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Journey Across The Arctic

Mission Blue is proud to partner with 5 Gyres! 
By: Carolynn Box and Lia Colabello, The 5 Gyres Institute

 5 Gyres was founded on the belief that citizen science can change the world. In 2009, we began raising awareness about marine plastic pollution when Dr. Marcus Ericksen and Anna Cummins collected 15,000 plastic water bottles to create the JUNK RAFT, which Marcus sailed for 2,600 miles for 88 day from California to Hawaii. Since then, the organization has embarked on 17 research expeditions, covering 50,000 miles and engaging scientists around the globe. 

 
In 2014, 5 Gyres convened eight international scientists to publish the first global estimate of plastic pollution in our oceans: 5.25 trillion particles weighing in at 269,000 tons of “plastic smog” worldwide. 
 

For our 17th research expedition this past August, The 5 Gyres Institute traveled 1687 miles through the Canadian Arctic to collect microplastics to better understand the global distribution of the smog of plastic that plagues our seas.…

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Hope On the Horizon: Cayman Islands

By: Laura Butz

 
Recently, the George Town Harbor in the Cayman Islands was named a Mission Blue Hope Spot- one of fourteen newly designated Hope Spots.  This is incredible news for environmentalists both locally and internationally.  A designated Hope Spot is an area considered to be “critical to the health of the ocean”.  These special areas are recognized by Mission Blue and respectively conservationists around the globe as being in need of protection.  Conservation of these valuable areas will allow for the coral reefs, marine life and fragile ecosystems to rejuvenate and strengthen.  Individually, Hope Spots are beneficial to their specific surrounding habitat.  As part of a collective whole, they play a significant role in contributing to restoring the ocean’s ecosystem and marine life on a global scale. …

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The World’s Last Great Wilderness

By: Mike Walker, Project Director Antarctic Ocean Alliance

For many of us Antarctica is out of sight and out of mind. We know even less about the waters surrounding it, the wild Southern Ocean. Our ignorance may aid its conservation, as what goes unseen goes, relatively, unharmed. However, this might also means we have not noticed the repeated failure of decision-makers to honour their commitment to protect this unique wilderness.
Exactly 25 years ago on October 4, 1991, countries signed the Madrid Protocol to protect Antarctica’s environment. The agreement is widely regarded as one of the most successful examples of diplomacy in modern history and has ensured that Antarctica remains “a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science”. And while the Protocol applies to the waters surrounding the continent it does not apply to fishing activities.…

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CITES Paves the Way- Global Protection for Sharks and Rays

BREAKING NEWS: The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) approved new global protections for a host of vulnerable shark and ray species — thresher sharks, silky sharks and mobula rays — by establishing their status under the CITES Appendix II listing. Under this listing, countries are required to ensure their trade does not endanger these species in the wild and comes from sustainably managed fisheries. 
Populations of thresher sharks, silky sharks and mobula rays have declined by 70 percent or more in many parts of their range due to the lucrative market for shark fins, considered a delicacy in Asian cuisine, and ray gill plates, which are sought after for a health tonic in Asian medicine. 
Elizabeth Murdock, director of NRDC’s Pacific Ocean Initiative states, “The demand for silky shark and thresher shark fins and for mobula ray gill plates is completely unsustainable and it is driving these vulnerable species towards extinction.…

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NGO’s Unite Against Shark Fin Trade!

Mission Blue is proud to stand with 80 other NGO’s in support of the Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act. On September 22, 2016, the letter below was sent to Congress urging support and passage of this important Act.

