Wednesday, 31 July 2019
Expanding our view of voices that matter: New perspectives on ocean stakeholders
In recent years, stakeholder engagement has been widely recognized as integral to effective marine conservation, marine ecosystem-based management, and 
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The Slimmer Skimmer: An end to harmful fisheries subsidies may be coming soon – and that could help a marine ecosystem near you
Editor’s note: The Slimmer Skimmer is a new feature to give a brief update on a topic critical to marine ecosystem management.
We are starting off our Slimmer Skimmer series with one of fisheries subsidies. The World Trade Organization is currently working to make an end-of-the year deadline (their own, as well as one for the Sustainable Development Goals) to end harmful types of fisheries subsidies. Not all fisheries subsidies are harmful – fisheries management is commonly considered a subsidy, for instance – but the harmful ones encourage overfishing and have substantial negative impacts on marine ecosystems.
Please let us know what you think of this type of feature and if there is anything that you feel we should cover in this format in the future.
So let’s start with a few basics – what are fisheries subsidies?
- Different groups have different definitions of what constitutes a fisheries subsidy. But generally speaking, subsidies are government actions that help the fishing industry increase its income or lower its costs. Examples of fisheries subsidies include fuel subsidies, income supports, price supports, tax credits, tax exemptions, low-interest loans, loan guarantees, regulatory exemptions, and preferential treatment. Many also consider government funding for fisheries management – including monitoring and enforcement efforts – and free access to fishing areas to be subsidies.
- It is estimated that, globally, nations provide ~US$35 billion in subsidies to their fishing industries every year. Some specifics:
- Fuel subsidies and fisheries management are the most common types of subsidies, comprising 22% and 20% of total subsidies respectively. For example, in 2013, China provided ~US$6.5 billion to its fishing industry, almost entirely (94%) as fuel subsidies.
- Regionally, Asian countries provide the most subsidies (beneficial, harmful, and ambiguous) to their fishing industries (43% of the global total) followed by Europe (25% of the global total) and North America (16% of the global total). Japan and China are the highest subsidizing countries (20% each of the global total) with the US coming in a close third.
- Fuel subsidies and fisheries management are the most common types of subsidies, comprising 22% and 20% of total subsidies respectively. For example, in 2013, China provided ~US$6.5 billion to its fishing industry, almost entirely (94%) as fuel subsidies.
- Fisheries subsidies are considered beneficial, harmful, or ambiguous based on whether they have positive or negative impacts on fisheries resources.
- Beneficial subsidies promote the growth of fish stocks through conservation and the sustainable management of the resource. They include investments in fisheries science, management, and enforcement.
- Harmful subsidies lead to overcapacity and the overexploitation of stocks. In general, harmful subsidies artificially increase revenues or lower costs for fishers. This puts pressure on poorly managed fish stocks and enables fishing entities to continue fishing in situations that would otherwise be unprofitable. This encourages fishers to stay in the industry and keep fishing when they would otherwise leave/stop. Harmful subsidies include fuel subsidies, boat construction programs, price supports, marketing supports, tax exemptions, and payment of fees for foreign access agreements.
- Ambiguous subsidies are programs that could be harmful or beneficial (or both) depending on the details of the program and the local context. They include fisher assistance programs, vessel buyback programs, and community development programs. For example, vessel buyback programs could lead to fewer boats fishing
and reduced fishing capacity as they are generally intended to do. If fishers anticipate that there will be buybacks, however, they may have incentives to overinvest in vessels, leading to an increase in fishing capacity. Another example is unemployment insurance for fishers. An unemployment program could lead to increased safety and reduced effort because fishers do not need to go out in unsafe conditions. If there is a minimum number of fishing days needed to quality for the program, however, the insurance could lead to increased effort and pressure to lengthen the fishing season.
- Of the total subsidies provided to fisheries globally, US$20 billion are considered harmful, capacity-enhancing subsidies.
- Of the major subsidizers (the EU, Japan, China, the US, and Russia), the US is the only entity where beneficial subsidies exceed harmful subsidies. (In fact, in the US, harmful and ambiguous subsidies are less than a quarter of the total subsidies to the industry).
