The Wilderness Society’s Post

🤦🏻♂️ “Crude Awakening: A major oil spill off the coast of Louisiana has poured more than a million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, alarming local authorities and wildlife conservationists. As the Washington Post reports, officials traced the spill back to near a pipeline operated by oil company Main Pass Oil Gathering, but it's still unclear if it was the source of the ongoing spill. While the spill is dwarfed by previous spills, like the Deepwater Horizon crisis that saw 130 million gallons of crude pouring into the Gulf in 2010, it's nonetheless a grim environmental catastrophe that could have devastating effects on the local environment. "Ocean wildlife will almost certainly pay a terrible price for this huge pipeline spill, which is less an accident than an entirely predictable consequence of offshore oil operations," said Kristen Monsell, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. Oiled Rotten: The Coast Guard is now using remotely operated underwater vehicles to inspect the pipeline and find a source. Main Pass Oil has already turned off its pipeline, given its proximity and that it's suspected to be the source of the spill. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there have been at least 44 oil spills of more than 420,000 gallons of spilled oil in US waters since 1969. The largest known spill in US history was the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which released just under a third of that amount in April 2010. So while this latest spill is far from the largest, it's still significant, and the damage it'll likely do to the local environment will be considerable. "From dolphins to birds to rare whales, Gulf animals are under siege yet again from a spill-prone industry that puts profit ahead of everything," Monsell added…”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently released its 2009-2019 Status and Trends of Wetlands report which shows significant declines in wetland habitat quality and size across the conterminous U.S. Salt marsh experienced the largest net percent reduction of any wetland category (2% or -70K acres). It's estimated the current global cost of carbon dioxide emissions associated with mangrove, salt marsh, and seagrass loss is between $6.1 and $42B annually. However, there are key actions we can take to slow and stop the decline of wetlands—including improved collaboration between government and non-government partners, further commitments to long-term conservation and management, and new and improved conservation methods. Learn more:

If you are about #oceanhealth and #marineconservation, this is a great summary of new paper on #marinebiodiversity protection in the U.S.

Discover how a lot of patience and perseverance resulted in the acquisition and gazettal of over 1,600 hectares of land as national park, protecting endangered regional ecosystems and areas of national significance. https://lnkd.in/g8csqkmc

Brazil enlists Indigenous brigades to fight wildfires, using a new high-tech tool to track fire behavior and guide suppression. The tool captures the traditional ecological knowledge of tribes, including their unique cultural connection to fire. https://ow.ly/QmBZ50Qg0JO

Brazil enlists Indigenous brigades to fight wildfires, using a new high-tech tool to track fire behavior and guide suppression. The tool captures the traditional ecological knowledge of tribes, including their unique cultural connection to fire. https://ow.ly/HyLw50QgtOo

Reflecting on the year as it comes to a close: In 2023, our team celebrated the official launch of Navigator and the global review of marine protections. The Navigator database contains regulations, management plans, and associated legal instruments carefully reviewed by our team attorneys. Fishing gear types and human activities were coded as allowed, restricted, or prohibited, with focal species highlighted where specified. Our GIS team also worked diligently, matching boundary data from official sources to managed areas. When electronic boundaries weren't available or couldn't be verified, they were digitized using legal descriptions. Here's to another year of progress and commitment to ocean conservation! 🌊✨ #protectedseas #marineconservation #map

Todays Phase I ESA and aquatic resources field investigations were full of surprises. One was a close up of a wasps habitat in an old concrete mixer.

Brazil enlists Indigenous brigades to fight wildfires, using a new high-tech tool to track fire behavior and guide suppression. The tool captures the traditional ecological knowledge of tribes, including their unique cultural connection to fire. https://ow.ly/vs4M50Qgh2k

Brazil enlists Indigenous brigades to fight wildfires, using a new high-tech tool to track fire behavior and guide suppression. The tool captures the traditional ecological knowledge of tribes, including their unique cultural connection to fire. https://ow.ly/ngAO50Qh6t9