When President Donald Trump proclaimed Feb. 9 as the first-ever ‘Gulf of America Day’ and soared over the renamed waters to the Super Bowl, the rebranding seemed complete.

Alabama leaders cheered. The Flora-Bama is having a hard time keeping up with the demand of “Gulf of America” merchandise. Even Google Maps has made the switch.

While Trump and his supporters easily embraced the political aspect of removing ‘Mexico’ from the Gulf’s name, the practical implications in coastal Alabama are proving more challenging.

The Mobile maritime museum, its very name tied to the old designation, has no immediate plans to change, due to the costs and logistical headaches.

Meanwhile, a federal law directing millions in oil and gas revenues to Alabama remains branded as the “Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act” (GOMESA) on the U.S. Department of Interior’s website. And rewriting that? It could be a whole different fight.

“It is a big flex for the country and the president and reasserts America’s dominance in the hemisphere and that’s a good thing,” said Alabama State Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine.

But if GOMESA is rewritten to accommodate a name change, it could leave the bill open for political shenanigans – both in Congress and in the state Legislature – Elliott fears. He said a name change is “sure worth checking into” from both a legal and practical standpoint.

“At the end of the day, it’s such a huge revenue source,” Elliott said. “I don’t know if they have to change that statute or not, but I wouldn’t want them messing up the percentages coming to the coastal divisions of the state.”

Museum change

The inaugural “Gulf of America Day” occurred approximately six months after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey visited the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico to announce her annual allocation of GOMESA funds.

At the time, there was no hint that the body of water was poised for a name change and the subject of an international debate.

The museum was a recipient receiving $2.3 million toward creating an interactive exhibit about the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. The revenue came from oil and gas leases that Alabama receives through the GOMESA law written in 2006. The governor is charged with distributing the money to its recipients, often on an annual basis.

Museum officials, who will gather Tuesday for a board meeting, said there is no plan to make an immediate name change. They said the logistics and costs are simply too much to consider at a time they are attempting to raise money to build additional features including an exhibit featuring the late music icon and Mobile native, Jimmy Buffett.

“We haven’t done much other than watching so far,” said Mike Lee, the museum’s board chairman. “We’re going to have to talk about it.”

City officials are also balking, saying the museum just completed a significant rebrand last year. That rebranding effort removed the name “GulfQuest” from the museum’s title and stuck with its original name authorized about 15 years ago through a congressional designation, “National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico.”

“There haven’t been any significant discussions about changing the name of the museum yet, and there isn’t currently a plan to do so,” said Jason Johnson, the city’s communications director.

The issue is also surfacing after city taxpayers recently paid off the museum’s outstanding debt. Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson pushed for the payoff so the board of directors can focus on raising private funds for the new exhibits.

The goal is for the Mobile-Tensaw Delta exhibit, which will encompass an entire floor of the museum, to open in 2027. The Buffett exhibit located near the museum’s entrance, is slated to open in fall 2026.

The Mobile City Council, last week, unanimously approved a payment of over $740,000 to settle debts on the museum’s existing exhibits. The exhibits were installed approximately a decade ago ahead of the massive, ship-shaped museum’s original opening as GulfQuest.

“We needed to pay this off to raise the money to build up for these two giant exhibits,” Lee said. “There is no debt now. The next focus is raising several million more, and are committed to raise that money now that the city has stepped in.”

Lee said he wasn’t sure how a name change will work given the official legal documentations for the venue’s name is the “National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico.” The museum is also the only national facility dedicated to the telling the entire story of the Gulf, a nearly 600,000-square-mile ocean basin that borders five U.S. states including Alabama and the eastern coast of Mexico, along with Cuba. It is the ninth largest body of water in the world.

“We marketed it originally as the Gulf of Mexico and we have information about Mexican states (inside the museum) and the U.S. states that surround it,” Lee said. “The question has always come up, ‘How do you best market it?’ Do you just keep promoting it as the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf? I think it’s just too early to tell and everyone is open to what they think is best.”

David Clark, president & CEO with Visit Mobile and a museum board member, said the existing museum brand that includes “National” suggests a focus on America.

“I just think we’ll have to come together as a board and talk about these things and see what the implications are,” Clark said.

GOMESA questions

The implications of changing the GOMESA name could require congressional intervention, which would also create the potential to alter the law’s language.

Alabama is one of four states that gets 37.5% that is specified within GOMESA, signed into law while George W. Bush was president. Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas also share in the offshore oil lease revenues.

The GOMESA money is used to restore shorelines, and for environmental enhancement projects. It’s also been crucial for developing parks, piers, boat launches and other economic attractions with coastal Alabama.

Alabama state lawmakers, 2022, voted on legislation sponsored by Elliott that prohibits GOMESA revenues from being funneled to other parts of the state, including the General Fund.

Elliott said if the name of the federal law is tweaked, it could also require action from state lawmakers.

“I don’t know if it’s one of those things that requires a name change or not,” he said. “It’s sure worth checking.”

A spokesperson for Ivey, who has the authority of awarding GOMESA money for coastal projects, did not respond to a request for comment. She referenced the “Gulf of America” during her annual State of the State address last week, receiving applause. Chris Blankenship, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, also could not be reached for comment.

Also not responding to requests for comment were Alabama Republican U.S. Sens. Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt, and U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, who represents much of Baldwin and parts of Mobile counties. All three have applauded the name change in recent weeks on social media.

“It would take an act of Congress to change the name of the law,” said Mark Lemley, a professor at Stanford Law School, who has been quoted in national publications as saying the president’s executive order does not require private entities – including Google – to change the name.

“This is one of those bizarre Trump announcements that people generally tend to ignore because they usually go away,” he said. “It’s too bad that Google decided to take him seriously this time.”

Sean Powers, chair of the Marine Sciences department at the University of South Alabama and Senior Marine Scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, said the name change could also reach out to fisheries regulations. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, headquartered in Tampa, is responsible for managing the conservation of the fish stock within the Gulf.

One of its duties is establishing annual red snapper quotas, a crucial economic and recreational matter each year for coastal anglers.

“From someone who has dedicated my career to the Gulf of Mexico, it’s strange that a name change is even being considered,” Powers said. The name Gulf of Mexico first began appearing on maps in the 1500s.

“Most of us have the same attitude that we’ll study it either way because it’s critical to the United States and generates an enormous amount of seafood and energy production,” Powers said. “But anything that slows funding, further complicates use being able to do things. The unforeseen consequences of a name change, definitely in the short-term, will not be productive.”