Blogging for a Healthy Gulf

I should start this story with a hook. Something spectacular.
I could take a step back and remind you of the 140 million gallons of crude oil ‘released’ by Pemex into the Gulf in 1979. I could reiterate the devastating loss of human life and environmental suffering caused by Deepwater Horizon.

I could. But I'm not going to. It doesn’t tell the whole story. And, unless you live in one of the five Gulf states, or work for the petrochemical industry, these leading stories are eventually forgotten.

The truth about oil and gas in the Gulf can’t be understood through a few choice stories that make good headlines. The story of the Gulf is best told through the spills that happen every day; the ones that don’t make the front page or national news. Daily disappointments make it clear that governance in the Gulf is different. The Gulf  is a...

I have seen both ends of the Pearl River and there is something about it that pulls at my memory and conscience. I spent many happy hours fishing the marshes of Lake Borgne in Louisiana with my father. The Pearl empties into the Mississippi Sound and Lake Borgne, and its fresh water plays a big part in maintaining moderate  salinities in the Biloxi Marshes of St. Bernard Parish and coastal waters surrounding the mouth of the river in Hancock County and St. Tammany Parish. The redfish, trout, flounder, sheepshead, croakers and crabs that we caught in Lake Borgne during our 20 years of Shell Beach fishing trips owed much to the river’s influence on the estuary.

I’ve visited the river’s headwaters too. I was fortunate enough to be taken by the tribal lands manager for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians to see the origin of the Pearl River...

This month, I had the pleasure of touring the surge barrier with the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation. DSCEJ's Water Equity Group came from all five Gulf States to tour Bayou Bienvenue and discuss surge protection -- natural and unnatural. 

We toured the MR GO ship channel and discussed its potential to funnel storm surge into the City of New Orleans.

We talked about the efforts since the federal flood of Katrina to push the Army Corps to fix its mistakes. We talked about the saltwater closure of this Port and the ecological restoration blossoming all the way north to Manchac. We talked about the great Barrier which cost $2 Billion to build and more to operate. We discussed how it wasn't enough. This impressive structure was only built as high as the 1 in 100-year storm surge. This is a much...

The ocean has a way of bringing things together. Its many sea currents dip, dive and swirl through the Gulf of Mexico delivering critical nutrients, plants, and animals exactly where they need to be. A baby turtle slips into the tide, one of only a few to survive the short, sandy trek from the nest to water. She is immediately picked up by one of these currents and astoundingly survives the saltwater superhighway out to the open ocean...