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The Mission Blue South Africa Initiative – Catalyzing and Advancing the Hope Spot Network

Cover image: Aliwal Shoal Hope Spot. Credit: Allen Walker
The South African coastline is home to seven Hope Spots. Six of these – False Bay, Cape Whale Coast, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, Algoa Bay, and Aliwal Shoal – were designated in 2014, while Maputaland, a transboundary Hope Spot spanning both South Africa and Mozambique, was designated in 2024.These areas host an important array of species and habitats, including the Knysna seahorse (Hippocampus capensis), the only endemic seahorse species in South Africa; the largest gannetry in the world, with 250,000 breeding pairs; one of the most important nursery areas for the southern right whale (Eubalaena australis); as well as abundant kelp forests and colorful coral reefs.
In 2024, Mission Blue received generous funding to launch The South Africa Initiative, which aims to catalyze and strengthen the South African Hope Spot network.…

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Viewpoints: Rigs to Reefs

Rigs to Reefs (RTR) is the practice of converting decommissioned offshore oil and petroleum rigs into artificial reefs. We recently had a chance to talk to experts in the field of RTR with different viewpoints on the matter.

Emily Callahan and Amber Jackson from Rigs-To-Reefs: 
 1. Who visits reefed rigs today? Where are they? How far offshore? 
Research scientists, divers, and fishermen visit reefed rigs. In the U.S., there are over 500 platforms reefed in the Gulf of Mexico . California is the only other state in the U.S. with a Rigs to Reefslaw  (AB 2503), however, none of the 27 offshore oil and gas platforms have been reefed. The distance of these platforms from shore varies widely. In the Gulf of Mexico there are platforms nearly 200 miles offshore near the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, and in California, there are platforms less than 3 miles from shore. …

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Working to End Whaling in the Saint Vincent and Grenadines Hope Spot

Note, this feature contains sensitive content.
By: Marc de Verteuil

Hundreds of cetaceans are killed by fishermen in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) each year. The species targeted includes humpback whales, orcas, bottlenose dolphins and pilot whales.
Adam Gravel, 28, is a Vincentian ocean activist and the founder of SalvageBlue, a NGO dedicated to establishing SVG as a Hope Spot.
Hope Spots sprang from the mind of marine biologist Dr. Sylvia Earle. She introduced the idea during a TED talk in 2009. The campaign is headed by Dr. Earle’s NGO Mission Blue and it receives support from National Geographic, Rolex and Google.
Gravel spent his childhood in the sea swimming with dolphins, turtles and sharks.
Sailing the Grenadines islands has given him an intimate knowledge and appreciation of the archipelago he calls home.…

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Destination Cocos Island: One of the Sharkiest Places on Earth

Considered to be the most beautiful island in the world by Jacques Cousteau, the island of Cocos in Costa Rica is a sight to behold. Located 350 miles off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, lives a diversity of large pelagic species including sharks, rays, tunas, and dolphins. Sharks including hammerhead, Galápagos, silky, tiger, white tip reef and whale sharks are common sightings, making it a haven for scientists, divers, and marine enthusiasts alike. The iconic animals are known to migrate throughout the Eastern Tropical Pacific from the Galapagos to Columbia, Panama, and Costa Rica. Sharks are integral apex predators that shape the food web and maintain a healthy ecosystem for all marine life. Unfortunately, they continue to be hunted for their fins and exported to China in violation of international agreements, despite Cocos Island designation as a World Heritage Site. …

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The Case for Shark Fin Trade Bans

This article originally appeared on Southern Fried Science. 
By: Mariah Pfleger, Oceana

The demand for shark fins is widely recognized as one of the major contributors to shark mortality around the world. However, solutions to decrease this demand are hotly debated, especially in the scientific community. Southern Fried Science and other websites have published opinions that debate the effectiveness of shark fin bans, but as a shark scientist working to implement this policy I would like to present the case for shark fin trade bans.      
The conversation is newly relevant with the introduction of the Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act in the Senate on March 30th by Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Shelly Moore-Capito (R-WV) and in the House on March 9th by Representatives Ed Royce (R-CA) and Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (I-MP).…

