In a couple of weeks, President Trump will receive a report on a review he ordered to determine whether to roll back areas granted marine sanctuary status since 2007. This includes Monterey Bay as well as sanctuaries near San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands, as well as other precious waters in the US. The question asked by Trump is, do these areas interfere with potential oil and gas development?
While the rest of the modern world is making plans for a renewable-energy future, our president is more concerned with drilling for limited fossil-fuel energy sources to satisfy his big-oil pals. The ocean produces half the world's plant life, generates weather, absorbs excess atmospheric carbon, supplies food and transportation routes for our economy. And this same ocean water is under stress.
Dan Haifley, executive director of the O'Neill Sea Odyssey floating lab and educational program, makes a case for vigilience in today's Santa Cruz Sentinel as the review gets closer. For more information, visit www.sanctuaries.noaa.gov. Let's save our precious resource, and catch a few more waves.
A combined north-south swell hit the central coast on Friday and is still working, although fading, today (Sunday). Lots of fun out there. Hope you caught some of it!
