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Verde Island Passage Named a Hope Spot Highlighting Community Reef Monitoring Program

Featured image: Coastal community drone © Joal Ascalon
(VERDE ISLAND PASSAGE, CORAL TRIANGLE, PHILIPPINES)

The Verde Island Passage (VIP) is a major waterway that separates southern Luzon Island from northern Mindoro Island in the Philippines, extending from Lubang Island in the west to Tablas Island in the east. Its 1.14 million hectares of coral reef, mangrove, and seagrass habitats possess a remarkable abundance of marine life, provide livelihoods to millions of people through fishing and ecotourism, serve as a major step commercial shipping channel, and houses significant industrial complexes along part of its shoreline.
Dr. Terrence Gosliner, Senior Curator of Invertebrate Zoology, California Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Wilfredo “Al” Licuanan, Distinguished Full Professor in the Department of Biology and a University Fellow at De La Salle University (DLSU) and their partners are seeking the inclusion of the Verde Island Passage as a National Integrated Protected Area System of the Philippines and declaration as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area of the International Maritime Organization. …

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Successful Coral Restoration Efforts Celebrated at Newly Declared Ocean Cay Hope Spot in the Bahamas

Ocean Cay is a former industrial island located 22 miles south of Bimini, The Bahamas, and 65 miles southeast of Miami, Florida. Since 2015, through multi-disciplinary and institutional collaborations, the MSC Foundation and MSC Group have restored the island to re-establish its ecological balance after years of destructive activities. The Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve has been recognized by the government of The Bahamas as an area of high biological productivity and biodiversity and as such, has been recommended for ‘Marine Protected Area’ status. The MSC Foundation and its partners are hopeful that their marine conservation work can take the recognition process over the finish line to achieve official protection. 
International marine conservation nonprofit Mission Blue has declared Ocean Cay a Hope Spot and Pierfrancesco Vago, MSC Foundation Board Member and Chair of the Executive Committee – as the Hope Spot Champion in recognition of the Foundation and its partners’ programs to restore the area to its natural state to achieve a balanced ecology that can be maintained for generations to come.…

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My Thoughts on Deep Sea Mining by Dr. Sylvia Earle

Featured image: Bamboo coral, family Isididae on steep rock in the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone Hope Spot © Dan Jones, ECOMAR Project
If you would like to watch our June 2023 live webinar with Dr. Sylvia Earle on this topic, you can view it on the Mission Blue YouTube channel.
By: Dr. Sylvia Earle

Deep sea mining is much on my mind. Greed, not need, has inspired an amazingly seductive marketing campaign that has generated a dangerous smog in the minds of many who are willing to accept the pitch without considering the harsh economic, environmental and common sense realities involved.
Imagine!  The fate of half of the world is on the chopping block, with authority to decide actions vested in a council of 36 individuals representing the interests of 168 countries and – although most are oblivious to what’s going on – the interests of 8 billion people and all of life on Earth.…

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Recording & Resources: Diving in Deep, Mining the High Seas – A Panel Discussion with Dr. Sylvia Earle

Thank you for joining us for Diving in Deep: Mining the High Seas – A Panel Discussion with Dr. Sylvia Earle on June 20th, 2023! 
To stay up-to-date on future Mission Blue virtual events, bookmark our Events page and subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
In this roundtable discussion, moderator Carl Lundin, Advisor, Mission Blue, guided the conversation with Dr. Sylvia Earle, Dr. Sandor Mulsow, Vasser Seydel, and Sian Owen about deep-sea mining in the high seas, and what we are risking by exploiting this largely unexplored living system.
 

You can also view “Deep Trouble” with Dr. Sylvia Earle and Yo-Yo Ma below:

Our Panelists:
Dr. Sylvia Earle, Founder of Mission Blue and National Geographic Explorer in Residence

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The Northeast “Whale Capital” of Iceland Recognized as Mission Blue Hope Spot

(NORTHEAST ICELAND) –
Mission Blue has named Northeast Iceland a Hope Spot in recognition of the area’s rich diversity of marine life, the brilliantly unique ecosystems they reside in, and the work of Hope Spot Champions Belén García Ovide, Dr. Charla Jean Basran, and Eva Björk Káradóttir to encourage formal protections for them. The Northeast Iceland Hope Spot is being honored on the evening of June 5th at the Explorers Club in New York, New York, as part of World Ocean Week celebrations with Dr. Sylvia Earle. 
 
