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A Reason for Hope in the Sea of Cortez

Mission Blue is proud to partner with Christian Vizl! 
By: Christian Vizl, Underwater Photographer 

In times where the Ocean is facing grave dangers like overfishing, acidification, warming, contamination, etc. a group of local fishermen are giving an example to the rest of the world, and a reason to hope.
Cabo Pulmo is located in the southernmost tip of the Sea of Cortez and used to be a very small fisherman’s town due to its natural abundance of marine life. With the pass of time (and overfishing) they started to became aware of the increasing scarcity of their catch, and took a bold decision; stop all commercial fishing, partner with scientists of a local university and the government to declare the area a national marine park.…

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Politics and Porpoises

Mission Blue is proud to partner with Ocean Champions, #VoteTheOcean on November 8th!
Everyday we work to safeguard the health of our ocean and its wildlife – from sustainable fisheries and clean beaches to pods of dolphins and porpoises. We need members of Congress to make strong federal policies and laws that preserve our nation’s marine and coastal resources. At Ocean Champions, we work to get the right officials elected to Congress who will lead the charge to protect and manage the ocean. As we say at Ocean Champions: “Great ocean policies begin with great ocean champions.”
What We Do
During the past 10 years we’ve helped elect over 100 ocean champions in Congress — Republicans, Democrats, and Independents who have made the oceans a priority. …

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The Mighty Antarctic Krill and the Global Movement to Save Them

Mission Blue is proud to partner with Lifeline Antarctica! One of the most important Hope Spots is the Ross Sea in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean. Currently, CCAMLR delegates have the unique opportunity to ensure this last great wilderness is protected.
By: Kristin Urquiza, Lifeline Antarctica 

Krill may be small but this shrimp-like crustacean plays a mighty role as the foundation of the Antarctica ecosystem. Penguins survive almost exclusively on krill and blue whales need four tons per day to survive.
Because of krill’s critical position in the ecosystem, the United States prohibits its harvest off the Pacific coast. Partly as a result, the region’s blue whales have recovered to 97 percent of their pre-whaling population, the only fully recovered blue whale population in the world.…

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Ocean Protection Goal Increases to 30%

A Proud Partnership- Mission Blue Applauds IUCN’s Motion to Protect 30% of  the Ocean By 2030!

“Planet at the Crossroads” was the theme at this year’s World Conservation Congress. Organized by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), leaders took bold steps in confirming recommendations for 30% marine protection by 2030. Over 180 countries and 700 conservation groups were represented. 
Motion 53 came one week following President Obama’s historical expansion of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Countries are now being urged to designate this as a minimum for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Building fuller sustainability would include the reduction of at least 30% “extractive” activities including fishing, mining, and drilling. 
Pew Charitable Trusts outlines some of the ways in which this might be accomplished: 

States committing to designate at least 30 percent of their national waters as MPAs by 2030; 
States engaging constructively in establishing MPAs in areas beyond national jurisdiction, through the development of a new global instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and through the adoption of new and existing proposals at the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources; and 
IUCN State Members calling on the CBD Secretariat to initiate the process for achieving a post-Aichi target of 30 percent of coastal and marine areas fully protected by 2030.…

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Journey Across The Arctic

Mission Blue is proud to partner with 5 Gyres! 
By: Carolynn Box and Lia Colabello, The 5 Gyres Institute

 5 Gyres was founded on the belief that citizen science can change the world. In 2009, we began raising awareness about marine plastic pollution when Dr. Marcus Ericksen and Anna Cummins collected 15,000 plastic water bottles to create the JUNK RAFT, which Marcus sailed for 2,600 miles for 88 day from California to Hawaii. Since then, the organization has embarked on 17 research expeditions, covering 50,000 miles and engaging scientists around the globe. 

 
In 2014, 5 Gyres convened eight international scientists to publish the first global estimate of plastic pollution in our oceans: 5.25 trillion particles weighing in at 269,000 tons of “plastic smog” worldwide. 
 

