Dave Allison of Oceana posted this really good comment which I wanted to make sure everyone got the chance to see:
Randy: Thanks for the note on the success of the North Pacific deep sea coral project. But, as you and others in the community know, it takes more than one organization to bring the changes necessary for the health of the oceans.
In this case, the Alaska Marine Conservation Council, The Ocean Conservancy and the Alaska Oceans Network were just a few of the many local, regional and national organizations that are entitled to join in the celebration of this great step forward in ocean management. More than 30,000 members of these and other conservation and other stakeholder organizations wrote and called decision-makers on the way to our victory. In the end, even the trawl fishermen and their advocacy organizations joined in supporting this change to a new and progressive model for oceans mamagement.
Now we all move on to build even broader support for similar actions in the other fishery management councils, in the halls of Congress and with NOAA in the Department of Commerce.
Here's to more success for all of us and for the oceans.
Dave Allison, Director,
Oceana's campaign to stop destructive trawling.