SCUBAnauts Meet with Tallahassee Legislators
We at SCUBAnauts take ocean conservation very seriously and love to help the environment in any way we can. Florida Oceans Day 2019 was held on Tuesday, April 2nd in Tallahassee. Four nauts and three adult leaders drove up to Tallahassee the night before the big day to be ready for the next morning. We arrived at the Capitol building bright and early to set up our booth. While some Nauts ran the booth, sharing our mission with individuals and other organizations, others headed to the hallways to schedule meetings with our legislators to discuss important issues in ocean conservation. These issues included concerns about single use plastics and our support for research for water quality and improvement.
Government in Action
One of the most interesting parts of the day for me was attending the Community Affairs Subcommittee Meeting. We were there because we wanted to have a say on the plastic straw bill ban. We want to prevent any way that plastics can enter the ocean. One of those ways is to allow cities and towns to make up their own mind about banning plastic straws and plastic bags. It was really interesting to see how bills move through the committees in the process of becoming a law.
Explaining the MIssion of SCUBAnauts
Throughout the rest of the day, we attended meetings with representatives, including our local reps, Jackie Toledo and Chris Latvala. We discussed our mission and encouraged them to support bills that would protect our waters. We wrapped up the day at the Mote Marine Laboratory reception on the top floor of the new capitol building where we met Senate President Bill Galvano. We were happy to speak to Dr. Crosby from MOTE about plans for our upcoming summer trip to the Keys where we will be planting coral with MOTE.
SCUBAnauts wants to educate people about what is happening in our oceans and how they can get involved and help. Overall the trip was very successful. We talked about the mission of SCUBAnauts with many important decision makers. While the day was very exhausting and our feet hurt from all of the running around, I felt like we accomplished something worth noting.
