fbpixel Hope Spot Archives - Page 7 of 17 - Mission Blue

Blog Archives
Kahalu‘u Bay on Hawai‘i’s West Coast Recognized as a Mission Blue Hope Spot

Featured image (c) Bo Pardau
KONA, HAWAI‘I (May 26th, 2022)

On the west coast of the island of Hawai‘i is Kahalu‘u Bay, also known as ‘āina lei ali‘i, lands that adorn the chiefs. It is a wahi pana, a sacred, celebrated, and storied place abundant with cultural and ecological treasures. 
Cindi Punihaole, director of The Kohala Center’s Kahalu‘u Bay Education Center (TKC-KBEC) and Dr. Christine Zalewski, president of Dear Ocean, are working to preserve Kahalu‘u Bay for generations to come. Punihaole describes how her native Hawaiian upbringing shapes her perspective and approach to conservation at Kahalu‘u Bay. “We were taught that taking care of the ʻāina, the land and sea, is your survival. It’s second nature for me to look at what gives us life.”
 
 
International marine conservation nonprofit Mission Blue has named Kahalu‘u Bay a Hope Spot and Punihaole and Zalewski as the Hope Spot Champions.…

Posted in .Homepage, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Featured, mission blue, Partner Stories, Photo of the Day, Uncategorized |

Leave a comment
New Management Plan Approved for the Cordillera de Coiba Hope Spot in Panama

Spanish version below.
Héctor Guzmán, marine conservation biologist of the Smithsonian Institution, worked on the development and drafting of the plan for the management of the expanded protected area. He is also the Champion of the Cordillera de Coiba Hope Spot. To learn more about this Hope Spot, click here.

In June 2021, Panama expanded the Cordillera de Coiba Marine Protected Area from approximately 17,000 to 68,000 square kilometers, accomplishing the goal of the Global Biodiversity Framework’s “30×30 Initiative” to protect 30% of the marine areas of the country by 2030. Less than a year later, in February 2022, Héctor Guzmán, a marine biologist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), together with a multidisciplinary consulting team, delivered the final management plan for the expanded protected area that was recently approved by the Ministry of the Environment of Panama, according to resolution number DM-No.…

Posted in .Homepage, Featured, mission blue, Partner Stories, Uncategorized |

Leave a comment
New Hope Spot Champions of the Sargasso Sea to Conduct First Ecosystem Diagnostic Analysis of a High Seas System

Featured image: Philippe Rouja free diving under Sargassum in Challenger Banks, Bermuda (c) David Doubilet
SARGASSO SEA, NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN (March 11th, 2022)

Often referred to as “the floating golden rainforest of the Atlantic Ocean”, the Sargasso Sea covers an impressive two million square miles of water. It has no land boundaries: rather, the area of the Sargasso Sea is defined by the whirling grasp of major currents within the North Atlantic Gyre. Vast mats of sun-soaked, free-floating yellow Sargassum seaweed bob at the surface under distinctively calm air. 
 
 
The Sargasso Sea is a high seas ecosystem – it lies outside of the boundaries of any country. The high seas make up more than 60% of the ocean and while they possess deeply important biological diversity, they remain some of the least protected places on the planet.…

Posted in .Homepage, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Featured, mission blue, Uncategorized |

Leave a comment
Dr. Sylvia Earle Celebrates Expanded Marine Protected Area in the Galápagos Islands Hope Spot

By Avrah Sellar, Mission Blue

Today, January 14th, 2022, the President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, signed an official decree enhancing the marine protected area (MPA) around the Galápagos Archipelago in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean. The decree will expand protections by 60,000 square kilometers (23,166 square miles); half of which will be fully protected where no extractive activities are allowed. The new protected area known as La Hermandad, “the sisterhood,” will extend to the maritime border of Costa Rica offering an opportunity for multi-national cooperation to manage marine life like sharks, sea turtles and whales which migrate across countries waters.
 
 
Present at the ceremony was Dr. Sylvia Earle and Max Bello, Global Ocean Policy Advisor for Mission Blue, who attended at the invitation of the President.…

Posted in .Homepage, Featured, mission blue, Partner Stories, Uncategorized |

Leave a comment
Champions Celebrate Successful Clean-Up Campaign at the Cagarras Islands and Surrounding Waters Hope Spot

By Aline Aguiar, Hope Spot Champion
In a recent beach clean-up campaign in Brazil from November 15th – December 12th, 2021, more than 1,000 participants collected 110lbs (50kg) of trash and brought 529lbs (240kg) of glass and electronic waste to reuse and recycle. 

