EEZ Rider

Watch Out Richard Gere! There's Erosion in Rodanthe!

2008-09-25T11:15:00.005-04:00

Highway 12, the primary roadway on North Carolina's Outer Banks, has experienced significant overwash over the years. Today we have additional photos of overwash on Hwy 12.
(HT: Ahab's Journal)

A shot of Rodanthe:

A shot of the S-Curves

This section of the Outer Banks, which is adjacent to the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, is highly susceptible to erosion. In this location, the highway acts as static infrastructure in an otherwise migrating barrier island. Here are some other pictures depicting island overwash and migration from the Outer Banks Task Force:

2008-09-20T15:12:00.005-04:00

It has been a while since I have posted. Three new class preps have occupied almost all my time. Any additional time has gone to research. I am determined, however, to spend some additional time on my blog in the coming weeks.

It is interesting how little I have heard about Haiti in the news lately. I generally understand, considering the current economic crisis and the 2008 presidential elections to name a few. It has been well documented how busy news periods detract from international disaster relief. This may be one of the contributing factors in the shortfall of relief to Haiti. From Relief Web:

The United Nations today appealed to donors to make up an enormous shortfall in emergency funding for relief work in Haiti, where hundreds of thousands of people are still suffering from the devastation caused by four hurricanes over the past month.

Only 2 per cent of the $108 million flash appeal has so far been donated, nine days after it was launched, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.

OCHA stressed that the situation remains very serious in the impoverished Caribbean country, where over 320 people were killed by the storms and flooding, and 160,000 others are still living in the open, exposed to disease and malnutrition.

Some $54 million are needed for emergency food aid. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has already helped feed some 298,000 people since the start of the crisis.

OCHA is also concerned over access to those who have not yet received aid, including people in the Artibonne and Nippes regions, where continued rains might complicate relief efforts.

From BBC

Gustov's Impact on Gulf Oil and Gas Operations

2008-09-02T12:26:00.002-04:00

The Timoney group has a mashup map depicting Oil and Gas operations impacted by Hurricane Gustov. The site uses Microsoft' Virtual Earth to depict this spatially. Below is a jpeg of the site, provided by the AnyGeo Blog

Changing Behavior: Mitigation in New Orleans post Katrina

2008-08-25T11:35:00.003-04:00

From the Times Picayune:

Three years after Hurricane Katrina, houses are still going up across the metropolitan area. And "up" doesn't mean new: It means, well, up.
The sight of homes being raised 3 or 4 or even 10 or 12 feet above ground has become common. But what will this do to the local architectural landscape? What is the impact on neighborhoods? Individual blocks? And how high is too high?

This article discusses a project by the Center for Hazards Assessment, Response and Technology (CHART) at the University of New Orleans.

Early on, Laska says, the group realized that elevation conversation can be complex. The earliest house-raisings post-Katrina often looked like structures on steroids. Laska refers to them as "flood rage houses" -- residences hoisted by people who said, succinctly, "Never again."

In fact, many homeowners lifted their foundations to the level of their Katrina watermarks. Which is actually not such a bad idea, Laska said.

"That kind of reaction is based on actual flood experience. It's a good barometer of what the highest potential flood level might be."

More recent elevations, however, tend to be less severe. "The elevated house has grown on us, and people are doing a better job at it, " Laska said.

It appears that individuals' psychological response to risks has followed patterns discussed previously in academic literature on risk and mitigation. Individuals appear to assign higher probabilities to these risks immediately after the event, thus overcompensating. These people may have raised their homes more because of this experience. As the event becomes more distant in individuals memories, they do not overcompensate as much. This poses the question, will we continue to see less and less mitigating behavior as Katrina becomes a more distant memory?

Here is a link to an interactive map of New Orleans.

Intro Topic: Dead Zones

2008-08-15T13:25:00.006-04:00

I am starting a new series of blog posts for students in my intro to coastal management class. These posts will selectively cut parts of news articles to cover critical coastal management issues.

