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Announcing Champions for Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries Hope Spots

Header Image: Giant Pacific octopus stretching out on Cordell Bank with schooling rockfish in the background. Image: Rob Lee.
[SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA] – Off the coast of Northern California lie two federally recognized National Marine Sanctuaries (NMS), the Greater Farallones NMS and the Cordell Bank NMS. These distinct but interconnected sanctuaries are known for their exceptional biodiversity, and the critical role they play in sustaining the health of the California Current. 
Today, Mission Blue is proud to announce the new Champions for the existing Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Hope Spot and new Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary Hope Spot.

 
Dr. Sylvia Earle, Founder of Mission Blue, celebrates the addition of the sanctuaries to the Hope Spot network, sharing, “The Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries embrace over 4,500 square miles of ocean just outside the Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco, California.”…

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Hope Spot Champion Grantee Highlight: Conserving Coral and Building Community in the Conflict Islands Hope Spot

Header Image: The Conflict Islands. Credit – Conflict Islands Conservation Initiative (CICI).
A tiny and remote atoll off Papua New Guinea holds an extraordinary secret: it is home to more than 400 species of coral. The Conflict Group of Islands, named after the HMS Conflict whose crew first identified them on British navigation charts in the late 19th century, are a chain of 21 privately owned islands in Papua New Guinea. Together, the islands form an atoll, a ring of coral marking the location where a volcanic island once rose out of the waves. Long since eroded and dormant, all that is left of the volcano is a ring of pristine beaches and a central lagoon bursting with incredible marine biodiversity.…

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Research Expedition to Paramount: The Forgotten Seamount

Cover image: Alex Hearn
In January 2025, a team of scientists from Universidad San Francisco de Quito and Galápagos Science Center (USFQ-GSC) and the Galápagos National Park Directorate (GNPD) carried out a two-week expedition to Paramount: a shallow-water seamount rising from a depth of over 1,500 m to only 180 m below the surface, located 100 nautical miles northeast of the Galápagos Marine Reserve. The objective of the expedition was to characterize the fish community around the seamount and explore its connections with Galápagos. The work was supported by the organizations Mission Blue, Galápagos Conservation Trust, MigraMar, and Bezos Earth Fund. 
Dr. Alex Hearn, Galápagos Hope Spot co-Champion and lead scientist on the expedition, explained that, “due to their relative inaccessibility, oceanic seamounts are relatively understudied, but often play similar roles to oceanic islands in the marine ecosystem.…

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Panama Adopts the Saboga National Wildlife Refuge, Protecting Critical Sea Turtle Habitat and Upholding the Rights of Nature

Cover image © Callie Broaddus
[PANAMA CITY, PANAMA] On September 12, 2024, the Minister of the Environment of Panama, Juan Carlos Navarro, signed a Ministerial Decree No. DM-0631-2024, (Gaceta No. 30122-A, 19 September 2024) designating the Saboga National Wildlife Refuge, an almost 86 square kilometer area including 10 islands and islets of the Pearl Islands Archipelago.
The Pearl Islands Archipelago is a collection of over 240 islands and islets and 3,188 beaches, located in the Gulf of Panama, approximately 48 kilometers off the Pacific Coast of Panama. This Archipelago has an impressive marine species richness and diversity that has yet to be fully discovered, studied, and recognized for its importance within the Latin American region and around the globe. It provides, at least currently or historically, a breeding ground for four sea turtle species: hawksbill, green, leatherback, and olive ridley sea turtles.…

Posted in hope spots, mission blue, Panama, Partner Stories, turtles |

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Brazil’s Award-Winning Alcatrazes Archipelago Joins Hope Spot Network

Featured image: Leo Francini
(SÃO PAOLO, BRAZIL) –
 Just off the coast of São Paulo, Brazil, a small grouping of rocky islands teem with life above and below the ocean’s surface. The Alcatrazes Archipelago and their surrounding waters are home to coral reef environments over rocky shores, and contain two no-take marine protected areas (MPAs) that safeguard over 1,300 marine and terrestrial species, 20 of which are endemic.
International marine conservation nonprofit Mission Blue is pleased to announce the Alcatrazes Archipelago as a Hope Spot. Dr. Vinicius José Giglio, Professor at Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará (UFOPA), and Dr. Ronaldo Bastos Francini-Filho, Professor and Researcher at Center for Marine Biology at the Universidade de São Paulo are recognized as the Hope Spot Champions. …

