Ocean Stories

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.…

By Martha Shaw
For 10,000 years, the ocean has been the life support system that has generously supplied us with air, food, and shelter in the embrace of a livable climate. In a perfect world, human beings might have fit nicely into the Earth’s ecosystem, in balance with the rest of nature. Over the last half-century however, that’s not been the case. Since the industrial revolution, man’s effect on the ocean has been likened to an invasive species. Man’s greatest predator has quickly become man himself.
As a species, who will save the day?
One thing working against the ocean is that problems are out of sight, out of mind. Its wounds lie beyond and below our line of vision. Many people have never even seen it except on television, in books and movies, on menus, or in pictures on the packaging of ‘seafood.’…

Last weekend, HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco convened a summit on sea level rise and ocean acidification – two of the most pressing environmental issues caused by our carbon dioxide emissions – alongside partners from The Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. The three-day retreat had a special focus on catalyzing leadership strategies to adapt to these ecological changes, with a special focus on the Pacific.
“The focus [of the retreat] is on solutions,” said Margaret Leinen, director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. “We already see acidification taking place. We already see sea level rising. So how are we going to adapt to that? I think it’s really a question of putting good science together with good strategies.”…

To a packed hall in Austin, TX on Tuesday, Sylvia Earle delivered a passionate keynote speech entitled “Sustainable Seas: The Vision and the Reality.” The 60-minute talk elicited a standing ovation and questions from the audience asking “What can I do to help?” Dr. Earle addressed myriad issues involved in understanding and preventing ocean decline – from microbiology, to overfishing, to Exclusive Economic Zones – and encouraged all present to apportion some of their creative energy to building a solution, a way forward so that we can find a sustainable way to live on a planet that sustains us.
Her talk was preceded by this cinematic video created by Conservation International in which Harrison Ford plays the part of the ocean.…

Thanks for visiting! The live stream of Sustainable Seas: The Vision and the Reality (a Keynote Presentation by Dr. Sylvia Earle, Founder of Mission Blue, at SXSWEco) is finished, but here are 5 WAYS YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE RIGHT NOW!

LEARN the issues and how you can help! Watch the Mission Blue film with your friends to understand how to eliminate or reduce seafood consumption, decrease your carbon footprint and stop plastic pollution (remember the 3 R’s: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE). You can be part of the solution. Go for it!
 

SUPPORT Sylvia Earle’s Mission Blue! Your tax-deductible donations support public outreach, expeditions and direct appeals to policy makers to build a global network of Hope Spots to restore the ocean.…

Before Leonardo DiCaprio became an actor, he dreamt as a child of becoming a marine biologist. An avid SCUBA diver, DiCaprio’s passion for the ocean and the life in it has stayed strong during his spectacular rise to cinema glory. (One of his favorite dives was to the shark sanctuary in Cocos Island in the Eastern Pacific Seascape Hope Spot.) These days, DiCaprio is using his celebrity power and personal resources to not only raise awareness about ocean issues, but also to underwrite major marine conservation initiatives. In June 2014 at the US State Department’s Our Oceans conference, DiCaprio spoke genuinely about the need for intelligent and collaborative action to reverse ocean decline. Recognizing that talking alone isn’t enough, he pledged to donate $7,000,000 over 2 years to bolster action to save our seas.…

By Dr. Richard Pyle

September 27, 2014: Back to French Frigate Shoals
After leaving Pearl and Hermes, we had scheduled two and a half transit days to get back to French Frigate Shoals, which would have allowed us one and a half days of diving. However, the crew of the Hi’ialakai made better-than-expected headway in transit, arriving early enough at French Frigate Shoals that we were able to get in two full days of diving. Even before the bubbles cleared after plunging into the clear blue water for my first deep dive yesterday, I was startled when I turned around and saw a Galapagos Shark bearing down on me. I managed to turn my video camera on just in time to capture its closest pass, and from that point onward, we were obviously the subject of much interest among about seven or eight larger-than-usual Galapagos Sharks.…

By Courtney Mattison
“The United States does not have an Amazon basin, but it has the watery equivalent, a paradise of turtles and sharks, seals and dolphins, coral reefs and giant clams, frigate birds and boobies.”[i] Last Thursday, the environmental community rejoiced as President Obama announced that the U.S. would protect this natural treasure by expanding the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument and creating the largest protected area anywhere on Earth. Building upon the 83,000 square miles of U.S. territory designated for protection by President George W. Bush in 2009, Obama’s executive action increases the reach of this cluster of remote Pacific reserves southwest of Hawaii to 491,000 square miles – three times the size of California and six times larger than the monument’s previous size.…

A juvenile lionfish seems to pose for this first-place photograph taken by Steven Kovacs during a night dive in Roatan, Honduras.
Before 1985,  US divers had some travelling to do if they wanted to see a Lionfish in the wild. But now, most likely as a result of releases by private aquarium owners, Lionfish have spread and have caused native fish populations in a wide area of the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico to decline by up to 80 percent. For example, in the Bahamas between 2008 and 2010 Lionfish succeeded in reducing the biomass of 42 other fishes by an average of 65 percent. By 2013, Lionfish had spread throughout the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, reaching densities well above those in their native Indo-Pacific habitat and, unlike most invasive species, have shown no signs of slowing down.…

By Courtney Mattison
Climate Week is in full swing and started out with a spectacular series of events in New York City last weekend, many of which related to the ocean. While the ocean was not (to many conservationists’ surprise and dismay) a focal point of the UN Climate Summit with world leaders yesterday, it has received the attention it deserves for absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) and bearing the brunt of climate change at numerous independent events.
On Saturday night, the Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS) illuminated the 30-story United Nations Headquarters with a magnificent architectural-scale public light display of inspiring imagery ranging from macro footage of undulating coral polyps to a vast landscape of the aftermath of an oil spill. The visual effects were dynamic, constantly morphing and pulsing into one another with music and creating an experience that was at times haunting and at others uplifting.…