Ocean Stories

Our old friend Aquarius stands patiently on the sea floor, waiting for the launch of Mission 31 – Fabien Cousteau’s quest to break his grandfather’s underwater record by one day. This June, Fabien will descend 60′ to Aquarius Reef Base off Key Largo Florida for an epic 31 day mission to bring attention to the importance of underwater exploration.  Plus we are expecting some exciting celebrity guests.  More news soon on Mission Blue!
Feature Photo: DJ Roller/Liquid Pictures…

This week we’d like to introduce our new partners, The Ocean CREST Alliance, located on Long Island in Mission Blue’s Bahamian Reefs Hope Spot. They’ve been working on ocean issues from marine protected areas to education and we’ll let them tell you all about the scope of their grassroots efforts to protect their corner of the blue, as well as to develop methods for protecting their waters that can be mirrored elsewhere.  ~ Ed.
Charting a new course for sustainable MPA operations
Our Long Island Marine Managed Area (LIMMA)  initiative plays a significant role nationally and internationally in the design and development of sustainable Marine Protected Areas (MPAs.) We collaborate locally with the Bahamas National Trust (BNT) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to help bring the Bahamas’ goal of 20% protection by 2020 to fruition. …

On April 20, 2010, the ultra-deep drilling rig Deepwater Horizon operating 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico exploded, killing 11 men and injuring 17 others. In the 87 days that the gusher flowed uncontrolled, it spewed over 200 million gallons of oil into an already stressed Gulf ecosystem.
Now, four years later we’d like to share with you several important pieces shedding light on just a few aspects of the cascading problems in Mission Blue’s Gulf of Mexico Deep Reefs Hope Spot, as well as the surrounding coastal areas of the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida. 
Mission Blue would like to thank the honor roll of dedicated scientists, NGOs, grassroots organizations, government agencies, and citizens who continue to work tirelessly both to restore the Gulf, and to change future policies for a healthier tomorrow.
 “We’re four years into this disaster, not four years after it.…

The Mantis Shrimp has eyes that are compound, like those of the dragonfly, although they have a far smaller number of ommatidia (about 10,000 per eye;) however, in the mantis shrimp each ommatidia row has a particular function. For example, some of them are used to detect light, others to detect color, etc.
Mantis shrimp have much better color vision than humans (their eyes having 12 types of color receptors, whereas humans have only three,) as well as ultraviolet, infrared and polarized light vision, thus having the most complex eyesight of any animal known. The eyes are located at the end of stalks, and can be moved independently from each other, rotating up to 70 degrees. Interestingly, the visual information is processed by the eyes themselves, not the brain.…

If there is a good feature about ocean noise pollution it is that unlike other human-generated pollutants, once you stop making noise it goes away. This axiom was highlighted last week when the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted a set of noise guidelines that if followed by member nations could decrease low frequency shipping noise by 10dB (ten times less energy) in the next 30 years. This in effect could reverse 10dB increase in shipping noise that has occurred with the expansion of international ocean-borne trade in the last half century.
The increase in shipping noise didn’t exactly sneak up on us; physical oceanographer Donald Ross predicted the increase as far back as 1976 – just as international trade was really beginning to take off.…

As Alvin embarks on it’s first post refit explorations in the Gulf of Mexico, we look back to our own Sustainable Seas Expedition. Mission Blue Director of Expeditions and Photography, Kip Evans takes us on a magic carpet ride into the deep.   ~ Ed.
In 1977, Alvin, the first untethered manned submersible, was used to confirm theories of seafloor spreading along the Mid-Atlantic ridge. Much to the amazement of scientists, the area was home to a thriving community of organisms living in extremely hot, sulfuric rich water. This discovery, along with hundreds of others, has made Alvin and other manned submersibles, one of the most valid oceanographic tools in the world.
During the past 30 years there has been a lot of debate about the need for using manned submersibles.…

Rigs to Reefs: addressing the future of offshore oil platforms in California
California’s horizon has been speckled by oil and gas platforms since the 1950’s. Although these towering, distant objects bring in over 2 billion dollars in annual oil revenue to the state of California, many local residents complain that their very existence is an eyesore and an extreme liability should there be an oil spill. These legitimate grievances may soon receive retribution as the oil wells dry up and offshore production slows to a halt.
With many rigs facing the potential of being decommissioned in the next decade, California stands at an important policy crossroads: safely eliminating the eye sore and liability of the oil and gas platforms while still protecting the valuable and fragile ecosystems that have formed on and around these structures.
 
After 30 years of observing and monitoring the marine ecosystems on oil platforms, research suggests that these structures have evolved into economically and ecologically valuable ecosystems.…

Also known as Rhinopias frondosa, this fishy jewel’s cryptic camouflage is an invaluable tool for hunting prey and avoiding becoming prey itself. Both prey and predators mistake the well camouflaged fish for a piece of seaweed!
Photo: (c) Jamie Pollack…

Op Ed at CNN by Mission Blue partner, Carl Safina. 
CNN Editor’s note: Carl Safina is an award-winning scientist and author, founding president of Blue Ocean Institute at Stony Brook University, and host of the PBS television series “Saving the Ocean with Carl Safina.” 
(CNN) — On Monday the World Court in the Hague ruled that Japan’s “scientific” whale-hunting was baloney. It ordered Japan to revoke its “scientific research” permits to all its ships, effectively tying Japan’s fleet to the dock and silencing the cannons and exploding bombs that are the way whales die nowadays.
Japan says it will abide. I wish it would take this opportunity to bow gracefully out of something so dishonest and unfit for modernity. But I expect a fragile truce, and only a partial one.…

Too often, we see the open ocean like the space between stars.
We imagine a void, vast and hollow, characterized by emptiness and populated by ghosts. Water becomes a medium, a barrier, something crossed en route to something of substance. To the sea we consign the ashes of our dead, symbolically releasing them from this world as though the watery realm weren’t part of it.
It is, of course, very much part of our world, and it is far from empty. In fact, the open ocean comprises planet Earth’s most powerful bio-engine. Though its inhabitants can barely be seen and have only recently come to science’s attention, they form an integral part of the marine biosphere. They undergird the valuable resources human beings extract from the ocean—resources we’ve come to depend on.…