Photo of the dead zone off Louisiana via Time:

A new study has been published in Science concerning dead zones. From the New York Times:

A study to be published Friday in the journal Science says the number of these marine “dead zones” around the world has doubled about every 10 years since the 1960s. About 400 coastal areas now have periodically or perpetually oxygen-starved bottom waters, many of them growing in size and intensity. Combined, the zones are larger than Oregon.

What are dead zones?
Dead zones are hypoxic (low oxygen) or anoxic (no oxygen) marine or estuarine areas. The absence of oxygen threatens the existence of marine life.

How do dead zones develop? From Oceanus:

The most widespread, chronic environmental problem in the coastal ocean is caused by an excess of chemical nutrients. Over the past century, a wide range of human activities—the intensification of agriculture, waste disposal, coastal development, and fossil fuel use—has substantially increased the discharge of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients into the environment. These nutrients are moved around by streams, rivers, groundwater, sewage outfalls, and the atmosphere and eventually end up in the ocean.

Once they reach the ocean, nutrients stimulate the growth of tiny marine plants called phytoplankton or algae. When the concentration of nutrients is too high, this growth becomes excessive, leading to a condition called eutrophication.

How do dead zones impact marine life? From the NY Times:

“The overwhelming response of the organisms in our coastal areas is to migrate or to die,” Dr. Diaz said. “To adapt to low oxygen water, it has to be a part of your evolutionary history. It’s not something you can develop in a 40- or 50-year time period.”
Many dead zones are cyclical, recurring each year in the summer months. But over time, they can permanently kill off entire species within the zone. They have also prevented the rebounding of species that are under protection after overfishing, like the Baltic Sea’s cod.
Low oxygen levels also kill off annelid worms and other sources of food for fish and crustaceans.

What are some strategies to address dead zones?

From the NY Times

Robert W. Howarth, a professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell, said methods to reduce nitrogen-rich runoff existed, including the planting of winter rye or winter wheat rather than leaving fields fallow after fall harvest. Such planting would cause much fertilizer to be absorbed by the winter crops rather than being leached into waterways by spring rains.

From Oceanus

There are some novel ideas as well. A project is currently underway at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to examine the feasibility of using shellfish aquaculture to reduce nutrients in the coastal ocean. The experimental shore-based aquaculture system at the National Center for Mariculture in Eilat, Israel, uses shellfish to absorb excess nutrients excreted by fish. Researchers at WHOI are trying to determine whether the same idea is feasible in the ocean. As the shellfish produced by such an enterprise have economic value, this is an example of a win-win situation.

Examples of Dead Zone Websites
Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone
FAO: Effects of Riverine Inputs on Coastal Ecosystems and Fisheries Resources
NOS: Integrated Assessment of Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico
USGS: Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone
USGS: Restoring Life to the Dead Zone

Revisiting a Theme: It Ain't Easy Being a Commercial Fisherman

2008-08-14T09:36:00.004-04:00

The NC Division of Marine Fisheries has released their "Trends in North Carolina Seafood Prices." The Outer Banks Sentinel has summarized some of the findings:

For some species, like shrimp, croaker, and bluefish, the average price per pound in 2007 was lower than the price paid more than a decade earlier.

In 2007, shrimp averaged $1.88 per pound, compared to $2.61 in 1994.

Fishermen were paid $0.30 for bluefish in 2007, less than the $0.36 paid in 1995.

Croakers earned fishermen $0.37 per pound in 2007, but brought in $0.51 in 1990.

A direct correlation between growth of the global seafood market and downward spiraling prices for some, if not all, types of wild-caught seafood produced in NC is hard to deny.

The evidence that globalization has hurt NC fishermen is perhaps most compelling in the case of shrimp, one of the most important commercial fisheries in the state.

Unfortunately, as we see in many situations, opening up trade has led to winners and losers. This article does not directly mention the winners, the consumers of seafood. The consumers now have access to a less expensive product. Elsewhere in the global market, someone has a competitive advantage for many of these products.

There is no doubt that commercial fishermen are the losers in these situations, since they experience lower prices and rising costs.

