• Ocean

Blue Economy Is Worth $373B to US Economy, Largely Tied to Tourism and Recreation

• Blue Economy
• conservation
• dead zone
• GDP
• Gulf of Mexico
• minerals
• oil and gas
• recreation
• science
• tourism

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) calculated for the first time the value of commercial activities dependent on the nation’s oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes and found that they “floated” $373B of GDP in 2018 and that their growth was stronger than overall GDP growth that year. 

Why This Matters:  Ocean health matters but its impact on the economy is one of the biggest reasons – and now more than ever as we rebuild it.

• Ocean

Efforts to Shrink Dead Zone in Gulf of Mexico Must Come From Minnesota and Iowa

• dead zone
• farmers
• fertilizers
• hypoxia
• shrimpers

The “Dead Zone” in the Gulf of Mexico in 2019 extended nearly 6000 square miles across — it’s caused by fertilizers and other nutrients coming via the Mississippi River from as far as Minnesota and Iowa and it’s an even bigger threat to ocean biodiversity and Louisiana’s $2 billion seafood industry than oil and gas spills, and it’s even harder to fix.

Why This Matters:  Politicians are gathered in Iowa for this week’s caucuses and they are getting an earful about the devastating floods last year. Iowa farmers are not the only small “farmers” who took a beating from the floods — so did fishermen more than a thousand miles away in Louisiana, and they can scarcely afford the blow.

• Ocean

Experts Predict Huge Dead Zone in Gulf of Mexico this Summer

• #Cleanwater
• dead zone
• Gulf of Mexico
• hypoxia
• Mississippi River
• nitrogen
• phosphorus
• runoff

Yesterday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued its annual prediction of the size of the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic or “dead” zone and it is expected to be nearly 8,000 square miles (roughly the size of the State of Massachusetts) and could rival the largest one ever, which happened in 2017.  This year’s […]