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Guest blogger: Margo Pellegrino's message in a bottle for healthy oceans--Day 4

2008-07-03T13:32:14Z

Margo Pellegrino is four days into her 500-mile journey from New Jersey to Washington, DC in support of Oceans 21, a Healthy Oceans Act to save our seas. On Wednesday, she set out from Atlantic Highlands, NJ, and down the Raritan River.

Margo's blog: July 3
Every day brings a challenge, and I'm really glad that so far my body is holding up to it. Once I hit the Delaware I expect that there will be even more. So much depends on the weather. Right now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the weather continues to hold.
On Day 2 I had the wind at my back, although there were some initially rolly conditions, until the last four miles or so of the paddle. Wind kissed my face, and not very gently, almost the whole ride up the Raritan. I was privileged to have Bill Schultz, the Raritan Riverkeeper, escorting me up the Raritan River. I had left Atlantic Highlands, NJ where NRDC had invited various groups to come out for a very nice brunch with me, including John Weber of Surfrider and Benson Chiles of shore11.org, among others from the New Jersey Coastal and Ocean Coalition. I paddled around the markers outside of the "naval playpen." Apparently munitions are loaded at this site and taken over sea. I certainly did not want to get in the way of that. Anyway, Bill Schultz met me as I was coming up to Keansburg. He was on a new jetski, one that did not spew fumes, and he could ride next me and have a conversation without me choking and gagging. Every now and then he would hang about and then zip off to check on an osprey nest or some other thing. And then he would come back and provide me with some very interesting anecdotes and information. He told me about how Perth Amboy, which still has combined sewers (meaning that when it rains, you get run-off and poo in the water), just recently spent $10 million on new sand for its eroding beaches. Except you can't go in the water. There's no swimming, because there is no water monitoring. More than likely, there is no water monitoring because then the town of Perth Amboy would show high fecal counts and then have to take action to remedy the problem, and "close the beach." So make it a "no swimming beach," no need to test, and no need to "close" it. Sound like a real fun beach. There is definitely something wrong with this picture.
Bill and I got to talk a lot during this paddle. It was pretty windy, and I certainly wasn't making very good time, so there was plenty of time to paddle and talk. I mentioned how I was at a race recently and someone, one woman's coach, had brought a picture of a "danger do not eat the crabs" sign. Apparently, these signs are all over the Newark Harbor because the crabs are carcinogenic. There are a lot of people in Newark who are "subsistence" fishermen, meaning they eat what they catch because that's all they have to eat. And so they are eating carcinogenic crabs.
Of course, as we paddled into the wetlands areas, the wetlands that had dumps in them, there was an ever increasing amount of noticeable trash. I almost forgot to mention that when I was paddling to the Naval station there was quite a bit of plastic bag pieces, stuff that was obviously torn apart. Much of it had algae on it, as if it had been out there for a very long time. It was actually a depressing bit of river--so much potential, so much of it unrealized. Bill and Lorraine at Raritan Riverkeeper seriously have their work cut out for them. Sometimes the problems facing our ocean can be a bit overwhelming. For times like this, I like to read Roz's blog at Rozsavage.com, check out what's happening at shore11.org, and read David Helvarg's 50 Ways. Actually, 50 Ways is the perfect book to keep in the bathroom because the chapters are short, sweet, and informative. Of course, it is also invigorating and refreshing to find your local Surfrider Chapter and get activated. And get out there and paddle!

Guest blogger: Margo Pellegrino's message in a bottle for healthy oceans--Day 2

2008-07-01T13:50:18Z

Margo Pellegrino set out today from Little Egg Harbor in Beach Haven, NJ, on her 500-mile journey in support of Oceans 21. See footage of the launch on NBC 40 (click "video included" button) and at the Asbury Park Press.

Margo's Blog: July 1
Wooeee- what a first day. I was looking forward to a relatively easy, fast first day, as NOAA was calling for winds out of the south, but with t-storms later in the day. As I stood on the dock with my boat ready to go, answering reporters' questions about why I was hitting the water again while keeping an eye on my daughter Julia playing by the water, I watched with a slightly sinking feeling as the flag, blowing to the north, shifted to point east. Blast. An ama (outrigger) side wind. The Fuze is a fairly stable boat, and I keep the ama heavy because the last thing I need is to huli all aver the place. It makes for a slower pace, but it keeps me upright. Despite the miles I paddled last year, I still pretty much consider myself to be a novice paddler. There's a lot to learn to be really good, as in any sport.

