Gulf Coast of the United States Pensacola, St. Petersburg, Tampa, and increasingly, Sarasota. All are the centers of their respective metropolitan areas and contain large ports. (Baton Rouge is relatively far from the Gulf of Mexico; its port is on the Mississippi River, as is the port of New Orleans.) The Gulf Coast is made of many inlets, bays, and lagoons. The coast is also intersected by numerous rivers, the largest of which is the Mississippi River. Much of the land along the Gulf Coast is, or was, marshland. Ringing the Gulf Coast is the Gulf Coastal Plain which reaches from Southern Texas to the western
Gulf of Mexico Foundation Paul Kelly, a former senior executive at Rowan Companies, an oil drilling firm. Other board members are executives from Shell Oil Company, ConocoPhillips, Transocean oil drilling firm, and legal, environmental and marketing firms. At least half of the 19 board of directors have ties to the offshore oil drilling industry. Gulf of Mexico Foundation partners include major oil companies and oil drilling firms, and others concerned for the environment. They include BP, Transocean, Marathon, ConocoPhillips, Shell Oil Company, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Rowan Companies and the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund. The Foundation has a reported $2 million annual budget, and one-quarter