ongoing work that will equally benefit communities and the marine environment.

We all want a thriving ocean that centers and protects both people and nature as we work to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Achieving that goal depends on building trust with our community partners, including by learning more about the communities we’re all serving, remaining transparent with information we’re gathering and valuing community expertise as much as any other expertise. Our Ocean Justice team and our entire staff at Ocean Conservancy understand the importance of building community, and that’s why our work with OJAG is so meaningful. We are working towards breaking down silos within the conservation space to better address the issues at hand, harnessing collective action as we work toward a healthier ocean protected by a more just world. Just as Queen Quet advises, we’re working to make collaboration in advancing equity and justice part of our DNA.

The post Building Climate Resilience Through Ocean Justice appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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Protecting the Ocean Means Protecting Communities

When we think about plastic pollution, we often think about where plastic products—from water bottles to microplastics—end up. But plastics present a much broader threat to our ocean, climate and marginalized coastal communities.

Why? It’s a problem of how plastics are made—nearly all plastics are made from oil, and they take a lot of energy to produce. And while we’ve begun to transition away from oil and gas for our cars and electricity, the oil and gas industry has responded by investing its vast financial resources in a new source of demand for their products: new production for plastic materials and packaging. 

More plastic means more pollution—for the climate, coastal communities and our ocean. By 2030, plastic production will contribute 1.3 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere—the equivalent of 300 coal-fired power plants—and these facilities are sited in predominantly low-income communities and communities of color. Producing plastics is a dirty business. The petrochemicals infrastructure used to produce plastics is often coastal energy infrastructure—oil and gas production, refining and export facilities. This production process emits significant air and water pollution with severe health consequences for neighboring communities already bearing the brunt of climate change impacts like sea level rise, severe storms and flooding. 

The concentration of polluting industries in low-income and minority communities is no accident—it is the result of decades of discriminatory housing and zoning policies (i.e. redlining.) Just last year, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights called out the expansion of plastic-producing petrochemicals plants in Southern Louisiana as environmental racism—a threat to the basic human rights of the predominantly Black residents of the region.

Fenceline leader Shamyra Lavigne describes the impact of plastic facilities in her community. Learn more about Rise St. James here.

This injustice must be addressed. On December 1, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), Representative Jared Huffman (D-CA-02), Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Representative Alan Lowenthal (D-CA-47) introduced new legislation, the Protecting Communities from Plastic Act (S. 5163/H.R. 9388), to tackle the plastic pollution crisis head-on, crack down on the plastic production process and address the harmful environmental justice impacts of this growing fossil fuel sector. This bill builds on the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2021 to:

• Help reduce our reliance on virgin plastic by requiring the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to create new nationwide targets for single-use plastic reduction in the packaging and food service, while incentivizing the expansion of new refill and reuse systems. Reducing new plastic production is critical to solving the interlinked plastics, climate and community impacts. 
• Protect fenceline [1] communities around plastic production and disposal facilities by expanding the definition of covered facilities to be monitored by the EPA and requiring that the agency consider the cumulative impacts of plastic production and disposal, temporarily pausing the permitting of new and expanded facilities.
• Strengthen environmental regulations like the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and Toxic Substances Control Act protections to reduce pollution and climate impacts in fenceline communities.
• Block new petrochemical and plastic production facilities from being built within a five-mile radius of schools, residences and other community buildings.
• Direct the EPA to not include harmful chemical recycling technologies in the national recycling strategy.
• Create new financial requirements for companies so that communities are not left with the bill to clean up environmental contamination when facilities close.

Fenceline communities are the closest to the problem and the closest to the solution; they led this resistance movement to protect their communities. This current legislation provides an opportunity for government leaders, and all of us, to have their backs in advancing their fights. Ocean Conservancy is proud to support this legislation because it centers fenceline communities’ solutions and marries that with what the science tells us we need to do to protect our ocean and climate. It’s long past time to reach across sectors and systems to address the generational harm faced by Black, Indigenous and people of color and other disadvantaged fenceline communities to ultimately find multidimensional solutions to advance justice and equity across the board. Plastic pollution is a social justice issue, a climate issue and an ocean issue. They can’t be separated. The more we center communities in our policies and our conversations, the better outcomes we will achieve.  