The ama side wind makes for a slighlty uncomfortable ride, as the chop pops up the ama (the outrigger) where it then catches the wind nicely and over you go! So yesterday's paddle wasn't the most comfortable- but - did manage to ride some of the swells that were kicked up. John Fischer and his merry crew of fellow Coast Guard Auxiliarists met me on the water at the rt. 37 bridge. There they escorted me to the Pt. Pleasant canal. The marine policeman on duty came out and yelled at me (paddlers are not allowed to paddle through), until I mentioned that I called last week about it. I was going to wait until the tide had shifted, but didn't feel like hanging around. There were little rapids, and it was quite a slog, especially through one patch where I almost felt like I was in danger of going backwards.

But it was a fine day, really. One paddle stroke at a time. Thanks so much to John and the gang- it was great to have them on the water-boat traffic in NJ is a truly unique experience! And thanks to Mark Gallo for hosting me again. Both he and John F are "repeat offenders." They hosted and escorted me last year as I paddled my way to Maine.

You can never do too much for Mother Ocean. Reading Roz Savage's blog (rozsavage.com-she's rowing the Pacific right now to higlight the problems of plastic in the ocean), I had to laugh at one of the comments-a qoute fom George on Seinfeld, who apparently tried to rescue a whale or something and got tossed and tumbled by the sea-"the ocean is angry my friends!"

Oh--much thanks to the crew at NRDC for all their work on ocean (and other) conservation. And if you are an ocean lover, please visit Blue Frontier (.org) and sign up for the Blue Summit in March '09. It will be a great event!

Guest blogger: Margo Pellegrino's message in a bottle for healthy oceans--Day 1

2008-06-30T13:23:50Z

Last summer, Margo Pellegrino, a New Jersey mother of two, paddled from Miami to Maine in an outrigger canoe to celebrate our oceans and bring attention inspire her children and others to take an active role in the stewardship of our oceans.

This summer, NRDC is partnering with Margo on her second voyage, this time carrying messages in a bottle from people along the Atlantic Seaboard to Capitol Hill, urging Congress to Save Our Seas (S.O.S.) by passing healthy ocean legislation. Starting today, Margo is paddling 500 miles through New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia on her way to Washington, DC.

Throughout the trip, Margo will be blogging about her journey here on Switchboard. Today, she sets out from her home in Medford Lakes, NJ.

Margo's Blog: June 29

It's warm and steamy here in Medford Lakes, NJ. My kids, Billy and Julia, are happily soaking each other with their water squirters in the lake while I sit here and type. We're lucky to live on a lake that's swimmable and clean. In so many areas of the world, kids have no access to clean water. Fortunately, leaders in the past have made conservation a priority, as that is the key to a secure future. We need to manage our resources so we can count on them being there for our future generations. As Teddy Roosevelt said over one hundred years ago in his address at the Deep Waterway Convention in Memphis, Tennessee, "The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others." He understood the intrinsic connection of conserving our natural resources to our future well-being as a country. It's as simple as "money in the bank."

While my family and I love our life here on the lake, for much of the year we look forward to our week at the Jersey Shore. Growing up I was fortunate that my dad's parents lived at the Shore. As a Methodist minister, my grandfather did the ministry circuit from Long Branch to Cape May Courthouse. Back in the late 30's and early 40's he lived in a parsonage in Somers Point, where four of his six children, including my father, were born. Every visit to my grandparents was an excuse to dig for sand crabs and other treasures, or at the very least, an excuse to go down to the boardwalk and look at the sea. We loved, and still do, the smell of the salt air, the roar and crash of the waves. Never mind listening to the waves, we wanted to jump in them, be tumbled by them, and taste their saltiness, much like my children do now. The last thing we ever thought about then was getting hepatitis from the water. Not like now. Now in many parts of the country, the shellfish industry is closed down as well as beaches after rain, as nutrient-rich run-off sends bacteria and algae levels rocketing.

