Ocean Stories

Sherman’s Lagoon is a syndicated daily comic strip set underwater in a cartoon lagoon. It features a dimwitted great white shark named Sherman and his sea turtle sidekick named Fillmore.

Related features:
5 Questions with Cartoonist Jim Toomey
The United Natinos and Jim Toomey Team Up to Create Ocean-Related Animated Videos
Cartoonist Jim Toomey Supports Bermuda’s Blue Halo Initiative
Two Minutes on Oceans: Blue Carbon
A Short Film — Coral Reefs: Polyps in Peril…

Jeju Island, Republic of Korea (IUCN) – As concern increases on the state of natural resources and the degradation of the world’s oceans, it is critical to be clear on how countries are progressing with conservation actions for the environment. New guidance issued today on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) will significantly improve ocean protection efforts.
Guidelines for Applying the IUCN Protected Area Management Categories to Marine Protected Areas aims to make clear what is most significant and of highest priority in MPAs and will help countries more accurately detail their successes. The new guidelines will define MPAs—preventing the trend of fisheries advisory bodies claiming that area mechanisms that exploit fish are MPAs. Also, pipeline areas and wind farms will not be considered MPAs unless they are set up following specific guidelines, with clear long-term objectives for nature conservation.…

Dive into the virtual ocean with Mission Blue in the Google Liquid Galaxy set up at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Jeju, Republic of South Korea. Join Dr. Sylvia Earle, Dan laffoley, Jason Holt, Lisa Uttal,Christiaan Adams and Kristina Gjerde to get an update on the congress and take a virtual tour of the world’s ocean.

Learn more about the 2012 IUCN World Conservation Congress.…

By James Oliver
The Andros Barrier Reef, located off Andros Island, the largest island in the Bahamas archipelago, is the second largest barrier reef in the western hemisphere. Extending for a distance of approximately 200km, this reef system is home to over 164 species of fish and coral and is famous for its deep-water sponges and large schools of red snappers. It has been identified as a “Hope Spot” by the Mission Blue project of world-renowned oceanographer Dr Sylvia Earle and, as with other Hope Spots, critical to the health of the ocean.
Today at IUCN’s World Conservation Congress we heard more worrying news for Caribbean coral reefs with the release of a new report by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, coordinated by IUCN, which estimates that 85-90% of the region’s coral reefs are dead or dying.…

Jeju Island, Republic of Korea, 7 September 2012 (IUCN) – Time is running out for corals on Caribbean reefs. Urgent measures must be taken to limit pollution and regulate aggressive fishing practices that threaten the existence of Caribbean coral reef ecosystems, according to a new IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) report.
Average live coral cover on Caribbean reefs has declined to just 8% of the reef today, compared with more than 50% in the 1970s according to the report’s findings. Furthermore, rates of decline on most reefs show no signs of slowing, although the deterioration of live coral cover on more remote reefs in the Netherlands Antilles, Cayman Islands and elsewhere is less marked—with up to 30% cover still surviving.…

IUCN Goodwill Ambassador Pierre-Yves Cousteau talks about the need for innovative solutions to the world’s environmental problems. He looks at the diversity of marine life his father, Jacues Cousteau, encountered 20 years ago while diving in Southeast Asia, a region Pierre visited recently.
Content from the International Union for Conservation of Nature…

Loggerhead sea turtles are one of the most widespread of all the marine turtles, found throughout the world in subtropical and temperate waters. Loggerhead sea turtles are also one of the most highly migratory marine turtles, with individuals known to cross the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This species common name comes from its relatively large head with powerful jaws.
 
Common Name: Loggerhead
Scientific Name: Caretta caretta
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Family: Cheloniidae
Status: Loggerhead sea turtles are listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
 
Photo by the talented Eric Cheng. This photo was taken in Palm Beach, Florida. (http://echeng.com)…

By Mera McGrew
This week, leaders from governments, the public sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), businesses, UN agencies, and social organizations will convene in Jeju, Republic of Korea, for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress (WCC). Held every four years, the Congress will bring together the world’s leading environmental and development experts with the aim of improving how our natural environment is managed.  It is the world’s largest and most important conservation event.
The Congress will start September 6th and go through the 15th of September. It will begin with the Forum — described as a “hub of public debate,” which will bring people together from across the globe. Cutting-edge ideas, thinking and practices surrounding pressing conservation issues will be the main focus of debate, workshops, roundtable discussions, training courses and more.…

Researchers say that a new Pew-commissioned study underscores the need for protecting species by outlining the economic costs of historic overfishing. In a prepared statement the Pew Environment Group explained, “the Southeast sustained tens of millions of dollars in economic losses during a five-year period because years of overfishing depleted species.”
The study, conducted by the nonprofit consulting firm Ecotrust, examined the impact of overfishing on nine severely depleted species in the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico from 2005 to 2009.
“Overfishing—catching fish faster than they can reproduce—leaves a costly legacy that hurts our communities,” said Lee Crockett, Pew’s Director of U.S. Fisheries Campaigns. “The Ecotrust study makes a strong economic case for the laws we have today that require science-based annual catch limits to end and prevent overfishing.…

By Peter Seligmann
I am on the plane returning from the Pacific Islands Forum in the Cook Islands. All I can say is “Wow.”
Thanks to the inspired leadership of CI’s newest board member, President Anote Tong of Kiribati, and strong support from the Prime Minister Henry Puna of the Cook Islands, the Pacific Oceanscape is gaining traction. In fact, the Oceanscape has been officially adopted by the entire forum as an essential platform of their collaboration with each other and with their outside development partners, including Australia, the European Union, the World Bank, the U.N., China, the U.S., New Zealand, France and Taiwan.
These leaders have appointed one of their most distinguished and senior diplomats, Tuiloma Neroni Slade of Samoa as the commissioner of the Pacific Oceanscape and have created a Regional Ocean Alliance to provide support to the commission.…