[Coral-List] The Saga of Dean Jacobson and Majuro Coral Mining

[Steve LeGore]

In order to visit the video link, you must remove the asterisks around "youtube"

Steve LeGore


-----Original Message-----
>From: Jim Hendee <jim.hendee at noaa.gov>
>Sent: Mar 14, 2014 10:50 AM
>To: Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
>Subject: [Coral-List] The Saga of Dean Jacobson and Majuro Coral Mining
>
>Greetings,
>
>    I don't usually do this [read: approximately never], but I've edited
>(removed a name) from within this message from Dean Jacobson (because of
>liability issues) and am forwarding it on to Coral-List; because as you
>will see, his computer is probably in a container on its way to the
>mainland and he can't edit the original message himself. 
>
>    This is one of the most unbelievable sagas of a person trying to do
>the right thing against all odds for the benefit of a coral reef area I
>think I've ever heard of.  This is one persistent fellow.  Perhaps he
>proceeded incorrectly or against local tradition, but perhaps not.  The
>fact appears to remain that the beautiful reefs depicted in his Youtube
>video are about to be destroyed.  As if the locals didn't have enough
>problems (see the video), destroying the reef will probably also
>compromise shoreline protection and destroy habitat for the local
>fishers.  At any rate, this looks to be a sad end to Dean's on-island
>plight, and let's hope his tenure on the island was not all for naught. 
>He mentions a petition in the video, but maybe more can be done.  I hope so.
>
>    Yours,
>    Jim
>
>On 3/12/14, 6:09 PM, coral-list-owner at coral.aoml.noaa.gov wrote:
>>
>> Subject:
>> Majuro coral mining
>> From:
>> Dean Jacobson <atolldino at yahoo.com>
>> Date:
>> 3/12/14, 6:08 PM
>>
>> To:
>> "coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov" <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
>>
>>
>> This update may seen too weird to be true, but trust me!  After trying
>> for more than a year to gain an audience with the RMI EPA Board of
>> Directors (who approved the ongoing US FAA-funded mining of the
>> reservoir lagoon reef without any environmental assessment, even
>> refusing to view my underwater photos), and being very polite and
>> friendly with the EPA manager Lowell Alik, who was beginning to show
>> some interest in visiting the still-intact "blue and gold reef" where
>> yellow branched Porites and violet Pocillopora (blue at a distance)
>> are interspersed, to great effect, I paid Lowell a recent visit.  He
>> had been off island a lot, I had trouble finding him.  He asked (many
>> months after our last talk) "when are we going to do the site visit?"
>> but the conditions were impossible, due to the waves and the nearby
>> dredging operation (visibility was near zero).  It triggered my pent
>> up frustration, and I complained bitterly to him about the corruption
>> of the entire permitting process.  A week later, I was arrested by 7
>> policeman, manhandled and handcuffed, and thrown into jail, for
>> "drunken disturbing the peace" (with drunken crossed out).  24 hours
>> later I was released (after a very unpleasant, hot night trying to
>> sleep on a hard board, being bitten by fire ants) and I was instantly
>> terminated from my teaching contract, with no one to take over my two
>> classes!  A week or two later, an unpredicted wave surge flooded parts
>> of Majuro, damaging many homes, and I was able to document this on
>> Gopro.  I made a video, linking coral destruction and increased risk
>> of coastal flooding.  
>> www.*youtube*.com/watch?v=ol5RKZwfKdI
>> So, I made plans to move back to the mainland, unemployed, and my
>> container is being loaded on a ship today.  Then I find this week that
>> I am being arraigned, prosecuted for "criminal trespass" by the
>> Attorney General's office for a snorkel survey I did in August 2012!
>>  This is clearly the work of [name removed] of PII, who is dredging
>> the reef, unconstrained by regulation.  I suggest you may want to take
>> action I suggest in the video, and also email PII.  I really could use
>> your support! 
>>
>> Thanks!      Dean Jacobson, Ph.D.
>>
>> inquiry at piimajuro.com
>>  
>>
>
>
>
>
>
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Steve LeGore, Ph.D.
LeGore Environmental Associates, Inc.
2804 Gulf Drive N.
Holmes Beach, Florida 34217 USA
Tel: 941/778-4650
Cell: 941/447-8010
GMT - 5 hrs