About Bluewater Network

Our Mission
Bluewater Network works to stop environmental damage from vehicles and vessels, and to protect human health and the planet by reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Bluewater is a division of Friends of the Earth - the U.S. voice of the world's largest network of environmental groups with one million supporters in 70 countries across five continents.

Our History
The story of Bluewater Network begins in the province of Kerala, along the coastline on the western side of India’s peninsula. Dr. Russell Long, world-class sailor and environmental activist, traveled there to work with traditional fishermen to design watercraft that could serve the community as well as reduce environmental impacts on Kerala’s waterways. What he found was that the pollution from two-stroke outboard engines was destroying the way of life for these fishermen and their environment.

Two-stroke engines power nearly all outboard boats and personal watercraft, and the basic design has remained essentially unchanged since the 1940s. The flaw of the two-stroke engine is that it fails to burn 25 to 30 percent of its fuel. Instead, two-stroke engines eject the oil and gas unburned through the tailpipe – and into the water. In Kerala, boats powered by two-stroke engines were poisoning the fish that thrive there; residents complained that a day’s catch would taste like kerosene. In the United States, two-stroke engines are responsible for 1.1 billion pounds of toxic emissions each year (for more information about the environmental problems associated with two-stroke engines, read our Two-Stroke Engine Fact Sheet). In response to his experience with the fishermen in Kerala, Russell Long founded Bluewater Network in 1996 as a project of Earth Island Institute and waged an extraordinarily successful campaign to reduce the pollution caused by two-stroke engines in the United States. Accomplishments include the following:

Since 1996, the major marine engine manufacturers, including American Honda and Mercury Marine, report that sales of two-stroke engine craft have decreased as sales of cleaner four-stroke technology have increased well past projections. Bluewater Network convinced the California Air Resources Board to develop the strongest regulations for marine motors in the nation.

Bluewater Network developed the first eco-labeling program in the nation for marine motor (to learn more about this program, read our Eco-labeling Fact Sheet). Bluewater Network soon expanded these efforts to address the damage caused by personal watercraft and snowmobiles (the vast majority of which are powered by two-stroke engines) in our public lands and waterways. Over the ensuing years, Bluewater Network has grown rapidly from one person to a staff of nearly ten people tackling the myriad of air and water quality problems caused by the transportation sector.

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Bluewater Network Staff

Russell Long – Founder and Program Advisor Bluewater Network, and Friends of the Earth Board of Directors Vice President. Holding degrees from Harvard (Bachelor of Arts), Columbia (Master of Business Administration), and California Institute of Integral Studies (Ph.D.), Russell is an activist and development ecologist specializing in environmental and public health issues. Russell founded Bluewater Network in 1996. Prior to that, as manager for a fisheries project in Kerala, India, Russell worked with traditional fishers to develop ecologically sustainable craft designs. The environmental problems experienced by the fishers as a result of the United Nations introducing two-stroke outboard engines in India led him to the founding of Bluewater Network. Bluewater's first and ongoing campaign has been to end the tremendous levels of petroleum pollution coming from outboard engines and personal watercraft, which cause 150 million gallons of water pollution per year in the US. Russell was named one of the 21 most influential people in the marine industry in the 21st century by Boating Industry Magazine in its January 2000 issue. He has collaborated with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) to develop state-of-the-art, energy-efficient housing in California and has lectured and presented on many environmental, legislative, and public health issues.

Marsha Mather-Thrift, Managing Director. Marsha has raised more than $12 million for nonprofit organizations and specialized in “growing” small grassroots nonprofits. After 11 years building San Francisco BayKeeper from a seed grant to a regional organization with statewide and national impact on water pollution issues, Marsha joined Bluewater Network in 2002. Prior to BayKeeper, Marsha served as a development consultant, developing a Marine Center at Fort Mason. Before consulting, she served as Executive Director of the California Center for Wildlife for five years (where she won state funding for a new wildlife center facility and led the design effort to build it). She also founded and served as Director of the Foundation for Ethical Studies, producing a major public bio-ethics lecture/debate series that was broadcast on KQED and KPFA public radio stations. After graduate school, she became the Program Director for Fort Mason Center, a national park cultural and arts center. She holds a B.A. in creative writing from University of California at Irvine, an M.A. in literature from U.C. Davis, and pursued extensive Ph.D. studies in literature and film at Columbia University. She is currently a board member for Earth Share of California.

