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Healthy Oceans

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How can we protect our oceans?

Fish and marine mammals

America’s oceans are home to whales, dolphins, fish and an enormous variety of other sea life. But today our oceans are in trouble. Destructive overfishing, pollution and habitat damage are putting important marine animals at risk. Many populations are in serious decline. One important way to save these magnificent species is to end destructive overfishing. Read more.

Save our shores

Offshore oil rigs pose catastrophic risks to coastal communities, ocean ecosystems and marine life, such as sea birds, sea turtles, and marine mammals. For 25 years, Environment America's staff has been fighting successfully to keep offshore drilling out of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Read more.

Healthy Oceans in brief

The earth is a Blue Planet, with oceans covering over two-thirds of the surface, providing over 90% of the available space for plants and animals to live, helping to control the planet’s weather, and containing the richest variety of life forms. Yet our oceans are in deep trouble. Destructive overfishing, coastal pollution from fertilizers and toxic materials, habitat destruction from bottom trawling and coastal dredging and filling, and manmade climate change all effect the ocean’s health and ability to bounce back from changes.

People used to think that the oceans were so vast and marine animals so plentiful that humans could not damage marine ecosystems. We now know that is not true and our oceans are vulnerable. Many populations of whales are depleted or threatened with extinction like northern right whales of which 350 remain. All seven species of sea turtles are either threatened or endangered. A respected group of marine scientists recently predicted that at the current rate of fishing most commercially valuable fish species will collapse in the next 40 years all over the world. In U.S. waters about one quarter of all fish stocks are depleted and many are not being rebuilt to healthy levels.

To restore the oceans to health, US PIRG supports a moratorium on new offshore drilling for oil and gas, a halt to destructive overfishing which is depleting our oceans of fish, establishment of marine protected areas where some limitations are placed on fishing, actions to reduce the flow of nutrients and toxics into coastal waters, and aggressive action on global warming.

Take today's e-action
Please send a message to Dr. James Balsiger, director of the National Marine Fisheries Service, asking him to write strong, clear rules that stop overfishing, hold industrial fishing companies accountable for going over annual catch limits, preserve meaningful public input into agency decision making and tough environmental reviews.

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Recent actions and results

Stopping Oil Drilling Off Our Coasts


Supporting the 26 year-old moratorium on new offshore drilling, we helped block an amendment that would have allowed drilling for natural gas as close as 50 miles off the coast of Virginia, off the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and off Assateague Island National Seashore and wildlife areas.

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