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Buceando Para Conservar Los Corales: Punto De Esperanza Chichiriviche

Spanish translation of Diving for Coral Conservation: Chichiriviche Hope Spot
Traducido Por: Rubén Nino

El pueblo de Chichiriviche de La Costa es una pequeña gema en la línea costera Venezolana, una tranquila bahía donde un río proveniente de las montañas descarga en el mar. Los lugareños viven en la parte baja de las montañas justo detrás de la playa, y son unos cientos de habitantes cuyos ingresos dependen de la pesca artesanal y el turismo local. En ambos lados de la bahía se encuentran arrecifes coralinos con una gran diversidad biológica. Varias especies de esponjas y medusas atraen Tortugas Carey, que son encontradas frecuentemente alimentándose de ellas en la playa. Dos veces al año ocurre la surgencia, lo cual produce aumentos relativos en las poblaciones de fito y zooplankton, y atrae varias especies de sardinas y arenques.…

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Outreach and Action: An Update from Hope Spot Hatteras

By: Sam Athey, Plastic Ocean Project

There is fewer and fewer places left in the world truly wild, untouched by man. Places where one can escape the human world and be completely submerged in living nature. Cape Hatteras is one of these places, however, the untouched area is shrinking.
I have been on the planet for two short decades and can only imagine what Cape Hatteras was like over half a century ago. Locals tell me stories of strolling along Coquina Beach hunting for the largest seashells, sailing twenty miles offshore of Cape’s Point following the biggest schools of dolphinfish, and laying under the Milky Way at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and feeling as if you were on the edge of the universe.…

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Diving for Coral Conservation: Chichiriviche Hope Spot

To view the article in Spanish, click here. 
By: Shilpi Chhotray, Communications Strategist 

The town of Chichiriviche de la Costa is a small gem on the Venezuelan coastline, set in a tranquil bay where a freshwater river runs through the mountains and empties into the sea. The locals live in the hills just above the beach, consisting of a few hundred people whose income is derived from fishing and local tourism opportunities. Coral reefs live on both sides of the bay, accompanied by a wide diversity of marine life. A variety of medusa and sea sponges frequently attract Hawksbill sea turtles which are commonly found feeding on the beach. Upwellings occur twice a year, providing important phytoplankton and zooplankton blooms which entice various species of sardines and herring.…

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House Introduces Legislation to End Shark Finning

The demand for shark fins is still one of the greatest threats facing shark populations around the world, usually intended as an ingredient in shark fin soup. Fins from as many as 73 million sharks end up in the global market every year, and more than 70 percent of the most common shark species involved with the fin trade are considered at high or very high risk of extinction. Sharks declines and extinction can have significant impacts on marine ecosystems. Many species of sharks are top predators and have the potential to structure ecosystems in crucial ways, triggering domino effects through the food chain. On September 22nd, 2016, Mission Blue alongside 80 other NGO’s sent this letter to Congress urging support and passage of the Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act.…

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Raising Havaiki From the Sea: Hōkūle’a in Tahiti

By: Danielle Epifani

In 1976 Hōkūle’a arrived on the shores of Tahiti having raised Havaiki from the sea. Known as the dwelling place of the ancestors, Tahiti is considered the departure point for the historic migrations that would colonize the largest expanse of ocean on earth- the Polynesian Triangle. Through the re-creation of a traditional double-hulled voyaging canoe, Pwo navigator Nainoa Thompson would become the next to inherit, and carry the legacy of celestial wayfinding into the future. The arrival of Hōkūle’a in Tahiti had been a dormant journey of 600 hundred years. It united the people of the South Pacific, awakening in them a sense of identity and pride for which their forefathers accomplished one of the greatest feats in human history.…

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