Former Navy SEALs say they're making marine conservation cool

When Steve "Gonzo" Gonzalez retired after a 34-year career as a Navy SEAL, he knew pretty much everything about working underwater -- except that it could be beautiful.

"I was always diving at midnight, two in the morning, and you can barely see your hand in front of your face," he says. "So to see the vibrant colors, in warm water with amazing visibility, and nobody's trying to hunt you down? Yes, it was definitely different."

Now Gonzales gets to enjoy the stunning undersea landscape all the time as events director for Force Blue, a veterans' nonprofit that does coral reef restoration and other ocean conservation work. They bring mostly veteran volunteers for projects that also provide "mission therapy" to veterans who miss the camaraderie and the sense of purpose they got while in the service.

A few dozen Force Blue volunteered earlier this year to build a living shoreline in Choctawhatchee Bay, on the Florida panhandle. Military veterans and local conservationists came out on a chilly morning to carry chunks of limestone the size of soccer balls into the bay at low tide. It's easy to see where heavier high tides and frequent storms are eating away at the shore, washing roadway runoff into the water.

A local conservation group invited Force Blue here to help build three 50-foot rubble barriers that just peek above the water at low tide. One goal for the barrier is that the bay's native oysters will quickly attach to the limestone and grow to filter millions of gallons of water.

"We love working with Force Blue. They come and they bring a whole lot of energy, and they're a lot of fun," says Alison McDowell, who directed the project for the Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance of Northwest Florida State College.

When the wall is done McDowell will get local volunteers and students to come plant native grasses in the shallows behind it, creating even more of a filter and also a natural net for runoff.

A repurposed mission: conservation work

Angelo Fiore, a former Navy diver who directs operations for Force Blue, calls the SEALs he hires to help with marine projects across the country "the best trained in the world."

"These guys are the best trained divers in the world. We take their skills that they learn from the military, repurpose them for conservation work … from coral restoration to marine debris cleanup to building a living shoreline defense system," he says.

"It's kind of full circle because, here we are a military force that's trained for basically, weapons of mass destruction and here we are, weapons of mass construction," Fiore says with a grin, as he wades into the chilly water with a small boulder in each hand.

The Force Blue volunteers know they're not stereotypical environmentalists, but "Gonzo" Gonzales jokes that grizzled Navy SEALs like him can be pretty good public advocates.

"We're making conservation cool," he says, "because in the end, it doesn't matter if you get it from the left side of the boat or the right side of the boat. We're all in the same boat to care for this planet."

He says these missions give veterans a way to serve again. Transition from military service has been flagged as a time when suicide and mental health issues spike. And that's not only for veterans who saw combat.

Nathan Quinn was a special forces medic but never deployed to war. When he came to his first Force Blue mission, rebuilding damaged coral reefs in the Florida Keys, they told him he needed to get a mental health check up as part of the deal. At first he said "no way." Sure, he was feeling a bit lost, without purpose, but he wasn't shell shocked.

"I didn't deserve the support," he says he thought at the time. "I didn't lose my legs. I hadn't gotten shot."

But the Force Blue team told him: no mental health screening, no dive. It turned out he was struggling, and Force Blue got him some help. Now he returns again and again to do more missions – for the companionship and also because, he says, healing the ocean and the living coral is another kind of therapy.

Building the living shoreline in Choctawhatchee Bay was supposed to take two days but the Force Blue folks moved 40 tons of rock by hand and finished by midafternoon on the first day, with a break for lunch.

"It really is a swords to plowshares kind of thing, and you're also basically giving your lifeblood to this creature that you've only just met. These are just absolutely stunning, bright colored coral. And by building those reefs back, we can actually prevent devastation for the next storm," says Quinn.