REFUGE/DDWS Diane Wilson

From Texas shrimp boat captain to anti-microplastic activist, author and environmentalist Diane Wilson fought a mega-corporation and won multiple awards for her work saving Gulf of Mexico waters.

She will speak about “One Woman’s Fight to Save Our Waters from Microplastic Pollution” at her free lectures on March 7 at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel.

When Wilson learned in 1989 that the waters she fished as a fourth-generation shrimper led the nation for toxic waste, she set off a series of actions against a multibillion-dollar corporation that had been covering up spills, silencing workers, flouting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and dumping lethal ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride into the bays along the Gulf coast of Texas.

Wilson took her fight to the courts, to the gates of the chemical plant and to the halls of power in Austin. Along the way, she met scorn, bribery, character assassination and death threats as she resorted to nonviolent disobedience, direct action and hunger strikes.

Wilson wrote about her struggles in her book, “An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas,” and was the topic of a documentary “Texas Gold.” She is recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize for North America and Louis Gibb Environmental Lifetime Award.

The remaining schedule for the “Ding” Darling Lecture Series is as follows:

– March 14: Author/Sanibel islander Charles Sobczak, “Surviving the Storms — Hurricanes, Humans, and Wildlife”*

– March 21: Recycling expert Stephanie Kissinger, “Talking Trash: Post-Hurricane Clean-Up and Recycling”

*Book signing to follow

Seating for the lectures is limited on a first-come basis. Early arrivals can check in after 9 a.m. or noon to obtain a wristband, then explore the Visitor & Education Center or Wildlife Drive and trails before the lecture starts. Saved seats must be filled 15 minutes before the lecture time or risk being reassigned.

The “Ding” Darling Wildlife Society-Friends of the Refuge co-hosts the lectures with financial support from sponsors the Dr. Louise Merrimon Perry Conservation Fund for Girls and Friend of “Ding” Darling.

For more information, visit dingdarlingsociety.org/articles/lecture-series.

The J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge is at 1 Wildlife Drive, Sanibel.