Ocean Stories

The Basking Shark (Cetorhinus maximus) is the second largest fish in our ocean – its relative the Whale Shark being the biggest. Despite their size, Basking Sharks actually feed on plankton which they filter out of the water, swimming slowly back and forth with their enormous mouths wide open.

Photo: (c) Alex Mustard ~ AMustard.com…

Kurt Lieber, Founder and President of Ocean Defenders Alliance kicks off our series on ‘Ghost Nets,’ featuring Mission Blue partners who are leading the charge to publicize – and remedy this growing and very dangerous problem for sea life. We’ve also embedded the just-released video from Jamie Thalman on ODA’s work, ‘Catalina Wrecked.’
We are proud to welcome Ocean Defenders Alliance to the Mission Blue family of Partners! ~ Ed.
There is a long-neglected issue affecting our planets oceans.  It is not that people don’t care; it is more a classic example of “out of sight, out of mind.”  Most people are outraged when they see images of garbage or clear-cuts in national forests—but too few people understand that our oceans face similarly devastating circumstances in the form of “ghost” fishing gear. …

Soft corals known as sea pens, usually found at depth, and a blue cod appear in the shallow waters of New Zealand's Long Sound reserve, where tannin-stained water blocks light. When disturbed, sea pens emit a greenish light and can deflate, retreating into their bulbous feet.

Photograph by Brian Skerry, National Geographic…

The Ocean is the dominant life support system on the planet and is central to our quality of life on earth. Unfortunately, there is a profound, widespread ignorance about the Ocean and its vital importance to everyone, everywhere, all of the time. Even what is known to scientists is not widely appreciated by the public, and certainly not by most policymaking officials. You can rarely prove something to someone who does not want to see it proven, or has financial or ideological reasons to not see it proven.
The oceans provide 97% of our planet’s living space, yet less than 5% of the Ocean has been seen, let alone explored. Marine ecosystems hold far more biological and genetic diversity and density than the tropical rainforests which tells us that we don’t know much about this planet at all.…

When shady war criminals flee their country and disappear into the world, INTERPOL gets the call. The International Criminal Police Organization, as they are formally called, coordinates police action on an international level, preventing crimes from slipping between the cracks of global law enforcement. In huge news for the future of our oceans, INTERPOL is now turning its attention to combatting the criminal and detrimental practice of illegal fishing. A global project named SCALE is launching at the end of this month to detect, combat and suppress fisheries crime as well as improve intelligence sharing between fisheries enforcement organizations.
Illegal fishing outfits are waging an organized, criminal war on marine life in our oceans. It is estimated that 20 percent of all wild marine fish caught globally are obtained illegally.…

A collection of bright and colorful sea anemones move with the ocean current in the Maldives. (c) Justin Lewis…

Featured photo (c) Daniel Beltrá, DanielBeltra.com
For those of us who were not lucky enough to make it to Houston for Mission Blue founder Dr. Sylvia Earle’s landmark talk this week, we’re pleased to share the full-length video courtesy of Rice University’s Baker Institute.
From the need for deep exploration to pressing worldwide ocean issues, the focus moved to the unique challenges of the Gulf of Mexico, and what we’ll need to do to save it for tomorrow’s children.

The Civic Scientist Lectures are a series of talks by leading scientists and engineers from around the world who have impacted public policy. The Civic Scientist Program is managed by the Science and Technology Policy Program of Rice University’s Baker Institute in Houston, Texas.…

Recognizing the growing threat posed by foreign illegal fishing, Senator Jay Rockefeller, Senator Lisa Murkowski and 8 co-sponsors introduced two important bills on February 11th in the US Congress—the Pirate Fishing Elimination Act and the International Fisheries Stewardship and Enforcement Act—that would safeguard U.S. ports, strengthen enforcement, and protect American fishing interests. This follows introduction last month in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo of companion legislation to the International Fisheries Stewardship and Enforcement Act; that bill has eight cosponsors representing the East Coast, Caribbean and Pacific States and Territories.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing spans the globe, threatening legitimate fishing operations, undermining sustainable fisheries management, and stealing a vital resource from needy communities and the world economy.…

Photo: Oceanic White Tip Shark with Pilot Fish, (c) Daniel Botelho
CITES is widely recognized as one of the most effective and best-enforced international conservation agreements. It offers protection to more than 30,000 species around the globe and has been instrumental in preventing the extinction of numerous plants and animals. The 16th meeting of CITES will be held from March 3–14, 2013, in Bangkok, Thailand.
Advocates are pushing for the adoption of three shark proposals and one manta ray proposal, to include these species on Appendix II at CoP 16 (porbeagle, oceanic whitetip, and hammerhead sharks (scalloped, great, and smooth), and manta rays).
Fishing has drastically depleted shark and ray populations over the past 60 years. Of the shark and ray species assessed by scientists for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),  30 per cent are threatened or near-threatened with extinction.…

Lucia Pec is a German-born nature guide and beach artist living in the Bohemian Forest, or Šumava, in the Czech Republic. A marine and forest ecologist by training, Pec’s main focus is to “bring across the value of wild nature to everybody.”
Each winter she and her family visit Portugal, where Pec fell in love with doing beach art:
Since a couple of winters I come for a break to the magnificent wild beaches of the western Algarve in Portugal. First I was shocked by the amount of rubbish that piles up on almost all beaches. But being a beach treasure seeker all my life, soon all the little and big things stranded ashore started to inspire me. So I started to turn some pieces of waste into very short-lasting art objects, which in that composition only outlast in my pictures.…