Donald Trump opened an area of about 250 million acres of protected American waters to industrial fishing fleets on Thursday. This sets a very dangerous precedent that our public lands and waters are for sale to the highest bidder.
I know that we’re all exhausted from the onslaught of daily outrages by the Trump administration. This was all part of Steve Bannon’s plan to “flood the zone.” It feels like we are being attacked with everything, everywhere, all at once, until the end of time.
But when you catch your breath and are ready to dig in and defend what remains, here are some tactics that I have found in my career to be most effective. The daily outrage for our community today is the executive order opening Pacific Islands Heritage, and it very well may be something else by the end of the day today. I hope that these suggestions will be useful for you. These five tactics are ranked in order of decreasing effectiveness.
Get in front of your elected leaders
As a scientist or ocean advocate, you need to ensure that your member of the House of Representatives knows your name. They should know the name of your dog – that’s how well they should know you and your positions. This is one of the most important relationships you can have in a functioning democracy. You can meet them in person by calling their office to book an appointment, or by going to their public events.
You may not have a direct connection to the Pacific Islands Heritage monument – or the latest daily outrage – but the recent actions of the Trump administration set a terrible precedent for the public lands and waters important in your life. If Trump can open the Pacific to industrial fishing fleets, what’s to stop him from opening Yellowstone or your local state park to Uranium mining?
The most effective thing you can do to affect public policy is to connect directly with the officials you elected who have the power to influence it. I recommend you start with your member of the House of Representatives, but you also have senators and a myriad of state and local officials. I cannot stress enough how important it is for you to ensure your local elected officials know who you are. Once you figure this out, it is easier to do and less scary than you thought it would be, I promise.
There are several organizations that regularly help scientists and activists connect to Members of Congress on ocean issues, including Compass, Surfrider, EarthEcho International, and the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.
Call your leaders
If you cannot meet with your leaders in person, you can call their office. In fact, you can call their office once a week or every single day. You can follow this link to find your Member of Congress or you can call the U.S. House switchboard operator at (202) 224-3121. The League of Conservation Voters has a great website for calling your Member of Congress in 3 easy steps. 5 Calls also has a tool that can help get you started.
You should be able to answer the question, “What do you want the Member of Congress to do for you?” before you call them – and when you know what that is, that is the purpose of your call. Make sure you ask for follow up and a deadline from the person on the other end of the phone. For example, you could ask, “What is the Member of Congress going to do to protect our public lands and waters, especially [insert place near you]? When can I expect an answer?”
Cold calling people you don’t know can be scary, but your Members of Congress are using your tax dollars to pay people to sit by the phone and wait for you to call them. Call them and tell them what you care about.
And if you absolutely cannot get over your fear of talking on the phone, you may want to consider writing a letter. I wrote ‘Writing an Effective Ocean Conservation Letter’ and this is another way to “call” your leaders. In the blog I walk you through a few easy steps. Remember, the most important part of writing a letter is ensuring that it gets in front of the person it is intended for!
Write a letter to your local paper
Local officials read local newspapers. Most local papers are happy to publish the thoughts of their readers. Letters to the editor are generally shorter (150-300 words), and comment on an article previously published by the newspaper. Op-Eds or columns are usually longer (500-1000 words) and allow the writer to focus on a topic in which they are expert.
The Harvard Kennedy School has a good fact sheet on how to write an Op-Ed. Andrew Thaler also put a few good tips in his blog, ‘Summer Science Outreach Challenge: Write an Op-Ed.’ He explains in more detail the importance of sharing your ideas in your local newspaper.
Join and/or support a local and a national ocean conservation organization
In the 1990s there was a popular bumper sticker that read “Think Globally, Act Locally.” It might not seem like much, but one of the most important things you can do is to support the people in your community who are advocating for healthy lands, waters, and communities. This might be a “friends group” for the local national wildlife refuge or state park, or even a high school environmental club. I encourage you to find something near where you live and plug in to support them. In most cases, you don’t need to start something new; most communities have something you can join.
At the same time, find a national organization or coalition you like. I support the America the Beautiful for All Coalition, the National Ocean Protection Coalition, Azul, and Right to Democracy, all organizations in whose mission I believe in. The three most important resources for any campaign or organization are time (measured in days and hours), money, and people (volunteer hours, expertise, staff). Donate according to your ability.
Post about it on social media
It’s possible you navigated to this page using social media, so I don’t want to discount the power of social media. But social media is a tool for us to use, and needs to be tied to a larger effort and campaign. If you use social media as part of your campaign, take a moment to consider which platforms you use and how effective they are at reaching different audiences. If you want to talk to professionals and reporters, a lot of people are using LinkedIn and Bluesky now. If you can figure out the algorithms on Instagram and TikTok, your videos can be seen by millions of people. But many professional communications experts say that Facebook is still the juggernaut in the space, resulting in the most links and clicks. Advocacy campaigns will often create “social media toolkits” now and share them with activists. There are toolkits out there for the latest Trump EO, and if you reach out to me I can share it.
Conclusion
This is not our first rodeo with a president who wants to sell off our public lands and waters. David Shiffman wrote, “I wish I could say that opening up a no-fishing marine protected area to industrial fishing is unprecedented in American history, but it has happened once before. Donald Trump did it in his first term.”
So we’ve been here before. When Trump directed his Secretary of Interior in his last term to look at overturning protected areas there was also a public outcry. The secretary described the outcry as such, “Comments received were overwhelmingly in favor of maintaining existing monuments and demonstrated a well orchestrated national campaign organized by multiple organizations.” This is just another way to say that these extreme ideas are unpopular and not supported by the American people. I invite you to do your part to let your local leaders know this.