At Ocean Champions, we fight hard every day to move good ocean legislation through Congress.  This is important work, and we’re proud of what we’ve achieved.  One of the reasons we’ve done well, however, is that we also work hard to help good ocean candidates win.  We’re the only ocean-focused group that does this, and we do it because it wouldn’t matter how good we were at advocacy if no one on Capitol Hill cared about the ocean.  Fortunately, we’ve had a lot of success with helping the right guys win - since 2004 we’ve got an 81% winning percentage!  This has helped to create a pro-ocean Congress, which helps all ocean issues on the Hill.  Now, with the 2010 elections approaching, it’s time to start talkin’ electoral politics!

Over the next few months, we’ll be rolling out our endorsements.  These are the people we’ll be supporting and fighting for.  To make these decisions, we dig into each candidate’s historical record on ocean issues.  We then interview every new potential champion and reassess our relationships with existing champions.  At the end of the day, we believe our endorsed champions represent the Members most motivated, able and well positioned to support a healthy oceans agenda.  If you care about the ocean, we hope you’ll factor our endorsement into your voting decision.

The 2010 election will be important for the oceans.  There are a number races that will impact major ocean conservation priorities, such as climate change, fisheries reform and harmful algal blooms, and we’ll have a role in their outcome.  We’ll provide lots of information about these races as our endorsements come out.

One fight we’ve already committed to is in California 11.  Former Congressman and Ocean Enemy #1 Richard Pombo has returned and is running in this race (not even his home district). As chairman of the Natural Resource Committee, Pombo pressed for offshore drilling and for opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He tried to gut the endangered species act, proposed selling national parks, and showered dirty utilities with subsidies. Now he’s back, and he’s promised to “finish the job.”

If Pombo won and the Republicans took back a majority in the House, he would have his seniority restored and could be reestablished as Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee. We WILL NOT let this happen. Ocean Champions played a significant role in defeating Pombo in 2006.  We’re now working once again with our colleagues in the environmental community, we can send him back to his ranch – this time for good!

While our electoral work begins with beating Pombo, it won’t end there.  Keep checking in for new endorsements and updates as the electoral season heats up!

One of my favorite sea critters, the brown pelican, has been washing up dead and dying along the California coast over the last few days.  A grimy ’substance’ was reported washing off of the birds plumage, affecting their waterproofing, leading to hypothermia and starvation. The Oregon coast has recently reported the same deadly phenomenon, both link toxic algae as one of the culprits.   Sounds all too familiar (recall the deadly strain of toxic algae that killed thousands of seabirds along the Oregon and Washington coast last year?).  If you haven’t seen it yet, this touching film tells the tragic story beautifully.

Across the globe, toxic algae recently claimed the lives of two dogs in New Zealand, bringing back the memory of similar instances that occurred last year in the states.  Not to mention that HABs has and will again shut down fisheries, causing unemployment and illness, as well as millions of dollars. And, let’s not forget all of the massive fish kills caused by HABs.

Bottom line is, HABs are on the rise - we need to have legislation passed that will prevent and control devastating toxic algal blooms - before they become even worse.  Our efforts to pass the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act of 2009 continue, and with some hard work and a little luck we will see its passage in 2010.  Please take a moment and ask your Congressmen/women to support this vital legislation.

Ocean champs, wanted to share with you some of the upcoming events and awareness days in 2010 - mark your calendars!  Please feel free to share in the comments other relevant dates you know of and we’ll add it to the list:

January 13th - Wear Blue for Oceans Day (thanks to everyone for supporting this awareness day for our National Ocean Policy!)

February 12th -LAST DAY to comment on the Interim Framework for Effective Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning

March 22nd - World Water Day

April 22nd - Earth Day

June: National Oceans Month

June 5th - World Environment Day

June 8th - World Ocean Day

June 8th - 11th - Capitol Hill Oceans Week

June 20th - International Surfing Day

August 25th - 29th - Monterey Bay Aquarium’s ocean film festival

September 21 - Ocean Champions Annual DC Reception

October 10 - Long Bay Triathlon, South Carolina - sponsored by Ocean Champions

November 2 - Election Day - help us keep and elect Ocean Champions in Congress!

Max the Ocean Champion dog says, "There's nothing like running on the beach!"

