When we think of the Super Bowl – according to Arcadia Publishing – the most popular sporting event in America, ocean conservation and military veterans are usually not the best. But over the past two years, a unique collaboration ahead of the annual game has put coral recovery at the forefront of the world’s attention.
NFL Green, the NFL’s Environmental and Sustainability Program, has been running community outreach initiatives for the sports league for nearly thirty years. Each season culminates with ‘Green Week’ before the big event, with projects sponsored by the NFL and Super Bowl hosting committee benefiting each host community, explains Susan Groh, director of the NFL Green.
“The goal of NFL Green is to reduce the environmental impact of our events and go beyond leaving a positive green legacy,” Groh told EcoWatch. Efforts include food recycling, recycling and waste management, donating used opportunities and building materials and offsetting energy for opportunities.
This green legacy has also included a touch of blue over the past two years, meaning that conservation efforts are focused on the waters of host cities Miami in 2020 and now Tampa in 2021. The activities of the Miami Green Week for Super Bowl LIV included that 100 endangered staghorn corals were planted in Biscayne Bay in honor of the NFL’s 100th season, Groh said.
In recent years, the effort has expanded to ‘100 Yards of Hope’, a football field coral repair project. The end zones and middle of the field-sized reef were placed in the fall of 2020, followed by divers planting thousands of staghorn and mountain-like star corals from the Florida Aquarium (FLAQ), the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) . , SECORE International and Frost Science, explains Debborah Luke, senior vice president of FLAQ.
Military veterans and coral scientists are working together to plant endangered coral as part of the NFL’s 100 Yards of Hope. Force Blue
“This extremely important project is helping to repair the coral reef in Florida, the third largest barrier reef in the world, which is in crisis,” Luke told EcoWatch.
Luke’s coral reef offers important nursery areas that support the oceanic ecosystem and protect shorelines from storms and erosion. It also offers significant economic benefits by pumping $ 3.4 billion annually into the U.S. economy through jobs, tourism, seafood and medicine, Groh of the NFL added.
Unfortunately, global factors such as the climate crisis, ocean warming and acidification continue to threaten, along with local pollutants and a mysterious coral disease.
“More than 90 percent of [the reef’s] coral dies … Florida coral reef repair is essential if we want to keep harvesting [its] benefits, ”Luke said.
100 Yards of Hope intends to turn this lane around on a single counter reef, explained Dalton Hesley, a senior research fellow at RSMAS. It is the first large-scale recovery project that combines thousands of sexual and asexual multi-species coral transplants, along with disease detection and mitigation, hedgehog removal and high-resolution mapping. These actions increase coral cover, diversity and recovery, Hesley noted.
“100 Yards of Hope is a symbol. It’s a symbol of what passionate, hopeful individuals can achieve if they work on a shared vision,” Hesley told EcoWatch. “What started as a celebration of the NFL’s 100th season has turned into a battle for the future of our coral reef.”
Last week, 150 elk horn corals, another endangered coral species, were added to the field. RSMAS provided 55 of the endangered coral in celebration of Super Bowl 55 this past weekend. FLAQ provided the remaining coral. A final plantation of massive brain and star coral in the spring will complete 100 Yards of Hope, Groh said.
Force Blue military veterans helped with the plantings. The nonprofit training diverts and uses former veterans of special operations and military-trained combat divers to work with scientists and environmentalists on marine conservation work, explains executive director Jim Ritterhoff.
55 divers remove marine debris from Tampa Bay as part of NFL’s Green Week. Force Blue
“If we can do something good for veterans by giving them a new mission to save the planet and provide a highly skilled workforce to the scientific community, all the better,” Ritterhoff said. ‘But maybe the [touchdown] it’s all how this effort uses Navy SEALS and the NFL, people you traditionally do not see talking about conservation, to reach an audience that will not necessarily pay attention to coral reef scientists. People listen because these guys are their heroes. ‘
Ritterhoff noted that this is more of a global project than a local Florida project, and I added: ‘I think it’s essential that everyone is aware of these issues. The coral reef in Florida is a national treasure and it can be 100 percent gone in our lifetime. . If we do not act differently, it will be gone. ‘
The NFL Green Week included planting the Reed Park Community Garden in Tampa Bay. Michael Farrant / Tampa Bay Super Bowl LV Host Committee
In addition to the coral restoration efforts, NFL Green has completed traditional community greening projects. This involves setting up pollinator gardens, planting mangroves, restoring the coastline and adding sand dunes to prevent erosion and storm damage.
NFL Green also connected land and sea with an underwater clearance called Dive 55 at the mouth of Tampa Bay. For that, Force Blue team leaders led 55 divers to pick up more than 1.5 tons of debris, not limited to old fishing, rope, net, plastic and beach trash, Groh said. Some of the restored items will be used by local students to create art projects displayed at FLAQ to raise awareness of marine debris.
“It’s all about leadership and legacy,” Groh said. “Major events have the opportunity to not only compensate for the environmental impact of their events, but also to go much further than making the communities present better than they found it. The world faces significant environmental challenges and it goes we all take them. “
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