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Save Our Seas Foundation

June 29, 2011 by 3 Comments

In case you didn’t notice, every month I like to share one of my favorite marine science conservation website or blogs. And, even though I just posted on The Daily Ocean I want to highlight the Save Our Seas Foundation.

This is the organization (or ‘organisation’ since they are based in Switzerland) that produces the Naked Oceans podcast (one of the 8 great podcasts listed on the right sidebar). The website for this major player in the fight to save the world’s oceans manages to be in-your-face while still maintaining class and a jovial nature. They cite important messages in large font in the center of the page followed up with bullets and lists (see the threats page for a great example of this).

Also, the blog for Save Our Seas Foundation posts pertinent information (in an easy to digest language) about the research projects their own science team is conducting with pictures they actually took in the field. A lot of the focus of their research is on sharks. Recently they hosted a Dutch film crew doing a documentary between the relations of sharks and surfers (no, they aren’t cousins).

All in all, it seems as though the people working with the Save Our Seas Foundation are dedicated, passionate, and fun and I hope you follow and support them in the future.

Filed Under: Ocean, People, Places, Random Fun!, Sharks Tagged With: , ,

Blue Sway – Paul McCartney

June 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Surfrider Foundation recently released a new PSA by filmmaker Jack McCoy with a previously unreleased song, Blue Sway, by Paul McCartney. The song has been released on his McCartney II which was distributed by MPL and Concord Music Group on June 14. If you like this song you should also check out McCartney’s (aka The Fireman) Electric Arguments album (Sing the Changes and Lifelong Passions are my favorite!).

The footage from the PSA was taken from a Deeper Shade of Blue. Director Jack McCoy used a high-powered underwater jet ski to travel behind waves to create mystical and majestic images.

I appreciated that it was not a PSA with an overtly in-your-face message. I think it will speak to each and everyone in a unique way and I look forward to your thoughts! Enjoy!

Filed Under: Conservation, Inspiration, Ocean Conservation, People, Random Fun! Tagged With: , , , ,

Test your knowledge: Alphabet soup

June 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

See if you can guess what these marine-related acronyms stand for with the clues provided.

AFS: Organization of fisheries professionals. Seattle is hosting their conference this year.
BCS: A nice and funny blogger who enjoys making marine science entertaining (and it has nothing to do with college football).
CBP: A regional partnership that has led and directed the restoration of one the most diverse estuaries since 1983.
ICCAT: An inter-governmental fishery organization responsible for the conservation of tunas (and tuna-like species) in the Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent seas.
MSP: Concept that allows multiple users of the oceans to coordinate (or plan) decisions for a sustainable future.
NEPA: Signed into law on January 1, 1970 this Act set out to “assure that all branches of government give proper consideration to the environment prior to undertaking any major federal action that could significantly affect the environment.”
NOAA: No, no, no … It’s not National Offshore Aquaculture Act of 2007 … it’s the other one. This federal agency oversees the oceans. They also oversee the atmosphere as well (i.e., hurricanes, climate, etc).
PFD: Please bring one of these for every person on your boat this summer.
SAV: Beds of this are important habitat for many species that use estuaries as nursery grounds.
VIMS: College that runs (through SeaGrant) BRIDGE (teacher-approved marine resources).

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Test Your Knowledge: NOSB Biology (beachchairscientist.wordpress.com)
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Beach trivia

June 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Can you name the world’s longest beach (at 76 miles long!)?

Want to find out the location of the famous beach from the movie “From Here to Eternity“?

Did you know that a beach on the west coast of Florida is the top spot to find seashells in the U.S.?

You can learn all these facts and a whole lot more with this interactive beach quiz from National Geographic. Have fun and please let us know if you learn anything particularly surprising or fun.

Filed Under: Beach, Ocean, Random Fun!, Test Your Knowledge

How deep is the ocean?

June 9, 2011 by 2 Comments

A picture is always worth a thousand words. So, to illustrate this question I’m using a nifty infographic from Our Amazing Planet relating the world’s tallest mountain to the ocean’s deepest trench. This poster will show you where Denver is in to relation to your average plane flying overhead and how deep sperm whales dive in relation to where the Titanic wreck was discovered!

Our Amazing Planet explores Earth from its peaks to it mysterious depths.
Source

Filed Under: People, Places, Random Fun! Tagged With:

The Majestic Plastic Bag – Part II

May 26, 2011 by 2 Comments

Yesterday we brought you the “mockumentary”, The Majestic Plastic Bag. As a follow-up today check out this amazing infographic from reusablebag.com. Ireland reduced plastic bag consumption by 90% (1 billion bags!) from 2001-2011 by imposing a tax of 37-cents.

Bag Bans Worldwide
Source: Reusable Grocery Bags

image (c) http://www.reusethisbag.com

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Filed Under: Ocean, People, Random Fun! Tagged With:

5 facts about fish farming

May 24, 2011 by 5 Comments
Fish farming on Lake Titicaca.

Image via Wikipedia

Here are five facts about the glory and challenges of fish farming. Fish farming and aquaculture has really stepped up due to the demand for the world’s fish consumption, but maybe not in the most sustainable manner like Linda Thornton.

1.) It’s polluting our water

It seems as though large fish farm like to cram fish to live in very tight spaces. A large amount of fish would lead to a large amount of waste produced by the fish. Also, the unfavorable conditions often lead to disease. Fish farmers tend to treat the disease and infection with harmful antibiotics which further harm the surrounding waterways.