Ocean Champions is proud to announce that we have signed on as the presenting sponsor for the Long Bay Triathlon, to be held October 10th at Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina.  The Long Bay Triathlon will allow athletes to choose from from a sprint distance race, (a .5 mile swim, a 15 mile bike, and a 3.1 mile run) or a half iron man (1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run) with ocean, beach, trail and road sections.  Ocean Champions believes that ocean health is closely linked to human health, and sponsoring this triathlon is a great way to demonstrate that connection.

In addition to sponsoring the race, two Ocean Champions staffers (me and Chris Laughlin) will be competing.  Of course, as soon as Chris and I committed to the event, our competitive juices flared up, and the taunting began.  Chris thinks just because she is younger, faster, better conditioned and possesses a wide array of super powers, that she’ll be able to leave me in the dust.  I know, however, that old age and treachery are fabulous substitutes for her obvious advantages and am hoping that my edge in buoyancy will carry the day!

Regardless of who wins, the event will be a lot of fun, and we hope many of you will enter the race with us.  We’d love the chance to meet more of our friends in the community - you could choose to run in the front (with me) or way in the back (with Chris)!  Huntington Beach State Park offers a beautiful venue for the event, and you can round out your weekend there with camping, kayaking and birding.  At this point, you’ve got 253 days to train, so there are no excuses!

Winter is ON!  Last week was wild weather-wise here on the central coast (and most of California).  Thousands without power, tornado warnings, flooding, thunderstorms rattling businesses and households.  Here’s a photo of Capitola beach (what beach?!) last week one block from Ocean Champions West Coast Headquarters.

“How inappropriate to call this Planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.” - Arthur C. Clarke

Stephen McGowan, Australian Maritime College, 2006/Marine Photobank

Last Friday I was fortunate enough to wrangle an invite to a small, local screening of the movie, “The End of the Line.” As many of you may know, this well-reviewed documentary dives deep into how current fishing practices are decimating nearly all the world’s fisheries, leading to the scientifically supported conclusion that if we continue at this pace, nearly all seafood will be gone by 2048.  The film was fabulous, and I encourage everyone to buy the DVD when it becomes available in the U.S.

The evening was rounded out by a wonderful dinner at Blue Ridge, one of D.C.’s best sustainable seafood / locally sourced restaurants, and a Q&A session with Charles Clover, the force behind the movie and the book of the same name.  The Q&A focused on the challenges of ending overfishing, which segued naturally to Clover’s next effort - Fish2Fork.

By rating restaurants based on their sustainable practices, Charles wants to help channel customers (and thus $$) to the good establishments and away from the bad ones.  If the concept gets big enough, it could temper demand for overfished species and thus provide some relief.  It could also create a driver for better management of all fisheries.  Of note, Fish2Fork employs a Wiki-type approach where consumers are invited to fill out online questionnaires about the restaurants they attend.  Hopefully, this will bring broad coverage of many areas and restaurants.

These things don’t happen overnight, and they don’t happen without grassroots support.  So please check out the Fish2Fork website and provide your input on good and bad restaurants in your area.  Tell your friends to do the same, and begin the habit of checking Fish2Fork before planning a dinner out.  Vote with your wallet by patronizing the restaurants with the best sustainable practices.

Overfishing has catastrophic impacts on the health of our oceans.  In addition to threatening individual species, it fractures the food web and upsets the natural balance between species, causing further harm (see: Toxic Algal Blooms).  To solve the problem, it’ll be important to enforce U.S. fisheries law (Magnuson-Stevens), and to apply innovative fisheries management techniques like catch shares.  Real change starts with all of us though, and Fish2Fork offers a way to support these programs with appropriately directed consumer demand.

Support a national ocean policy by wearing blue January 13th!  Show the Obama Administration you support national policy that protects, maintains and restores ocean, coasts and Great Lakes ecosystems.

So far rallies and events for January 13th have been planned for San Francisco, Seal Beach, Washington D.C., Cambridge, New Orleans, Tampa, Houston and Honolulu.  You can learn more about them and plan your own blue event at:  wearblueforoceans.org

Check out the Wear Blue Facebook and Wear Blue Twitter pages.

Spread the word champs!

Cartoon courtesy of Jim Toomey

With everything going on this week it seems a perfect time to remind everyone to participate in the ‘Wear Blue Day’ January 13th - show your support for a strong national policy for oceans, coasts and Great Lakes!  Details on events for the 13th will be posted soon, please mark this day on your calendars.

