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Tag archives for ocean
Island Life
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The great man Christian Jost has been camping alone on Clipperton Island for the past four nights. Not entirely alone – he’s had about 100,000 masked boobies, 7,000 brown boobies, 500 red – footed boobies, 1,500 frigate birds, 1million crabs, 2,000 rats, the rusting remains of the guano (bird poop) industry, a mysterious algae and bacteria filled lagoon, 900 coconut palms and…
Play It By Ear and Make Friends With the Fish!
The highly energetic, beautiful reefs of Clipperton are dominated by moray eels. I’ve never seen anything like it. Typically, with most of their long bodies hidden inside holes, you only see their heads and the constantly opening and closing of their mouths displaying a fierce array of teeth. It’s different here – they are constantly…
In a Bubble of Air in the Deep Pacific
Three hours might sound like a long dive, but it goes fast and the ascent into the light and these evocative, most beautiful blue waters comes too soon.
Long-Term Ecological Monitoring is Sexy Too
Posted by Angela Thomas of Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic Fund in Ocean Views on March 10, 2016 
The Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic (LEX-NG) Fund aims to protect the last wild places in the ocean while facilitating conservation, research, education, and community development programs in the places we explore. This blog entry spotlights some of the exciting work our grantees are doing with support from the LEX-NG Fund. ‘Sexy’ marine research subjects tend to…
How Can We Catch Tuna and Protect Sharks?
Mike Sweeney, Managing Director of Global Fisheries, The Nature Conservancy Steven Victor, Director of Micronesia Program, The Nature Conservancy Shark fin soup has become a symbol of mistreatment of marine life. Sharks caught for their fins are tossed back into the sea. Unable to swim, they starve to death, are eaten or drown. People pay…
Where the Candidates Stand on Offshore Oil
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Today’s arguments being made by the Offshore Oil Industry about proposed new exploration and drilling leases off the Atlantic coast remind me of the Bill Murray movie ‘Groundhog Day’ where everything keeps repeating itself. Their insistence about safer new drilling technologies, tens of thousands of local jobs and how oil is compatible with environmental protection,…
When Ice Melts: Tipping the Scales in the Predator/Prey Arms Race in Antarctica
Posted by Angela Thomas of Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic Fund in Ocean Views on February 1, 2016 
The Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic (LEX-NG) Fund aims to protect the last wild places in the ocean while facilitating conservation, research, education, and community development programs in the places we explore. This blog entry spotlights some of the exciting work our grantees are doing with support from the LEX-NG Fund. A man is poised with a…
California Driftnet Fishery: One in Eight Fish Caught Is the Targeted Swordfish
Posted by Joanna Nasar of Director of Communications at Turtle Island Restoration Network in Ocean Views on January 22, 2016 
Turtle Island’s latest report, California Driftnet Fishery: The True Costs of a 20th Century Fishery in the 21st Century Overview, by Doug Karpa, Peter Fugazzotto and Todd Steiner, makes a compelling case for phasing out this deadly swordfish fishery that kills large numbers of whales, dolphins, sharks and non-target fish. The report exposes the facts about…
Training for the Impossible: Polynesian Voyagers in the Atlantic
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A generation ago, Polynesian voyagers navigated from Hawaii to Tahiti. Now a new crew prepares to take Hōkūleʻa where no one thought she’d go: across the Atlantic Ocean.
Peru Affords Full Protection to World’s Largest Known Manta Population
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In a significant move to safeguard the world’s largest known manta population, Peru’s Ministry of Production announced on January 1, strong regulations to protect the oceanic manta ray. It is now illegal to target, capture, and retain a manta ray or trade in any manta parts across their entire range, from Peru to Ecuador, where they are already legally protected.
A New Raft of Ocean Heroes
What does the president of a Pacific island Nation, a New York Times reporter, a French sailing expedition and the mayor of a small San Diego border town have in common? They are among the eight winners of the 2016 Peter Benchley Ocean Awards, the world’s preeminent honors for ocean conservation, sometimes referred to as…
What Are We Actually Protecting In The Ocean?
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One of the great recent success stories in conservation is the rapid increase in the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs). Since 2006, there has been a staggering growth of 10 million km2 of new MPAs globally, a nearly four-fold increase over the past decade. Yet there has been no baseline for measuring how well our marine species are represented in protected areas. Until now.
A new paper we have published in Nature’s Scientific Reports assesses the overlap of global MPAs with the ranges of 17,348 marine species (fishes, mammals, invertebrates). We have discovered some sobering results: most marine species are not well represented within MPAs and several hundred species are not covered at all.
Saving Coral Reefs Requires Halting Climate Change
Posted by Local conservation efforts are important to restoring and protecting coral reefs. However, if we don’t halt climate change those efforts will not be enough to save them. That’s why marine biologists and ocean lovers have their eyes on the COP 21 climate negotiations in Paris this week. Last year, I co-authored a New York Times…
Green Technologies Lead to Clear Waters
Posted by By: Annie Reisewitz and Sarah Martin Coho salmon once flourished throughout the North Pacific, from Monterey Bay in central California up to Alaska’s Point Hope and across to Russia and Japan. Today many of those populations are extinct. With less than 10 percent of their historic population left, this iconic species holds an intrinsic economic,…
Quick Take: The Ocean is a Global Climate Solution
Posted by The Nature Conservancy on November 20, 2015 
By Maria Damanaki, Global Managing Director for Oceans at The Nature Conservancy As many people around the world know, the United Nations climate change conference (COP21) in Paris begins in just a few days. And as I wrote in this month’s Cornerstone Journal of Sustainable Finance and Banking, we are at a critical crossroads in…