As Nations Pledge to Create Ocean Preserves, How Do Those Promises Add Up?
planning and assessing marine protected areas in 2021. Our key message was that effectively conserving ocean habitats and marine life will require working together with local communities and governments to create more marine protected areas and set tighter curbs on destructive activities.President Barack Obama designated Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument in the Atlantic Ocean in 2016 to protect fragile and largely pristine deep marine ecosystems and rich biodiversity, including important deep-sea corals, endangered whales and sea turtles, other marine mammals and numerous fish species
The Ocean's Microplastics Mess: Technology & Technique to Identify & Clean Up
“science to solution,” co-founders Marcus Eriksen and his wife were inspired by the unknown reality of marine plastic pollution and spent years conducting research and collecting evidence to prove the danger of microplastic pollution. Eriksen fondly credits a moment in 2015, when President Obama signed a bill banning microplastics from consumer products after 5 Gyres published a paper about microbeads discovered in the Great Lakes. Eriksen and his wife have taken on a more guiding position and shifted to include activism in their work. “There is enough research to act on, so we are
Subsea Mining: The Race is On, But Effects are Unclear
but has not ratified it, due to concerns that it puts too many limits on exploitation of deep sea resources. As a result, the U.S. is not bound by the treaty, although it follows most of its rules independently. Recent administrations, including those of Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, sought to ratify the treaty, but failed to muster a two-thirds majority in the Senate to support it.Locations of three main types of marine mineral deposits: polymetallic nodules (blue); polymetallic or seafloor massive sulfides (orange); and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts (yellow). Miller et
Offshore Wind & Politics: Joe Biden
.• Use renewables to produce carbon-free hydrogen at the same cost as that from shale gas.• Develop inexpensive new nuclear reactors.• Implement carbon capture and sequestration.“On day one” Biden plans executive orders “with unprecedented reach that go well beyond the Obama-Biden Administration and put us on the right track.”Cost: $1.7 trillion in federal spending over 10 years and leveraging an additional $5 trillion in local, state and private sector investments resulting in a “100% clean energy economy and net-zero emissions no later than 2050.&rdquo
WHOI Names Murray Deputy Director & VP for Research
of Ocean Sciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 2015-2018. In addition to his regular duties at NSF, he also co-chaired the Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology, as part of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President, during both the Obama and Trump administrations.“Rick brings extraordinary insight and experience—both in research and in administration at the national level—to this position,” said WHOI President and Director Mark Abbott. “He is firmly committed to ensuring that WHOI continues leading the
US Still Processing Atlantic Seismic Permits
the National Oceanic and Atmoshperic Administration issued permits that would allow for the incidental harassment of marine mammals with air gun blasts in a region of the Atlantic from Delaware to Cape Canaveral, Florida.The last time seismic surveys were completed in the Atlantic was in the 1980s. The Obama administration banned seismic testing permits there in 2016 after it removed the Atlantic coasts from drilling in its five-year OCS proposal.Gail Adams-Jackson, spokeswoman for the International Association of Geophysical Contractors, a trade group representing seismic testing companies, said its
US Government Sued Over Atlantic Seismic Testing
industry worth $21 billion."I'm here not just to say 'no to offshore drilling' but 'hell no to offshore drilling,'" added Cunningham, who said he would introduce legislation next year to reinstate a ban on U.S. offshore drilling that had been renewed by President Barack Obama.South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster opposes drilling off the coast of his state. State Attorney General Alan Wilson will send a letter of opposition to Commerce Secretary Ross soon, a spokesman said by phone. More than a dozen states are seeking exemptions from offshore drilling leases."Oil
US States Slow Trump Offshore Oil Drilling Expansion Plan
moving slowly due to opposition from coastal states and indifference from oil companies that have turned their focus to other opportunities. The administration hopes encouraging U.S. energy development outside of shale oilfields will further its goal of "energy dominance." But existing Obama administration lease rules remain in place through 2022 unless the new rules gain approval. The Department of the Interior this year proposed opening vast new acreage in the U.S. outer continental shelf to drilling. The comment period wrapped up March 9. Still, Secretary Ryan Zinke said
U.S. Navy Assesses Fleet Structure
Defense Strategy. There’s a series of events that have to happen before we do the FSA, starting with the combatant commanders all the way down to the defense planning guidance that leads us to the scenarios we need to plan for,” Merz said. The last FSA, issued in the last days of the Obama administration by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, set the goal for active Navy ships at 355 from a 308 total from the previous 2014 FSA. The 2016 FSA expressed a desire for higher-end ships like attack submarine and guided-missile destroyers and cruisers to the total. It added 16 large
February 2024