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Latest News and Resources for Ocean Planners and Managers
- Draft of new UN Law of the Sea agreement on high seas biodiversity available for review
- Research shows fisheries in different nations highly interconnected by larval transport
- New study predicts every 1°C increase in ocean temperature leads to 5% loss of marine biomass
- Plastics could change physical processes in the ocean
- New report describes key spatial conflicts and solutions in EU waters (Summaries and case studies available here)
- Latvia approves new national marine spatial plan
- Estonia releases draft of new national marine spatial plan
- Wales launches consultation on future of Welsh fisheries and ecosystems after Brexit
- Canada updates federal fishing law
- US provides information on offshore wind leasing strategy
- US NOAA releases annual report on US ocean economy
- US faces $400+ billion in sea level rise adaptation costs (see cost estimates by city, county, state)
- 2019 ocean yearbook provides analysis of current ocean management issues
- Report describes possible scenarios for high seas fisheries under climate change
- Trident underwater drones and spotter buoys available for ocean research and conservation projects
- Apply to attend expense-paid workshop to identify research priorities for shifting marine species
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From the Archives: Can we insure our way to healthier oceans and ocean communities? (MEAM Feb 2018, Issue 11:4)
Editor’s Note: From the Archives calls attention to past Skimmer/MEAM articles whose perspectives and insight remain relevant.
Imagine a world where:
- Municipalities proactively restore wetlands and offshore reefs wherever possible to protect their citizens and infrastructure and lower their insurance premiums.
- Small-scale fishers receive insurance payouts immediately after devastating hurricanes so fisheries-dependent communities can start to recover.
- The risks of running an illegal fishing operation rise dramatically because it is impossible to get insurance for the ships involved.
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Tuesday, 30 July 2019
From one small island to another
Roll on a few months and I finally arrived in Seychelles and everything seemed to just fall in place. The lush green vegetation, the impossibly blue sea and the softest white sand that I’ve ever felt. And that’s just the location, the job itself is a perfect fit. How can you call it work when you get to talk to guests about your passion of marine biology? Even more amazingly, I get to show them the beauty of the bay and the fascinating creatures we see every day.
It’s hard to say what I most enjoy about my job. Whether it’s seeing the excitement of the guests faces as they spot a graceful eagle ray swimming underneath them or when they learn that fish enjoy spa treatments too (dutifully given by the cleaner wrasse), I must admit that this really is a dream come true.
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Monday, 29 July 2019
OC Overview for the week of 29 July 2019
Commercial fishing threatens sharks worldwide
https://phys.org/news/2019-07-commercial-fishing-threatens-sharks-worldw...
Europe heatwave expected to hit Arctic, speed up melting of ice sheet
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/454939-europe-heatwave-exp...
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Friday, 26 July 2019
Maine Targets Major Emissions Reductions to Protect the State and its Coasts and Ocean
Thomas H. Allen is a former U.S. Congressman from Maine. During his 12 years in the House (1997-2009), he served on the Energy and Commerce Committee and wrote important health care and ocean acidification legislation. He helped negotiate the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act in 2006. He also co-founded the House Oceans Caucus to raise congressional awareness about the need for a coordinated global oceans policy. He is currently the co-chair of the Ocean Conservancy Board of Directors.
Last month the Maine State legislature and Governor Mills enacted a sweeping bipartisan climate change bill, “An Act to Promote Clean Energy Jobs and to Establish the Maine Climate Council,” which targets a 45% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in Maine by 2030, when compared to 1990 levels. This will ratchet up to an 80% reduction by 2050. I am pleased this legislation also deals with coastal and ocean climate impacts, ensuring that coastal communities are not left out.
The people who live near Maine’s coast have been my neighbors for years. In April I testified on behalf of Ocean Conservancy before the joint Marine Resources Committee to support a bill sponsored by Representative Lydia Blume that would have created an advisory council on the impact of climate change on marine species. The key provisions of that bill were included in the broader bill just enacted.
The new law calls for a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources to enable Maine to reach its greenhouse gas emissions goals. By 2030, Maine should receive 80% of the energy it uses from renewable sources. By 2050, all of Maine’s energy should come from renewables.