Getting Back

2008-08-13T09:27:00.003-04:00

After getting through a family tragedy, I am finally getting the blog rolling again. Here is a fitting photo representing my last couple weeks. (HT gcaptain)

Could Offshore Oil Fund Beach Projects?

2008-07-29T11:28:00.005-04:00

According to the N&O, Walter Jones would like to use proceeds from offshore drilling to fund beach renourishment and dredging projects. Since federal funds for these types of projects have dwindled over the years, I bet that is appealing for some communities such as Nags Head.

Can these projects bring enough revenue to coastal communities such that the benefits outweigh the potential environmental costs?

According to the Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club:

If that should happen, we should know that:

Offshore drilling activities lead to the destruction of coastal wetlands. In Louisiana, where oil and gas development has been conducted for 50 years, close to 62 square miles of wetlands are lost each year.
The pollution from offshore rigs causes a wide range of health and reproductive problems for fish and other marine life.
Oil and gas operations dump more than 1 billion pounds of mercury-contaminated drilling fluids into the Gulf each year. Mercury levels in the sand around some Gulf rigs are three times higher than levels found at EPA Superfund sites where fishing is prohibited. Mercury levels in marine creatures living around these rigs are at least 25 times higher than in fish found elsewhere in the Gulf. Why then is the oil industry promoting rigs as "fish-rich oasis in the vast desert of the Gulf"? Tests of 70 coastal residents who ate Gulf-caught fish at least once a week show mercury levels of 5-10 times the EPA’s safe level for mercury in the human body. Since Gulf-caught fish are shipped all over the country, this is a health hazard of national proportions.
"Routine" offshore drilling operations dump thousands of pounds of drilling muds into the ocean that contain toxic heavy metals such as lead, chromium and mercury.
A single production platform, which can drill 50-100 wells, discharges over 90,000 metric tons of drilling fluid and metal cuttings into the ocean.
A single exploratory well dumps approximately 25,000 pounds of toxic metals into the ocean.
A single offshore rig emits the same air pollution as 7,000 cars driving 50 miles per day.
The continued use of fossil fuels poses a particular threat to the residents of Florida. Fossil fuels increase global warming which leads in turn to the melting of the polar icecaps. In Florida, this will result in serious sea-level rise, while the higher temperatures will lead to more tropical diseases and heat-related deaths.

Spill statistics can be found here. Below is a graph of spills in the Gulf, between 1996 and 2007, which were greater than 50 bbls. Notice the higher number of spills associated with significant hurricanes. In 2005, the year Katrina and Rita ravaged the Gulf, 49 spills, each greater than 50 bbl, contributed roughly 15154.3 bbl.

Is this a substantial amount of oil? Deroy Murdock,columnist with Scripps Howard News Service, says no in an op-ed piece in the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

Feinstein is correct. U.S. offshore oil drilling is not perfectly tidy. It's only 99.999 percent clean. Indeed, since 1980 -- as MMS figures indicate -- 101,997 barrels spilled from among the 11.855 billion barrels of American oil extracted offshore. This is a 0.001 percent pollution rate. While offshore drilling is not 100 percent spotless, this record should satisfy all but the terminally fastidious.
Ironically, in terms of oil contamination, Mother Nature is 95 times dirtier than Man. Some 620,500 barrels of oil ooze organically from North America's ocean floors each year. Compare this to the average 6,555 barrels that oil companies have spilled annually since 1998, according to MMS.

I look forward to reading more debate on this. I still hold the opinion that we, as a nation, need more a substantial energy policy. It seems to me that this should be a small part of this larger debate, not a central issues.

Fish Heart Hurricanes

2008-07-28T16:53:00.004-04:00

From NOAA:

NOAA-supported scientists from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium found the size of this year’s Gulf of Mexico dead zone to be 7,988 square miles, slightly smaller than the predicted record size of 8,800 square miles and similar to the area measured in 2007. Scientists think Hurricane Dolly’s wind and waves may have added oxygen to the zone to reduce its size.