Now we are bombarded with information concerning the problems of the ocean and how this national treasure and resource is in crisis. We have the Pew Report on the Oceans and the US Commission on Ocean Policy, two reports developed independently, saying pretty much the same thing. Our oceans are in danger of collapse, and they need some sort of national policy to avert disaster. And they need it now.

Last year I paddled from Miami to Camden, Maine, in order to reach out to as many people as possible to draw attention to the sorry state of our ocean resources. It was my hope that if I, not a professional athlete or even a very good paddler by any stretch of the imagination, not to mention a mother of two young children, could make the effort to paddle up the coast, then others might feel moved to do what they could do to make things better for our watery world. It's relatively easy, actually, compared to paddling in 29mph gusts and ugly chop. Like Jack Johnson sings, "reduce, reuse, recycle" is a very good start. Sound ocean management policy on a national level is another. After all, the ocean knows no boundaries.

During that epic paddle, when I got to New Jersey I took a day off and visited Washington, DC. Actually, I went to Capitol Hill and listened to a group of concerned Congressmen, members of the Ocean Caucus, discuss their plan to remedy the current failings in ocean resource conservation and management. Management is pretty crucial. After all, you manage your money, right? If you spend it all, you go broke. This is basically what we are doing to our ocean, and this is exactly what these leaders in ocean conservation hope to prevent with the HR-21 bill (Oceans 21) in Congress, which is expected to be voted on in committee this before Congress convenes for the summer. We've got the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and now we need an Ocean Conservation Act.

The ocean is a wealth of resources on so many levels. Many corals and sponges produce chemicals useful in medications, although unfortunately, many of these are dying before they can be fully explored as potential cures for many of our ills, like cancer and HIV-AIDS. The coastal areas provide food and recreation, tourism is a huge industry, especially here in New Jersey. And then there's the fishing. I've got fond memories of my grandmother cooking up the fish my uncle caught, fish he never liked to eat, but liked to catch. Last year I paddled by plenty of commercial and recreational fishermen complaining of poor, if any, catches. One fisherman I ran into behind Cape Hatteras seemed to have more terrapins in his nets than fish.

Needless to say, after last year's mega-paddle up the coast, I was thinking that this year I'd focus on writing and helping David Helvarg, President of the Blue Fontier Campaign promote the Blue Vision Summit in 2009, a meeting of ocean and coastal resource lovers from all walks of life, from all over the country. But then I got the call asking if I'd be interested in paddling to Washington, DC to rally support for Oceans 21 as well as collecting "Save our Seas" messages to take to Congress. How could I say,"No?" If there is more I can do so that my children can enjoy the wonders of the ocean as well as secure our ocean resources for their future, well, isn't that as important as putting money in the bank for them on so many different levels? After all, I hope never to see the day when swimming in the ocean is a health hazard rather than a healthy activity. Unfortunately, in too many of our coastal areas, because of run-off and overtaxed sewer plants, it is. The ocean's delicate balance tips precariously toward a dark unknown. Changes are inevitable, and they're not changes for the better. I've paddled through enough stinky algae-laden water, a result of excess nutrients, to smell it coming.
The time is now, while we can still do something. If we wait, it will only get worse. Don't believe me? Cod is a classic example. The cod industry has evaporated. Go visit Gloucester, a once-booming fish town. Oh, and try to get some locally caught clams there while you're at it. Ipswich clams are great. If you can get them. Last year as I paddled through Cape Ann's waters I could not, because of the Red Tide. I met an old fisherman during one of my "training paddles" on the Mullica River last year. Back inthe 60's he worked at the fish-factory that is now vacant and dilapidated on the Great Bay. He told me that he was on the beach of Atlantic City recently, and someone caught a cod and had no idea what kind of fish it was.
Every parent knows if their child's messy room is allowed to get worse, there's a whole lot of wailing that goes on at "clean up" time. Let's not let the growing mess we're making of our ocean get to that point. Let's take care of it while we still can, so we hear no wailing from the mouths of our beautiful children when they realize the treasures of the sea are unavailable to them. I'm only to happy to take on this latest project with NRDC while also promoting David Helvarg's Blue Frontier and the Blue Summit of 2009. Joe Payne, of the Casco Baykeepers, said it best. He quoted a famous quote, "with every privilege comes responsibility, and we are all responsible."
So maybe I'll see you on the water, hopefully you'll have an "SOS Message" for my bottle, and maybe we can chat next year at the Blue Summit in '09. We sure have to do something to put an end to the degredation of our ocean resources. Now.