Reaching this milestone has been gratifying because of how this ocean to climate story has unfolded in my state. In 2014, a legislatively enacted advisory council examined the impacts of ocean and coastal acidification on Maine’s marine industries and coastal communities. The council made multiple recommendations on how our state could protect its marine resources and coastal communities dependent on healthy fishing, seafood and tourism industries. Political opposition and a lack of funding prevented further action. As a result, council members and ocean stakeholders formed the Maine Ocean and Coastal Acidification Partnership to continue this work. Much of the ocean climate progress we see today can be attributed to the work of the Partnership.
As a former Member of Congress representing Maine’s First District, I welcome climate action at the state and local levels for its own sake and because I believe it will stimulate broader climate action at the national and international levels in the future.
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Thursday, 25 July 2019
Regional Ocean Partnership Act Receives Bipartisan Support
Yesterday, the Senate Commerce Committee voted to pass the Regional Ocean Partnership Act (S. 2166) out of committee. The bill can now be voted on by the full Senate, and we urge the Senate to pass it.
The bill supports governor created Regional Ocean Partnerships like the Northeast Regional Ocean Council, Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean, West Coast Ocean Alliance, and Gulf of Mexico Alliance.
Regional Ocean Partnerships are regional organizations that collaborate with states, tribes, federal agencies and other stakeholders to address ocean and coastal issues of common concern. These partnerships have operated in several regions for over a decade working to address ocean issues unique to the region, including promoting sustainability through science-based management; coordinating solutions to coastal hazards resilience; creating publicly available regional ocean data portals; and, providing a common venue for convening ocean stakeholders. This bill would formalize Regional Ocean Partnerships’ role as collaborative partners with federal agencies and secure more predictable funding to further advance collaborative, regional ocean efforts.
Ocean Conservancy thanks Senators Wicker, Cantwell, Collins, Cassidy and Jones on their co-sponsorship of this bill. These Senators recognized the value of the Regional Ocean Partnerships that serve their states and constituents, and came together to develop this bill to support these partnerships nationwide. The Regional Ocean Partnership Act has support from Senators of both parties and is an excellent example of bipartisanship to support our ocean and coasts.
Ocean Conservancy has actively engaged with Regional Ocean Partnerships across the nation and fully support these organizations as important venues to address today’s most challenging ocean issues. Their unique position within the region allows these partnerships to actively coordinate ocean stakeholders where they live and work, including marine industries, scientists, state, tribal and local governments, conservation groups like us, and more.
We hope the Regional Ocean Partnership Act passes the Senate and goes on to become law. We thank the Senate Commerce Committee for taking a critical step towards that goal this week.
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Tuesday, 23 July 2019
Record Breaking High Tide Flooding Will Only Get Worse
We frequently talk about the ocean impacts of climate change, but that can be hard to understand and some people probably wonder what that even means. But a new report from NOAA details how sea level rise, one of the most infamous ocean climate impacts, is happening now and to coastal communities here in the U.S. High tide flooding, which is flooding that occurs on a normal sunny day, is becoming more frequent and widespread all across the country. Typically, flooding occurs when storms or hurricanes blow into town, but because of sea level rise, now people can be walking through town in ankle deep water when the sky is blue but the tide is high.
In the U.S., 40 different locations face accelerating high tide flooding trends, according to NOAA. The country as a whole tied its record by averaging five days of high tide flooding in 2018. But 12 locations broke their records with some cities, such as Washington, D.C., experiencing 20 or more days of high tide flooding. High tide flooding affects coastal cities along the west coast, but it’s most frequent along the east coast all the way down to Florida. Flooding inundates roadways and disrupts traffic, raises the elevation of groundwater and puts septic systems at risk and its salty waters can damage farmlands and other natural habitats.
In South Florida, and increasingly in other parts of the state, so-called “sunny day” flooding is becoming the norm. In Miami Beach, an errant octopus made its way through storm drains and into a typically dry parking garage during a king tide event, perfectly illustrating the scope of threats that will come as sea-level rise makes sunny day flooding more and more common. It is forecast that Miami Beach will spend $400 million over the next 20 years to keep saltwater and saltwater creatures like this octopus, off city streets.