Hurricane Bertha Revisited: Hurricanes and Ocean Temperature

2008-07-28T13:32:00.002-04:00

From NASA:

Weakening Magnuson or Adding Flexibility?

2008-07-23T09:36:00.003-04:00

It appears that different fishing interests are holding hands again. From the Cape May County Herald:

Members of the recreational, charter, and commercial fishing industries, representing over 100 fishing organizations, met with Members of Congress and congressional staff in support of bipartisan legislation which promotes healthy populations of fisheries and fishing communities.

H.R. 5425, the Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fishery Act of 2008, co-sponsored by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Henry Brown (R-SC), Barney Frank (D-MA), and Walter Jones (R-NC) would provide a measure of flexibility into the management process without compromising conservation goals.

At present, the law requires a total rebuilding of the stock of certain “overfished” species within 10 years, often requiring drastic reductions in fishing quotas and in some cases a complete or effective shut-down of the fishery.

Here is a summary of the bill from the Congressional Research Service:

Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act of 2008 - Amends the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to require fishery management plans, amendments, or regulations for overfished fisheries to specify a time period for ending overfishing and rebuilding the fishery that is as short as practicable (currently, as short as possible). Modifies the exceptions to the requirement that such period not exceed ten years.
Requires consideration, in evaluating progress to end overfishing and rebuild overfished stocks, of factors other than commercial and recreational fishing.
Requires, when the Secretary of Commerce extends the period under specified provisions, that the maximum rebuilding time not exceed the sum of the initial ten-year period, the expected time to rebuild the stock absent any fishing mortality and under prevailing environmental conditions, and the mean generation time of the stock.

St Pete Beach to Renourish

2008-07-23T09:23:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, I wrote a post* discussing the fate of T-Groins in St Pete Beach. The St Pete Beach City Commission has decided to remove the T-Groins and go ahead with a beach renourishment project.

The commission decided to go forward with a beach renourishment project in 2009 and recover the T-groins.

In 2010, they'll hire an engineer to look at alternative plans for the area, such as a possible artificial reef.
Council members will then begin implementing those changes by 2012.

* I originally stated that this decision was being made by the county commissioners. This was incorrect. The decision was made by the St Pete Beach City Commission.

Find More, Use Less

2008-07-22T10:39:00.003-04:00

From Morning Edition:

The Senate brings up another bill aimed at lowering gas prices Tuesday, as Republicans tout a new slogan: "Find more. Use less." It's a paradox because finding more oil drives the price down, which encourages consumption. And despite talk of conservation, election-year efforts by Congress to lower gas prices may actually diminish incentives to lower oil consumption.

Is this really a paradox? It would be a paradox if we had enough oil to cause a substantial shift in supply, thus driving down prices. It is my understanding that the US does not have enough oil to substantially impact prices. I still think that all this talk of additional drilling is a diversion from developing a comprehensive energy policy, but calling it a paradox is a bit of a stretch.

Another stretch?

GA Senator Johnny Isakson: "The Congress of the United States is sitting on a ham sandwich, starving to death."

That is a pretty small ham sandwich and it needs some mustard!

Hardening St Pete Beach

2008-07-22T09:11:00.007-04:00

Between Upham Beach to the St. Pete Beach, coastal managers have been trying to address beach erosion using temporary T-Groins. Now City Commissioners of St Pete Beach are debating whether to replace existing sandbags with a more permanent structure (i.e. rocks). From baynews9.com:

The tubes are temporary to test out the size and T-shape. If approved by city commissioners, the county wants to replace the bags with rocks.
Pinellas County Coastal Coordinator Nicole Elko said during the two-year study 50 percent of the sand has eroded, without the tubes it would have been 80 percent.
The current project cost $1.5 million and is funded by the county and state.
Elko said the tubes would save millions of dollars down the road. It costs $6 million to pump in more sand and restore the beach. The bags cut that in half at $3 million.

Below is a jpeg I made using Google Earth showing these T-Groins.

Notice the convex shape of the beach around the groins. You can also see a jetty to the left of the first T-Groin. All these structures impact longshore transport of sand.

