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Blog Archives
21,000 Jobs in Peril: Pipeline Threatens the Saanich Inlet and the Southern Gulf Islands Hope Spot

By: Shilpi Chhotray, Mission Blue Communications Strategist 

Did you know the cool waters of Vancouver Island provide some of the greatest diversity of marine life in North America? In fact, underwater explorer and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau remarked “it’s the best temperate-water diving in the world and second only to the Red Sea.” Saanich Inlet and the Southern Gulf Islands in particular are rich with ecologically diverse creatures and plants unique from anywhere else in the world. Small rocky outcrops create private sanctuaries for a wide variety of sea birds and marine mammals while kelp forests are filled with schools of fish, colorful anemones and sponges, pods of Orca whales, and the elusive Giant Pacific octopus.

It Takes a Village
In addition to spectacular endemic marine life, the Island’s small communities including many vibrant First Nations have engendered strong ties to the ocean for generations.…

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Viaje al Mar: Las Tortugas Unen el Punto de Esperanza de Choroni + Chuao

Spanish translation of Journey to the Sea: Turtles Unite the Choroni + Chuao Hope Spot 
Traducido Por: Marco Caputo

Febrero marca el comienzo de la temporada de anidación de tortugas marinas en la costa venezolana. Cualquiera que haya sido testigo de tortuguillos marinos encontrando su camino hacia el océano, sabe que estas pequeñas criaturas marinas enfrentan un enorme desafío. No sólo tienen que atravesar varios metros de arena para llegar al mar sin ninguna interferencia, una vez que están en el océano, se encuentran con el riesgo de la contaminación, enredarse en artes de pesca, las lesiones de las hélices del barco, además de los depredadores naturales. Las tortugas marinas pueden haber existido desde la época de los dinosaurios (!110 millones de años atrás!),…

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Unforgettable Cabo Pulmo

By: Shilpi Chhotray

What happens when fishers give up their fishing poles in the name of conservation?
An iconic example is the Cabo Pulmo Marine Park- 17,570 acres of protected water in Baja Mexico’s East Cape. I had the wonderful pleasure of visiting Cabo Pulmo last December after hearing so much about local fishers collaborating with biologists, conservationists, government staff and divers from around the world to create a no-take marine reserve, providing us hope for life in the sea. There’s a reason Dr. Sylvia Earle holds up Cabo Pulmo as a model to the world:

“I love how this community celebrates the living value of the creatures that occupy the ocean in your neighborhood. It’s a matter of respecting them as neighbors.…

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Underwater in the Galápagos: A Lesson in Human Connection

By: Danielle Epifani, Mission Blue Communications Assistant 

After months of reporting imagery and articles of undersea life, I had the unique opportunity to join a seven day liveaboard with the Aggressor III, as a Mission Blue Hope Spot reporter. Throughout my childhood, I alternated between swimming in the ocean of Southern California, my neighbor’s pool, and the crystal clear lagoons and reef passes of my ancestral islands, in French Polynesia. I thought I had experienced the sea: it’s wonder, beauty, and the urgent need for marine protection.
Learning to scuba dive in one of the world’s legendary dive sites had not quite registered with me. However, the unfathomable statistic that the ocean has lost 90 percent of its big fish, ignited a sense of urgency.…

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Dodging Disney: Bahamians Seek Science to Save the Egg Island Hope Spot

By: Shilpi Chhotray, Mission Blue Communications Strategist

“Tourists from around the world come to see an untouched Bahamas. Meanwhile, the government says that cultivating high-volume, high-impact deals with cruise lines will bring local jobs. In reality few locals are hired to staff the cruise lines’ “private islands” and these fantasy terraforming projects naturally conflict with efforts to promote local, more lucrative eco-tourism. If Egg Island is designated a marine protected area, the community will see pretty quickly that the income-earning opportunities for eco-tourism far outstrip the earning potential of the average cruise port employee.” Theo Linn is an American attorney and resident of Russell Island, the closest community to uninhabited Egg Island. He recently assisted Bahamian colleague, Holly Peel, in a major battle against Disney Cruise Line. …