 
Dr. Earle, Founder of Mission Blue, says, “In this area, just beneath the surface, [there is] a vibrant world of geothermal vents, upwelling currents, nutrient-rich waters, and a place where biodiversity proliferates in a dynamic environment.…

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Byron Bay Named Australia’s Newest Mission Blue Hope Spot Highlighting Need for Improved Marine Protections

Featured image: Migaloo white humpback whale and Wollumbin © Craig Parry
(BYRON BAY, NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA) –
An 8-hour drive north from Sydney, Australia rests the small coastal town of Byron Bay, appreciated by its 9,000 residents for its sparkling blue waters, golden sands and epic surf breaks. The area encompasses the Cape Byron Marine Park and the Julian Rocks Nguthungulli Nature Reserve, which represent the ecological, cultural, and economic importance of the region. In recent years, Byron Bay has become a popular tourist destination, with 3 to 5 million annual visitors. However, this added pressure comes with a downside: much like many marine ecosystems around the world, the area struggles with the negative effects of pollution, runoff, and increasing coastal development, which has caused habitat degradation of the local marine life.…

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The Great Lakes Named Mission Blue’s First Freshwater Hope Spot

Featured image: Aerial view of Sleeping Bear Dunes © Shedd Aquarium
(LAKE MICHIGAN, CHICAGO, UNITED STATES) –
International marine conservation nonprofit Mission Blue has named the Great Lakes the first and only freshwater Hope Spot with the John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Illinois, as the Hope Spot Champion. 
 
 
Dr. Sylvia Earle, Founder of Mission Blue, posed a challenge to Shedd Aquarium last April to consider the Great Lakes for designation, in part, due to the unique connectivity they share with marine environments and human health. “The Great Lakes represent both the figurative and the literal heart of the North American water system,” Dr. Earle stated. “A source of water for over 40 million people and more than 3,500 plant and animal species, many of which are unique to the Great Lakes, the inclusion of this critically important natural area as a Hope Spot will highlight the connection and significance of protecting inland habitats, as we really understand that the whole aquatic world; inland waters and the ocean beyond are one interconnected system.” …

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Restoration and Protection in Action: A Year of Successes for the Sulubaaï Environmental Foundation on Pangatalan Island, the Philippines

Header image: Pangatalan Island © Sulubaaï Environmental Foundation
The Philippines is part of the Coral Triangle and is located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is an area of exceptional importance and is recognised as the global center for marine biodiversity. It is home to more than 1,700 reef fish species, five of the world’s seven marine turtle species and a staggering number of reef building coral species (460+). Due to the richness of marine biodiversity found here, conservationists have advocated for its increased protection. 
 
 
Mission Blue has designated two Hope Spots in the Philippines, one of which is Pangatalan Island. This small island is located north-east of Palawan and covers an area of 4.5 hectares. In 2011, driven by their love of the ocean, French business developer Fréd Tardieu and his wife purchased the island and founded the Sulubaaï Environmental Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to conserve, protect and restore the natural resources of Palawan. …

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New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary Named a Hope Spot to Highlight Ongoing Cleanup Efforts to Improve Water Quality and Ecosystem Restoration

Featured image: Egrets in the Meadowlands © Hackensack Riverkeeper
(NEW YORK-NEW JERSEY HARBOR ESTUARY, UNITED STATES) –
The New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary is located in the largest metropolitan region in the United States, where more than 14 million people work and raise their families and millions more come to visit from around the world every year. Throughout more than three centuries, the water in the estuary was degraded due to pollution and habitat destruction from activities like untreated sewage, industrial waste dumping, dredging, and development. The quality of the water hit its lowest point in the 1960s, a turning point in which New York State voters passed the Pure Waters Bond Act in 1965 and the federal Clean Water Act of 1972 was passed when several public and private NGOs and agencies began focusing on its recovery and pushed improved regulations and enforcement, coastal land use policies, public access, research, and education.…

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High Seas Treaty Reached at United Nations in Historic Deal

Featured image: Sargassum floating in the Sargasso Sea, located in the Northern Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, high seas. The Sargasso Sea is one of Mission Blue’s Hope Spots located in the high seas © Philippe Rouja
(UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK) – 
After two decades of ongoing discussion, United Nations delegates from 193 nations reached a historic agreement on March 4th, 2023 to protect marine biodiversity and address climate change in international waters, also known as the “high seas”. The high seas refers to approximately 2/3rds of the world’s oceans that are not within any country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), leaving such waters vulnerable to damaging fishing and other extractive practices. 
António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General, says, “This action is a victory for multilateralism and for global efforts to counter the destructive trends facing ocean health, now and for generations to come.”…

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