Picture Time! Marine Invasive Species

2008-07-21T13:06:00.003-04:00

Here is a map of marine invasive species from UNEP:

It looks like there are some serious pathways through the Mediterranean.

US Nautical Charts for Google Earth

2008-07-18T11:51:00.003-04:00

Navimatics has developed a kml overlay for Google Earth so you can now view nautical charts all over US coastal waters. This just makes it that much harder to leave your computer at home!

Here is a shot of Ocracoke Island using the overlay. Last year I had the pleasure of sailing out to Ocracoke for Labor day. We didn't have much wind, but we did have plenty of beer.

HT: Free Geography Tools

Offshore Wind Potential

2008-07-17T16:31:00.004-04:00

Here is an image of Offshore Wind Potential from NASA's Earth Observatory:

It looks like there is significant seasonal variability. It will be interesting to see how many of these projects get started. As I have posted in the past, these projects may not be viable in some locations due to high start-up costs. These costs have not stopped all projects however. Delaware will have the first offshore project in the US. In addition to Delaware, it appears that numerous other states are pursuing offshore wind (examples:GA and MA).

Note: Here is an excellent site from Oregon State depicting wind potential. By clicking on the map you can view different regions by month.

2007 Recreational Catch Data

2008-07-17T16:18:00.001-04:00

From NOAA

Marine recreational anglers caught more than 468 million fish in 2007, down slightly from last year’s historic high of 475 million fish, but still the second highest recreational catch total in the last ten years.

The overall number of fish caught and kept also declined slightly, from 214 million to196 million fish, according to NOAA’s Fisheries Service.

The 2007 data demonstrates a widespread turn toward “catch and release” among recreational anglers. While anglers are catching about 27 percent more fish than a decade ago, they are also releasing more fish than they keep. Of the 468 million fish caught by anglers in 2007, 272 million or 58 percent were released alive. The percentage of fish released into the environment has increased steadily from about 51 percent in 1993.

Spotted seatrout was the most popular catch among marine recreational anglers. The species is caught in the Gulf of Mexico and the south Atlantic regions, which have the highest combined concentration of saltwater anglers in the nation. The top catches in other regions were lane snapper (Caribbean), striped bass (North Atlantic), Atlantic croaker (Mid-Atlantic), chub mackerel (Pacific), black rockfish (Pacific Northwest), and bigeye scad (Western Pacific).

Surfs Up

2008-07-16T09:46:00.004-04:00

From The Sidney Morning Herald:

AN ILLEGAL fishing ship whose captain is rumoured to have been murdered has thrown plans for the World Surfing Championship in Bali into chaos by running aground on the island's best surf break.

This story has mini-series written all over it. It has includes murder, illegal fishing, Greenpeace, and a surfing competition. It appears that the boat, the Ho Tsai Fa, struck a reef off illegally fishing off Bali. From reading the article, I had a hard time determining the exact timeline, but it appears that the the boat's Indonesian crew had thrown the captain overboard some time during the fishing expedition. The crew then tried to return home fleeing the boat after it wrecked into the reef. Unfortunately, this section of reef has some of the best surf, thus threatening the World Surfing Championship.

According to a separate story in the Sidney Morning Herald,

The Taipei Times has reported that it was caught with 60,000 kilograms of shark fins in Costa Rica in 2003.

The previous article also mentions that Greenpeace had intercepted the boat in May, illegally fishing in the Pacific. On a positive note, at least for the locals, local residents helped themselves to the illegally caught fish.

The crew fled and, SurfingMagazine.com reported, local residents boarded the ship and helped themselves to about 500 illegally caught fish on board, including huge tuna, barracuda and shark.

This is a great picture:

HT: GCaptain

2008 May Be a Record Year for the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone

2008-07-15T15:03:00.003-04:00

NOAA and LSU scientists are reporting that this may be a record year for the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone.

The researchers are predicting the area could measure a record 8,800 square miles, or roughly the size of New Jersey. In 2007, the dead zone was 7,903 square miles. The largest dead zone on record was in 2002, when it measured 8,481 square miles.

