Valentine’s for Victory - by Oceana/Jon Frank

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Today is Valentine’s Day and, if you’re like me, there’s only one thing that gets your heart pumping, your mind racing and gives you that ‘floating’ feeling inside – victories that are leading to tangible protections for our oceans.

Oceana Pushes Back Against Threat to Belizean Reef System

In Belize, Oceana convinced the government to pull back concessions that would allow oil drilling in the middle of Belize’s barrier reef, the second largest in the world. In fact, at the urging of Audrey Matura-Shepherd, VP of Oceana Belize, Belizean Prime Minister Dean Barrow agreed to put the subject of offshore drilling in his country’s waters to a public referendum.

In the lead up to the vote, offshore drilling boosters in Belize will make a well-funded pitch to the country’s voters, but we think Belizeans will not look kindly upon an industry that could devastate its barrier reef and destroy its tourism and fishing industries. Either way, the vote will be historic because it will mark the first time Belize tests referendum legislation.

Oceana Campaign Succeeds, Offshore Oil Drilling on hold in US Arctic

Moving north, way north, Oceana helped to ensure that oil drilling won’t take place in the middle of the US Arctic, which is huge news in a region that’s blanketed by ice sheets and doesn’t have the personnel or equipment capable of carrying out a cleanup plan – not that a proven clean up method even exists in Arctic conditions – in the event of a spill. It was Royal Dutch Shell that cancelled plans to drill exploratory wells in the Beaufort Sea in 2011, after already being delayed in 2010 because of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s more cautious approach to oil exploration following the Deepwater Horizon blowout (an approach we champion).

Oceana has been monitoring the oil exploration permitting process in the Beaufort Sea and has found a rash of faulty environmental analyses and a lack of basic scientific information about the ecosystem.

So there you have it, straight from Cupid’s quiver and into your heart – a pair of victories for the oceans that carry significant weight now and are momentous building blocks for our efforts to continue protecting important ocean habitats into 2011 and beyond.

Happy Valentine’s Day ocean lovers!