NOAA predicts that from May 2019-April 2020, high tide flooding will occur roughly twice as frequently as it did in 2000. By 2030, they predict that on average the country will experience 7-15 days of high tide flooding and 25-75 days by 2050. But because sea level rise isn’t evenly distributed along the coast, some locations will actually see a significantly higher number of high tide flooding days than the national average.
But what can people do in the face of worsening flooding? One option is for people and communities to relocate away from the coast and the threat of flooding. But unless the government steps in and provides funding for a managed retreat, only those with the means to relocate will be able to. Already, sea level rise, flooding and other climate change impacts disproportionately impact lower income and historically disadvantaged communities.
Even if relocation isn’t how communities choose to respond to sea level rise and high tide flooding, they still must work to ensure that other adaptation solutions are equitable and accessible to people with less wealth. Some of those other adaptation strategies could be installing more and better drains, valves, pumps and other water control structures that can prevent flooding; restoring natural shorelines with native mangroves, oysters and seagrasses to bring back the protection those ecosystems provide; and strengthening especially vulnerable coastlines or elevating a community’s infrastructure and buildings.
Yankeetown, a rural community in Florida’s big bend area on the Gulf Coast, has seen large tracts of upland trees dying of saline soil conditions attributable to continued saltwater flooding and saltwater intrusion into the Floridian Aquifer. This has prompted locals to find regulatory solutions, including implementing “Adaptation Action Areas”, which will help plan responses to future flooding events. With over 20,000 Floridian homes currently at risk of chronic flooding today, and 2.1 million Floridian homes at risk of flooding by 2100, the time for action is now.
In addition to governments needing to provide equal access and support to people in flood-prone areas and restoring protective coastal ecosystems, we need to see fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Our country and others around the world need to make bold commitments to reduce our emissions in order to limit future climate change impacts and further sea level rise. The most effective way that we can make these changes happen is by voting for people who understand the threat climate change poses and will take action to protect our ocean and communities.
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Monday, 22 July 2019
Webinar: Estimating Fish and Invertebrate Production Associated with Key Coastal Habitats in the U.S.
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OC Overview for the week of 22 July 2019
Scientists discovered a new species of tiny sharks that glow in the dark
https://fox17online.com/2019/07/21/scientists-discovered-a-new-species-o...
Poop-detecting dog helps sniff out key problems for endangered orcas
https://q13fox.com/2019/07/19/poop-detecting-dog-helps-sniff-out-key-pro...
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XPRIZE: Collaboration and innovation to help save our coral reefs
At the end of 2018, I was lucky enough to participate in a competition run by the XPRIZE Foundation called Visioneering 2018. The XPRIZE Foundation is the world leader in launching highly incentivised funding opportunities in a competition format known as XPRIZES.
When XPRIZE launched “Visioneering 2018” they invited anyone with the drive and passion to help them design the next XPRIZE. Entries into this competition had to come under the ambitious themes of, Feeding the Next Billion, Lifting Farmers out of Poverty, Off-Grid Energy, Natural Disaster Prediction and Saving Coral Reefs. You can probably guess which one our team entered.
Our small team consisted of myself and some brilliant consultants; my brother, James Beresford, Mahima Suhkdev who works for Xynteo, and Vincent Kneefel from Accenture. We were lucky to later be joined by Richard Vevers CEO of The Ocean Agency offering his expert guidance and pitching abilities.
Our task was simply to design a fund with that would incentivise the creation of innovations and developments that would tackle the coral crisis at a global scale. So actually not simple at all, as we soon discovered.
After an ambitious initial application and a hilariously amateur pitch video, we found ourselves in the semi-finals of the competition. In August we flew out to LA slightly in shock and unprepared for what was about to hit us, and what hit us was an “XPRIZE Hackathon” event. This was 48 hours of XPRIZE training, pitching, grilling, advice, drinking gallons of coffee and more pitching. At the end of this weekend event, we had totally pivoted on our original design idea, met some wonderful people and were thrilled to be through to the Visioneering finals. We went into the competition with an idea based on intelligent reef substrates. We came out with a much bigger bolder design based around incentivising scalable innovations for global coral resilience and survival.