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Successful Coral Restoration Efforts Celebrated at Newly Declared Ocean Cay Hope Spot in the Bahamas

Ocean Cay is a former industrial island located 22 miles south of Bimini, The Bahamas, and 65 miles southeast of Miami, Florida. Since 2015, through multi-disciplinary and institutional collaborations, the MSC Foundation and MSC Group have restored the island to re-establish its ecological balance after years of destructive activities. The Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve has been recognized by the government of The Bahamas as an area of high biological productivity and biodiversity and as such, has been recommended for ‘Marine Protected Area’ status. The MSC Foundation and its partners are hopeful that their marine conservation work can take the recognition process over the finish line to achieve official protection. 
International marine conservation nonprofit Mission Blue has declared Ocean Cay a Hope Spot and Pierfrancesco Vago, MSC Foundation Board Member and Chair of the Executive Committee – as the Hope Spot Champion in recognition of the Foundation and its partners’ programs to restore the area to its natural state to achieve a balanced ecology that can be maintained for generations to come.…

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

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Gold Coast Bay Hope Spot Embraces Harmony Between City and the Sea

GOLD COAST BAY, AUSTRALIA (2020)

The glowing beaches and glimmering waters of the Gold Coast Bay have drawn both Australians and globe-trotting tourists alike to its shores for decades. The bay’s most popular attraction is perhaps the populations of Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) who congregate and migrate through. The huge mammal’s impact in the area stretches beyond the famous sight of their waving tails. Humpback whales carry with them microorganisms that connect several marine ecosystems on the coast, making them an important piece of the health of the country’s coastline.
 
 
The Gold Coast Bay has been declared a Mission Blue Hope Spot in support of the Hope Spot Champion, Olaf Meynecke of Humpbacks & High-rises Inc., and his partners’ goals of protecting the whales’ sensitive populations with unified conservation, boating and fishing regulations, and a strong ecotourism industry that prioritizes animal safety and public appreciation for the natural world.…

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

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Colombia’s Ocean: a Paradise Worth Protecting

By: Sebastian Nicholls, Colombian Ocean Advocate and Mission Blue Volunteer
Spanish version is included below.
 

 
 
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Colombia is an ocean country– its marine jurisdiction is 40% of its total surface extension. Its ocean area branches out from islands in its possession– Malpelo in the Pacific and San Andres and Providencia in the Caribbean carve out longer branches of marine jurisdiction than it would have without them.
Like most countries though, Colombia isn’t doing so well by its ocean. Sustainable Development Goal 14 includes targets for 10% of marine areas protected by 2020 and sustainably managing and protecting marine areas by the same deadline.
 
 
Depending on what you measure, Colombia is close to those targets or very far.…

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Diving at Guanahacabibes Hope Spot!

By: Asher Warren
Hi, I’m Asher Warren and I’m 10 years old. This summer I got PADI dive certified at Mermet Springs, a quarry in Southern Illinois. My instructor and everyone there were so encouraging, kind and helpful.
The PADI eLearning portion was easy and fun – especially the diagrams in the review videos. Of the five eLearning sections, my favorite was section one because it talked about the effects of increasing and decreasing air volumes. The pool skills were very exciting because I got to put on the gear and breathe underwater. I had a big fear of equalizing, which is pushing air into your ears and sinuses. My mom helped me work through that and before I knew it, we were going down to the bottom of the pool.…

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

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Spring Into Migration!

By: Rachel Krasna

It’s almost spring! The season for growth, life and new journeys. People everywhere are starting to plan vacations to enjoy their spring break- presumably somewhere warm. During this season of vacation and celebrating, you might encounter some species starting their own journeys, or migrations! Let’s take a look at some common marine species and their vacation plans:
Sharks
Every year in March, dozens of shark species begin migrating to the southeastern shorelines. Among them are black tips and spinner sharks, who are escaping frigid waters found in the north. 2018’s migration had researchers nervous with numbers severely decreasing, but this year’s population numbers look promising. The black tip sharks normally appear in Florida’s waterways around mid-January and stay in the area for a few months.…

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