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Yearly Archives: 2013
Sharon Kwok is FIN-ished with Shark Finning

By Sharon Kwok, Mission Blue Board Director
I’m a Eurasian American raised in Hong Kong. Until recent years, every banquet I attended seemed to include shark fin soup. Although the exact origin of this ostentatious dish is shrouded in mystery, we do know it had to come from China’s southern coastal regions, and it was never a favorite of the Northern Chinese. Therefore l doubt the truthfulness of claims that it was a fancy dish created for the Emperor. Perhaps it was a fancy marketing ploy but we’ll never know for sure. I’ve even heard a version that shark fin soup’s origin was simply the fishermen’s frugal use of their catch. In bygone days, any obviously useful parts would either be sold fresh or salted to survive a trip to inland China.…

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Lost Antarctica & Ghost Rookeries ~ Climate Change & the Adelie Penguin

Dr. Sylvia Earle calls Dr. James McClintock’s recent book, Lost Antarctica: Climate Change on the Antarctic Peninsula (Palgrave/MacMillan, 2012), a wonderfully written wake up call concerning Antarctica and global climate change. The book should be required reading for everyone who can read. No exceptions. Those who can’t read should watch the film.” 

Ghost Rookeries: Climate Change and the Adelie Penguin from EOWilson Biodiversity Foundation on Vimeo.
“The consequences of a loss of biodiversity could encompass everything from altering key Antarctic marine food chains to the loss of species that may hold cures to cancer,” writes Dr. McClintock, whose recent book forms the basis of Ghost Rookeries.
The E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation (EOWBF) and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) will be embarking on an exciting new initiative this summer.…

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Deep Explorers Honored at the Aquarium of the Pacific

An Interview with Sylvia Earle from Andrew M Cohen on Vimeo. 
Congratulations to Her Deepness, who was honored in June at the Aquarium of the Pacific Ocean Conservation Awards.  The Aquarium of the Pacific, located in Long Beach, California is highlighting Ocean Exploration programs this summer and also debuting a new Wonders of the Deep gallery.
Dr. Earle was one of 3 honorees, along with fellow ocean explorers Walter Munk and Captain Don Walsh in this year’s Gala.
Musical Score by Eddie Freeman & Marta Victoria of Icarus Music
 …

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On Assignment in Antarctica with Google Ocean

By Mission Blue Young Explorer, Yoland Bosiger
There’s no traffic, no factories, no fast food dispenser and no bright flashy movie theaters to tantalize and entertain. Here under the starry sky there is nothing but stillness – a crisp, clear environment, both clean and uncontaminated. Yet if you strain your ears hard enough you might just hear it. Far off in the distance a glacier is giving rise to new life – a freshly carved iceberg begins its journey adrift.  

Photo (c) Duncan Young

Antarctica is like no other place on this planet. It’s here that the driest desert and the coldest temperatures combine to produce an inhospitable landscape, a windswept frontier of untamed wilderness. Yet compared with Antarctica’s relative desolation, the southern ocean teems with life.…

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Photo of the Day – Who’s in my burrow?

By Lazaro Ruda, The Living Sea
A fun follow-up from recent video of a jawfish with a surprise visitor (http://vimeo.com/67434232)! While the camera was busy recording a long stream of video, I was distracted by a second eel just a couple of feet away. 
Much to my surprise, the second eel followed in the footstep of the first and attempted to enter the jawfish’s burrow. At first, the jawfish pushed the eel away with its head; the same behavior as with the first eel in the video. The eel was reluctant to give in and eventually made its way in. The jawfish retreated under the sand, too.
Within seconds all three reemerged from the burrow and stayed together enjoying the cramped space for a few minutes before both eels eventually exited again.…

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Deep Sea Mining − The Pacific Experiment

Canadian mining company Nautilus Minerals Inc. has staked its reputation on bringing off the world’s first deep sea mining (DSM) operation. The Bismarck Sea in Papua New Guinea has been marked out as the testing ground for this unprecedented technology. Many other companies − from Japan, China, Korea, the UK, Canada, USA, Germany and the Russian Federation − are waiting to see if Nautilus can successfully bring metals from sea floor to smelter before taking the plunge themselves.  They have already taken out exploration licences covering over 1.5 million square kilometres of the Pacific sea floor. In addition, exploration licences now also cover vast areas of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean sea floors.
This frenzy of DSM exploration is occurring in the absence of regulatory regimes or conservation areas to protect the unique and little known ecosystems of the deep sea and without meaningful consultation with the communities who will be affected by DSM. …

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The Hubbard Medal – National Geographic’s Highest Honor

by Courtney Mattison
On June 13th, the National Geographic Society (NGS) awarded its highest honor – the Hubbard Medal – to Mission Blue founder Dr. Sylvia Earle, film director and explorer James Cameron and legendary scientist and Harvard professor Dr. E. O. Wilson. As recipients of the Society’s oldest and most prestigious award, these three honorees go down in history among a truly outstanding group of scientists and explorers.

Hubbard Medal video profile on Dr. Sylvia Earle. A brief video on the accomplishments of each honoree accompanied the 2013 Hubbard Medal presentation ceremony. © National Geographic
The Hubbard Medal was named after Gardiner Greene Hubbard – the National Geographic Society’s first president and principal founder. The NGS Board of Trustees authorized the award in 1906 to “honor outstanding explorations or discoveries.”…

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Photo of the Day ~ Goblin Shark

Technically known as Mitsukurina owstoni, the Goblin Shark is the only remaining representative of the Mitsukurinidae family of sharks, a family that originated at least 125 million years ago. Hence, goblin sharks are often referred to as living fossils.The Goblin shark has only been encountered a few times and very little is known about it. What is known is that it is a slow moving deep sea shark that lives at depths of 1200m/4000ft in seas around the world. Goblin sharks have been observed in the western Indian Ocean, western Pacific Ocean and most of the Atlantic. 
They are known for their strange specialized “catapulting” jaws, which almost looks like there is something that lives inside of the sharks mouth that explodes outward to catch prey before returning back into the mouth (video below.)…

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Team ORCA Innovates to Understand Indian River Lagoon Decline

Florida’s Indian River Lagoon is one of the most bio-diverse estuaries in the world: 4300 species of plants and animals, as well as the most diverse bird population in North America, call it home. Fish ranging from as far away as Chesapeake Bay use the Lagoon as a breeding ground and the adjacent beaches are one of the densest sea turtle nesting areas found in the Western Hemisphere.
Tragically this once flourishing ecosystem has hit a brick wall in the past few years. Over 40,000 acres of seagrass meadows have vanished since 2010. Dependent on the seagrass, manatees, dolphins and pelicans are now dying at an unprecedented rate, as well as other key species. Unlike other environmental disasters, where we can point to oil spills or overfishing, the Indian River Lagoon presents an enigma: there is no specific industry to blame.…

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Dive Deep with Subs 101

What’s the difference between a submarine and a submersible? Take a trip to DOER Marine in Alameda, CA and you’ll learn this and much more about the fascinating engineering that goes into deep water exploration. DOER, Deep Ocean and Exploration Research, was established by Dr. Sylvia Earle in 1992 and is currently run by Liz Taylor, Sylvia’s daughter. The Mission Blue team took a trip to the 55,000 square-foot facility the other week and chatted with Liz to learn more about the basics of underwater engineering and exploration. First off, let’s answer our initial question: what is the difference between a submarine and submersible. Submarines are watercraft that can operate completely independently underwater. Perhaps you’ve seen Hollywood thriller, The Hunt For Red October.…

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