For all you Facebookers and Tweeters check it out there too.

Let’s make our voice a loud, credible, blue voice on the 13th!

More soon…

In 2006, Ocean Champions played a significant role in reauthorizing the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (M-S Act).  The M-S Act is the primary law governing marine fisheries in the United States.  A broad coalition of ocean conservation groups and ocean users, including Ocean Champions, achieved a major victory in 2006 with the passage of a strong reauthorization (which was no easy task given the leadership in Congress and the White House at the time).  While the M-S Act covers a lot of ground, its principle goal is to stop and prevent overfishing.  The reauthorization established a target for ending overfishing in U.S.fisheries by 2010.

Now, if you’ve been keeping up with the news, you know that we haven’t solved the overfishing problem yet.  According to NMFS, there are currently 43 U.S. fisheries that are classified as overfished, and 39 that are experiencing overfishing.  One reason is that the 2006 M-S Act has never been fully implemented.  NMFS and the Fisheries Councils have often been unwilling to make the hard decisions necessary to properly manage fisheries and end overfishing.  In addition, budget allocations have been inadequate, and some fisheries lack the data necessary to determine appropriate catch limits. Others are missing the tools needed for catch monitoring and enforcement.

However, the Obama administration has indicated that it is serious about implementing the M-S Act, and is looking at innovative approaches for doing so.  Specifically, NOAA Administrator, Dr. Jane Lubchenco has championed Catch Shares as a great tool for maximizing both conservation and economic objectives.  In June, Monica Medina, Dr. Lubchenco’s senior advisor, stated, “Transitioning to Catch Shares is a priority for NOAA,” while announcing the formation of a Catch Shares Task Force to engage stakeholders in the creation of a catch shares policy.  Today, the the Task Force has released its recommendations, which are open to public comment.

Catch shares are effective.  Recent studies published in Science and Nature indicate that overfishing ends under well designed catch shares programs, while the fisheries themselves become at least four times more productive.  Many environmental and fishing organizations support catch shares, but there are others who oppose them.

From Ocean Champions’ perspective, catch shares are a great opportunity to finally implement the M-S Act, and to have a reasonable shot at ending overfishing.  The reasons are simple: the Obama administration supports catch shares, and is willing to invest the money necessary to implement them.  In addition, there is support on Capitol Hill and Members of Congress are important partners as they must appropriate the money for catch shares programs.  Even after decades of work by the ocean conservation community, too many fisheries are in trouble and the health of our oceans suffers.  We believe that the ocean community should support Dr. Lubchenco in her campaign to improve fisheries management and implement practical solutions to overfishing.  Therefore, Ocean Champions strongly supports expanding the use of well-designed catch share programs.

The Copenhagen climate conference opens this week with great complexity and uncertain expectations.  Negotiations will be impacted by international wealth disparities, views of economic growth and infrastructure maturity, as well as by arguments about blame and entitlement.  Amid all this noise, the “Climategate” scandal has broken.  Oil producing nations (such as Saudi Arabia) and oil interests are using it to throw a wrench in the proceedings.  A number of articulate responses to the skeptics have been published, but alas, the chatter continues.

Now, I do believe in global warming, and I believe it could have devastating impacts, but there are plenty of intelligent people who don’t hold these views. I’ve made the argument I’m about to make before, but with Climategate and Copenhagen, it seems important to make it again.  Climate science is complex and still evolving, offering opportunities for skeptics to sew seeds of doubt.  The science of water chemistry, on the other hand, is well understood and undebatable, and water chemistry says that when you add CO2 to the ocean, it becomes more acidic.  This threatens the base of the food web, which ultimately threatens human survival.

So, whether or not global warming is really happening?  Doesn’t matter.  It’s all about the oceans, baby, and to stop ocean acidification, we need to significantly reduce CO2 emissions.

If you want to make it about climate, let’s look at the extreme possibilities.  In one scenario, global warming isn’t real, but we act to cut carbon emissions.  In another, global warming is real, and we fail to act.  In the first scenario, we still have cleaner air (which is good, right?), a robust sustainable energy platform with associated economic growth, and we improve national security by commoditizing oil.  In the second scenario, we’re screwed.  Which would you prefer?

Here’s hoping good things happen at Copenhagen this week.