May 15 webinar planned on fish farms proposed off Florida coast

Nonprofit Healthy Gulf to host event at 7:30 p.m.

At 7:30 p.m. on Monday, May 15, the nonprofit Healthy Gulf will host an online webinar about fish farms proposed off the Florida coast, the organization has announced.

Those wishing to participate in the event may click this link to register for it.

Healthy Gulf explains in a news release that the federal government and private companies “are proposing multiple industrial fish farms off the Gulf coast of Florida, threatening the health of Gulf waters and stocks of wild fish. Join us as we learn about these proposed farms, their specific locations off the Florida coast, and work being done to keep them from harming Gulf waters and marine life.”

Among the guest speakers during the webinar will be Neal Schleifer of  Siesta Key, vice president of the Siesta Key Condominium Council as well as the Florida community advocate for Healthy Gulf; Christian Wagley, coastal organizer with Healthy Gulf; and Andrianna Natsoulas, campaign director of the nonprofit Don’t Cage Our Oceans. “Don’t Cage Our Oceans is a coalition of 14 nonprofit organizations working to stop offshore fish farming while uplifting values-based sea-food systems led by local communities,” the release points out.

As its website explains, the mission of Healthy Gulf “is to collaborate with and serve communities who live on the Gulf of Mexico by providing the research, communications, and coalition-building tools needed to reverse the long pattern of over exploitation of the Gulf’s natural resources.”

The website adds, “In the beginning, Healthy Gulf operated as a project of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund (formally the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund), receiving financial and staff assistance from that organization. Our first Campaign Director, Cynthia Sarthou, was hired in October of 1995. In 1998, Healthy Gulf became an independent corporation and obtained 501(c)(3) status.”