Grassroot movements have long presented the model of societal change in the United States. Ocean Conservancy recognizes that supporting this movement in targeting single-use plastics will have a chain effect on many other social injustices that tie together the health of the ocean and the marine ecosystems within. We are dedicated to our journey in advancing ocean justice, which we define as the fair and equitable distribution of both the benefits of the ocean’s bounty and the burdens of its complex care. Want to learn more about Ocean Justice? Check out how we are fulfilling our commitment at OceanConservancy.org.

[1] Fenceline communities live immediately adjacent to highly polluting facilities—fossil fuel infrastructure, industrial parks or large manufacturing facilities—and are directly affected by the traffic, noise, operations and most-concerningly, chemical and fossil fuel emissions of the operation.

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Everything You Need to Know About Gray Whales

Gray whales might not be as well known as their humpback or sperm whale cousins, but I think you’re going to fall in love with them all the same. For instance, did you know gray whales blow hearts!? They have two blow holes, and when they exhale you can see a heart spout out of the water. 

Gray whales also have the reputation of being the friendliest whales in the world. They are curious about boats and will often approach them and check out the humans aboard. Near Mexico, a gray whale actually played with a boat of tourists by lifting the vessel onto its back and briefly swimming away with it. Gray whales want to learn about us, so let’s take some time to learn about them in return. 

Why are they called gray whales?

Gray whales get their name from their color which is, you guessed it, gray with white splotches all over their bodies. They’ve earned a few nicknames, like “devil fish,” due to their aggressive behavior when trying to escape whalers in the past. They’ve also been called “mud diggers” or “mussel diggers” due to the way they eat. Gray whales will dive down to the ocean floor, turn to their sides, and scoop up sediment with their mouths. As they swim up, they leave long trails of mud in their wake while filtering out their food, mainly small invertebrates. 

Their Latin name is Eschrichtius robustus. The genus Eschrichtius is named for Daniel Frederik Eschricht, a nineteenth century scientist who was the authority on whales at the time. Some of his work even got a shout out in Jules Verne’s underwater epic Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Their species name robustus comes from the Latin meaning strong. It is a fitting description for these powerful swimmers. 

How big is a gray whale?

Fully grown gray whales range from 43-49 feet, about the size of a semi-trailer. They are among the top ten largest whale species and about half the size of a blue whale, the largest animal on the planet. But gray whales are by no means small; they weigh approximately 60,000-80,000 pounds on average, more than the combined weight of six elephants. 

How do gray whales get their spots? 

While they might not be a fashion statement, the white spots barnacles leave behind on these animals help scientists identify individual gray whales. These white blotches are often scars from barnacles and parasites. The most common hitchhiker on gray whales is Cryptolepas rhachianecti, a species of barnacle that attaches only to whales. When feeding at the bottom of the ocean, a gray whale will try to scrape off these freeloaders, but it doesn’t always work. A single gray whale can have up to a thousand pounds of barnacles on it at any given time.

These barnacles don’t reside alone; they also provide homes to whale lice. As gross as whale lice sound, they actually do perform a beneficial service to the whale. They eat skin for lunch, literally, and often will feed around wounds and scars which helps reduce the risk of infection. 

Where do you find gray whales?  

Gray whales prefer shallow coastal waters where they can find their favorite foods in the muddy bottom. They can be found in the North Pacific spanning from the west coast of North America to the eastern coast of Asia. There were gray whales in the North Atlantic, but they were likely driven to extinction on the American coast by whalers in the eighteenth century. They disappeared from the European coast during the Middle Ages. 

Gray whales hold the record for the longest migrations in the world, travelling up to 14,000 miles round trip. That is the equivalent to going coast-to-coast in the United States more than four times! When migrating, a gray whale swims about 75 miles a day which is a lot considering their average pace is just five miles per hour. One gray whale travelled even further from its home: it was found in Namibia more than 16,700 miles away from its home in the North Pacific, making it the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. 

How many years do grey whales live?

The exact age of gray whales is difficult to detect, but scientists found one female whale who lived until she was somewhere between 75 and 80 years old. That means there could be gray whales alive today that would be old enough to remember World War II or when perms were cool. Just imagine how gray whales have seen their ocean home change during that time. 

How can I help gray whales?

There are reports every year about gray whales being entangled in fishing gear. They are among the many animals that fall victim to this plight, including a 47-foot-long adult male sperm whale that was found with a knotted mass of plastic debris after it beached itself in the Florida Keys earlier this year. Grey whales need protection from plastic pollution and other threats, including ocean noise and habitat destruction from oil and gas development. Luckily, the friendliest whales have a friend in you. You can take action with Ocean Conservancy to demand change for our ocean and the marine life that depends on it.

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