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Atlantic’s First Marine National Monument!

 
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
 
FACT SHEET: President Obama to Continue Global Leadership in Combatting Climate Change and Protecting Our Ocean by Creating the First Marine National Monument in the Atlantic Ocean
 

 
Today, President Obama will designate the first marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean, protecting fragile
deep-sea ecosystems off the coast of New England as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. The new national monument – which encompasses pristine underwater mountains and canyons – will provide critical protections for important ecological resources and marine species, including deep-sea coral and endangered whales and sea turtles. 
President Obama will make this announcement in remarks today at the 3rd annual Our Ocean Conference in Washington D.C.…

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Bringing the Ocean out of the Ocean

Mission Blue is proud to partner with Discovery Deep! 
71% of the our planet’s surface is covered by water, yet 95% of that remains unexplored.  Discovery Deep, a Washington, D.C. based ocean exploration foundation is working to change that by “Bringing the Ocean out of the Ocean.”
Discovery Deep uses innovative technologies such as virtual reality, 3-dimensional mapping and 360-degree video to help scientists collect research data, map shipwreck sites, and to educate divers and non-divers alike in the wonders of the underwater world and the importance of conserving it.

Over the last year, Discovery Deep created digital maps of historic shipwrecks, collected DNA samples for a shark research project, and built a diver training course to collect citizen science observations.…

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Hope Spot Nominations Open to the Public!

Citizens of the Blue Planet Have Spoken: 14 New Places in the Ocean, Vetted by IUCN and Mission Blue, Will Now Serve as a Flashpoint to Ignite Global Support for Marine Protection
Over the past year, citizens and organizations across the planet have nominated marine environments especially deserving of protection – known as Hope Spots – for review by Mission Blue and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). After rigorous scientific vetting and policy analysis, Mission Blue and IUCN are proud to announce the names of 14 new Hope Spots, which came directly from a concerned global community calling out for more ocean protection. By allowing citizens to elect their own Hope Spots, Mission Blue and IUCN hope to meet the goal of igniting broad public support for a global network of marine protected areas large enough to protect and restore the ocean’s health.…

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Drawn to the Sea.

Narration By: Claire Paris, Biological Oceanographer and Free Diver 

I have always been drawn to the sea. As a kid, I imagined the magic of the aquatic realm and found comfort underwater, mesmerized by the sounds of waves on the shoals and of my heart beat slowing down.
I am a biological oceanographer and a free diver. The ocean is where I push my mind and my body. I study the earliest days of a fish’s life, what we call its larval stage. All fish, even those that grow to become very large, begin their lives very small. They may be tiny, but we’ve learned they are far from defenseless. They are strong and self sufficient having evolved to survive the pelagic life.…

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IUCN- Planet at the Crossroads.

The IUCN World Conservation Congress 2016 kicked off two days ago in Honolulu and we can’t imagine a more auspicious occasion! Less than one week after President Obama announced the expansion of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument around the Hawaiian atolls as the world’s largest marine protected area, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) convenes its conference on the monument’s doorstep for the first time anywhere in the United States.
In a recent response to President Obama’s announcement of the expanded Hawaiian monument, Mission Blue Founder and National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Sylvia Earle remarked:

Americans on this centennial anniversary are encouraged to “find your park” and enjoy these wonders that are the collective conscious of our nation. But with President Obama’s expansion of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument from 50 to 200 miles out from the Northern Hawaiian Islands, now the world’s largest marine protected area, history will remember this anniversary and next century as the “blue centennial”—the time when the national park idea was brought to the ocean.…

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Help us wish Dr. Sylvia Earle a happy birthday!

 
On August 30th, we celebrate Her Deepness Dr. Sylvia Earle’s birthday, and we’re excited to invite you to contribute to her gift! In honor of Dr. Earle, a Mission Blue board director has generously offered to help raise $100,000 for Mission Blue by matching your contributions dollar for dollar! 
Dr. Earle inspires us all with her youthful curiosity and enduring passion for the “blue heart of the planet.” She has truly dedicated her life to exploring and protecting the ocean and the miraculous creatures it sustains. What better gift could we give her than supporting her wish to explore and protect Hope Spots around the globe?
Please open your big blue heart and join us in wishing Sylvia Earle the happiest birthday ever!…

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Coral Reef Recovery in Fiji

By: Victor Bonito, Director, Reef Explorer Fiji

Over the last three years, coral reefs worldwide have suffered unprecedented damage to coral communities from abnormally warm seawater temperatures. When the US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the third global coral bleaching event in October 2015, shallow reef areas along Fiji’s Coral Coast had already experienced two back-to-back years of widespread coral bleaching. Before we received the depressing news about our local reefs, we decided to take action and incorporate lessons learned from previous bleaching events and seawater temperature monitoring efforts.
In late 2015, our  Reef Explorer project team and local youth clubs established five new coral nurseries across our local reefs. We stocked the nurseries with a good diversity of coral species propagated from numerous donor colonies that we suspected had good thermal (heat) tolerance due to their size and placement on the reef. …

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National Parks Were America’s Best Idea. Let’s Bring Them Underwater

Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument is now the world’s largest marine protected area. We can do more.
 
By Sylvia Earle
and John Bridgeland
 
PUBLISHED AUGUST 26, 2016 on National Geographic 

One hundred years ago, President Woodrow Wilson and Congress created the National Park Service to conserve areas of natural, cultural and historic importance and leave them “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

Places like Yellowstone and Yosemite were already in federal protection, but in the next 100 years, America’s “best idea” would include 413 areas and more than 84 million acres of vast wilderness, scenic rivers, military battlefields, presidential homes and more. It was a radical idea to put large tracts of land into federal custody on the heels of the Industrial Age when almost nothing was untouched by development and our manifest destiny.…

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Taking the Pledge for One Less Straw

Mission Blue is proud to partner with One More Generation!

Did you know that in America, we are using an estimated 500,000,000 plastic straws every single day?  That is like 1.6 straws for every man, woman and child living in this country… every single day.  If you were to take an entire day’s worth of plastic straws we use in one day, it would fill up over 127 school busses.  That is like over 46,400 school buses full of one-time use plastic straws that are ending up in our landfills and waterways.  Sick isn’t it?
This inspired 13-year-old Olivia and her 15-year-old brother Carter to  launch the global “OneLessStraw Pledge Campaign” this fall.  Olivia and Carter realized reducing our plastic footprint could be very easy to do; we just need to say ‘NO‘ to single-use plastics such as straws.  …

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Giving warriors a cause. Giving a cause its warriors.

Mission Blue is proud to partner with FORCE BLUE.

FORCE BLUE is a new nonprofit 501(c)(3) initiative that seeks to unite the community of SOF combat veterans with the world of coral reef conservation for the betterment of both.  Through the creation of a military-style “Coral Reef Special Operations School,” FORCE BLUE gives former combat divers (Navy SEALs, Recon Marines, Army SF, etc.) a chance to experience and explore one of the most critically endangered ecosystems on the planet and to adapt their training and teamwork to aid in its protection.
Buoyancy. Belonging. Betterment.  Three words that represent what FORCE BLUE will deliver to each veteran who participates.  The tools to regain equilibrium; the ability to feel at home in an alien world, and proof that their skills and training can still make a positive difference.…

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