You are invited to join us in creating the first BLUEFESTIVAL, October 3rd, along Seattle’s Waterfront.

“I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except that I think it’s because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes, and the ships change, it’s because we all came from the sea.”    -President John F Kennedy 1962

Oceans produce half of our needed oxygen, while regulating weather, sequestering carbon dioxide, providing healthy foods, transport of goods and recreation.

Acidification, garbage gyres, pollution and declining fish stocks are irrefutable evidence that we need to change course in how we treat our living seas.

Innovative solutions are needed. The BlueFestival provides a beautiful venue for discussion of many important issues…. how and what we feed ourselves is only one topic but has major environmental, economic and health ramifications.

Abundant and cheap seafoods were the promise of the "blue revolution". Yet, in tropical zones, shrimp farming is the greatest destroyer of mangroves and related intertidal wetlands, sea grasses and cora reefs the nurseries for sea life. In temperate zones, salmon farms pose risks to native fish species while polluting coastal regions.

The “National Offshore Aquaculture Act”, introduced into Congress, would allow fish farms as close as three miles to our nation’s beaches. Washington State waters are targeted for expanded production of geoduck clams, salmon, new species such as blackcod and "open ocean aquaculture" in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. (NOAA Sept. 2007)

Forty percent of wild seafoods come from the Bering Sea and Bristol Bay, called the world's "seafood basket". Yet this region is under assault by companies with plans to build the deepest open pit mine in North America, and drill offshore for oil and natural gas.

Other topics are as important and BlueFestival attendees will have opportunities for dialogue, coalition building and creative brainstorming.

There are also reasons to celebrate. Many organizations and businesses are committed to protecting and restoring our aquatic environment. Recreation, restoration and conservation groups connect citizens with the natural world and web of life. Young people are increasingly involved in environmental programs. Many maritime companies, such as tugs, ferries, deep sea and steamship companies, and spill response organizations are growing our blue/green economy through responsible environmental stewardship. Unions and training programs educating the future workforce ensure vital family wage jobs. Fishing organizations, processing companies and retail marketers provide consumers with health enhancing, sustainably managed and harvested seafoods.

The range of potential topics is vast and complex, like the oceans themselves. The issues are also the seabed of future discussions, research and policy making. They include:

* Our blue planet at risk
Climate change and rising seas
Ocean acidification
Destruction of tropical estuaries and mangrove forests to feed our “cheap shrimp” habit

*Pollution
Marine debris and plastics
Pesticides, urban and agricultural run off
Drilling and mining in the world’s “seafood basket”, source of 40% of our wild seafoods: Bering Sea, and Bristol Bay (where more than 40 million salmon returned in a summer month in 2009).
Exxon Valdez oil spill aftermath

*Governance and Policy
Shoreline Management Plans and industrialization of our shorelines
Marine preserves and sanctuaries
Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated high seas fishing (IUU)
Targeting of local rivers by global water bottling companies
Marine feedlot legislation introduced into Congress: The "National Offshore Aquaculture Act" allowing cages of fish as close as three miles to our coastlines and wild salmon rivers
Restoring Puget Sound's web of life that depends on functioning, biodiverse ecosystems

*Celebrations
Sustainably managed fisheries, families and businesses bringing wild seafoods to the public’s dinner plates; health benefits of wild fish
Verifiable seafood certification programs and consumer education campaigns
Maritime unions, employment and training programs; working women at sea
Salmon recovery and beach watch projects, training naturalists, public access
Wetland, watershed and habitat protection and restoration
Growing our blue/green economy through responsible environmental stewardship
Tribal and First Nation commitment to recovery of wild salmon, river and coastal ecosystems

Warm regards,

Anne Mosness
Go Wild Campaign
1081 Sudden Valley
Bellingham, Washington 98229
Email: gowildcampaign@aol.com

Alfredo Quarto, Executive Director
Mangrove Action Project
PO Box 1854
Port Angeles, Wa. 98362-0279
www.mangroveactionproject.org
Email: mangroveap@olympus.net
Phone: 360-671-6478
Phone/Fax (360) 452-5866
Cell: 360-224-4100