Grand Isle Dead Zone Conference: A Call to Fishermen and Concerned Citizens
August 11, 2007The Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico is growing! This year, it is expected to be larger than in any year since its discovery. Are you concerned? Well, this is your call to action! Join your coastal neighbors by participating in a strategy session on the problem. It will be held on Grand Isle, Louisiana’s only inhabited barrier island, on Friday, September 7, 2007, from 1:00PM until 4:30PM at the Community Center located at 3811 HWY 1.
THIS IS A SPECIFIC CALL TO PRIVATE CITIZENS to engage your ideas, input, and support, to work on reducing the size of the Dead Zone. We are requesting all citizens, commercial and recreational fishermen, charter captains, concerned individuals, business people involved in the tourism industry and our coastal neighbors to attend this important event.
The session will include a presentation on the latest research by Dr. Nancy Rabalais, executive director of the Louisiana University Marine Consortium (LUMCON) and one of the foremost authorities on gulf hypoxia. Dr. Gregory Stone, director of the LSU Coastal Studies Institute, Kerry St.Pe, director of the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program (BTNEP), and Doug Daigle, Coordinator of the Lower Mississippi River Sub-Basin Committee will also be speaking. The facilitated session will then brainstorm and strategize creative and effective ways to enforce and implement existing measures and develop new ones to counteract the causes and effects of gulf hypoxia.
For those who would like to spend the night, Saturday, September 8, will include some special activities, sailboat rides, nature and history tours and other activities. Bring the family. We can help you find lodging.
Join the Grand Isle Port Commission, Mississippi River Basin Alliance, LSU Ag Center, LA. SeaGrant, America’s Wetlands, BTNEP, the Nature Conservancy and the Gulf Restoration Network and others as we build strategies to reduce gulf hypoxia to natural levels. Following the strategy session, a free dinner will be provided. Please RSVP for dinner by September 5, 2007. For more information and dinner RSVP, please contact Wayne Keller, director of the Grand Isle Port Commission by email (preferably) at waynek@grandisleport.com or by calling 985.787.2229.