The Cagarras Islands and Surrounding Waters Hope Spot encompasses a special insular ecosystem on the Brazilian metropolitan waters: the Cagarras Islands Natural Monument. This extraordinary place is a relevant haven for biodiversity, harboring hundreds of species, including rare, endemic, threatened, and even new species that science has not yet described. The marine protected area (MPA) preserves one of the largest nesting grounds of the South Atlantic for frigate birds and brown boobies. One can also spot sea turtles, dolphins, and whales on the surrounding waters.…

Posted in .Homepage, Featured, mission blue, Partner Stories, Uncategorized |

Leave a comment
Costa Rica Adds Nearly 53,000 sq km of Protected Waters to the Cocos Island National Park

On Friday, December 17th, 2021, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, President of Costa Rica, and Andrea Meza, Minister of Environment and Energy, signed a decree expanding the Cocos Island National Park, which lies at the heart of the Cocos Island Hope Spot. This move adds approximately 53,000 sq km (21,235 sq miles) of fully protected waters to Costa Rica’s territory in the Pacific Ocean, making the total size approximately 55,000 sq km. 
 
 
This area of the Eastern Tropical Pacific hosts myriad endangered or threatened marine species like the scalloped hammerhead, which, like many other animals, uses the waters between Cocos Island and the Galápagos Islands as a migratory “swimway.” Marine animals, much like terrestrial animals, do not stay in one place.…

Posted in .Homepage, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Featured, mission blue, Partner Stories, Photo of the Day, Uncategorized |

Leave a comment
Scientists Detected the First Documented Journey of Scalloped Hammerhead Shark from Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica to Galápagos Islands, Ecuador

Spanish version below.
A scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini) travels more than 1,200 km from Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica’s South Pacific, to the iconic Darwin Arch in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Evidence of connectivity between a coastal nursery area and an essential ocean habitat thanks to a collaborative tagging effort.

By Alex Hearn, President of Migramar and Champion of the Galapagos Islands Hope Spot and the Cocos-Galapagos Swimway Hope Spot
DECEMBER 3, 2021 – Like the jaguars that inhabit the tropical rainforests of different Central American countries, scalloped hammerhead sharks transit through large marine areas of Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador. Such is the case of “Banco”, a male scalloped hammerhead shark tagged at the Golfo Dulce Shark Sanctuary in southern Costa Rica in August 2017 that was detected 1,200 km at the Galapagos Marine Reserve in
Ecuador four years later in March 2021.…

Posted in .Homepage, Featured, mission blue, Partner Stories, Uncategorized |

Leave a comment
Hope in the Conflict Islands

Photo: Conflict Islands Conservation Initiative
By Hayley Versace, General Manager, Conflict Islands Resort and Conflict Islands Hope Spot Champion

The Conflict Islands are one of just two Hope Spots in Papua New Guinea. The Conflict Islands are a privately owned atoll 22 kms by 14 kms wide in the center of a richly biodiverse marine ecosystem. This atoll is connected to several other Hope Spots in the region through the many migratory species that mate, raise their young and feed in these waters.
 
 
The conservation work by Conflict Islands Conservation Initiative (CICI), an Australian not-for-profit, has evolved thanks to our growing network of partners and supporters from all over the world, stemming from the support we have had from Mission Blue and Dr.…

Posted in .Homepage, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Featured, mission blue, Partner Stories, Photo of the Day, sylvia earle, Uncategorized |

Leave a comment
Laamafaru Festival 2021 Celebrates Ocean Conservation at Laamu Atoll Hope Spot

By Leanna Crowley, Marketing Communications Manager, Six Senses Laamu Resort

Since 2016, the Maldives Underwater Initiative (MUI) by Six Senses Laamu has organized a community festival in Laamu Atoll with the aim of raising awareness of and increasing protection for sea turtles. The Laamu Turtle Festival brought people from across the atoll together to pledge ‘Turtles in Laamu – Safe and Protected’. In 2019, MUI recognized the growing need to raise awareness about the conservation of entire marine ecosystems and the services they provide, in order to safeguard the Maldives from the negative effects of climate change or unsustainable practices. That is why, in 2019, the resort and local stakeholders in Laamu Atoll voted to broaden the scope of the 4th annual festival to Laamafaru Festival, or ‘Laamu’s Reefs Festival’ in Dhivehi, under the theme ‘Our Ocean – Safe and Protected’.…

Posted in .Homepage, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Featured, mission blue, Partner Stories, Uncategorized |

Leave a comment
Ancestors of Whale Sharks in Panama May Come from Distant Waters

Genetic population connectivity study of the endangered whale shark in Pacific Panama provides important data for conservation efforts.
By Leila Nilipour, photos by Candy K. Real
Spanish translation below.

The world’s largest fish, the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), is a plankton-loving giant that can be found alone or in groups in all tropical oceans. However, despite being a highly migratory species, little is known about how the different populations worldwide interact with each other. This lack of knowledge hinders conservation efforts aimed at protecting this endangered animal. Héctor Guzmán, a marine biologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, alongside Caitlin Beaver of the US Geological Survey and Edgardo Díaz-Ferguson of Coiba Scientific Station, set out to start bridging this knowledge gap.…

Posted in .Homepage, Featured, mission blue, Partner Stories, Uncategorized |

Leave a comment