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Bridging the Gulf Report: Preparing for Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration in Cuba

By Rahel Marsie-Hazen / Published: September 11, 2012

Oil Rig, Photo Credit: Vidar Løkken

Reprinted with Permission from Center for Democracy in the Americas Center for Democracy in the Americas (September 7, 2012)

The following article was written by Dan Whittle, EDF’s Cuba Program Director for the Oceans Program, and featured on CenterforDemocracyInAmerica.org. In the article, Dan discusses our new report, Bridging the Gulf, which gives great insight into the roadblocks that existing U.S. foreign policy on Cuba has on making environmental protection progress. The article also dives into the constructive conversations the two countries have been having about ways to improve communications and policy keeping the best interest of the environment in mind.

The Environmental Defense Fund recently released a report called Bridging the Gulf, in which we concluded that “current U.S. foreign policy on Cuba creates a conspicuous blind spot” that is detrimental to the interests of both countries. A failure to cooperate on oil spill planning, prevention, and response in the Gulf of Mexico could result in devastating environmental and economic impacts on a scale greater than the 2010 BP oil disaster.

Recently, I witnessed a potential bright spot in US-Cuba relations that could lead to real and meaningful cooperation in protecting Cuban and American shores from future oil spills. Read More »

Also posted in Cuba / Comments are closed

Another Good Summer for Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles

By Marcie Jones / Published: September 5, 2012

Kemp's Ridley tracks on a beach in Mexico

Tracks from Kemp’s ridley sea turtles can be seen on a stretch of beach near Rancho Nuevo, Mexico earlier this year. Photo courtesy of LightHawk.

Kemp’s ridley sea turtle nesting season is winding down for the summer, and I’m happy to report that nest numbers are still on the rise! While the Kemp’s ridleys still are the world’s most critically endangered sea turtle, they are making a huge come back in recent years.

Until half a century ago, tens of thousands of Kemp’s ridleys would surge onto Mexico’s Gulf of Mexico beaches in a few large nesting events each year to lay their eggs. At the turn of the 20th century, turtle meat and eggs became popular delicacies, causing the turtle’s population to crash. Later, accidental catches in fishing gear kept their population from recovering.

Today, Kemp’s ridleys are rebounding due to protections that government, fishing industry, EDF and other conservation groups helped win. These unprecedented actions included protecting Mexico beaches where the turtles nest, monitoring hatchlings at an incubation site, and establishing the headstart program and a second nesting site in Texas. The initial recovery program spanned from 1978-1988. During this time, over 22,000 eggs were transported from Playa de Rancho Nuevo in Mexico to Padre Island National Seashore in Texas. Once hatched, the turtles were exposed to the Padre Island sand and surf, and then captured and transported to the National Marine Fisheries Service Laboratory in Galveston, Texas, where they were reared in captivity for 9-11 months. This “head-start” program allowed the turtles to grow large enough to be tagged for future recognition and to avoid most natural predators. It was hoped that this exposure would imprint the turtles to the National Seashore so they would return year after year to nest at adulthood. Read More »

New Ocean Health Index Puts Focus on Fisheries

By Rod Fujita / Bio / Published: August 28, 2012

To manage anything well, you’ve got to measure it. And you’ve got to make sure you are measuring the right things. The new Ocean Health Index puts us on a path toward both of these goals.

The fact that the ocean scores only 60 out of 100 on the Ocean Health Index is good to know – it means that we humans are not doing a very good job in ensuring that the ocean provides the many benefits that it is capable of providing. It’s a little like finding out that your car is only producing 60% of its maximum power output, or that your garden is producing only 60% of the tomatoes that it could be producing. You know that something is not right.

When you break the overall score down, it’s clear that we are doing a particularly bad job getting food out of the ocean (score = 24 out of 100). Although overall seafood production is up, most of it now comes from farms that feed fish that we don’t eat a lot of (so – called forage fish like sardines and anchovies) to fish that we like to eat (like salmon and shrimp). The problem is that the process of farming converts large amounts of forage fish into much smaller amounts of salmon and shrimp. And the less forage fish we leave in the ocean, the less food there is for dolphins, albatrosses, sharks and the other wildlife that grace the ocean and enrich our existence.