Flooding on the Mississippi River is leading to significant increases in nitrogen within the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers.

The dead zone is an area in the Gulf of Mexico where seasonal oxygen levels drop too low to support most life in bottom and near-bottom waters. This low oxygen, or hypoxic, area is primarily caused by high nutrient levels, which stimulates an overgrowth of algae that sinks and decomposes. The decomposition process in turn depletes dissolved oxygen in the water. The dead zone is of particular concern because it threatens valuable commercial and recreational Gulf fisheries.

Below are graphics from USGS. USGS also has data depicting monthly nutrient and streamflow delivery to the gulf (Previous years).

USGS also has a study investigating Phosphorus and Nitrogen delivery into the Gulf.

Do we really want to buy out US Sugar?

2008-07-15T14:46:00.004-04:00

According to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) the U.S. Sugar buyout may be a waste of public funds. PEER cites a 10 year old Army Corps of Engineer report which claims a "flow away" from Lake Okeechobee, the plan Governor Crist hopes to use to restore the Everglades, as infeasible. Limitations of the plan, as cited in the PEER news release:

Land Subsidence. By some estimates, intensive agriculture has reduced the elevation of the current land twenty feet below where it was before human intervention. As a result, any released water would pool rather than flow. In the words of the Corps: “Soil subsidence in the EAA has substantially reduced the hydraulic head that would drive the southward flow of water; hence, velocities and flow rates would be greatly reduced”;
Water Loss. The flow way would lose a tremendous amount of water to both seepage and evaporation: “By spreading the water over shallower areas (as opposed to reservoirs) and because a marsh habitat would have to be kept hydrated, the evapotranspiration loss could easily be doubled”; and
No Steady Supply. “Perhaps the most crucial element, water flowing from the lake to the WCAs [Water Conservation Areas] is not present in dry or even normal years!...The only years where water could flow for long duration are wet periods…[and in] those years, the stages in the WCAs are already too high and additional flow from flowways would be damaging, not beneficial.”

The news release also cites buildups of nutrients as a concern. High levels of nutrients may cause less desirable plant species to dominate the system.

HT:RFF Library Blog

NC Senators Chime In

2008-07-14T17:45:00.004-04:00

It appears that North Carolina senators Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr both support offshore drilling. In fact, they are co-sponsors on a bill to lift the congressional ban. Yesterday the president lifted the executive order restricting offshore drilling and opening up drilling along the US coast now awaits congressional approval. Here are statements from Senators Dole and Burr in the N&O

Dole:

The solution to our energy crisis is finding more and using less. Families struggling with record high gas prices can’t afford for Congress to keep energy exploration options off the table.

Burr:

I'm pleased that the President has lifted the executive order banning deep-sea exploration for energy resources. Four dollar a gallon gasoline has affected every family in North Carolina, and it is time for the Democrat Leadership in Congress to stop blocking action and pass long-term energy legislation like The Gas Price Reduction Act, which I have cosponsored. This legislation would lift the Congressional moratorium on Outer Continental Shelf exploration by giving states the ability to opt in on energy exploration off their coasts. We need a comprehensive approach to this energy crisis that allows us to find more and use less.

First, I do think it is very humorous that the name of the legislation is "The Gas Price Reduction Act." It has been pretty well documented that there is insufficient oil to substantially impact oil or gas prices. That being said, I do agree with both senators that we need a comprehensive energy strategy. My biggest problem with this is that any additional offshore drilling will likely take 10 years to come to fruition and it will have little impact on the larger market. Conservation will have a much larger impact than drilling. I would like to see some Republican led plans that put more emphasis on conservation and the development of alternative energy sources. At this point I haven't seen a comprehensive approach. There is a lot of talk for a small return.

