Before Oceana heads on to new challenges in 2011, I want to share a couple of big victories we accomplished this year.
The first comes from our Belizean office, which was able to work with the government to earn a ban on all forms of trawling in the country’s waters. This is a HUGE win because trawling is notorious for catching animals they aren’t targeting and razing ocean habitats through the use of bottom trawls (as the home to the second largest barrier reef in the world, Belize has some pretty amazing ocean habitats).
When this ban goes into effect on December 31, Belize will be one of the first countries in the world to institute a complete and permanent ban on trawling. Naturally, we are incredibly proud of our colleagues for helping make this small country a world leader in protecting our oceans from destructive forms of trawling.
The other victory comes in the form of reducing mercury pollution, which poses significant hazards to children and women of child-bearing age who consume fish. Earlier this month, we received word from Olin Corporation that its chlor-alkali plant in Charleston, Tennessee – the largest mercury emitter in the state – will phase out the use of mercury from its manufacturing process. Oceana has been working since 2005 to convince mercury-based chlorine plants to convert to cleaner technology and while we targeted nine plants at the beginning of the campaign, only two mercury-emitting plants remain.
The oceans have enjoyed a great stretch of victories in the past two months and with the continued support of our partners, activists and conservation-minded individuals like you, we’ll be able to continue the trend into 2011 and beyond.
Happy New Year from all of us at Oceana!
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