• Ocean

New Report Provides Roadmap for Fully Protected Oceans 

• #30x30
• Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary
• conservation
• Great Barrier Reef
• marine protected areas
• National Marine Sanctuary
• ocean

Each year, the ocean removes almost a third of all global CO2 emissions. But as the ocean warms, it’s becoming less effective as a carbon sink and could release billions of tons of carbon back into the atmosphere.  A new report from Environment America Research & Policy Center provides some guidance on effective ocean protections and highlights six successfully protected ocean sites to serve as role models.

Why This Matters:  Recently, with the support of 450 elected officials, President Biden signed an executive order to protect 30% of all U.S. land and waters by 2030.

• People

Interview of the Week: Kris Sarri

• #CHOW2020
• CHOW
• National Marine Sanctuary

Kris Sarri is the President and CEO of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and we wanted to ask her some questions about this year’s Capitol Hill Ocean Week (CHOW), its focus on biodiversity, and how Kris hopes the event will focus on human diversity going forward as well. If you haven’t yet, make sure you […]

• Ocean

Florida Legislature Overrules Key West Sunscreen Ban Put In Place To Protect Coral Reef

• coral reefs
• Florida
• Florida Keys
• National Marine Sanctuary
• octinoxate and oxybenzone
• sunscreen

Last year the City of Key West Florida voted to become the first city on the U.S. mainland to ban the use of toxic chemicals in sunscreen in order to protect the coral reefs in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, a major tourism draw for the region, which locals work very hard to keep pristine. But the ban may never go into effect (unless Governor Ron DeSantis vetos the bill) because on Tuesday the state legislature passed legislation that prevents local governments from regulating any over-the-counter drugs or cosmetics including sunscreen.

• Ocean

Mallows Bay-Potomac River Proposed New Marine Sanctuary One Step Closer To Designation

• Chesapeake Bay
• conservation
• cultural heritage
• Maryland
• National Marine Sanctuary
• Natural Resources
• ocean
• shipwreck

The first new National Marine Sanctuary in many years, which will be the closest one to the nation’s Capitol, took another important step toward final approval last Friday when the final Environmental Impact Statement for the sanctuary was published in the Federal Register.