That said, the Democrats hardly deserve a free pass. If we are currently at or near peak oil, will we really be able to avoid eventually drilling in these areas as oil becomes more scarce? What are the real risks to drilling? Personally, I think that there are more effective measures available than opening up drilling 10 years down the road, but opening up the Strategic Petrolium Reserve, as requested by Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer, seems like the different side of the same coin, i.e. more political posturing. Will this subject really dominate our energy dialog as we approach November? I hope not, this entire topic should be a small talking point in a larger discussion.

Sayonara to the Ban!

2008-07-14T17:17:00.003-04:00

Bush lifts the ban on offshore drilling. Of course Congress still would need to alter existing legislation for drilling to begin in restricted areas. This should make for good election year politics. I hope this discussion will involve a comprehensive energy plan and not just the usual partisan rhetoric.

Yellowfin Absence in SC?

2008-07-11T09:00:00.003-04:00

Recreational anglers couldn't get a whiff of yellowfin tuna off SC this year. I am curious what catches are like in other states. From Myrtle Beach Online:

Jenkins provided the number of yellowfin tuna landed or released in Governor's Cup tournaments over the last 10 years and the data reveals a disturbing downward trend in recent years.
In 2003, 251 yellowfin tuna were either landed or released in the five Governor's Cup events. Since, the numbers have dropped to 52 in 2004, 22 in 2005, 52 in 2006 and 12 in 2007 before this year's total absence of fish through three tournaments.

It appears that recreational anglers in NC are also seeing a decline.

The trend also has been noticed in North Carolina. In the 50th annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament on June 7-14 out of Morehead City, N.C. - during what is traditionally prime yellowfin tuna fishing time - 176 boats competed for five days and a lone yellowfin was brought to the dock.
"We've had slim years but we've never had none [caught] before, at least not in recent history," said Crystal Watters, tournament director of The Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament.

Interesting Figures: Offshore Drilling

2008-07-10T11:34:00.003-04:00

From the Union Tribune:

I would like to comment on a couple interesting points in this article.

“The debate will be dominated by . . . the 'drill at any cost' crowd and the 'don't drill at any cost' crowd, and their ideological priors and political power will pre-empt any good policy discussion,” said Thomas Firey, who monitors energy issues for the Cato Institute, a libertarian research group in Washington, D.C.

That sounds about right. I am generally skeptical that opening up more drilling will be beneficial, but it still deserves a reasonable debate.

The impassioned debate masks a little-known reality: About two-thirds of the recoverable oil reserves on the Outer Continental Shelf in the lower 48 states already are accessible for development.

I did not realize this.

Agency director Randall Luthi figures the reserves are much greater because most of the research was conducted before 1981 using less-sophisticated equipment.
It makes sense to update offshore oil estimates and gauge what it would take to tap reserves, said Firey of the Cato Institute.

I don't disagree that it makes sense to understand what resources are available so you can make informed decisions. What types of trade-offs are we really making? This same logic enters into my argument that we need more funding for coastal and ocean research (both natural and social).

The shifting sentiment has fueled campaigns, including one by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican who heads the political advocacy group American Solutions for Winning the Future.
“Drill here. Drill now. Pay less,” is one of the group's slogans.
“The pro-drilling forces are clearly winning the sound-bite war because the concept sounds good,” said Warner Chabot, a vice president at the Ocean Conservancy in San Francisco. “Unfortunately, it doesn't work and it's not true.”

The Drill now, Pay less argument is just false. It is well documented that this will not lead to lower prices. This type of political rhetoric, much like the gas tax holiday, sounds good, but is just nonsense. Why do we let politicians get away with this? A more realistic argument would be drill now, increase government revenues, create jobs. Those benefits might not outweigh other costs, but it is a more honest argument. Last,

“If we fight like hell to keep oil off our coast, what happens in Africa or South America when the same companies develop oil in those places?” asked Michael McGinnis, acting director of the Ocean and Coastal Policy Center at the University of California Santa Barbara.
“We must not just think about the production of oil off our coast, but our consumption of oil,” he said. “One thing I haven't seen in the political debates is coming to grasp with real tough, tragic choices that we need to make.”

This is a good point. We need to begin to shift our thinking so that we conserve our resources more effectively.