In shadow of algae bloom, Embrace the Gulf 2020 to promote Gulf’s ability to recover

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) - 2020 will mark big anniversaries for Gulf tragedies.

It will be 15 years since Hurricane Katrina and 10 years since the BP oil spill. The Gulf of Mexico Alliance wants to make it a celebration, and on Thursday, it gave Coast leaders a heads up on its Embrace the Gulf promotional campaign that starts in 2020.

“We thought that was an important message for our local businesses to start to hear,” said Tracy Yanez, director of the Gulfport Chamber of Commerce. “They can also start planning how they could participate and celebrate and amplify the positive messages that will be shared through this media campaign.”

The program, which kicks off Jan. 1, is designed to promote all things good about the Gulf from Texas to Florida.

Alliance director Laura Bowie said that among the good things is the ability to recover from the bad, like the algae bloom in the Mississippi Sound that has created a tourism and seafood industry crisis.

“We’re going to bounce back and we’re going be OK,” she said. “The other states have experienced the same type of thing. They are bouncing back. They are OK. So, we will be too, we just need to take the time and approach it in a scientific way.”

That’s where the 15-year-old alliance steps in big time, providing a platform for scientists here to network with other scientists throughout the region.

“They’re really able to share techniques and challenges and lessons learned to find those really effective and efficient solutions that we’re all looking for,” Bowie added.

Monty Graham, the director of USM School of Ocean Science and Engineering, agreed this alliance is needed for scientific and political reasons.

“You have to be part of a team to deal with issues like this, and it’s going to be a bigger team when we really get to the root of the issue, which is far upstream in the Mississippi water shed,” he said. “And that’s going to take a lot of political clout and that’s another place that the Gulf of Mexico Alliance can play.”

Learn more about Embrace the Gulf by checking out its website.

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