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Sea of Hope: Preserving the Heart of our Planet

True Blue Films and National Geographic Present Sea of Hope on January 15, 2017, on National Geographic Channel.
SEA OF HOPE follows iconic ocean explorer and conservationist Dr. Sylvia Earle, renowned underwater photographer Brian Skerry, author and captain Max Kennedy, and their unlikely crew of teenage aquanauts on a year-long quest to secure their future. Deploying science and photography, they hope to inspire the creation of blue parks across an unseen and imperiled American wilderness.
By: Laura Butz 

We are all beneficiaries of the ocean and the natural world— nature provides us with an abundance of gifts for which we cannot take for granted. Too often we overlook the fact that harm done to the ocean, is harm done to ourselves. …

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Dr. Sylvia Earle: Can Marine Migratory Species Thrive in the Face of Consumption?

We are proud to collaborate with James Ketchum, shark expert at UC Davis and core member of the MigraMar network. MigraMar is committed to conducting scientific research to better understand and safeguard healthy populations of marine migratory species in the Eastern Pacific. For the past decade, James has studied shark ecology in the Gulf of California and shark movement patterns in Malpelo Island in Colombia and the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. He is hopeful that his work will provide answers to where, why, and how sharks move and develop an alternative method for marine conservation with application to other regions and environments. Learn more about the important work of MigraMar from Dr. Sylvia Earle below!
By: Dr. Sylvia Earle 

Our Earth is defined by an ocean that was once considered unfathomable in its depths and diversity.…

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3 Million Tons of Cosmetics in the Ocean? The Mayan Riviera Hope Spot Dives into Action

By: Shilpi Chhotray, Mission Blue Communications Strategist

What used to be small fishing villages and an undeveloped coastline, the Mayan Riviera boasts stunning beaches, a diverse portfolio of dive sites for scuba divers, and high-end luxury resorts. The Mayan Riviera is part of the Mesoamerican Reef (MAR), which contains the largest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere, stretching nearly 700 miles from the northern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula down through the Honduran Bay Islands. Located in the north of the MAR are the coasts of Quintana Roo, which includes popular island destinations like Cozumel and the Banco Chinchorro atoll. The Yucatán Peninsula alone draws in adventure goers from around the world for cave diving in the many cenotes or sinkholes that are unique to this part of the coast (6,000!).
 
There are 11 kinds of marine and coastal wetlands and 16 marine protected areas along the coast, providing homes to more than 3,000 species.…

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Patagonia’s Wild Depths

Vreni Häusserman- 2016 Rolex Award recipient is a German biologist exploring marine life in the Patagonian fjords, located in the south of Chile. 
Vreni Häussermann remembers the exact moment she fell in love with the deserted southern fjords of Chilean Patagonia that she now strives to protect. On a research trip in 1997, she and her research partner and later husband, Günter Försterra, happened upon an unusual landscape of stormy seas and snow-capped mountains. For Häussermann, “it was absolutely obvious that this was the most exciting place in the country to study.”
Not everyone would share her eagerness. Chilean Patagonia is challenging terrain to explore: the maze of fjords, channels and islands (the coast stretches 90,000 km, though the distance from north to south as the crow flies is just 1,500 km) is home to tempestuous winds and intense storms.…

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Pressure Mounts to Save the Cayman Islands Hope Spot

By: Shilpi Chhotray, Mission Blue Communications Strategist 

For the residents of George Town Harbour, observing mammoth cruise ships pass through their glimmering turquoise backyard is not uncommon. From 2000, the small island nation of Grand Cayman has received an influx of tourists from the cruise industry, with a around one million visitors entering the island yearly. By 2015, this number increased to 1.7 million and residents anticipate upwards of 2 million visitors in the coming year.
Recently, the greater George Town Harbour area was selected as one of 14 new Hope Spots around the globe.
Mission Blue’s Founder, legendary Oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle visited the Cayman Islands to see the Hope Spot first-hand. In a recent press release, Dr. Earle stated: “May the George Town Harbour Hope Spot serve as an example to the world, encouraging people to take responsibility and ownership of their environment.…

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