We then had 8 weeks before the Final (known as Visioneering Summit). In that time we were tasked with refining our design to professional XPRIZE standards, getting expert advice, contacting organisations, researchers and companies who could potentially fund or compete for our fund if launched, getting feedback and creating a Hollywood standard pitch.
Of course, there are many things we need to tackle to save coral reefs. If we don’t put a lid on anthropogenic climate change more things than coral reefs will perish and the latest IPCC report has given us 12 years to radically change our trajectory. And of course, we still need reef protection through MPA’s, sustainable fisheries and tourism practices to save these incredible ecosystems and the lives of the ½ billion people who depend on them. But there is a growing consensus and acceptance that to save our coral reefs at scale, alongside the traditional protection and management, we need to look to more radical solutions. This is where we feel an XPRIZE can help.
When looking to design this prize we saw 3 main problems with reef restoration today.
- Scale: we are losing the equivalent of 1 hectare of reef a minute, globally.
- Diversity: restoration efforts need a stronger focus on genetic diversity to create a resilient healthy ecosystem
- Resilience: without helping our reefs to become more resilient to climate change all restoration is an expensive exercise in futility, like trying to plant a garden in a hurricane.
These three points were at the foundation of our XPRIZE design.
The Visioneering Summit took place in October 2018 in a beautiful spot outside LA, attended by 400 impressive (and slightly intimidating) invitees alongside the competing Visioneering teams. It was a staged event where all the “Visioneers” gave their final pitches on a big fancy stage and had time to network, chat and generally drum up support for our design idea and theme area (saving corals in our case). At the end of the few days, everyone had presented their idea, the attendees voted for the best designs and the overall winner’s design would be launched as the next XPRIZE.
Pitching our prize design on the big stage was one of the most terrifying and exhilarating things I have done. It was a close competition as all the designs were incredible and full of important innovations that I hope will be developed, but I’m very happy to say we won!
Winning the XPRIZE Visioneering challenge, captures the attention of philanthropists and investors, who we hope are now more enlightened and invested in the survival of our reefs. XPRIZE will now launch a multi-million-dollar Corals prize fund, where teams from around the world can enter to develop innovative and scalable solutions that will protect and restore our coral reefs.
Through the XPRIZE journey we got to interact and sell coral reefs to a whole new audience, do more public speaking than I believed I could (and strangely liked it in the end), we have pushed the limits of our jet-lagged brains, learnt a lot, and met a lot of incredible people.
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Friday, 19 July 2019
Thursday, 18 July 2019
White House Creates New Pathway for Agencies to Ignore the Climate Change Crisis
We’ve seen many attacks on the environment over the last several years. The Trump Administration may have hoped you wouldn’t notice its latest salvo, which is deeply wonky but also deeply important. Instead of outright changing laws and regulations, the administration is attempting to change how the federal government implements a key environmental protection law – the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). These changes are designed to allow government agencies to ignore the climate change implications of their decisions, and to avoid public disclosure and debate of those climate impacts.
This is bad news for our ocean and the coastal communities who are on the frontlines of climate change. Approximately 42% of the U.S. population lives near the coast. These coastal communities and the ocean they depend on are already experiencing extreme weather events, sea level rise, ocean acidification, and changing abundance and distribution of fish. All of these changes to our ocean are expected to continue to worsen under climate change. This is putting jobs and resources at risk, including America’s multi-billion dollar seafood industry, the ocean and coastal recreation industry, and the trillion-dollar coastal property market. NEPA provides a legally-mandated process by which the government must consider the environmental and climate impacts of its actions, including analyzing and publicly disclosing the potential harm to ocean ecosystems and coastal economies.
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Many people probably haven’t heard of NEPA, but what NEPA does is require federal agencies consider the environmental impacts of any action before it’s taken, whether that’s implementing a new regulation, permitting for infrastructure to build a new power plant or highway, or carrying out any other project that uses federal funding. Though NEPA is a law passed by Congress, how federal agencies interpret and implement that law is governed by guidance that the President issues. 2016 guidance from the Obama administration ensured that federal agencies fully considered and disclosed the climate change implications of their actions along with the many other environmental impacts agencies must also consider. But the newly proposed guidance from the Trump administration provides clear loopholes and easy outs for agencies to use in order to ignore the greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impacts of their actions.
