Blogging for a Healthy Gulf

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 222-193 Wednesday to pass HR 200, the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act. This  bill guts many of the core conservation measures of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), the primary federal law protecting our fisheries. This legislation now awaits a companion bill in the Senate.

Gulf Restoration Network has led the opposition to this bill in the five Gulf states, joining many fishermen, chefs, scientists and other groups. GRN opposes this bill because it removes science-based annual catch limits. The “flexibility” in fisheries management that this bill promises comes at the cost of abandoning what has been working for over 40 years. HR 200 threatens to undo many of the successes that the MSA has accomplished.

One thing is certain, the U.S.’s fisheries are significantly healthier today than the dark years leading up to...

When the toilet flushes, we never expect to see it again. And we all know what I mean by “it.” Yet raw sewage is bubbling up in the streets from failing infrastructure in many Florida communities, putting public health and the environment at risk.

Raw sewage can contain various disease-causing organisms, including viruses, bacteria, and parasites—many of which can cause serious illness and even death in humans. When raw sewage reaches waterways it contaminates shellfish, adds nutrients to waterways that already have too many nutrients, and puts swimmers and others enjoying the water at-risk of illness.

Across the Florida panhandle coast where I do much of my work, failing sewage infrastructure is causing huge problems for people and the environment. We’re identifying the worst of these polluting systems and working...

Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration for Failing to Protect Gulf of Mexico Wildlife from Offshore Drilling

Agencies have failed to hold legal consultation on offshore drilling after Deepwater Horizon disaster

TAMPA, Fla.– Earthjustice, on behalf of three conservation groups, sued the Trump administration today for failing to complete a legally required consultation about offshore drilling’s harms to threatened and endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico.

The National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are required under the Endangered Species Act to complete a consultation with the Bureau...

Gazing out at its usually calm waters, one would never know that Pensacola Bay is missing 90% of its seagrass—the Bay’s single most important aquatic habitat. That’s why it’s vitally important that we protect the remaining seagrass. A recent Federal decision to rebuff plans to dredge some of the remaining seagrass for a deeper boat channel for a residential subdivision shows that with citizen pressure, sound science, and proper enforcement of the law—the regulatory system can work.

Santa Rosa Sound is a shallow waterway that runs along the south side of the Bay along the north shore of Santa Rosa Island. Because of the shallow water and proximity to Pensacola pass and its flushing action, the Sound has better water quality that supports most of the area’s remaining seagrass. Throughout the rest of the Bay system decades of industrial, wastewater, and...