Want to Help the Gulf of Mexico? Kill Your Lawn.

Want to Help the Gulf of Mexico? Kill Your Lawn.

The Lawn has Become as much of an American Icon as Baseball and Apple Pie. But at What Cost? (Photo credit: From the cover of “The American Lawn” by Georges Tevssot)

Since 1948, radio station KBMW has been serving as the “Voice of the Southern Red River Valley,” a tri-state area including North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota, boasting some of the “richest farmland in the United States.” So why did they want to interview a city boy who lives for salt water? To update their listeners on the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and most importantly, tell their listeners how they could help. Like so many of us, they feel a deep connection to the Gulf, even from more than 1,200 from water’s edge, and the daily images of oil erupting from the BP well has led to palpable frustration. It’s hard to watch and not be able to help. Truth is, KBMW’s listeners are more connected than they may realize, and they can materially help the Gulf of Mexico — and their own neighborhoods, by just getting outside and doing some gardening.

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Gulf Spill: Dr. David E. Guggenheim on "Good Morning America"

ABC’s Bill Weir interviews Dr. David E. Guggenheim on Good Morning America (June 19, 2010) to discuss the impacts of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill on wildlife, the pristine coral reefs of Cuba, and potential solutions to rescue the imperiled fishing industry.

 

 

 

 

 

Gulf Spill: MSNBC Appearance by Dr. David E. Guggenheim, the "Ocean Doctor"

President of 1planet1ocean, Dr. David Guggenheim, the “Ocean Doctor,” appeared on MSNBC‘s Dayside with Alex Witt on June 6, 2010 to discuss the impacts of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico:

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Rebuilding the Gulf’s Shattered Fishing Industry ? On Land

Today NOAA announced further fishing closures in the Gulf of Mexico due to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Now a total of 37 percent of federal Gulf waters are off limits to fishing, an area of nearly 89,000 square miles where NOAA considers fish and shellfish potentially too toxic for human consumption. For a region where commercial fishing is a vital part of the economy, the future of the region grows increasingly uncertain with each barrel of oil spewed into the deep Gulf waters.

There’s a solution: Rebuild the Gulf of Mexico fishery on land. Investing in “next-generation” sustainable land-based, closed-containment recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) could keep the Gulf region in the seafood business profitably, while creating green jobs and reducing fishing pressure on wild stocks. What is “next-generation” RAS aquaculture? From the outside, many of the systems look like an ordinary warehouse. Inside, they’re a specially-constructed system of pumps and filters that recycle 99 percent of their water and grow healthy and heathful fish without chemicals, antibiotics or genetically-modified anything. Read more

2010: The Year We Wake and Act

Like closing your eyes after staring at a light bulb, the image of the vast, dark spill haunts me like an after-image that just won’t go away after more than a month of poring over satellite images and nautical charts of the vast BP oil spill spreading throughout the Gulf of Mexico. At some point, as I pondered the growing dark mass, I recalled the eerie 1984 film, 2010 (the sequel to Arthur C. Clark’s 2001: A Space Odyssey) and the massive dark mass that consumed the planet Jupiter. And it seemed a tad spooky that the year the author chose when Jupiter would face its ginormous black swath of destruction was…2010.? Not knowing where it would lead me, I decided I had to indulge my right brain today, so I cracked my knuckles, opened Photoshop and this image is the result.? Read more

The Gulf of Mexico: What’s at Stake

This video highlights the vast diversity of marine life throughout the Gulf at risk from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster. The video provides an underwater tour of the Gulf by sub and scuba, encompassing the U.S., Cuba and Mexico. Produced for the opening of the first State of the Gulf of Mexico Summit in 2006, it was also shown before Congress on 5/19/2010 as part of the testimony of Dr. Sylvia A. Earle.

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Sustainable Salmon Farming: New Developments and Promise for British Columbia

First Nations' totem art in British Columbia depicting a man with salmon. Representatives from the Canadian First Nations participated in the Vancouver workshop toward the goal of developing a more sustainable salmon industry for the region.

Serious environmental problems from traditional forms of marine finfish aquaculture — especially salmon aquaculture — are well-documented. The use of “net pens” in coastal areas around the world have resulted in local pollution, spread of disease and parasites, and escapement of non-native species. These problems are especially evident in the fjords of British Columbia where dozens of large-scale Atlantic Salmon farms have led to public outcry following the publication of peer-reviewed scientific papers demonstrating that nearby wild salmon populations are becoming infected with “sea lice,” (small parasitic crustaceans) from the captive salmon. Read more

Waiting for the Oil?

Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys

On July 18, 1975, the tanker Garbis spilled 1,500 to 3,000 barrels of crude oil into the warm, turquoise, coral-rich waters roughly 26 miles south-southwest of the Marquesas Keys, Florida. The oil was blown ashore along a 30-mile stretch of the Florida Keys, east of Key West. I was 16 and enjoying my second summer at Seacamp, a marine science camp on Big Pine Key. Rumors of the spill raced throughout the campus until finally, instructor James Smithson decided to find out for himself what menace might be approaching. He took a small away team aboard his 21-foot Mako, “Isurus,” and made haste south toward the reef tract. We waited impatiently for word back as the sun fell to the horizon and scattered its tranquil orange glow across the water. What I saw next filled me with dread. The Isurus entered the harbor, its white hull stained with enormous swaths of dark brown oil. In that moment the menace was no longer abstract, and to my young mind, everything we treasured — the corals, the mangroves, the fish, the turtles –was on the brink of extermination. Read more

Cuba Could Be Impacted by Gulf Oil Spill

Cuba’s Northwestern Coast Along the Gulf of Mexico

For the most up-to-date information on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill’s potential impacts on Cuba, please visit our special “Cuba at Risk” page.

Since its discovery of oil and natural gas reserves in the Florida straits, Cuba’s preparations for full-scale offshore oil and gas development has raised alarm in the United States, particularly in Florida where it is estimated that much of a catastrophic spill originating in Cuba would be swept by Gulf currents. Ironically, it is now Cuba that faces the threat of a massive oil spill by the United States. The disastrous oil spill from the BP Deepwater Horizon now threatens Cuba, the largest and most biologically diverse island in the Caribbean, due to those same Gulf currents. To make matters worse, the economic embargo imposed upon Cuba by the United States decades ago makes collaboration and coordination exceedingly difficult during this crisis. Read more