Ignoring the problem of climate change won’t make it go away. Instead, we need the government to lead by considering its own contributions to the climate crisis and exploring less-damaging alternatives. Failing to consider and address such questions will only result in vulnerable ocean ecosystems and coastal communities facing ever increasing risks from climate change.
Yet this isn’t a hopeless case. People can take action. Whenever the administration proposes changes to guidance like this, they go through a public comment period where anyone can submit a comment in support or opposition of the proposed changes. Ocean Conservancy is submitting a letter in opposition that calls for this new guidance to be withdrawn. And what’s better, you can submit your own letter demanding that this guidance not be implemented and that climate implications remain a key part of the NEPA review process in order to protect our ocean and coastal communities.
Take action and don’t let federal agencies ignore climate change.
The post White House Creates New Pathway for Agencies to Ignore the Climate Change Crisis appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.
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Wednesday, 17 July 2019
Recycling on Earth for more than 3 billion years
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Tuesday, 16 July 2019
Coastal Resilience Workshop at UCI: Planning and Implementing Resilient Solutions in Coastal California (10/7)
Join us Monday, October 7th for a free, public workshop on coastal resilience, titled Planning and Implementing Resilient Solutions in Coastal California, at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) (see save-the-date flyer below).
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Monday, 15 July 2019
OC Overview for the week of 15 July 2019
New National Marine Sanctuary Will Protect Maryland’s ‘Ghost Fleet’
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-national-marine-sanctuary-...
The Benefits of Marine Protected Areas Spill into Neighboring Waters
https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/the-benefits-of-marine-protected-area...
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Friday, 12 July 2019
Congress Needs to Carry on a Legacy of Ocean Protection
Last month, the House of Representatives took major action to protect our ocean and the communities that rely on it. It’s time for the Senate to do the same and prove to the American people that Congress cares about safeguarding our ocean.
In the early 2000s the world first noticed how changes in our ocean’s chemistry could devastate family-owned fishing and shellfish businesses as water acidified by carbon pollution killed off young shellfish. Although it’s a technical-sounding mouthful, ocean acidification is actually simple chemistry. As our ocean and Great Lakes absorb carbon dioxide pollution from the atmosphere, a carbonic acid is created, which gradually lowers the pH, or increases the acidity, of these natural waters. This is changing the environmental baseline for all marine life.
At the time, the federal government was not making dedicated investments to learn more about ocean acidification or the threat it posed to communities all around the country. In 2009, however, New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg introduced the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring (FOARAM) Act, which created a comprehensive federal research program focused on ocean acidification. The FOARAM Act was a visionary piece of legislation, but it wasn’t always certain it would become law. At its passage, the bill had only seven cosponsors in the Senate. Fortunately, under the leadership of Senator Lautenberg, the bill was eventually passed into law as a part of a broader lands package.
For those who knew Senator Lautenberg, it should be no surprise that this landmark piece of legislation is a part of his legacy. From tending to maple trees he bought his wife to fighting to protect our ocean, Frank loved the outdoors. He cared deeply about the environment as a whole; worrying about clean air, clean water and toxic chemicals. He was a man who loved sailing and swimming, and loved the ocean and cared passionately about not polluting it. Throughout his entire life, environmental health drove Senator Lautenberg and fueled his passion for our planet and environment. In recognition of Senator Lautenberg’s lifelong commitment to protecting our environment and ocean, in 2016 the United States government named in his honor a new off-shore marine protected area that will preserve deep sea corals.
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Fast forward to today, and we are fortunate to have in Congress many legislators—on both sides of the aisle—who are just as passionate and visionary as Senator Lautenberg when it comes to protecting our ocean. In June, the House of Representatives—for the first time since the FOARAM Act was signed into law—passed with broad bipartisan support four bills that would improve our nation’s ability to combat ocean acidification. Leaders like Representatives Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Derek Kilmer (D-WA) and Bill Posey (R-FL), who sponsored the four bills passed by the House, have worked tirelessly to elevate ocean acidification as a critical issue for the ocean that deserves action.
