The Gulf Oil Spill – Please Don’t Watch…Help!

In the years before I became a maritime lawyer (and then a travel agent) I was a biologist, earning a Bachelors of Science with honors in biology, spending untold hours on lakes, rivers and oceans studying, working as a biological aid for the National Marine Fisheries Service, etc….and not making very much money.

I decided to attend the University of Miami School of Law and specialized in Ocean and Coastal Law and started out wanting to use the law and my biology background to save the environment.  It was frustrating and, in many ways, futile in the early days of environmentalism.  (Remember when Please Don’t Litter was a big deal?)  My efforts to represent the Florida Audubon Society in its goal of limiting development in the Florida Keys was both a highlight and a low of my early career.

But my efforts over the years…before I ever stepped on a cruise ship or a yacht…caused me to spend so much of my time on our waters…really looking at them…really understanding them…really getting that what laps at the shore is but a hint of the real issues pollution causes.

I am convinced that the Gulf Oil Spill is already one of the world’s greatest environmental disasters.  And it is growing…and is potentially going to be caught up in the Gulf Stream sending oiling around the coast of Florida and beyond.  This is not alarmist stuff.  It is what is really happening.

Please don’t wait to see thousands of oil covered birds, dead dolphins, destroyed wetlands, etc.  There is one thing you can do now that will enable those that can truly act to assist in PREVENTION of greater damage and that is to donate to a responsible environmental organization that is able to act NOW. 

My preference is The Nature Conservancy (www.nature.org).  It is a truly responsible organization that puts its donations where they belong and protects countless acres of environmentally important lands.  There are other wonderful organizations (I donate to many), so ask me for other options if you like, but please donate TODAY so that we can assist in preventing the worst from happening.

Thanks!  Eric