Citizen lobby event for healthy ocean and coasts is largest in U.S. history
By Martha Shaw
(Washington DC) May 15, 2015 – It was the largest citizen lobby event for the ocean in U.S. history as hundreds of Americans ascended Capitol Hill this week at Healthy Oceans Hill Day, part of Blue Vision Summit. People came from across the nation to defend the ocean from the destructive forces of private interest groups that threaten this 71% of the planet, without which life would not be possible. Central to the conversations were that if the ocean fails, so do we. Citizens sought to end ocean plundering for profit at the expense of every living thing on earth.
Among the lobbyists were hundreds of community leaders, researchers, geologists, coastal planners, non-profit organizations, divers, fishermen, oceanographers, teachers, film makers, academics, sportsmen, surfers, and assorted government officials, who attended hundreds of meetings with Senators, Representatives and other officers, focusing on practical solutions to the ocean’s most looming issues that can’t wait.
On top of the agenda was Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing, known as IUU, which has reached such proportions that the world’s fisheries have all but collapsed because of it, coupled with pollution. Lobbyists told lawmakers that seafood from foreign pirate fishing has flooded the U.S. market with an estimated $2 billion per year of black market fish, about 20% of all fish sold in the nation’s grocers, seafood shops and restaurants.
Globally, the estimated size of IUU is a crippling $10 to $23 billion per year industry through companies infamous for human rights abuses, destructive gear, and massive killing of bi-catch. Unknown amounts of live sea creatures are ground up and canned at sea, or packaged as fertilizer and chicken feed. Beyond depriving local fishermen of their livelihood, these massive overfishing operations, often subsidized by foreign governments, have depleted entire populations of fish that will not recover.
U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill were asked to push through legislation calling for better traceability of seafood sourcing, and laws that authorize enforcement agencies (See H.R. 774) to take action against the trafficking of illegally caught fish, which are largely mislabeled. One lobbyist said, “We are eating our way to the bottom of the food chain, in an ecosystem that can’t sustain itself.”
A second main point made by citizen lobbyists on the Hill was about seismic testing by third parties for oil pockets deep in the ocean floor. Lobbyists shared examples of how this constant blast of undersea explosions conducted by private companies that compete to sell seismic data to oil companies are most often redundant and unnecessary. These extreme sound waves travel throughout the ocean and interfere with communication among marine animals, leading to countless and needless deaths, burst eardrums, damaged internal organs, and beached mammals. Given the fact that these explosions also interfere with national security, marine conservationists had the U.S. military on their side.
Just as President Obama was handing the keys to the Arctic to Shell Oil, the lobbyists opposed deep sea oil and gas drilling as a major topic in the hundreds of meetings with representatives of nearly 30 states. In particular were oppositions to drilling in the fragile Arctic, expansion of hazardous drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and exploration of the outer continental shelf off the Atlantic coast. In contrast to the infinite potential of wind and solar to provide clean energy, oil and gas exploration and drilling pose a major threat to coastal communities and marine life, while the burning of fossil fuels contributes to atmospheric pollution, ocean acidification and increased temperatures.
Throughout the day, those officials committed to clean energy in their districts were presented with a blue marble by students for enacting an intelligent solution to pollution, and for connecting the dots between a healthy ocean, healthy people and a healthy future.
Healthy Oceans Hill Day came to a close by the Capitol’s reflecting pool in Union Park where special guests and the citizen lobbyists linked hands in solidarity for clean energy as a prelude to the global Hands Across the Sand event on Saturday, May 16th.
At an evening gathering sponsored by Surfriders, the lobbyists shared inspiring stories and lessons learned from their day on the Hill and noted which politicians to to support, or not, in the best interest of our ocean’s future.
Martha Shaw, MSc. is a journalist and founder/creative director of Earth Advertising and Ocean Times.