Guest Blogger: Margo Pellegrino's Message in a Bottle Canoe Voyage

2008-06-28T15:56:48Z

Join Margo Pellegrino, a mother of two from Medford Lakes, NJ, as she guest blogs from her 500-mile “Message in a Bottle” canoe voyage from the Jersey Shore to Capitol Hill to call on Congress to Save Our Seas (S.O.S.) and pass a healthy oceans act.

Margo's Posts:

Survey shows rising honey bee losses

2008-05-08T19:32:48Z

A national survey released this week shows honey bee losses on the rise this year, prompting the state of Pennsylvania to pump money into colony collapse disorder (CCD) research.

The Apiary Inspectors of America's annual survey indicated 36.1 percent of commercial bees were lost this year, compared to 32 percent last year. According to the group, 29 percent of the losses were from CCD. In response, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture is contributing an additional $20,000 to Pennsylvania State University's CCD research efforts.

Apiary Inspectors president Dennis vanEngelsdorp says these bee losses are unsustainable.

"For two years in a row, we've sustained a substantial loss," he said. "That's an astonishing number. Imagine if one out of every three cows, or one out of every three chickens, were dying. That would raise a lot of alarm."

And if one of every three cows were simply disappearing off the face of the earth, as is often the case with bees affected by CCD, you can bet the federal government would be looking into it. The small but ever-so-important commercial honey bee could use some sustained, federal support for research into CCD.

Bees disappear and honey bee theft spreads east

2008-04-23T14:49:06Z

A few weeks ago I wrote about a rash of honey bee thefts in California, triggered by a shortage of bees and commensurate rise in their dollar value as pollinators. Now it looks like bee theft is moving east.

Some enterprising thief just stole $4,000 worth of bees from Savage, Maryland beekeeper Don Kolpack--an unusual event in Maryland, where bee thefts have been quite rare. Kolpack, interviewed on NBC4 News, says that honey bee pollination is vital for growers on Maryland's eastern shore.

With colony collapse disorder affecting beekeepers and farmers nationwide, the enhanced incentives for "beejacking" are an issue everywhere. And so are the possible costs to food production. NRDC scientist Gabriela Chavarria recently discussed the latter for radio listeners in Ohio.

C is for...Could be doing more for oceans

2008-03-31T20:37:12Z

The good news: America’s oceans policy score improved this year! The bad news: from a C- to a C. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer recently highlighted these poor marks from the Joint Oceans Commission Initiative. Our C grade means that U.S. policy makers are barely passing when it comes to taking concrete steps recommended by two independent, blue-ribbon commissions to address the silent collapse of ocean ecosystems.

A fifth-grader could probably find a way to spin this modest report card improvement in a positive way, but there are compelling reasons for the U.S. to hold itself to a higher standard.

The urgency of the situation is unquestionable. As a New York Times editorial put it earlier this month, “There is no shortage of scientific studies documenting the degradation of the world’s oceans, the decline of marine ecosystems and the collapse of important fish species. …What is in short supply is a sustained effort by world governments and other institutions to do something about it.”

So what can we do, and where are we slipping up? One key area for improvement is National Ocean Governance Reform, in which the U.S. received a D this year on the JOCI scorecard.

Scattershot ocean governance, it turns out, is a major obstacle in the effort to tackle ocean threats from pollution to overfishing. Our oceans are managed under 140 different laws, implemented by 20 federal agencies, without an overarching vision or coordinated implementation of that vision.

A step in the right direction would be enacting what we’re dubbing a national “Healthy Oceans Act” to establish a fundamental vision and game plan to protect and restore our oceans, and coordinate this vision across the federal, regional, and state levels.

