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Looking for a New Year’s Resolution?

Why not go BLUE in 2015? Here’s how you can help save the ocean – Earth’s “blue heart” – and support Sylvia Earle’s Mission Blue initiatives and expeditions to protect Hope Spots around the globe. Happy New Year!

 “I have lots of heroes — anyone and everyone who does whatever they can to leave the natural world better than they found it”
Dr. Sylvia Earle, Founder of Mission Blue
       
 

5 WAYS YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE RIGHT NOW!

LEARN the issues and how you can help! Watch the Mission Blue film with your friends to understand how to eliminate or reduce seafood consumption, decrease your carbon footprint and stop plastic pollution (remember the 3 R’s: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE). You can be part of the solution. …

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Five Ocean Critters to Hope For in the New Year

As we look to the New Year, we’re taking time to think about ocean critters that inspire us to be hopeful. From the thousands of sharks that have been spared from finning due to recent bans in Asia to coral species that may be able to withstand ocean acidification, sea creatures big and small give us pause and merit our attention. Here’s a list of five animals that especially deserve our hope in the coming year:
Blue Whale
As the largest animal on Earth, the blue whale is one impressive cetacean! This long, slender marine mammal goes by the Latin name of Balaenoptera musculus, and has a heart that weighs 600 kilograms. Whalers hunted the endangered blue whale to near extinction for over a century until this practice was banned in 1966.…

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Happy Holidays from Sylvia Earle and Mission Blue!

Dear Friends,
It has been a truly amazing year and I would like to thank you for playing an important role in the growth and success of Mission Blue!
Harrison Ford recently narrated the voice of the ocean in an online video. He growls, “I am the ocean. You need me. But, I don’t need you.” If only this were true! The fact is now we are at a critical point in  time when the ocean does need us. We must wake up and understand what the ocean delivers: most of the oxygen in the atmosphere, a great sink for carbon dioxide, the majority of biodiversity — the ocean maintains a planet that works in our favor. Sadly, our collective actions — overfishing,  pollution, resource extraction — have driven this great system into a real crisis that is unfolding in this very moment in time.…

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Onward! Sylvia Earle Inaugurates Community Hope Spots in South Africa

Dr. Sylvia Earle was in South Africa last week as a guest of Mission Blue partner Sustainable Seas Trust to launch new Community Hope Spots off the shores of South Africa. All in all six Community Hope Spots were launched: False Bay (all of False Bay from Cape Point to Cape Agulhas); Cape Whale Coast (stretches from Rooi Els to Quoin Point and includes offshore islands, just over 200km of coast line and then out to sea); Knysna (includes the Knysna Estuary and marine coast and offshore waters), Plett Hope Spot (links the Robberg MPA to Tsitsikamma MPA), Algoa Bay and the islands (this sanctuary area includes the principal breeding colonies of the African penguin, now down to 2% of historical population levels) and the Aliwal Shoal area in KwaZulu-Natal.…

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Literally Looking Through Waves

Did you know NASA has developed breathtaking technology that allows us to literally look through waves? Far from being distorted by the waves, the resulting image is actually more defined and 3D. To get the full scoop, Dr. Sylvia Earle led a Mission Blue envoy to NASA Ames Research Center this past summer. What we learned was nothing short of remarkable: NASA is poised to use this technology to map the shallow reefs of the world in unprecedented detail and give scientists the clearest picture yet of what we are losing where. With this information, we hope that an even stronger case can be made for conservation.
As part of our trip to NASA, Mission Blue’s Brett Garling produced the following video in which you’ll learn all about this amazing new technology — called fluid lensing — and what hope it holds for the world’s oceans.…

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Capturing a Dream

The Photography of Christian Vizl
Ever since I was a kid, as far as I can remember, I was attracted to the sea. I dream about what lies beneath the waves. I imagine what it would look like if suddenly all the water would disappear for a while, but all the animals and living creatures would remain at the same place they were, so I could then take a walk inside the ocean and see them all, suspended for a moment in time and space.
I still have that same dream, and I am very grateful that now I am able to live it every time I go down to the sea. I see my pictures, and realize they are the result of that childhood dream… beautiful and incredible marine life suspended in their natural environment and captured in a brief moment of time.…

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Getting Up Close and Personal with Marine Invertebrates

Photographer Susan Middleton’s new book, Spineless: Portraits of Marine Invertebrates, the Backbone of Life, was just released and we can’t stop looking at these incredible images! Published by Abrams, New York, Spineless is chock full of gorgeous illuminated cephalopods, nudibranchs and other wild looking invertebrates. It even features a foreword by Dr. Sylvia Earle.
In San Francisco? There will be book launch at San Francisco Public Library on Tuesday, December 9th, at 6PM. Susan will give a presentation in the Koret Auditorium followed by a book signing.
Here is a teaser to give an idea of what’s inside!  http://issuu.com/hnabooks/docs/spineless?e=1035913/10221140
Learn more about Susan’s work at susanmiddleton.com and find the book on Amazon.…

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Why we need MPAs – Hope Spots for the Ocean!

“It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become.” Dr. Seuss
This Dr. Seuss quote from The Lorax captures the essence of marine protected areas (MPAs). Science shows that these underwater wildlife sanctuaries can sow the seeds of tomorrow’s healthier ocean. We need a healthier ocean to help ensure the survival of the global ecological and geological engine it drives – to help ensure our own survival on the planet. The creation of MPAs, or “Hope Spots” as Dr. Sylvia Earle calls them, is an actionable way to address the tremendous existential challenges the ocean faces.
Many successful MPAs range in function, from small marine parks supervised by indigenous communities to large designated cultural landmarks or protected sites.…

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Sylvia Earle honored as a UNEP “Champion of the Earth” for Lifetime Leadership

Wednesday night in Washington, DC, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) honored eight environmental stewards as “Champions of the Earth!” As the United Nations’ most prestigious award for the environment, the Champions of the Earth award is celebrating its tenth year of highlighting the outstanding contributions of policy makers, innovators and advocates “to our greatest planetary cause.”
Mission Blue founder Dr. Sylvia Earle and seven others were honored at a gala event at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum. Awash in hues of blues and greens, the gallery reverberated with haunting tones emitted by Earth Harp.  Elizabeth Broun, Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Kim Sajet, Director of the National Portrait Gallery gave the welcoming remarks.…

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World Parks Congress in Australia Unites Global Ocean Leaders

By Courtney Mattison
On a warm summer afternoon in Australia last Wednesday, thousands of environmental researchers, advocates, policy makers and business leaders gathered in a great hall within the Sydney Olympic Park for the opening ceremonies of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Parks Congress. Delegates from around the globe watched as world-class acrobats flew through the air and dancers in vibrant costumes portrayed a story about inspiring future generations to protect the environment. Aboriginal performances and protocols highlighted the rich cultural context of the host country of this meeting, which only comes around once a decade and is held in a different country each time.
IUCN President Mr. Zhang Xinsheng, Australian federal and state environmental ministers and Nelson Mandela’s grandson addressed the congress.…

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