2.) It brings untested chemicals to your dinner plate

It seems as though many of the antibiotics used to treat diseases on foreign fish farms are commonly made of chemical banned in the US. Since there is no regulation often these harmful chemicals make their way to your dinner table.

3.) It’s tearing apart mangroves

Shrimp farmers are tearing apart the mangroves to make way for their new crop of this popular crustacean. However, this destroys a delicate nursery ground for many local fish species. In turn this depletion in resources severely affects local economies. What makes matters worse is that often these shrimp farms are abandoned in order to find better producing areas.

4.) It’s often counter-productive

Fish farms can be tough to maintain, especially for salmon and other carnivorous species. They tend to eat more food than they actually produce! This is turn leads to a lot of waste that can disturb the balance of the surrounding waterways.

5.) It does good things!

Some fish farms raise species that are actually clear out pollutants from the water. Bivalves (oysters, mussels, etc.) are filter feeders and cleanse their aquatic habitat! Also, tilapia are herbivores and do not require as much input as the carnivorous farmed fish need.

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Filed Under: Bony Fishes, Fish, Mollusks, Random Fun! Tagged With: , ,

Test your knowledge: National Ocean Science Bowl biology

May 22, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Here are some more sample questions from the Consortium for Ocean Leadership‘s popular National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB). These questions come from the Biology section.

Good luck!

1) Northern elephant seals come ashore during the spring and summer to do what? a) Mate b) Eat c) Give birth d) Shed their fur

2) The habitat of blue whales, tunas and swordfishes is best described as: a) Benthic b) Littoral c) Estuarine d) Pelagic

3) Intensive aquaculture of which of the following organisms has contributed to loss of mangroves around the world? a) Tilapia b) Cod c) Salmon d) Shrimp

4) Lophelia (LO-fee-lee-ua) coral reefs in the North Atlantic are being primarily damaged by: a) Pfiesteria b) Poisoning c) Rising temperatures d) Trawling

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Filed Under: Bony Fishes, Marine Mammals, Random Fun!, Test Your Knowledge Tagged With: , , , ,

“Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.” P.J. O’Rourke

May 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Today Ira Flatow discussed summer science reads on Science Friday, my favorite radio program. So, I got to thinking about two very special books that I always wander back to when I want to reconnect with the ocean. Henry Beston’s, The Outermost House, and Jennifer Ackerman’s, Notes from the Shore, are two books written in the spirit and tradition of Thoreau’s, Walden. Beston and Ackerman are alone with their thoughts in a remote marine environment (Beston is on Cape Cod while Ackerman is on Delaware’s Cape Henelope) for an extended period of time. They both contemplate how the ocean can be a metaphor for our existence.

After his return from World War I, Beston built a writer’s cabin on Cape Cod. He called the home Fo’castle and there he wrote The Outermost House published in 1928. This book was an inspiration to Rachel Carson as she wrote The Sea Around Us. Fo’castle was unfortunately destroyed by high tides in 1978.

Here is an excerpt from The Outermost House that I come back to often (especially when I am coveting the latest smartphone): “Touch the earth, love the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places. For the gifts of life are the earth’s and they are given to all, and they are the songs of birds at daybreak, Orion and the Bear, and the dawn seen over the ocean from the beach. ”

Let’s face it. Beston is not for everyone. Jennifer Ackerman is a bit most contemporary in her text and prose. After all, Notes from the Shore was published in 1995. Her outlook on man altering nature is spot-on, “It’s in our nature to see order and when we don’t see it, to try to impose it. We have to put things through our minds to make sense of them, and our minds crave pattern and order. So maybe what we glimpse is only what we desire.” A statement that reminds me sometimes we should just allow nature to take its course and see what happens.

Another reason I gravitate to Notes from the Shore is that she spends a considerable amount of time writing about my favorite animal, Limulus polyphemus. She even reviews her experience counting horseshoe crabs during the late nights in May and June, an activity this Beach Chair Scientist did quite often during undergraduate internships. With that I will leave off with Ackerman’s description on the incredible nature of the horseshoe crab‘s ability to remain so steadfast and unchanged, “These creatures so durable that they antedate most other life-forms, so adaptable that their survival as a species may, for all we know, approach eternity.”

Image (c) goodreads.com

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Filed Under: Atlantic Horseshoe Crab, Beach, Fish, Ocean, Random Fun! Tagged With: , , , ,

May 22 is National Maritime Day

May 18, 2011 by 1 Comment

In observance of the anniversary of the first transatlantic voyage on May 22, 1933, Congress has set aside this day to recognize those in the maritime industry.

The North American Marine Environmental Protection Agency (NAMEPA) and the North American Maritime Ministry Association (NAMMA)  are teaming up for their fourth National Maritime Day celebration next week in D.C.

At the National Press Club on Monday, May 23rd there will be a seminar, “Safety at Sea”, focusing on environmental intelligence in shipping. Later that day will be a National Maritime Day dinner and awards presentation.

This year’s celebration is particularly special now that NAMEPA is over 100 members strong! Click here if you’d like to learn more or are interested in becoming a partner.

Not in D.C.?

For some festivities remotely you will want to check out these virtual exhibits celebrating life at sea from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. You can get the narrative of an English sea captain from 1680 or hear ‘Away Rio’ a little diddy about an outward-bound chantey filled with sailors facing homesickness and other hardships.

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