The other way that we are getting it wrong on seafood production is that a lot of fisheries are not producing nearly as much as they could be, ironically because we’ve taken too much, too fast. Fisheries are renewable resources, but in order to produce good yields over many years, it’s critically important to leave enough fish in the water to produce the next generation. Of the 30% of the world’s fisheries that have been assessed, it’s clear that we have been taking too much- resulting in high yields initially but low yields subsequently. Read More »

Also posted in Science/Research / Tagged Fisheries, ocean health, Seafood | Comments are closed

FAO Reports 87% of the World’s Fisheries are Overexploited or Fully Exploited

By Rod Fujita / Bio / Published: July 11, 2012

The Food and Agriculture Organization has some good news and some bad news for us about the world’s fisheries (State of the World Fisheries & Aquaculture Report). The good news is that global fisheries and aquaculture production increased over the last few years, and people are eating more fish – a healthy source of protein. The bad news is that ocean fish catches went down and the percentage of the world’s assessed fish stocks that are overexploited or fully exploited went up to 87%. Aquaculture, the farming of fish, is increasing rapidly to meet growing consumer demand for seafood. While some aquaculture production operations have small environmental footprints, the sustainability of the industry overall is unknown. What does it mean for ocean productivity and the health of ocean ecosystems to remove 15 million tons of fish (19% of the total catch) every year and feed it to other fish?

The truly scary story behind the headlines is that these data only provide a glimpse of the whole picture, which is uncertain but troubling. The FAO’s estimates of fishery status (e.g., the number of stocks that are fully exploited or overexploited) are based on studies of only a tiny fraction of the world’s fisheries. These are the best managed fisheries in the world — thousands of other stocks are not assessed at all, and many have minimal or ineffective management systems in place. Moreover, a lot of these un-assessed and undermanaged fisheries are prosecuted in tropical coral reefs and other ecosystems that harbor a wealth of the ocean’s biodiversity. Recent studies suggest coral reefs are especially sensitive to fishing, tipping from healthy to unhealthy conditions when too many fish are harvested. Read More »

Posted in International / Tagged Aquaculture, FAO, Food Security | Comments are closed

World Bank’s Global Partnership for Oceans Announced at Rio +20 Earth Summit

By EDF Oceans / Published: June 16, 2012

There are many challenges facing our planet’s oceans which have not been addressed to date by any single group of citizens, lawmakers, fishermen or world leaders. Fortunately, hope can be seen in the Global Partnership for Oceans (GPO), a growing alliance of “governments, international organizations, civil society groups, and private sector interests that will mobilize knowledge and financial resources to address threats to ocean health, resilience and productivity.” This partnership, announced in February, has garnered the support of over 80 signatories so far and represents a bold and courageous front to save the oceans and preserve their social, biological and economic benefits for generations to come.

A declaration was released today by the GPO stating its objectives for achieving its international commitments for healthy and productive oceans. Read More »

Posted in International / Tagged Oceans, World Bank | Read 1 Response

60 Minutes and Cuban Reefs

By Doug Rader / Bio / Published: January 4, 2012

Elkhorn coral and reef fish in the Gardens of the Queen marine park in Cuba.

Hats off to CBS for the recent “60 Minutes” segment on the coral reefs of the “Gardens of the Queen” (Jardines de la Reina) in Cuba!

The Gardens of the Queen is a spectacular national park off the south central coast of Cuba. EDF has had the privilege of working with Cuban scientists and resource managers in the park for several years. Just this past November we teamed up with Cuban partners there to host an international workshop on fisheries management and marine protected areas. In 2012 we will partner with Cuban scientists to study the benefits on fish populations from restricting most fisheries inside the park.

The 60 Minutes piece highlights the good work Cubans are doing to protect marine ecosystems and the challenges that lie ahead. I was especially impressed with the work of CBS producer Anya Bourg to ensure that the piece was rigorous – as much as possible – in its treatment of complex scientific issues. Explaining complicated and often subtle relationships in plain and compelling language is a real feat!

For the most part, 60 Minutes got it right. Let me expand on two key themes from the piece, based on work we are doing with Cuban scientists to help understand the lessons from the Gardens of the Queen. Read More »

Also posted in Cuba / Tagged 60 Minutes, Cuba, Marine Protection | Comments are closed