Watch Sigourney Weaver Stay on Message With "Acid Test"

I am no fan of TV news for so many reasons, and this interview on Fox provides such a great example of why. Watch the hosts try to get Sigourney Weaver to promote her upcoming sci-fi flick - Avatar - and watch her skillfully keep on message with her much more important project: Acid Test, which seeks to educate the world on the problem of ocean acidification.

Why Does Sustainability Stop at the Shoreline?

I recently had the opportunity to dine at one of my favorite restaurants in Annapolis, Md. -- at least it had been my favorite when I lived there 25 years ago (ouch!): The Cafe Normandie. Some nights I still dream of the cafe's tomato bisque, which was the height of affordable luxury for me during my college days.

The cafe had long since changed location and ownership, but I had heard the bisque was as to-die-for as ever, so Lyn and I decided have lunch there. The first thing to greet me upon walking in the door was a plaque from Sustainable Annapolis recognizing the cafe's sustainability record.

Joy!

Midway between my tomato & crabmeat bisque (adding crab was not an option 25 years ago - so far, so good!) and my Caesar salad, I took the opportunity to quiz the manager on the restaurant's sustainability accomplishments. He proudly told me about how the cafe's commitment to sustainability predated the existence of Sustainable Annapolis; how their vehicles used bio-diesel and all kitchen waste was composted; and even their drinking straws were made of compostable, corn-based plastic from Eco-Products. There were more laudable aspects of the cafe's sustainability strategy that I don't remember (I was there for lunch and didn't have my handy-dandy digital recorder). The next step, he said, was going to be solar panels on the roof.

Duly impressed, I asked how the restaurant's sustainability commitment extended to its seafood procurement practices. I might as well have asked him why glurp always relminizes. There was a moment of silent blinking as he processed the question, then he proceeded to tell me how all their seafood was purchased fresh every day to ensure quality and freshness. The idea that there were overfished species that ought to be off limits did not seem to be part of his sustainability narrative.

This is not surprising. Until fairly recently, I was as ignorant as the average Joe or Jane about the issues of overfishing, by-catch, etc. For most people and businesses, seafood sustainability is simply not part of the conversation. This is particularly sad in the case of Annapolis, a city by the water with more seafood restaurants than you can shake a stick at. If they could take a strong position on seafood sustainability, they would be a shining example.

Sustainable Annapolis will be hearing from the Sea E O. Stay tuned.

Obama Oceans Task Force Report: What Does It Mean for Ocean-Friendly Business?

I was always taught not to write a "question-mark headline" if the story I'm writing doesn't offer at least some answers to the question posed. Well, I'm going to break that rule. I just read the Interim Report of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force and, though it clearly demonstrates an understanding of all the relevant issues, I don't know what to make of it from the perspective of someone who wants to launch or expand an ocean-friendly business.

It is promising to see that the Obama Administration recognizes the need for a comprehensive national oceans policy and that that policy must extend to the inland activities affecting ocean health(I read this to mean use of chemical fertilizers, plastics, and coal-fired power plants, which are responsible for most of the non-naturally occurring mercury in our oceans). And since this is the task force's first report, I fully expected it to be short on specifics. The task force's next step is to develop "a framework for coastal and marine spatial planning, due to the President by December 9, 2009."

From a business-planning perspective, the opportunities and risks associated with the ultimate plan will depend on the combination of incentives and penalities actually put into place. Will the Administration dare to take on the agri-business and chemical-industry lobbies by reducing or eliminating the explicit and implicit subsidies that protect and support them while encouraging ocean-damaging agricultural practices? What about a phased-in ban on certain uses of plastics? Wouldn't it be laudable to discourage the continuous creation of plastic packaging that consumes years' worth of non-renewable petroleum resources and will exist far longer than products whose freshness on the shelf they were created to ensure? Will the task force recommend seafood traceability standards? Support sustainable aquaculture practices?

I guess I'm hoping there are people out there who know a lot more about these issues than I do (God help us if there aren't) and that they'll be kind enough to share their insights. What opportunities will emerge? What risks? Let's share some likely scenarios.

What Ocean-Friendly Businesses Can Learn From the Spiny Dogfish

Two weeks later, beautiful weather prevailed and the Ocean Opportunity party finally got out into the warm Gulf Stream waters off Narragansett, RI. Conditions could not have been nicer, and a small group - including educators, students, underwater photographers, and one corporate type - went out on The Snappa, the only craft in the area offering shark cage diving.

