Recently I had the opportunity to flip through an old issue of National Geographic Magazine.

An article titled, "Loving Our Coasts to Death" caught my attention, and it chronicles the strain we are placing on our shorelines.

The article, which appeared in the July 2006 issue, says that 4,800 new residents hit Florida's shores every week, with 1,500 new homes rising along the U.S. coastline.

More than half the nation's population now lives in coastal counties, which represent only 17 percent of land in the 48 contiguous states.

Florida is particularly popular, and the article quotes an executive with the St. Joe Corporation as projecting that 25 million people, roughly the population of Pennsylvania, will move to Florida in the next 25 years as baby boomers age.

Of course, St. Joe is leading the way with residential developments to accommodate these immigrants to Florida.

Obviously, the lure of the ocean is strong and it's hard to leave once you've lived in a coastal community.

We must act now to protect the Gulf of Mexico from pollutants, runoffs, overfishing and other byproducts of increasing population.

For too long, we've depended on our oceans to be a renewable resource, and we've taken them for granted as dumping grounds for sewage, garbage and fertilizer.

Now, if we value the ocean, it's time to plan effectively for the population growth that seems inevitable.