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Chesapeake Bay Suffers From Menhaden Reduction Industry

Chesapeake Bay is fished by industrial fishing boats that hoover up billions of menhaden into their holds and transport them to a local facility where they are ground up for applications such as fertilizer, dog food and omega-3 fish oil supplements. This is known as the menhaden reduction industry, and it accounts for 80% of the menhaden catch in the Atlantic. The health benefits claimed by fish oil companies are not supported by research.

Omega Protein (NYSE: OME), a company based out of Houston, dominates the menhaden reduction industry, taking the majority of the Atlantic Menhaden catch and operating the only processing facility on the East Coast, which is located in Reedville, Virginia.
If you’re thinking there may be some environmental collateral damage from the industrial fishing of menhaden, you are right. …

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A Big Blue Happy Birthday to Dr. Sylvia Earle!

From the bottom of our blue hearts, we here at Mission Blue want to wish Dr. Sylvia Earle, our founder, the happiest birthday. Her unparalleled dedication to pushing forward the ocean conservation agenda on the world stage is only matched by her indefatigable passion for being beneath the waves with the creatures of the blue every chance she gets. Happy Birthday, Dr. Earle!

In celebration of Dr. Earle’s birthday, we bring you, dear reader, two special gifts.
The first, from famed creator of Sherman’s Lagoon and Mission Blue board member, Jim Toomey, you can see above. Indeed, the creatures of the sea are big Dr. Earle fans and also are also wishing her well in their own underwater way. Feel free to download this image and share around social media!…

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Life in the Gulf of California Hope Spot

The Gulf of California, a 700-mile narrow sea between Baja and mainland Mexico, is home to over 800 species of fish, 2000 invertebrates, as well as whales, dolphins, sea turtles and sea lions. The area includes 256,000 hectares of mangroves, 600,000 hectares of wetlands and 70% of Mexican fisheries. Simply put, this area is one of the most productive ocean regions in the world. That is why it is a Mission Blue Hope Spot.
On the recent Mission Blue Hope Spot expedition to the Gulf of California, we had a chance to dive with the local marine life. Since Dr. Sylvia Earle was leading the expedition, we also had the opportunity to compare marine life in the Gulf of California with what it was when Dr.…

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South Africans Unite Around Hope Spots

While 12 percent of the land on Earth is protected, less than 3% of the ocean has meaningful protection from fishing, pollution and resource extraction. Dr. Sylvia Earle, founder of global initiative Mission Blue, visited South Africa last month in a whirlwind tour of that ravishing marine environment to help generate community support for more ocean protection. And what a success it was. In partnership with the Sustainable Seas Trust, Dr. Sylvia Earle and the Mission Blue team visited six different communities along the South African coast and engaged local ocean lovers, community leaders and citizens to declare their waters a Hope Spot, special conservation areas that are critical to the health of the ocean — Earth’s blue heart.
And what began as an idea of conservation, was quickly embraced by the communities.…

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Coral Bay in St. John is Threatened by a Mega Marina

Click here to support The Fund for Coral Bay by Save Coral Bay
We’ve received lots of inquiries from residents and lovers of St. John and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the past weeks regarding a mega marina called Summer’s End that is pending approval for construction in Coral Bay. There is great concern for the environmental impact of the project on the local reefs and species (such as the endangered Green Sea Turtle), as well as belief that the regulatory bodies and government officials whose job it is to safeguard these habitats have vested interests in seeing the construction go through. We encourage our community to form their own opinions regarding this mega development in the pristine waters of St.…

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Mission Blue Film Goes Global on Netflix

We’re tremendously excited to announce that the Mission Blue Film is live on Netflix! While Dr. Earle has been spreading her message of hope for years, we believe that in the coming days this message — our Mission Blue — is going to leap to the next level of awareness in the global public consciousness.
With the documentary, directed by Bob Nixon and Fisher Stevens, available in 40+ countries, we anticipate that Dr. Earle’s simple message of ocean conservation, of respect for our planet and what sustains us, will reverberate through the homes and hearts of Netflix’s global audience. We hope that a public awakening to the dire state of our ocean — and what we can do to save it — will propel personal decisions and public policy that favors the future of our ocean and ourselves.…

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Encounter at Cay Sal Reveals Poachers in the Bahamas

By Joseph Ierna Jr. / Ocean CREST Alliance
The Bahamas Reefs Hope Spot with its 700 islands and cays represents one of the most vast shallow water ecosystems in the world. The expansive and productive fishing grounds known as The Great Bahama Bank and The Little Bahama Bank comprise 180,000 square miles. This rich biodiversity directly supports the country’s third largest economy, fisheries that bring in about $100 million annually. What’s happening in these waters is out of control and a danger to those who wish to enjoy the area through diving,  legal fishing and tourism. Bahamian waters are being pillaged daily by Illegal Unauthorized and Unregulated (IUU) fishing activities.
Globally, IUU’s are stealing billions of dollars in revenue from local communities and from the ocean itself.…

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Is education the key to saving our oceans?

by Olivia and Carter Ries 
There’s nothing quite as inspiring as young people with a mission, and Olivia and Carter are always in motion – fighting the good fight. So listen up, these kids have some things they want us to know.
First, we’ll hear Olivia’s reflections after having attended John Kerry’s historic ‘Our Ocean 2014’ Conference this month.
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As we attended the ‘Our Oceans’ conference at the State Department recently, it became apparent that there are a whole lot of people and countries who care for the future of our oceans.  We heard experts from around the globe way-in on such issues as Ocean Acidification, Overfishing/Illegal Fishing and even about the issue of Marine Debris and Plastic Pollution. 
We were all so excited to see the level of participation from so many countries and the sincere compassion participants demonstrated as they mapped out their plans to help our oceans.  …

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Kerry Conference Calls for Global Action to Save Oceans ‘Under Seige’

“Increasingly, the ocean is threatened. The world’s oceans, as vast as they are, as much as they elicit a sense of awe for size and power, are under siege.”
This week’s State Department ‘Our Ocean’ conference hosts leaders of governments, businesses and NGOs from across the globe and aims to deliver hard-hitting messages about the need for closer co-operation to overcome the challenges facing our ocean – and ourselves.
The summit is built on three pillars: sustainable fisheries, marine pollution and ocean acidification. Speakers include Dr. Margaret Leinen from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, President Anote Tong of Kiribati and actor and philanthropist Leonardo DiCaprio.
On June 17, National Geographic will host a screening of the Mission Blue film for the ‘Our Ocean’ delegates and invited guests.…

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MB Partner KAI Marine Promotes MPAs in Djibouti

Mission Blue partner, Kai Marine Services is conducting a marine protected area program to increase the resilience of nomadic communities pushed to the shores of the Gulf of Aden by climate change
Cape “Bab El Mandeb”, the second busiest Traffic Separation Scheme of the planet, is unfortunately renowned as a hotspot of piracy. But behind this sad picture that reflects some of the illnesses of our modern civilisation there is much more. This strait between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean’s Gulf of Aden is considered one of the largest fish aggregation sites of the planet and a hot spot of biodiversity. This is the result of the extraordinary oceanography and physiography generated by the collision between the African and the Asian tectonic plates which have provided the connection of the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean. …

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