To make a long story short, we had a nice boat ride but were unable to draw any of the handful of blue and mako sharks we spotted on the surface near enough to the boat for a decent interactive dive. Does this say anything about the depletion of sharks in the Atlantic? I suppose it must, to an extent, but I know that the previous weekend more than 15 blues hung around the same boat all day. We know they're out there, and I'll be back to look for them!

So, we snorkeled a bit and did some bottom fishing, which is where the story gets interesting. Captain Charlie cracked out a fishing rod so one of the kids on board could kill some time.

"Maybe you'll catch a cod," he said with the expression of a man who has lost the ability to deceive himself but keeps trying anyway, for the sake of the kids. The New England waters used to be thick with Atlantic cod before the stocks collapsed.

Needless to say, no cod were caught that day, but about two dozen spiny dogfish (a pretty bottom-feeding shark) were landed. They weren't even taking the bait - they were getting hooked in the fins, the gills, the flanks. The water 100 feet down must've been thick with them.

Which leads to the business lesson of the spiny dogfish: crisis for one is opportunity for another. Commercial fisherman and the fish-eating public exploited an abundant resource (the Atlantic cod) to near extinction, and the dogfish raced in to fill the niche thus opened up. The cod's (and cod fishermen's) crisis created opportunities for the dogfish and for fishermen in other parts of the world who could provide cod substitutes. Now, many of those substitutes are going the way of the cod. For the spiny dogfish, however, conditions could not be nicer.

The ocean is in crisis, and - whether they fully understand it or not - so are the industries that depend on the ocean for survival. Many of those industries will not survive. There will be regulation. Or, with growing consumer awareness of the problem, a backlash among the fish-eating population. Or the oceans will simply run out of fish. Who will fill the niche? Can they do so in ways that will provide long-term solutions, rather than simply driving another species or ecosystem to the brink?

One species looking to seize the opportunity is represented by Captain Charlie and The Snappa. As the world grows more aware of the plight of sharks through films like Sharkwater and anti-shark-finning campaigns by celebrities like NBA star Yao Ming, people will want to see and interact with sharks before they become too scarce. How soon until more Captain Charlies - men who used to take people out to catch and kill sharks and now take them out to dive with and observe sharks - start shifting their business models?

This will reduce pressure on local populations and, through competition, drive down the cost of getting out among sharks. It also will create a virtuous cycle of awareness and action. I am sure Frank (the 16 year old who got a very practical lesson on board the Snappa about how exploiting one species can affect an entire eco-system) will remember this experience and, as he grows into a full-fledged consumer, make different choices than previous generations did.

Will your business be ready for Frank?

Where Are the Plastic Alternatives?!

Hurricane Bill put the kabosh on my shark dive this past weekend but, despite the high seas, the weather was gorgeous so I got to spend time with my Dad, my son Adam, and my nephew Zak exploring a bit of Narragansett, R.I. - a first-time visit for all of us.

Beautiful beaches, clear water, loads of seabirds - and way too much plastic on floating in the water and clinging to the jetties. From one small patch of shore I filled a plastic garbage bag (which, incidentally, I found on that very shore) with all manner of plastic detritus.

I keep referencing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in my posts, but you don't have to look far or imagine something so vast to understand the importance of eliminating plastic from our oceans. Is there anyone who doesn't know by now that fish, turtles, sea birds, and marine mammals mistake plastic for food and die eating it? Add to that the number of marine animals that die unnecessarily because they get tangled up in lost nets or tangles of fishing line and you have a major problem, long before you get to the daunting concern about plastic breaking down and entering OUR food supply.

It is tempting to lay the blame for our plastic mess on "lazy consumers" who don't recycle or "evil corporations" that keep producing and using plastic despite the environmental harm it does - but who is offering alternatives? There is clearly an addressable market for plastic alternatives among the millions of people who do understand and care about the problem of plastics. Is anyone producing plastic alternatives to serve this market niche?

Most of the plastic items we retrieved this weekend fell into the following categories:

• Bottles,
• Bags,
• Food wrappers and juice packets, and
• Broken bits of larger items, like lawn furniture.

Alternatives to plastics exist for all of these uses, and all of these items can be recycled to extend their useful life and keep them out of the ocean. The question is: who has established a business model and marketing approach to get them out of the "green ghetto" and into the mainstream?

Anyone care to share?