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Citizen Oceanography Meets the Marine Microbiome

By Rachelle Lauro of Indigo V Expeditions (new Mission Blue partners)
When we think of the ocean, often times it’s the more exciting and interactive denizens of the sea that come to mind. We can easily connect with the plight of cetaceans in captivity, monitor bycatch, track orca populations and lobby against shark culls.
It’s hard to believe, but the ocean could be completely devoid of macro-life, yet continue to serve its main function of atmospheric buffering, nutrient cycling, CO2 absorption and oxygen production. Taken in sum, the ocean is the backbone to sustaining habitable living conditions on earth.
A healthy ocean ecosystem underpins healthy life on land, national security and business interests for humankind. Yet we continue our assault on this very fragile ecosystem with no real information on the effects of our activities.…

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Protecting Italy’s Underwater Treasure

By Mariasole Bianco, President of Worldrise (a new Mission Blue partner)
Cinque Terre is definitely one of the jewels in the crown of Italy. Riomaggiore, Manrola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso are five pastel-hued little towns along the northwest coast of Italy; so romantic, so iconically Italian, that it seems that they were made to grace picture postcards.
If you ask, everyone will tell you that the main attraction of Cinque Terre is the magnificent landscape representing the harmonious interaction between people and nature. This is undeniably true, as the landscape illustrates a traditional way of life that has existed for 1,000 years – when stone wall terraces were built to colonize the steep hills and high cliffs of this area overlooking the Mediterranean.…

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Priority chemicals and marine biodiversity

From our new partners at the GOES Foundation (Global Oceanic Environmental Survey):
by Dr. Howard Dryden, GOES Founder
Nature 2010 and Nature 2011 reported that there has been a 40% drop in primary productivity in the North Atlantic since the 1950s. At the same time, oceanic pH started to decline sharply, causing seawater to acidify.  This trend may be related to an increase in industrial output and carbon dioxide emissions. However, as a marine biologist specializing in some of the largest aquarium life support systems in the world, I know that carbon dioxide is used to increase primary productivity. Woods Hole reported that an increase in carbon dioxide increased photosynthetic productivity, yet over the last 60 years there may have been a reduction by 40%.…

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Mysteries of the Galapagos Seafloor Revealed

Ever wonder what the seafloor of the Galápagos looks like? What goes on below the surface around the magnificent cluster of islands that Darwin’s finches and those wonderful giant tortoises call home? Our partners at the Khaled Bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation went to find out, and the results have captured our imagination.
Using an innovative high-resolution seafloor habitat mapping technique, researchers from the Living Oceans Foundation (KSLOF) and the National Coral Reef Institute at Nova Southeastern University collected hundreds of underwater videos and over one million depth readings around Baltra, Darwin, Floreana, Isabela, Marchena, Urvina, and Wolf Islands in June 2012 as part of the six-year KSLOF Global Reef Expedition.
Using a method of collecting shallow water surveys called “groundtruthing,” the team covered over 750 square kilometers of seafloor around the Galápagos.…

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Bringing Ocean Conservation to the Web

By Andrew Kornblatt, co-founder of the Online Ocean Symposium
The Online Ocean Symposium is a digital forum that uses streaming video to connect and broadcast different voices from the ocean world. We have guests that speak on issues ranging from ocean acidification to plastic legislation to climate change. Each conversation is not only live-broadcast where the audience can ask questions directly of the participants, but it also is forever housed in YouTube.
For the past two years we have invited guests like Sylvia Earle, Bill McKibben, Don Walsh and most recently, Richard Branson, to discuss their work and passions as they relate to the ocean. We have hosted over 30 different Hangouts. Now the Symposium is honored to become an official partner of Mission Blue.…

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Bring Balance to the Bering Sea

By Jackie Dragon (Originally published January 16, 2015 on Greenpeaceblogs.org)
This week in Seattle billboards and posters are popping up with a message for companies that profit from the sale of our ocean wildlife. Greenpeace, Mission Blue, and Marine Conservation Institute — three organizations committed to protecting important ocean places — have joined up to tell supermarkets that we need their help to protect special ocean places, like America’s Grand Canyons in the Sea.
An American gem is hidden from sight beneath the chilly waters of Alaska in the Bering Sea. Zhemchug and Pribilof canyons — designated a Hope Spot by “Her Deepness,” Dr. Sylvia Earle in 2013 — are the world’s largest underwater canyons, both more massive than the Grand Canyon.…

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Biotherm to Help Restore Coral Lagoon in French Polynesia

In Paris on Monday, French luxury skincare company Biotherm held a joint press conference with Mission Blue to announce that part of proceeds from three products of its Aquasource range (Aquasource Gel, Aquasource Crème and Aquasource Crème Riche) would support the Tetiaroa Society and CRIOBE (The Insular Research Center and Environment Observatory of French Polynesia) to research and replenish fish and crustacean stocks in the lagoon of Tetiaroa – an exquisite coral atoll located 33 miles north of Tahiti in French Polynesia.
Stan Rowland, chairman of Tetiaroa Society, said:
“We are thrilled to be working with Biotherm and Mission Blue in a collaborative effort to protect our oceans and marine environments. This funding from Biotherm will support an important effort to demonstrate an economic and environmentally sustainable method of replenishing marine life in coral lagoons.…

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Dive Virtually with Sylvia Earle!

Can’t throw on a scuba tank and go diving on a tropical coral reef with Sylvia Earle this week? No problem! Infinite Scuba® offers a realistic scuba diving experience from the comfort of your home, and not only can you dive with Dr. Earle, you can be her! Cascade Game Foundry just released two exciting additions to its Infinite Scuba video game: a Sylvia Earle avatar and a new Belize dive site.
“Mission Blue is delighted to partner with Cascade Game Foundry on Infinite Scuba,” says Dr. Earle. “Experiencing the beauty, mystery and fragility of the ocean in such a hands-on way will inspire the people who play the game to protect our planet’s blue heart.”

Kathie Flood, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Cascade Game Foundry (CGF) says, “It is a true honor to include Dr.…

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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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