I get by with a little help from my friends
July 14, 2009
Hey there! Happy Summer. I hope this note finds you tan, happy and well. I have found a few days of catch up time, so I apologize for the several blog blasts that I will be sending along in the next few days – but I might as well get it all out there.
I thought I’d start with a little appeal first as the news about summer sailing in Nova Scotia, racing events in Key West, and the rest might overshadow my little request.
As you probably already know (I never shut up about it) I am the commodore of the Ocean Conservation Yacht Club. The OCYC (rolls off the tongue doesn’t it?) is a partnership with Oceana – the biggest baddest Ocean Conservation group in the world, and me. The goal is simply to engage more sailors with the truth about the health of our oceans and what sailors (or anyone for that matter) can do about it.
OK, so start with that. Now jump ahead (Tarrentino style) to Sunday July 26th. I will be running the New York City Triathlon as part of the Oceana/OCYC/Nautica Team. Swim the Hudson. Bike the West Side Highway. Run Central Park. Now you might ask out loud – I didn’t think kb was a triathlete. And compared to the competition, I might not be. But I’m swimming and biking and running and finishing this one. And I’m going to do it faster than the last one (Chicago) that I did more or less off the couch.
OK, now come on back to today. Come on back. Never one to let an opportunity slide by, I am raising some funds for ocean conservation via this event. Oceana has helped me to set up a really slick website so that kind, giving, ocean loving folks like you can make a tax deductible charitable donation to the cause. The funds I raise go directly to help protect species, improve fish stocks, reduce pollution, and fight bad guys.
Here is the link to my Oceana Fundraising Page. As you will see when you check it out, someone already made a $100 dollar contribution. I am only asking for $10 at a time – but there’s nothing stopping you from giving more. Thanks in advance for your support. If everyone gave just $10 I would make my goal of $1000.00 a reality. So please check it out, give a little, and I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
Keep you eyes on the Gale Force and OCYC blogs. I’ll be squawking about my training and the event between now and the 26th!
Thanks, I look forward to catching up with you soon –
kb
OCEANA CAMPAIGNS TO PROTECT AND RESTORE THE WORLD’S OCEANS.
Our team of marine scientists, economists, lawyers and advocates win specific and concrete policy changes to reduce pollution and to prevent the irreversible collapse of fish populations, marine mammals and other sea life. Global in scope, Oceana has campaigners based in North America (Washington, DC; Juneau and Anchorage, AK; Portland, OR; Monterey, CA; St. Petersburg, FL; Boston, MA; New York City, NY), Europe (Madrid, Spain; Brussels, Belgium) and South America (Santiago, Chile). More than 300,000 members and e-activists in over 150 countries have already joined Oceana.
Oceana’s major campaigns and projects include dirty fishing, destructive trawling, sharks, seafood contamination, sea turtles, fishing subsidies, and global warming.
The dirty fishing campaign works to stop wasteful bycatch, which is the massive quantity of fish and other ocean life that is thrown back, dead or dying, by commercial fisheries. In a nutshell, Oceana’s approach to the problem is the three C’s: Count, Cap, and Control. We are calling on the federal government to address dirty fishing as is required under existing law and immediately implement these three critical measures to end wasteful fishing practices.
The destructive trawling campaign works with scientists, lawyers, commercial and recreational fishermen, U.S. ocean policy managers at the regional and federal levels, the White House, U.S. Congressional members, state public officials, and other interested private organizations to protect deep sea coral communities and other critical ocean environment from destructive fishing gear including bottom trawlers and dredgers.
The sharks campaign is working worldwide to protect sharks, increase awareness on the need for shark conservation, and promote international cooperation on these highly migratory animals. To protect sharks in U.S. waters, Oceana is pushing for better management of shark fisheries, encouraging the government to address shark bycatch problems, and reducing the demand for shark products, such as squalene. In South America, Oceana is pressing for a shark finning ban in Chile, and in Europe, we are working as part of the Shark Alliance to close loopholes in European policy regarding shark finning.
The seafood contamination campaign works to protect children, adults and marine life from mercury poisoning. Our campaign targets grocery stores and chlorine plants. Our campaigners call on the major grocery chains to post warning signs in the stores where the fish of concern are sold, and working to phase out mercury-emitting chlorine production in the United States.
The sea turtles campaign works to protect sea turtles from commercial fishing gear, including dredges, gillnets, longlines and trawls, which are the greatest threat to sea turtles. We have also petitioned the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of the Interior to uplist the loggerhead sea turtle population from “threatened” to “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act.
The fishing subsidies campaign works to curb overfishing by stopping global fishing subsidies, in which governments essentially pay fishermen to overfish. Working with the World Trade Organization, our campaigners are working to “cut the bait.”
The climate change project works on Capitol Hill, advocating for reduced greenhouse gas emissions, the planning and mitigation of the effects of climate change on our oceans, and funding for climate change research, including research on ocean acidification.
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I am the owner of Gale Force Sailing and write about all things related to coaching, instruction and team building. contact me>>
