Ocean Stories

Check out “My secret life as plankton” for a fish-eye look at the unseen life teeming within each drop of the ocean’s water. We spoke with producer and marine biologist Tierney Thys to get an inside perspective on creating the film.
What inspired you to make this video?
I’ve been in natural history filmmaking for many years and have a deep love and respect for the ocean. I also believe strongly in the power of film to raise awareness and educate. The idea for an ocean series for TED Ed was originally suggested to me by Chris Anderson, curator of TED. We brainstormed on possible topics and it grew out from there.
Where did you get the idea to cast a fish as the narrator?…

(c) Kip Evans Photography

Treehugger.com has again chosen to honor Dr. Sylvia Earle, this time with a “Best of Green Award” for her ‘Hope Spots’ initiative.  In 2010, ‘Her Deepness’ received Treehugger’s “Person of the Year” award not only for her lifetime of accomplishments, but specifically for her achievements during 2010, from her work during the Deepwater Horizon Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico to her Mission Blue Voyage to the Galapagos, inspiring individuals globally to take action on behalf of the ocean.

Dr. Earle’s Hope Spots are a targeted approach to ocean conservation – a scientifically sound way of bringing attention to crucial areas of our ocean planet. Faced with relentless pressure from overfishing, habitat destruction and pollution, the ocean is increasingly threatened on many fronts.…

(c) Kip Evans Photography

We invite you to join Dr. Sylvia Earle and Eleanor Phillips of The Nature Conservancy for a Mission Blue™ expedition aboard the M/Y Sirenuse to visit a critical Hope Spot, the Bahamas.Dr. Earle’s foundation, the Sylvia Earle Alliance (SEA) launched a global initiative, called Mission Blue in response to Sylvia’s 2009 TED Prize wish, where she urged people “to use all means at your disposal — films, expeditions, the web, new submarines — to create a campaign to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas; Hope Spots large enough to save and restore the blue heart of the planet.”An international coalition of partners dedicated to ocean conservation, research, exploration, policy, technology and communication have coalesced around Mission Blue.…

Mountain View, CA
Everyone has a question. What’s yours?  Have you asked a question today? What did you do with it? Did it take you somewhere new? The Google Science Fair is an online science competition seeking curious minds from the four corners of the globe. Anybody and everybody between 13 and 18 can enter. All you need is an idea. Entries taken until April 1st.
To learn more, or to enter the competition, visit the GoogleScience Fair site. The grand-prize winner will receive a National Geographic expedition to the Galapagos Islands, a $50,000 scholarship from Google, a learning experience of their choice at Lego, Google, or CERN, a personalized Lego prize, and one year of digital access to Scientific American’s archives for their school.…

By Kurt Repanshek
National Parks TravellerEdited by Deb Castellana

Some environmental heavyweights — E.O. Wilson, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Sylvia A. Earle, Thomas E. Lovejoy, and Tundi Agardy — have urged Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to see that an oyster farm is removed from Point Reyes National Seashore when its lease ends this fall.
Their letter, released Thursday by the National Park Service’s Washington office, comes as Point Reyes officials are crafting a final environmental impact statement examining the impacts of the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. on Drakes Estero.

(c) Robert King Photography

“You are now in a position to protect the only marine wilderness area on the West Coast for the benefit of the public and generations to come,” reads a portion of the letter.…

By Rachel Nuwer
The ongoing battle to outlaw Bisphenol-A—a chemical found in products ranging from baby bottles to shower curtains to food cans—comes to a head this week.
Since 2008, the Natural Resources Defense Council has pushed the Food and Drug Administration to ban BPA in any container that holds or comes in contact with food. When the FDA failed to respond within its allotted 180 days as required by law, the NRDC sued the administration. Now, the FDA is required to respond to the NRDC’s petition no later than March 31.
“There is no doubt that BPA is dangerous for human health,” said Daniella Russo, the executive director and co-founder of the non-governmental organization Plastic Pollution Coalition. “The question is, why are we not moving to do something when this is a well known fact?”…

By Rachel Nuwer
Parents face a difficult decision when it comes to serving seafood at the dinner table: does the risk that fish contains toxic contaminants outweigh its nutritional benefits? TheEnvironmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration sometimes provide contradictory information about what quantities of seafood are safe to consume, and the extent of contamination for many populations and species of fish remains unknown.
Fish become contaminated in a variety of ways. Mercury, for example, can makes its way into an aquatic ecosystem from power plant runoff,. Rivers feed into the ocean, and so the contaminant finds its way into the marine ecosystem as well. Microbes change the element into methyl mercury, which travels up the food chain and bioconcentrates in larger and larger fish.…

“It isn’t just about polar bears,” says Dr. Sylvia Earle. Although they are the Arctic’s biggest predator and cutest mascot, there is much more at stake in this rich and largely unexplored ecosystem than you’d think.On April 20th, in select theaters, our partner One World One Ocean  will premiere their groundbreaking new IMAX film, “To the Arctic.”

To see the trailer of the film, narrated by Meryl Streep, click here. We cannot wait to see it!…

After 160 years of competition, the battle for the world’s oldest sporting trophy will be fought for in a dramatically different way this time around. The history and the tradition of this great competition—which exceeds even that of the Olympics—remain, but the 34th America’s Cup is a brand new game with a brand new message: saving the ocean.
In 2013, San Francisco will welcome the America’s Cup race to her waters.  For the first time ever, stadium-style racing will put over 7 million spectators at the heart of the America’s Cup action. Coverage of the event will allow more people in more places around the world to tune in than ever before.
But beyond the appeal of fast boats and extreme sports, the America’s Cup team has vowed to deliver the next race as a model sustainable sporting event.…

Filmmaker and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence James Cameron announced that he will attempt to reach the world’s deepest point, the Mariana Trench, nearly 7 miles (11.2 km) beneath the ocean’s surface, in the next few days. Cameron’s dive in his specially designed submersible marks the launch of Deepsea Challenge, a joint scientific project by Cameron, the National Geographic Society and Rolex to conduct deep-ocean research and exploration to expand our knowledge and understanding of these largely unknown parts of the planet.

Photo by Mark Thiessen/National Geographic
DEEPSEA CHALLENGER, the submersible designed by explorer and filmmaker James Cameron and his engineering team to travel to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, is lowered into the water for testing off the coast of Australia.…