Emily Jeffers: Staff Attorney, Oceans Program

On Wednesday July 10, the Earthscope interns went to the Center of Biological Diversity and I interviewed Emily Jeffers, staff attorney in the oceans program. Going into university, Jeffers decided to study biology in order to become a scientist. After working with fisheries for a little bit, she decided that the sea needed advocates and there was only so much scientists could do. So, she went to Berkeley Law to become an environmental lawyer. She interned at the Center of Biological Diversity and then interviewed for the position of an ocean attorney after graduating one and a half years ago, and has been working there ever since.

According to Jeffers, the goal of the oceans department within the Center of Biological Diversity is to “protect endangered species and the ecosystems they rely on.” The four main focus areas of the department are the climate which deals with issues such as ocean acidification, oil and gas development, overfishing and bycatch due to poor fishing habits, and pollution, both noise and plastic. In order to address these issues, the program submits petitions to the EPA to place species under the Endangered Species Act and submits petitions for critical habitats, to give those species under the Endangered Species Act extra protection to recover. They also sue the government if they feel as if the government has failed to follow through on environmental laws. The Center of Biological Diversity works with federal and state agencies too, to improve harmful practices. Jeffers believes that working with the agencies is “sometimes more effective than litigation.”  In addition, the program educates and informs the public about the environmental issues the company addresses.

Jeffers works within the ocean department specifically on ocean acidification and plastic pollution. Ocean acidification is a major issue that requires attention since there has been, in recent years, an unprecedented increase in acidity in oceans due to the fact that 30 percent of carbon emissions are absorbed by the oceans which changes the ocean chemistry and makes it more acidic. The increase in acidification affects coral reefs and creatures with hard shells which will soften. The Center of Biological Diversity and Jeffers are trying to get state agencies and the federal government to use the Clean Water Act to address the issue of ocean acidification. They are also petitioning the federal EPA using administrative and scientific petitions and litigation to make the water quality criteria standards to make them more relevant toward ocean acidification.

Plastic pollution is also an important issue to address as animals in the ocean often believe plastic is food or will become entangled in it and will die due to drowning or choking because of the plastic. For example, sea turtles often think that plastic bags are jellyfish and other fish think that small plastic particles are plankton and when the plastic does not digest in their stomach, they starve because they believe they are full. Jeffers told us that there are also more studies concerning plastic, showing that the toxic consistency increases over time as it attracts toxic chemicals from the surrounding seawater so as the plastic is brought up the food web, it becomes more and more toxic.  Jeffers is currently focusing on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands because “a current goes through and catches plastic pollution on the shores.” According to Jeffers, about 50 million tons of plastic are removed from the shores of the Islands each season. Last fall, Jeffers submitted a petition to the EPA to designate the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a Superfund site which would clean up the toxic area and protect it from further pollution. The Superfund fund was made by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). She told us “we petitioned the EPA to conduct a preliminary analysis of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to see if they qualify for a cleanup under CERCLA.” Another part of the petition was to analyze the toxicity of the plastic in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and how the toxicity threatens the surrounding species.

-Sophi Leporte, Earthscope Student Reporter