To Protect and Conserve: the Gulf of Mexico

While representatives from scientific organizations, government, the oil industry, commercial fishing and water recreation sometimes have differing ideas of what’s important about the Gulf of Mexico, most agreed on one thing during a recent two-day workshop at Mote Marine Laboratory: that the Gulf needs better conservation and protection. “Beyond the Horizon,” a two-day workshop convened by Mote, the Harte Research Institute, the University of South Florida College of Marine Sciences and the National Marine Sanctuaries Foundation, actually ended with a new beginning, organizers said. (Click for presentations made during the conference.) “This was the first time we were able to bring this diverse group together to talk about unifying protections for the Gulf, so really, we’re at the beginning stages of figuring out what additional conservation measures might be needed and how they could be implemented,” said Dr. Kim Ritchie, conference organizer and manager of Mote’s Marine Microbiology Program. “But everyone agreed that we need more protections — so that’s a really good place to start.”
The Gulf of Mexico is arguably one of the nation’s — if not the world’s — most important bodies of water.
14 million people call the Gulf Coast home The region provides jobs for 20 million people Oil and gas, tourism, fishing and shipping in the Gulf of Mexico generate $234 billion annually The region’s petroleum industry provides half of all the U.S. oil production and refining capabilities, employs 100,000 people and pays $12 billion in wages Tourism generates 620,000 jobs and $9 billion in wages The commercial fishing industry lands 1.3 billion pounds of seafood worth $662 million 66 percent of the ocean-transported cargo shipped to and from the U.S. comes through the Gulf’s six major ports The Gulf of Mexico provides habitat for 15,400 documented species — including 1,500 species that live only in the Gulf
Certainly there’s a lot at stake in the Gulf of Mexico, says former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who co-chaired the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. “With the loss of 11 lives, the Deepwater Horizon was a human tragedy,” Graham said. “It remains an environmental tragedy, both through the environmental havoc it wreaked and through the public’s loss of confidence in the industry and in government. This conference was an important step in discussing the Gulf’s resources and their national importance and in allowing all stakeholders to come together and work to preserve this irreplaceable treasure.” The key area of discussion during the conference focused on the way that locations and habitats within the Gulf are unified by the Loop Current — despite being separated by great distances — and the need for comprehensive use and protection plans that take this connection into consideration. These locations and habitats — sometimes referred to by scientists as the Gulf’s “special places” — are the relics of shorelines and barrier islands. Once above sea level, they were flooded as sea level rose during the past 125,000 years. Today, they provide critical structure and habitat for the Gulf’s animal and plant species. Connecting them all is the Loop Current — the Gulf’s major current. It flows north into the central Gulf then loops clockwise and flows south again along the west Florida continental shelf. The current passes the Dry Tortugas, heads northeast to the Florida Keys and then becomes the southern end of the Gulf Stream. As the current travels throughout the Gulf, it acts like a conveyor belt moving things from one “special place” to another. Sometimes those things — like life-sustaining plankton — are good and sometimes those things — like pollution — are bad. “The Gulf of Mexico is dotted with extraordinary places rich in biodiversity and critical to the health of both commercial and recreational fisheries,” notes Dr. Larry McKinney, Director of the Harte Research Institute. “The best defense against future oil spills is a healthy and resilient Gulf and protecting these special places will be one key to that strategy.” The two-day workshop provided an opportunity for differing groups to get to know each other and to discuss a shared desire: that of combining the best science available with input from the public to protect and conserve the Gulf of Mexico. “We do indeed have differences and concerns but there is a remarkable congruity in our perspectives,” said Dr. John Ogden, a member of the conference’s executive organizing committee: “We’ve shown how connected and interconnected we are bio-physically, socially and economically. We need ecosystem-wide management that takes into account the integration of humans and nature. Now, the next step will be to pull together everyone’s ideas and then move the discussion forward.” Organizers are currently working on a report of the proceedings from the workshop that will lay the groundwork for the path forward.
The Beyond the Horizon Initiative is organized by the following members of the executive committee: Kumar Mahadevan & Kim Ritchie, Mote Marine Laboratory Larry McKinney & Wes Tunnell, Harte Research Institute Sylvia Earle, Mission Blue John Ogden, University of South Florida (Emeritus Professor) Tom Bright, Texas A&M University (Retired)