Offshore oil drilling is a dirty, risky endeavor.

The Deepwater Horizon disaster is perhaps the most dramatic example of how offshore drilling can go wrong. Fifteen years ago this month, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded approximately 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana, taking the lives of 11 oil workers and causing the release of an estimated 210 million gallons of oil into the ocean.

Even when offshore oil operations go as planned, they harm our ocean by causing chronic water and air pollution, littering the seafloor with disused pipelines, and contributing to harmful emissions that worsen the impacts of climate change.

Despite these well-known risks and dangers, the administration and pro-oil members of Congress are moving swiftly to open more areas of our ocean to offshore drilling and remove regulations and policies that protect marine life, promote safety and discourage harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

Between the speed and and volume of actions the administration has taken, it can be easy to miss the threats on offshore oil and gas drilling specifically. Let’s break it down:

On day one of his second term, President Trump moved to open vast areas of our ocean to offshore oil and gas leasing and drilling. President Trump signed two executive orders that purported to open huge swaths of our ocean to offshore oil and gas leasing, including waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, in the Northern Bering Sea, and in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas of the Arctic Ocean. Previous presidents had placed these areas off-limits to oil and gas leasing, and it is not clear whether the administration has the legal authority to rescind those protections.

Following this executive action, the new Secretary of the Interior issued orders that set the stage for a series of pro-oil policy and regulatory changes. Shortly after assuming office, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum issued a Secretarial Order requiring agencies under his authority to develop plans to “suspend, revise, or rescind” key programs, regulations and policies. The Secretarial Order puts in jeopardy policies designed to reduce risk to marine life, decrease the government’s exposure to financial risk and increase the safety of offshore operations, including:

• Permits that require mitigation measures designed to protect threatened and endangered species in waters where most offshore oil and gas activity takes place.
• Regulations that help ensure the owners of offshore oil and gas leases have the financial resources necessary to clean up their equipment after they finish their oil and gas operations.
• Safety regulations designed to minimize the risk of dangerous blowouts and other “loss of well control” incidents.
• The current nationwide five-year offshore leasing program that limits potential new offshore oil and gas leasing to just three lease sales between 2024 and 2029—a record low number.

Pro-oil members of Congress are also taking or considering steps to encourage and expedite offshore drilling. Because of the filibuster, a 60-vote supermajority is required to pass most legislation in the U.S. Senate. However, certain types of legislation—including the budget reconciliation process and legislation passed under the Congressional Review Act—require only a bare majority for passage. Pro-oil members of Congress are taking advantage of these special legislative processes to attempt to push through legislation that favors offshore drilling.

• Members of Congress have discussed using the budget reconciliation process to pass legislation that would require the government to hold new offshore oil and gas lease sales in specific areas of the ocean. If existing executive-branch safeguards conflict with future legislatively mandated offshore oil and gas lease sales, the legislatively mandated lease sales would likely prevail. 
• Under the Congressional Review Act, the House and Senate  passed legislation to undo a regulation that imposed a fee on emission of methane—a powerful greenhouse gas—from oil and gas production facilities, including some offshore facilities. They also passed legislation to repeal Department of the Interior regulations designed to better protect archaeological resources from impacts caused by offshore oil and gas drilling. President Trump signed both bills into law in mid-March.

These actions represent real threats to our ocean, the people and marine life that depend on it and on our global climate.

At Ocean Conservancy, we actively oppose these short-sighted and dangerous attempts to expand offshore oil drilling, remove environmental protections and reduce safety standards. The United States and the world must move away from risky and dangerous offshore drilling and toward 100% clean-ocean energy. We will continue to work with our partners, members and supporters to accelerate the phase-out of offshore oil and gas, advance responsible offshore wind and other marine renewable energy, address the root causes of climate change, and protect our ocean and the people and marine life that depend on it. Take action with Ocean Conservancy and join the movement to protect our ocean, forever and for everyone.

The post The Latest Offshore Oil and Gas Policies that Threaten Our Ocean appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

The Latest Offshore Oil and Gas Policies that Threaten Our Ocean

Imagine yourself snorkeling through a lush kelp forest off the coast of Southern California. Sunlight filters through the dense canopy of the forest, casting shimmering patterns on the rocky seafloor below. The underwater world appears peaceful and still—until your gaze falls on what seems to be an ordinary-looking rock.

Then… the rock moves.

At first, you assume it’s just the ocean’s current shifting the rock. But as you take a closer look, you realize it’s not a rock at all. It seems to be a crab, expertly hidden with bits of algae from its surroundings. Meet the decorator crab: a master of disguise and possibly the most stylish and secretive crab in our ocean.