Dear Senator/Representative:
We, the undersigned organizations, representing over one million Americans, submit this letter urging Congress to support and pass the Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act (SFTEA) of 2016 (S. 3095/H.R. 5584). Sharks have been swimming in our oceans since before dinosaurs walked the earth. For over 400 million years, they have played a vital role in maintaining healthy oceans, but today, sharks are disappearing as a result of bycatch and overfishing, largely fueled by the shark fin trade. The demand for shark fins has led to the practice of finning – the act of cutting the fins off a shark and discarding its body at sea to drown, bleed to death, or be eaten alive by other fish.…

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Ocean Health—Sea Lions Sound the Alarm

By: Shilpi Chhotray, Mission Blue Communications Strategist 

We’ve all seen the photos—record numbers of starving young sea lions, little more than skin and bones, that have washed ashore along the Northern California coast. These figures and images, reported by The Marine Mammal Center, weigh heavily on our marine mammal-loving hearts. Sea lions are known for their curiosity and playful banter with human passersby– but what’s happening to their population?
Sea Lions In Trouble
Earlier this year, The Marine Mammal Center was rescuing dozens of sea lion pups at a time for immediate medical attention at their hospital in Sausalito, California. The animals were so dehydrated and emaciated that Center staff described them as ‘fur-covered skeletons’. Before the one year mark, a healthy sea lion pup should weigh between 50-70 lbs.…

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Hope for Southeast Florida’s Marine Ecosystems

By: Angela Smith, Founder and President of Shark Team One

The Story of the Coastal Southeast Florida Hope Spot!
North of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary exists a critical area of coral reef habitat and other associated marine ecosystems that have been in decline for decades due to overuse and their proximity to the heavily populated cities of Southeast Florida. Although in 1990 the Florida Keys were declared a sanctuary, the reef areas extending from Key Biscayne in the south up to St. Lucie Inlet in the north still remain unprotected.
Southeast Florida marine habitats hold populations of critically endangered species like staghorn and elkhorn coral, and smalltooth sawfish. They are also an important migration route for sperm and humpback whales; a migratory stopover for pelagic shark species such as great white, great hammerhead, tiger, lemon, dusky, bull sharks; a nesting habitat for three species of sea turtles; and a spawning ground for vulnerable fish species such as snook, grouper and snapper.…

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Biotherm & Mission Blue to Collaborate on Hope Spot Expedition in Balearic Islands

 
Since 2012, Biotherm Water Lovers has donated more than €700,000 toward furthering the protection of Mission Blue Hope Spots
Today Dr. Sylvia Earle and the Mission Blue Expedition Team join French luxury skincare company Biotherm in Mallorca, Spain to highlight their partnership and announce an upcoming joint expedition to the Balearic Islands Hope Spot. Since 2012, Biotherm Water Lovers has raised over 700,000 Euros from limited editions of its most popular skincare products and charity projects to further the protection of Mission Blue “Hope Spots”—special places that are critical to the health of the ocean—through ocean conservation projects. The newly announced Balearic Islands Hope Spot expedition will mark the first time Biotherm has directly supported Mission Blue to conduct a conservation initiative of its own.…

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Hope Spot Hatteras: Lessons Learned

Meet Hope Spot Hatteras, one of the 14 new Hope Spots designated by Mission Blue and the IUCN World Conservation Congress.

 

After months of waiting to hear back about our Hope Spot: Hatteras nomination, we are so happy to announce Dr. Sylvia Earle and Mission Blue have voted to establish a Hope Spot 40 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras! View the most recent updates on our website and the Hope Spot nominations here.     
 
As a small group of community members and students, taking on an idea this big to protect the ocean was intimidating, but the support from our communities and those across the east coast alongside our love of the ocean kept us fighting for Hatteras. This area in the North Atlantic is a unique place full of amazing organisms.…

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Hope in the Coral Triangle

By: Liz Cunningham

“We need to take care of the ocean, because we have no land,” Arman said. “The sea is our home.” Those were the last words the Bajau sea nomad in Sulawesi told me before we parted.
When I researched my book Ocean Country, I asked, “Who more than any other cultural group in the world calls the ocean home?” The answer was the Austronesia sea nomads of Southeast Asia. Nowhere on earth are there a people whose lives are more deeply intertwined with the sea. While they now primarily live in stilt villages, they live in the wake of a 10,000 year old tradition of nomadic life at sea—their ancestors ate, cooked, hunted, slept, and gave birth at sea.…

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