Ocean Stories

Coiba, Panama
March 5, 2012

© Kip F. Evans – Mission Blue

We awoke eager to go diving but were delayed as the dive boat was held up helping our companion ship, the Sea Hunter, to launch their DeepSee submersible.  Biff Bermingham, Director of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute here in Panama, showed Sylvia a map of the current Isla Coiba marine park, highlighting which areas are protected, as well as where fishing is still allowed. Local people hope to get support to protect more of the ocean in the surrounding area.

Finally around noon, I took my first dive at Coiba off  “Desert island” with Sylvia Earle, Kip Evans, David Shaw, Shari Sant Plummer and Beverley. When I first got into the water, I saw a large silver plate-shaped permit swim away followed by other big fish with jack like shapes, and long tail fins with rainbow colors.…

Award-winning National Geographic photojournalist Brian Skerry chatted with Mission Blue about his adventures lost under Arctic ice, exploring ship wrecks, and hanging out with 70-ton whales.
So why underwater photography?
I guess I was drawn to photography because I was a diver first. I had an innate desire to be an ocean explorer. After I became a certified diver, I attended a diving conference where photographers and filmmakers were showing their work. I had this epiphany where I realized I could be an explorer of the ocean, but do it with a camera. I was 17 years old. Before that, I was interested in photos but not passionately; I was more interested in stories and story telling. I was always a very visual person.…

Coiba National Park, located off the southwest coast of Panama, is made up of Coiba Island, 38 smaller islands and the surrounding marine areas within the Gulf of Chiriqui. Protected from the cold winds and effects of El Niño, Coiba hosts exceptional diversity on the land and under the ocean. Considered a precious jewel of the Pacific, Coiba is a critical part of the Eastern Pacific Seascape, a broad ocean area within the waters of Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador.

Photo: Hector Guzman, STRI

Coiba Island is the biggest island in Central America and is also the largest uninhabited island in all of Latin America. It was declared a World Heritage site in 2005 and it provides a key ecological link to the Tropical Eastern Pacific for the transit and survival of pelagic fish and marine mammals.…

Wellington, New Zealand

The Antarctic Ocean Alliance has launched it’s first report, “Antarctic Ocean Legacy: A Marine Reserve for the Ross Sea,” today in Wellington, New Zealand.  The report calls for a 3.6 million square kilometer fully protected marine reserve in what the Alliance’s Chuck Fox calls  “One of the most amazing and relatively untouched marine environments on earth.”

The Alliance is made up of supporters such as actor and UN Biodiversity Ambassador Edward Norton, Dr. Sylvia Earle, entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and some 16 global environmental organizations.

“The fate of the Antarctic’s Ross Sea is likely to be decided by 24 countries and the EU this year and the global public knows nothing about it,” said Alliance Campaign Director Steve Campbell.…

World Oceans SummitSingapore
Take a magic carpet ride through the ocean to Dr. Earle’s Hope Spots via the new Google Earth Surround Liquid Galaxy display. Then check out the new Great Barrier Reef 360s from the Catlin Seaview Survey by Underwater Earth at the Economist World Oceans Summit in Singapore.

Video Courtesy of Jenifer Austin Foulkes…

Dr. Earle speaks about the importance of ‘accounting for the ocean’ at the World Oceans Summit. Tomorrow, fellow National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Enric Sala will address the challenges we face in establishing and maintaining marine protected areas (MPAs).  Stay tuned!…

Photo: Channel News Asia

The world’s ocean is the setting for increasing economic activity and it will continue to be so for years to come. Only in recent years have scientists begun to understand the significant impact of growing industrialization on the ecosystems of the ocean and, by extension, on the broader biosphere that we call home. The Economist believes that it is the time to engage the global business community and change the nature of the debate. 
The Economist’s World Oceans Summit will examine how the increasing activity in and around the ocean can be managed sustainably and what this means for business and other key stakeholders. Chaired by John Micklethwait, Editor-in-chief of The Economist, the summit will bring together more than 200 global leaders from various sectors and disciplines, including government, business, international organizations, NGOs, think-tanks and academia to participate in a unique, outcome-driven dialogue.…

Dr. Earle will be a panel guest tonight with Dr. Gary Null at 7PM Eastern Time, along with  Professor Henry Pollack (Professor Emeritus of Geophysics at the University of Michigan and member of ICPP), and Professor David Montgomery (Professor of Geology at University of Washington). 

The subject will be an investigation into some of the critical environmental tipping points – and should make fascinating listening.…

If you’re lucky enough to be in the San Francisco Bay Area this week, you’ll have the opportunity to hear Dr. Earle present the sixth Fred Keeley Lecture on Environmental Policy on Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. at the UC Santa Cruz Music Recital Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public. Doors open at 7:00 p.m.

Photo of Dr. Earle: Becky Hale

Acclaimed nature photographer and UCSC Trustee Frans Lanting will give a special introduction. 

“As a campus committed to the environment and at the forefront of marine conservation, we are delighted to welcome Sylvia Earle who has been on the frontier of deep ocean exploration for more than four decades,” said Chancellor George Blumenthal.…

Belize/Guatamala/Honduras/Mexico

In the first Eco-Audit of the Mesoamerican Reef, it has been determined that although progress is being made, more must be done to protect this fragile ecosystem, which is also one of Dr. Earle’s Hope Spots.  In the summer of 2011, Dr. Earle and her team mounted an expedition to the Swan Islands of Honduras, bringing increased focus to the region. The Mesoamerican reef runs over 600 miles from Mexico south to Honduras, and is a vital support system for this beautiful corner of our ocean planet.

Dr. Sylvia Earle Explores a coral reef at Swan Island, (c) Kip Evans Photography

The evaluation was carried out by The Healthy Reefs Initiative (HRI), in collaboration with the World Resources Institute (WRI), and nearly 40 local organizations, government agencies and companies. …