For our 17th research expedition this past August, The 5 Gyres Institute traveled 1687 miles through the Canadian Arctic to collect microplastics to better understand the global distribution of the smog of plastic that plagues our seas.…

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The World’s Last Great Wilderness

By: Mike Walker, Project Director Antarctic Ocean Alliance

For many of us Antarctica is out of sight and out of mind. We know even less about the waters surrounding it, the wild Southern Ocean. Our ignorance may aid its conservation, as what goes unseen goes, relatively, unharmed. However, this might also means we have not noticed the repeated failure of decision-makers to honour their commitment to protect this unique wilderness.
Exactly 25 years ago on October 4, 1991, countries signed the Madrid Protocol to protect Antarctica’s environment. The agreement is widely regarded as one of the most successful examples of diplomacy in modern history and has ensured that Antarctica remains “a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science”. And while the Protocol applies to the waters surrounding the continent it does not apply to fishing activities.…

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Ocean Health—Sea Lions Sound the Alarm

By: Shilpi Chhotray, Mission Blue Communications Strategist 

We’ve all seen the photos—record numbers of starving young sea lions, little more than skin and bones, that have washed ashore along the Northern California coast. These figures and images, reported by The Marine Mammal Center, weigh heavily on our marine mammal-loving hearts. Sea lions are known for their curiosity and playful banter with human passersby– but what’s happening to their population?
Sea Lions In Trouble
Earlier this year, The Marine Mammal Center was rescuing dozens of sea lion pups at a time for immediate medical attention at their hospital in Sausalito, California. The animals were so dehydrated and emaciated that Center staff described them as ‘fur-covered skeletons’. Before the one year mark, a healthy sea lion pup should weigh between 50-70 lbs.…

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Hope in the Coral Triangle

By: Liz Cunningham

“We need to take care of the ocean, because we have no land,” Arman said. “The sea is our home.” Those were the last words the Bajau sea nomad in Sulawesi told me before we parted.
When I researched my book Ocean Country, I asked, “Who more than any other cultural group in the world calls the ocean home?” The answer was the Austronesia sea nomads of Southeast Asia. Nowhere on earth are there a people whose lives are more deeply intertwined with the sea. While they now primarily live in stilt villages, they live in the wake of a 10,000 year old tradition of nomadic life at sea—their ancestors ate, cooked, hunted, slept, and gave birth at sea.…

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Atlantic’s First Marine National Monument!

 
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
 
FACT SHEET: President Obama to Continue Global Leadership in Combatting Climate Change and Protecting Our Ocean by Creating the First Marine National Monument in the Atlantic Ocean
 

 
Today, President Obama will designate the first marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean, protecting fragile
deep-sea ecosystems off the coast of New England as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. The new national monument – which encompasses pristine underwater mountains and canyons – will provide critical protections for important ecological resources and marine species, including deep-sea coral and endangered whales and sea turtles. 
President Obama will make this announcement in remarks today at the 3rd annual Our Ocean Conference in Washington D.C.…

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IUCN- Planet at the Crossroads.

The IUCN World Conservation Congress 2016 kicked off two days ago in Honolulu and we can’t imagine a more auspicious occasion! Less than one week after President Obama announced the expansion of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument around the Hawaiian atolls as the world’s largest marine protected area, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) convenes its conference on the monument’s doorstep for the first time anywhere in the United States.
In a recent response to President Obama’s announcement of the expanded Hawaiian monument, Mission Blue Founder and National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Sylvia Earle remarked:

Americans on this centennial anniversary are encouraged to “find your park” and enjoy these wonders that are the collective conscious of our nation. But with President Obama’s expansion of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument from 50 to 200 miles out from the Northern Hawaiian Islands, now the world’s largest marine protected area, history will remember this anniversary and next century as the “blue centennial”—the time when the national park idea was brought to the ocean.…

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