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Entanglement Team Makes Whales Smile

Marine Life Studies Make a Whale Smile Campaign November 2014 – February 27, 2015
As we watch the last of the entangling lines slip off the whale, we are struck with the realization that we just relieved suffering and probably saved the life of this innocent creature. It is particularly gratifying when a humpback whale we disentangled is re-sighted actively feeding, doing well, and recovering from its severe injuries. 

Twenty to 80% of large whales show signs of entanglement in fishing gear or marine debris. A lucky few throw the gear or are disentangled by trained and permitted rescue teams. For every entangled whale reported there are many more that go unreported, struggling unnoticed and suffering or even dying from damage to fins and flukes.…

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A Family of Farmers – a Conservation Vessel – a Purpose

Island Reach in Vanuatu
By Janis Steele
Island Reach is a volunteer ocean-going project run by a New England forest farming family headed by a couple of social scientists trained in Human Ecology and Cultural Anthropology. In collaboration with The Ocean Foundation in the US, we work in Vanuatu in the South Pacific aboard Research Vessel Llyr.

Vanuatu is one of our planet’s last great places of rich cultural and biological diversity. Lying on the eastern edge of The Coral Sea, this remote ocean state of 83 islands is home to a vast treasure trove of natural riches – from coral reefs to mangrove and rain forests – and an enduring interdependence between its people and their environment. This intimate relationship between Ni-Vanuatu (the people of Vanuatu) and their seas and islands finds expression in the densest language diversity on the planet, with over 120 languages in active use.…

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Keeping Tabs on Ocean Health with Reef Check

We’re thrilled to announce our new partnership with Reef Check!
Established in 1996 by Dr. Gregor Hodgson, Reef Check is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to saving reefs and oceans through research, education, conservation, and encouragement of sustainable, environmental solutions. Reef Check seeks to empower local communities to improve two marine ecosystems: tropical coral reefs and California rocky reefs. As a global organization, Reef Check provides a simple, standard method to train fishermen and community members to scientifically check the health of their reefs and to create non-extractive businesses that use coral reefs to provide a higher income than fishing – an ecologically and economically sustainable solution for both coral reef conservation and to track reef health worldwide.

As the United Nations’ official selection for community-based reef monitoring programs, Reef Check analyzes the health of reefs through a method of surveying that uses local citizen scientists who are trained and led by professional marine biologists.…

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Music to Save the Ocean to from The Jellyfish Project

Mission Blue is excited to announce a new partnership with The Jellyfish Project (JFP) – a non-profit organization that uses music and live performance to spread awareness of the environmental realities of our time and the solutions to overcome them. The JFP is a global coalition of musicians raising awareness about our environment and our future. In collaboration with some of the most prominent environmental organizations in North America, they have created a simple yet powerful platform for like-minded musicians and bands to engage in the environmental movement in an organized and impactful way.

The Jellyfish Project has two core programs:
1. From the Stage
From The Stage involves a simple commitment for artists to speak to their audiences about the environment for a few moments at some point during their shows.…

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Bahamian Community Doing Good For Ocean Conservation

By Joseph Ierna Jr., Ocean CREST Alliance
We have badly managed our ocean for decades through overfishing, pollution, climate change and development. We have all been part of the ongoing decline of our ocean in some manner, and we can all be the solution to its repair.
On Long Island in the Bahamas, the “Long Islanders” are trying to restore a once-rich ecosystem while sustaining their economy and their direct ties to the sea. This delicate balance is not easy to maintain, but it is necessary to return our ocean to its former glory. In an ongoing process to establish a large marine protected area (MPA), the small 4,000-person community of Long Island Bahamas is making good progress in establishing protection for 215,000 acres of coastal waters.…

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Act Now to Protect the High Seas with TakePart & Mission Blue!

Here at Mission Blue we are thrilled to be teaming up with TakePart — “a digital news & lifestyle magazine and social action platform for the conscious consumer” — to raise awareness for the ocean! 
TakePart enables people like you to change the world by broadcasting inspiring content and connecting it to actions you can take to make a difference. Over the coming months, TakePart will be spreading the word about ways you can help save the ocean alongside Mission Blue!
To start off, you can get involved by signing this Mission Blue petition to help protect the High Seas! As the IUCN World Parks Congress leads into  international meetings at the United Nations this winter, we face an exceptional opportunity to urge policymakers to create legal protections for the High Seas – nearly half of our planet – which are currently about as lawless as the wild west.…

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New Habitats and Human Impacts Discovered in the Deep Sea Surrounding West Coast Marine Sanctuaries

By Courtney Mattison
The National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) recently teamed up with Deep Ocean Exploration and Research and other partners to explore the depths of the proposed expansion areas of the Cordell Bank and Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuaries. With the goal of gaining a basic understanding of new species and habitats that may soon be included in the sanctuaries, this team of scientists and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) technicians explored depths up to 300 meters (984 feet) in Bodega Canyon and surrounding areas.
The ROV was equipped with a video camera that allowed researchers to observe a variety of interesting invertebrates and fish including sea whip corals, rock prawns and flatfish. Among the team’s exciting discoveries was a catshark and skate nursery near Bodega Canyon that consisted of several clusters of eggs on the seafloor.…

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Who says you have to be near the coast to love the ocean?!

From our new partners at Teens4Oceans:
Teens4Oceans, based in Boulder, Colorado along the front range of the Rocky Mountains, certainly doesn’t think so. In fact, Teens4Oceans became a nonprofit organization with the goal of bringing the ocean to students around the world through underwater webcams. Today, Teens4Oceans empowers middle and high school students to become ocean stewards and work toward solving ocean issues that they are passionate about through education programs, experiential learning, scientific research, and the use of innovative technologies such as the cameras that started it all.
As a Mission blue partner, Teens4Oceans aims to reach an even broader audience of ocean stewards who believe in youth education in the marine sciences. The leadership skills and creative projects developed by “T4O” students are essential tools for a budding college student or future scientist.…

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Film Festival Honors Conservation Leaders

Last Friday, international filmmakers, scientists and some of the world’s most respected conservation leaders gathered for the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival Red Carpet Gala & Awards Ceremony to honor five distinguished guests. Mission Blue founder Dr. Sylvia Earle, Dr. Birute Galdikas, Dr. Patricia C. Wright, His Royal Highness Prince Khaled bin Sultan and Nan Hauser each received a Lifetime Achievement Award during one of the premier conservation galas of 2014 at 583 Park Avenue in New York City.

Sylvia Earle both received an award and presented one to HRH Prince Khaled bin Sultan for his international efforts to conserve coral reefs. In his acceptance speech, the prince spoke of the wonder he experienced during his first scuba dive and shared his inspiration for founding the Living Oceans Foundation, which co-hosted the gala and works tirelessly for “the conservation and restoration of living oceans and pledges to champion their preservation through research, education and a commitment to Science Without Borders.”…

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New Seafloor Map from Scripps uses Google Earth to Reveal Mysteries of the Deep

By Courtney Mattison
Sylvia Earle often says, “We know more about space than we do about our ocean.” That surprising fact may soon change thanks to a new map produced using satellite data of variations in Earth’s gravitational field to reveal features of the seafloor that were previously undiscovered. By tapping into data streams from the Jason-1 and CryoSat-2 satellites, researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and their colleagues have made a breakthrough in seafloor mapping that “is like the difference between ordinary and high-definition television.”[i]

The data collected for the new seafloor map will inform the upcoming version of the global ocean seafloor in Google Earth and Maps and fill in large voids between shipboard depth profiles that have provided lower resolution seafloor mapping data in the past.…

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