fbpixel 2013 - Page 11 of 24 - Mission Blue

Yearly Archives: 2013
Photo of the Day ~ Yeti Crab

The deep water Yeti crab is so unusual that a whole new family of animal had to be created to classify it.
Kiwa hirsuta was found on the floor of the 7,540-foot-deep (2,300-meter-deep) Pacific Ocean some 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) south of Easter Island. In many ways the newly discovered species remains a mystery. Its hairy pincer arms host colonies of bacteria, which it may cultivate for food, for protection from toxic fluids issuing from nearby volcanic vents, or as “sensors” that help the blind animal find a mate.
Photographer Unknown
 …

Posted in Photo of the Day |
Ghost Nets, among the greatest killers in our oceans…

Ghost Fishing is what fishing gear does when it has been lost, dumped or abandoned. Imagine a fishing net that gets snagged on a reef of a wreck and gets detached from the fishing vessel. Nets, long lines, fish traps or any man made contraptions designed to catch fish or marine organisms are considered capable of ghost fishing when unattended. And without anyone profiting from the catches, affecting already depleted commercial fish stocks. Caught fish die and in turn attract scavengers which will get caught in that same net, thus creating a vicious circle.
Ghost nets are among the greatest killers in our oceans, and not only because of their numbers. Literally hundreds of kilometers of nets get lost every year and due to the nature of the materials used to produce these nets they can and will keep fishing for multiple decades, possibly even for several centuries.…

Posted in Partner Stories |

6 Comments
Photo of the Day ~ Mauve Stinger

Commonly known as the Mauve Stinger, or Pelagia noctiluca,  this exquisite animal  is found around the globe in temperate waters. In Latin, Pelagia means “of the sea”, nocti stands for night and luca means light thus Pelagia noctiluca can be described as a marine organism with the ability to glow in the dark.
Mauve stingers can move vertically, but are unable to propel themselves horizontally and so are carried by currents. They move up and down in response to migrations of their prey, zooplankton.
They are most venomous in the Mediterranean, but their sting is usually limited to the skin surface with local pain only.  In an unprecedented event on November 21, 2007, an enormous 10-square-mile swarm of billions of these jellyfish wiped out a 100,000 fish salmon farm in Northern Ireland.…

Posted in Photo of the Day |
Happy Birthday Jean-Michel Cousteau!

Mission Blue would like to wish a VERY happy birthday to one of our favorite people on Planet Ocean – Jean-Michel Cousteau!

At 75, this marine conservation hero has truly dedicated his life to preserving and raising awareness about our oceans. The son of legendary explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Jean-Michel has seen many changes in our seas from his first dive at age seven to today – not to mention major advances in scuba equipment from his father’s original Aqualung!
Despite the threats our oceans face from climate change, overfishing, oil spills and other human-caused threats, Jean-Michel and the entire Cousteau family remain optimistic for the future. Their leadership in the marine conservation community has inspired generations of explorers, researchers, students, artists and all-around nature lovers to care about and protect the blue heart of our planet.…

Posted in Uncategorized |

1 Comment
Photo of the Day ~ Honeycomb Moray

Photographer Tony Wu reported from Ambon, Indonesia, a magical nighttime encounter with a moray he named Barney. Scientists would rather we refer to this noble critter by his Latin name, Gymnothorax favagineus.  They are also known as the leopard moray, tesselate moray or laced moray, and to us, a beautiful face is just that, a beautiful face.
The Laced moray can grow up to 300cm in length, and as such are one of the larger species of moray eel. They feed mainly on small fish and cephalopods.  It has been observed that adults are prone to be aggressive in the wild.
They are found in the Indo-Pacific, and East Africa to Papua New Guinea, north to southern Japan, south of Australia.…

Posted in Photo of the Day |
We’ve raised $25,000 dollars. Please give us one last push!

Dear Friends of the Ocean, I’m Sylvia Earle, an oceanographer and National Geographic Explorer in Residence, and I want to share with you some of what I’ve learned over the 50 years I’ve spent under and on the ocean – about it’s health – and therefore our health. We are at a critical crossroads. The next ten years are the most important of the next 10,000 years: the best chance that our species will have to protect what remains of the ocean, a vital part of the natural system that gives us life.

We used to believe the ocean was so vast that we could never truly affect it. Yet, the pristine ocean that Columbus sailed on was very different from the one we are passing on to our children.…

Posted in Uncategorized |

Leave a comment
Sea Glass: Artist overcomes fear of diving with exquisite results

What does water look like when you’re immersed in it? Can you see wind? Artist Shayna Leib began exploring these questions about a decade ago when she embarked on “Wind and Water” – her series of intricately hand-crafted glass sculptures that appear to flow like anemone tentacles moving with an incoming tide. She says:
“Wind and water possess no intrinsic color, are clear to the point of invisibility, and yet move through space. We see not their form itself, but can detect their patterns and shapes only vicariously though the objects they affect. The trace of water’s touch over moss and sea life, the wind’s passage over marshlands… – these two forces make their presence known. Their character is contradictory and fickle, encompassing fragility and violence, placidity and turbulence.”…

Posted in Uncategorized |

Leave a comment
Photo of the Day ~ Shark Swarm

During an organized shark dive, photographer Justin Lewis dressed in chainmail to get in the middle of a group of feeding sharks in the Bahamas. The Bahamian Reefs Hope Spot is located East and South of Florida and host forest, wetlands, swamps, and the Andros Barrier Reef, the second largest barrier reef in the western hemisphere. The Bahamas Island eco-region consists of over 3,000 low-lying islands and covers over 14,000 square kilometers.
Photograph: Justin Lewis Photography…

Posted in Photo of the Day |
An Evening of Hope For Our Oceans

Dr. Sylvia Earle, Oceanographer, National Geographic Explorer-In-Residence and Mission Blue Founder
&
Phil Radford, Executive Director, Greenpeace
Invite you to join them for an Evening of Hope for our Ocean
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 6:30pm to 8:30pm Seattle Aquarium 1483 Alaskan Way Seattle, WA 98101
  Hope Spots are special places that are critical to the health of the ocean — Earth’s blue heart. Greenpeace and Mission Blue invite you to an evening celebrating the Bering Sea, one such place where hope for our planet’s future thrives. Join Dr. Sylvia Earle and Greenpeace Executive Director Phil Radford at the Seattle Aquarium to discover, explore and take action to protect the Bering Sea Canyons. Please note that space for this event is limited.
 
TO RSVP
e-mail: …

Posted in Uncategorized |

1 Comment