What are decorator crabs?

Decorator crabs constitute several species of crabs that belong to the superfamily Majoidea, a group of crustaceans with a remarkable talent for camouflage. They use tiny, hook-like structures on their shells to attach pieces of algae, seaweed and other marine debris onto their bodies. But this isn’t just a quirky fashion statement—these natural accessories help decorator crabs avoid predators, like pacific halibut, octopuses and sea otters, by blending in with their surrounds. 

If they move to a new environment, decorator crabs will adapt their wardrobe to match. Some take their disguises a step further, attaching living organisms like sponges and venomous anemones to their carapaces—the hard upper shell that protects the crab’s vital organs. This not only helps the crabs blend in but also offers an extra layer of defense. Even when they shed their exoskeleton in a process called molting, some crabs will carefully transfer their decorations to their fresh shell.

You can also identify decorator crabs because they are decapods, meaning they have ten legs—two pinchers for feeding and four additional pairs of legs for walking. Decorator crabs are primarily omnivores and use their pinchers to pluck small algae out of crevices and off the sea floor. 

Decorator crabs are solitary animals for most of the year outside of mating season from May to September. You’ll find decorator crabs in shallow coastal waters around the world, from coral reefs and rocky shorelines to kelp forests, seagrass beds and tidal pools. You may have to keep a close eye out for decorator crabs, though, as their average size is only three to five inches across their leg span.

How can you help decorator crabs?

While decorator crabs aren’t currently endangered, they depend on a thriving ocean to survive. Like all marine life, they face threats from pollution, habitat destruction and climate change. Protecting our ocean means protecting creatures like them.

Ocean Conservancy is dedicated to safeguarding our ocean from today’s greatest challenges, from plastic pollution to climate change. But we can’t do it alone. Visit the Ocean Conservancy Action Center to learn how you can help defend our ocean, its wildlife and the communities that depend on it.

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Master of Disguise: The Decorator Crab

Barbara ‘Wáahlaal Gidaak Blake is the Vice President for Ocean Conservancy, leading the Arctic & Northern Waters Program. A dedicated advocate for Indigenous rights and environmental stewardship, she has an extensive background in Alaska Native policy and governance, having served in key leadership roles at the state and tribal levels. With deep roots in Haida, Tlingit, and Ahtna Athabascan heritage, she is a passionate cultural practitioner and a committed leader.

Our food is so much more than calories and nutrients. Our favorite dishes connect us to people, places and times that matter in our lives. For Alaska Native Peoples, our traditional foods do all this and more. For us, food is not just a matter of what we eat, but also the ways we gather that food, the ways we store and prepare it, and the milestones in our lives that center around food. It connects us to our ancestors, demonstrates a balance of care for our non-human beings (our kin in the natural world) and is our connection to our spirituality in maintaining that balance.

Our ability to carry on our ways, to sustain the cultures and knowledge that have existed for countless generations, is too often minimized if not directly threatened by today’s systems of managing lands, waters, hunting, fishing and gathering. Understandably, caring for and stewarding our lands, waters and non-human relatives requires a holistic approach that honors the interconnectedness of the natural web of life. Keeping plant and animal populations healthy is an essential foundation for human life. Economics also factors in: What value do we gain from a healthy environment and what is the cost of keeping it that way? Culture, however, is all too often ignored.

In a recently published essay, Ocean Conservancy staff joined several Alaska Native authors and researchers who have long worked with Alaska Native communities, to explore what it would mean to place Indigenous cultures at the heart of wildlife and fisheries management. This is not to ignore ecology and economics, but simply to recognize that among many possible decisions, only some have the effect of supporting Indigenous cultural vitality and continuity. In other words, we have choices about who can harvest fish and animals, who can access lands and waters. Those choices matter. It is also a reminder that as we center the continuity of cultural relationships with the natural world, we are protecting the entire web for all who depend on continued harvesting for their ways of life.

K’alaagáa Íihlangaa (Nathaniel) Blake harvesting Gagán xil (Labrador tea) with his mother, grandmother, and little sister.

Long-term solutions require lasting, respectful relationships with our surroundings and all those with whom we share our planet. Indigenous Peoples have demonstrated what it takes to create and sustain those relationships for centuries and millennia. Today, more than ever, we need to pay close attention to those hard-won lessons. Making choices that celebrate and uplift cultural practices of Indigenous peoples is the best place to start. This approach is central to Ocean Conservancy’s Arctic and Northern Waters conservation work. Please join us in sharing these ideas with all who care about the future of our ocean.

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Indigenous Cultures and Environmental Management