By Marcie Jones, Gulf of Mexico Program Coordinator, Environmental Defense Fund Oceans Program

I recently attended Corpus Christi’s 10th Annual Earth Day – Bay Day Festival on behalf of EDF’s Gulf of Mexico Oceans program.  I’d heard about the festival since I started at EDF last year, so I was really excited to share our catch share message with the 10,000+ attendees.

This annual event is hosted by The Coastal Bend Bays Foundation so that locals can learn about bays, estuaries, wetlands, native plants and animals, recycling and general conservation and environmental issues. 

Our booth was full of information, facts and photos that showcased the problems with fisheries, explained why people should care, and described how catch shares can help. I met many interesting people, from age 5 to 85, asking about our work, commenting on the booth photos and picking up information such as our Oceans of Abundance report.

By the end of the day, I’d talked with hundreds about our work and had lots of ideas to improve the booth for next year.

Cool tidbit: At the beginning of the festival the Gulf Coast Indian Confederation blessed the grounds with a drum circle ceremony.