Where do we go from here?

Today I was going to put out a piece on how NOAA Fisheries failed us again on the 2024 Update on the marine mammal noise exposure guidelines.

But in light of yesterday’s devastating election, I am going to suggest we all stop for the day and consider where we are at this inflection point.

Last week I was on a call with eNGO colleagues crafting a document informing the incoming Harris administration on her first 100 days about the priorities of our ocean conservation community.

There used to be this convention that an incoming administration would be given some slack in the first 100 days by the legislative branch to get their bearings and set their sails before the policy conflicts would begin. (I think this ended with Obama’s entry into the Federal mosh pit.)

45 minutes into the meeting someone asked, “Should we put together a similar document for the Trump administration if Harris doesn’t win?”

I responded that if Harris doesn’t win, the Trump administration plans on dismantling all of the agencies we in the Environmental community have as handles on our government.

NOAA will be privatized; National Marine Fisheries will be reduced to handing out fishing licenses; The Marne Mammal Commission will be reduced to funding whale research; The EPA will be dismantled; the Department of the Interior will become a federal rental agency for resource extractors; etc.

Having no regulatory handles, in a year we in the conservation business will be out of a job.
Today we need to consider all that this means.

Tomorrow we need to start thinking about what we will do about it.

Stay tuned.