Category: Policy

NOAA carries a two century legacy of America’s first government science agency

Posted on By David Shiffman
Featured, Policy, Science

NOAA, the US government science and management agency in charge of sustainable fisheries, the national weather service, and ocean exploration, is in the crosshairs of the Trump administration and Project 2025. Though criticisms from “small government” types imply that having a US government science agency at all represents some kind of expansion of government power … Read More “NOAA carries a two century legacy of America’s first government science agency” »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Experts respond to Executive Order renaming a subsection of the Gulf of Mexico

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Policy

In an Executive Action entitled Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness, the President declared that: “The U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf … Read More “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Experts respond to Executive Order renaming a subsection of the Gulf of Mexico” »

People and Ideas You Should Know: 5 Questions with Anupa Asokan

Posted on By Angelo Villagomez
Conservation, Education, Featured, Policy, Reviews and Interviews, Science

Anupa Asokan, founder and executive director of Fish On—a new fishing interest organization working to advance ocean conservation policy—recently published a peer-reviewed perspective in Frontiers, “Marine Protected Areas as a Tool for Environmental Justice.” Anupa is a lifelong fisherwoman and has become a passionate advocate for ocean conservation and justice.  I’ve known her for several … Read More “People and Ideas You Should Know: 5 Questions with Anupa Asokan” »

How Donald Trump’s Day 1 Executive Actions Impact the Ocean

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Featured, Policy

It is day two of the Trump Administration. Yesterday saw a flurry of Executive Actions targeting immigration, climate change, energy, and social and justice issues. Trump also issued an executive order to overrule Trump’s Supreme Court’s upholding of Trump’s TikTok ban. In a sea of disinformation fueled by both propaganda, the reaction economy of social … Read More “How Donald Trump’s Day 1 Executive Actions Impact the Ocean” »

Deep-sea Mining: What went down in 2024?

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Featured, Policy

The march towards deep-sea mining is a slow and stately trudge through a complex international negotiation. The real progress isn’t made in flashy headlines or overhyped announcements, but in painstaking deliberations and incremental progress in the mining code and the environmental and financial regimes. In as much as 2024 was a fairly standard year in … Read More “Deep-sea Mining: What went down in 2024?” »

How the summer of sharks reshaped our understanding of US presidential elections.

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Featured, Policy

The year was 1916, the First World War raged, Woodrow Wilson was in a desperate three-way race for reelection, and sharks were about to experience a shift in public perception that would endure into the next millennium. Prior to 1916, sharks weren’t regarded as particularly dangerous in the United States. A 1915 letter in the … Read More “How the summer of sharks reshaped our understanding of US presidential elections.” »

Norway pushes pause on plans to mine the deep sea.

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
News, Policy

Early this year, the Norwegian parliament approved a bill to open up 300,000 square kilometers of it’s exclusive economic zone to companies exploring the potential for deep-sea mining for  lithium, scandium, cobalt, and other critical minerals. It was a bill allowing the issuing of exploration permits, an important first step towards the commercialization of deep-sea … Read More “Norway pushes pause on plans to mine the deep sea.” »

Trump’s Project 2025 and a surprising outbreak of whalepox: this month on the podcasts.

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Conservation, Policy

Late last month, I joined Andrew Kornblatt and Francis Farabaugh on Ocean Science Radio to talk about Donald Trump’s Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project, how it will effect ocean policy, and why the particular nastiness with which Project 2025 goes after NOAA is proof-positive that, no matter how hard they try and deny it, Project 2025 … Read More “Trump’s Project 2025 and a surprising outbreak of whalepox: this month on the podcasts.” »

6 Ways to Support the America the Beautiful for All Coalition

Posted on By Angelo Villagomez
Conservation, Featured, Policy

The membership of the America the Beautiful for All coalition stretches from the Marianas to Maine, Alaska to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.  We are the largest, most diverse coalition of its kind to ever exist in the United States. Last week, 170+ conservation, climate change, and community leaders from across the United States … Read More “6 Ways to Support the America the Beautiful for All Coalition” »

Resources for Donald Trump’s Project 2025 and the Environment

Posted on By Angelo Villagomez
Featured, Policy

Donald Trump’s Project 2025 is an extreme MAGA policy blueprint that aims to reshape the U.S. federal government significantly.  While it touches on nearly every facet of life in America, it poses substantial threats to environmental and climate change action. This is a list of resources that call attention to this terrifying vision of a … Read More “Resources for Donald Trump’s Project 2025 and the Environment” »