Andrew Sharpless’s Posts

• Searching for that long lost barrel of oil

  Florida's beaches now threatened by offshore drilling 1

  Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago

  In a disappointing move, the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee gave its blessing for offshore drilling in Florida last week, potentially opening Florida’s coasts to oil and gas development.

• Mercury (Legislation) Rising

  Mercury bill clears major hurdle 3

  Posted 5 months ago

  Great news – we’re one giant step closer to ending needless mercury pollution from chlorine plants in the United States.

• a watery end

  Oceans' alarm: what the sea is trying to tell us 0

  Posted 5 months, 1 week ago

  Whether you believe in end times or not, the oceans are sending clear signals that they are in distress.

• Exxon redux

  The ocean does represent a major source of energy, just not the one you're thinking of 0

  Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago

  In the minutes after midnight on March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez poured 10.8 million gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound. The spill turned pristine spruce-lined waters into a sticky death trap for countless animals, including a quarter of a million birds.

• Third time's the charm for Obama

  Former Washington Gov. Locke would bring a strong voice for oceans to Commerce 3

  Posted 8 months, 1 week ago

  If President Barack Obama's third choice for Commerce Secretary sticks, we will have a knowledgeable voice as the secretary who oversees much of the nation's oceans management, including fisheries.

  Coming from a coastal state, former Washington Governor Gary Locke should appreciate the importance of our oceans to the people of the United States and the health of our nation's economy.

All Posts

Andrew Sharpless’s Recent Comments

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  Those conservationists being ...

  Oceana, Earthjustice, Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth. See our letter of intent here (pdf). Sorry everyone - my links didn't carry through in this post for some reason.

  Andrew Sharpless CEO Oceana

  On There are simple ways to reduce cargo ship CO2 emissions right now posted 1 year ago 5 Responses

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  For Colin

  Thanks for your question about the study which compared the status of a 121 fisheries using "catch shares" - a form of privatization - with the more than 11,000 fisheries that do not.  This article, as reported in an article in LA Times and elsewhere, concluded that privatization correlated with more healthy fisheries.  

  Andy Rosenberg, a fisheries expert at the University of New Hampshire, quoted by Ken Weiss in the same LA Times article, offered a good response when he noted  "it's not like catch shares solve all of the problems of fisheries management."   He also noted that New Zealand's orange roughy stocks nose-dived despite the switch to catch shares in the early '90s.

  According to the LA Times article, Rosenberg went on to say "It remains crucial for governments to limit the total catch to keep stocks healthy enough to reproduce. And then there's the problem of fairly distributing the shares, or quotas. Inevitably, some fishermen will feel shortchanged and scream that the government 'has stolen our heritage.'"

  "The study's authors," according to the LA Times reporter, "acknowledge that catch shares are not a panacea."

  Catch shares do an excellent job at stopping the "fishing derby" in which fishermen race to catch as many fish as they can before the sector quota is reached. They also can make it easier for fishermen to reduce bycatch, since they have more time to catch their share.

  However, they do not, as the free market idealogues would have it, solve the need for careful, scientifically based quotas, and reasonable and practical limits on destruction of nursery areas and counting, capping and controlling bycatch. All this requires a strong, independent government fishery manager with a backbone and a strong staff of scientists behind him.

  Andrew Sharpless CEO Oceana

  On We have another billion-dollar resource at risk: the ocean posted 1 year ago 10 Responses

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  thanks!

  Hi Canis, thanks for you nice comments. Yes, we were all surprised and happy to see the EU make this decision, although as you know it's just one of many steps in a byzantine fishery system.

  Interesting you should comment on the masculinity of the Spanish word "mer." I just returned from a couple weeks on Oceana's Ranger, our other research vessel, where the crew is mostly Spanish. The captain told me that Spaniards who live near the sea call it "la mar," while those who live inland call it "el mar." Interesting, right?

  Andrew Sharpless CEO Oceana

  On The European Union closes fishing season early posted 1 year, 4 months ago 7 Responses

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  Update! Japanese Meeting Concludes

  After a five day summit, what has the world's five biggest tuna fisheries achieved?  According to the chair of the meeting, Masanori Miyaharaa, "...a big step, a historical step, I think."  According to WWF, not much.
  
  As for Sam's comments, there is no doubt that longliners catch and kill bluefin.  Log books filled out by longline fishing vessels over a recent three-year period show that from January through June, tuna longline vessels in the Gulf caught and kept about 280 bluefin.  The vessels discarded about 430 more - and many of these discards surely died.  Tagging studies show that bluefin in the Gulf of Mexico range in the water column from the surface to dives as deep as 1,000 meters, but generally stay in the upper 300 meters.  While a longline set for swordfish will indeed be shallow, a longline set for tuna ranges as deep as 300 to 1,200 feet.

  Andrew Sharpless CEO Oceana

  On Tuna populations are in decline posted 2 years, 9 months ago 4 Responses

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  sounds delicious!

  if you're going for an oceans theme, you should also consider making sugar cookies in the shape of ocean creatures.  as luck would have it, my organization, is offering whales, sharks, dolphins and sea turtles as a fundraiser...

  Andrew Sharpless CEO Oceana

  On Secret-spice cookies posted 2 years, 11 months ago 4 Responses