This concept meshes with the Joint Ocean Commission’s recommendation to “enact legislation that creates a national ocean policy, codifies NOAA, and strengthens federal coordination.”

Black market bees

2008-03-12T20:01:27Z

If someone offers to sell you a beehive out of the back of a truck this spring, do not buy it, even if it’s a really good deal. Because those bees may be hot.

That’s right—the law of supply and demand has created conditions favoring rampant bee theft.

Beekeepers hire out their hives each year to growers who need to get their crops pollinated. A shortage of bees means the price of pollination goes up. For example, after heavy over-winter bee losses in the spring of 2005, fees for pollinating California’s almond crop nearly tripled. In California, Colony Collapse Disorder is contributing to a bee shortage that has driven the cost of renting a hive to $200 in some places—four times the cost four years ago. And that’s provided a strong incentive for stealing bees. The Associated Press reports,

As the price of pollination soars, each hive becomes a sitting gold mine, sheriff's deputies say. Skilled criminals simply dump the colony into a new container, and rent the bees to farmers as their own, pocketing the fee they're paid for pollination.

California beekeepers have lost $330,000 in the recent rash of thefts. Apparently some of them are even installing traceable microchips into their hives to foil bee thieves.

But bee-related crime will be the least of our worries if the honey bee decline continues, with managed bees contributing $14 billion to American agriculture each year, and some crops--like almonds and blueberries--almost completely dependent on honey bee pollination. It’s clearly imperative to get to the root of Colony Collapse Disorder and make the world safer for bees.

Arctic herds in a new kind of trouble

2008-03-05T19:03:39Z

I remember reading about ice-age musk oxen as a kid and being thrilled to learn that these strange, tough creatures still exist in a corner of the world. I would have been no more surprised to hear about live wooly mammoths on exhibit at the zoo.

Sadly, it turns out that musk oxen, along with caribou and reindeer (another creature of childhood lore) are facing a mysterious new threat triggered by global warming.

Researchers are starting to look at the potentially disastrous effects of the “rain on snow” phenomenon, which occurs when warm air suddenly turns arctic snows to rain or slush. The rain freezes and forms a hard layer of ice on top of the snow, which prevents musk oxen, caribou, and reindeer from grazing.

The result? National Geographic News reports:

“In October 2003 on Banks Island in Canada's Northwest Territories, a rain-on-snow event caused the deaths of more than a quarter of the musk-ox population—20,000 animals. Some native people reported the unusual sight of musk-oxen walking onto floating sea ice in search of food, drifting to watery graves.”

The rain-on-snow effect highlights what the polar bears already know: the Arctic is feeling the pressure of global warming more intensely than other parts of the planet. Temperatures there are rising twice as quickly as in the rest of the world.

Just something to reflect upon while we're waiting for the Bush administration's overdue decision on protecting the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.

Does a world without honey bees mean a world without Haagen-Dazs?

2008-02-26T16:25:08Z

The premium ice cream maker recently announced it's launching a new flavor to call attention to the importance of honey bees and help fund research into colony collapse disorder. Haagen-Dazs says that without honey bees, the strawberries, raspberries, and other fruits that flavor its ice cream will be in jeopardy.

It’s no joke. Eighty percent of the world's crop plants depend on pollination. Pollinators, almost all of which are insects, are indispensable partners in producing an estimated one out of every three mouthfuls of food we eat. Insect pollinators, like honey bees, pollinate products worth $20 billion annually in the U.S. alone. Honey bees have been in decline for the last ten years, but the recent disappearances of honey bees due to colony collapse disorder have really caught the attention of the media and the public.

The new Haagen-Dazs flavor, "vanilla honey bee,” will hopefully help turn ice cream lovers into honey bee lovers while getting some real results for colony collapse disorder research. (On that note, it’s worth mentioning that none of the three species of vanilla bean are pollinated by honey bees. But naturally I'll still show my support for the bees by trying the ice cream.)

By the way, there’s plenty more that you can do at home to help protect honey bees and keep the tasty treats coming. Check out NRDC’s Bee Safe page for more information.