These leaders give us hope that policymakers are following in Senator Lautenberg’s footsteps and leading the charge in protecting our ocean for future generations. The United States has become a world leader in ocean acidification research and monitoring. However, a lot can happen in ten years, and it’s time that Congress take action again to protect our ocean. We need to better understand acidification’s impacts to coastal communities and estuarine environments. We can incentivize technological innovation to better understand, research, monitor and adapt to acidification. And at the end of the day, we need to reduce carbon emissions that are causing ocean acidification and many other changes to the ocean and our climate.
The 116th Congress has an opportunity to cement their legacy as environmental champions by passing these four bills into law.
Bonnie Lautenberg is an artist, photographer, writer and political activist supporting candidates who care about the environment, gun control and many issues she shared with her late husband. She worked on the Toxic Substances Control Act with Senators Tom Udall and David Vitter after Senator Lautenberg passed away.
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Kick Single-Use Plastics with the Reusable #BottleCapChallenge
It’s a perfect beach day. You sprint toward the ocean and dive headfirst into the salty sea. You open your eyes and you suddenly find yourself swimming through…a murky soup of crusty used plastic bags, straws, candy wrappers, cigarette butts and/or plastic bottles.
That’s the reality for millions of people and beaches around the world. Every year, 8 million metric tons of plastic trash finds its way into the ocean. That’s the equivalent of the weight of about 24 Empire State Buildings!
Since 1986, Ocean Conservancy has fought back against this flood of plastic into our seas by organizing the International Coastal Cleanup every year. Since its inception, more than 14 million volunteers have collected close to 2,000 U.S. military tanks worth of debris from waterways and coastlines. That’s over 300 million pounds!
Recently, a viral video challenge known as the Bottle Cap Challenge made a splash all over the internet with the likes of Jason Statham, Lizzo, and even Mariah Carey trying their hand (or, well, foot) at the concept.
As it turns out, bottle caps are one of the most common items our volunteers have found over the decades. During the 2017 ICC alone, volunteers collected 1,091,107 plastic bottle caps. That’s enough to cover 645 surfboards (that’s a lot of surfboards).
For that reason, our very own Trash Free Seas Director, Nicholas Mallos, decided to put his own little spin on the viral craze with a more ocean-friendly twist: the reusable bottle cap challenge.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how you open it as long as you reuse it. Are you up for the challenge? Use the hashtag #ReusableBottleCapChallenge to show us on social media.
Want to learn more about the ICC and see what else you can do to help? Check us out here!
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The post Kick Single-Use Plastics with the Reusable #BottleCapChallenge appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.
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Thursday, 11 July 2019
These Baby Octopuses are Inkredible
What is eight-hands down the cutest thing you have ever seen—these baby octopuses!! We have all seen adorable photos of baby sea turtles and baby humpback whales swimming alongside their mothers—but, have you ever seen a baby octopus? If not, we have you covered with this inkredible baby octopus blog.
Octopuses are super smart! Their incredible intelligence has earned them the title of the smartest invertebrates in the world.
Octopus moms are seriously dedicated. Female octopus can lay up to 400,000 eggs—standing by their eggs relentlessly, sometimes even depriving themselves of food to the point of nearing starvation to avoid leaving their side.
Did you know that an octopus can completely regrow a lost limb (or arm)? The lost arm will grow back completely with all of its function. Because of its nine brains and more than half of its neurons being in its arms, individual arms can solve problems—like opening a jar—independently from the rest of the body.
Octopus can change the color and texture of their skin to match their surroundings. This handy camouflage keeps them safe from predators.
Help make sure these adorable baby octopus survive and make it to adulthood! Make a promise to help octopuses today: make the pledge that whenever you’re able, you’ll say “no thanks” to single-use plastics like those that marine wildlife are so vulnerable to. Promise our ocean’s cephalopods that you’ll commit to being mindful and making responsible choices for the sake of all marine wildlife.
All gif credits: Giphy
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The post These Baby Octopuses are Inkredible appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.
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Extinction fears as six rare North Atlantic right whales die in space of a month
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Ocean currents spin a web of interconnected fisheries around the world
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Raised in Rice Fields
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Seven ways tribes are repairing the Salish Sea and Washington waterways
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