Danielle Fugere – Global Warming Campaign Director. Danielle Fugere has been practicing environmental law on behalf of non-profit, grassroots groups for more than 12 years, most recently as managing partner of the law firm Environmental Advocates. Ms. Fugere’s litigation work has helped to secure broad compliance with environmental laws, industry conversions to cleaner and more environmentally sound technologies; and settlements to redress harms to the environment. Her most recent settlement required the City and County of Los Angeles to conduct a $2.1 billion upgrade of the City’s sanitary sewer system. Ms. Fugere has consulted on forestry issues over the past five years, and continues to serve as an Advisor to the Executive Committee of the Environmental Section of the State Bar of California. She served on the Board of Directors of Bluewater Network for nearly two years and recently resigned to accept the position of Global Warming Campaign Director and Legal Director for Bluewater Network. Ms. Fugere was awarded the WaterKeeper’s Environmental Achievement Award in 2000 in recognition of her outstanding achievement in protecting California waters from pollution. Ms. Fugere holds a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall) and a B.A. in political economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Carl Schneebeck – Public Lands Campaign Director. Carl Schneebeck has worked and volunteered in the environmental field for more than ten years. Prior to joining Bluewater Network in 2003, Carl managed a number of public land campaigns for the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance in Jackson, Wyoming including efforts to prohibit scenic helicopter tours of the area and a public relations campaign to protect critical winter wildlife habitat. Carl served as a ranger naturalist at Grand Teton National Park for four years, taught natural history at the Teton Science School in Kelly, Wyoming and completed an internship at Muir Woods National Monument in California. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Biology and Management and a Minor in English from the University of California, Davis in 1995, where he volunteered for the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) and co-founded a student-run environmental education program for local schools. A lifelong outdoor enthusiast, Carl is an avid mountaineer, backcountry skier, mountain biker, backpacker, and dog lover.

Teri Shore - Clean Vessels Campaign Director. Teri Shore joined Bluewater Network in January 2001 to advocate for cleaner marine vessels, from passenger ferries to cruise liners and commercial ocean-going ships. Since then, she has worked with the marine industry, legislators, regulators, environmental groups and public health advocates to achieve stringent ferry emissions standards for San Francisco Bay and new pollution laws for cruise ships and ocean-going vessels in California. She has also helped lead advocacy efforts to clean up marine vessels in Washington, New York and Alaska and to gain stronger national and international pollution standards for ships – including actions at the International Maritime Organization in London. Teri began this work after three years as campaign director for the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, where she directed the national campaign that achieved a sea turtle marine reserve closed to shrimp fishing in Texas waters and advanced the turtle-safe shrimp certification program. She is also a journalist who has authored environmental articles and reports. She sits on the board of the Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter Backpack Section and is a past-president of the California Alpine Club.

Samara Dun – Donor Relations Manager. Samara Dun joined Bluewater Network in December 2005 to build and expand individual donor participation. Prior to joining Bluewater Network, Samara worked for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy coordinating all aspects of a 12,000 person membership program. At the Parks Conservancy Samara initiated, developed and implemented the e-communications and fundraising program, developed membership outreach approaches, and coordinated a variety of educational and special donor events. In addition to her Parks Conservancy work, Samara has previously served as the operations manager for Youth Action for Global Justice, and community organizer for Clean Water Action, fundraising and conducting lobbying on environmental issues. Samara is a graduate of University of California, Santa Cruz, with a B.A. in Anthropology with an emphasis on U.S. Communities and Environmental Justice issues.

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Contact Us

Bluewater Network
311 California St., Suite 510
San Francisco, CA 94104
P. 415/544-0790
F. 415/544-0796
bluewater@bluewaternetwork.org

 

 

 

 

Bluewater Network works to to stop environmental damage from vehicles and vessels, and to protect human health and the planet by reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Bluewater is a division of Friends of the Earth - the U.S. voice of the world's largest network of environmental groups with one million supporters in 70 countries across five continents.
Bluewater Network -- a division of Friends of the Earth • 311 California, Suite 510 • San Francisco, CA 94104
phone: 415.544.0790 • fax: 415.544.0796 • email: bluewater@bluewaternetwork.org
Copyright © 2006 Friends of the Earth

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