A Day in the Delta

Posted on May 21, 2013 by admin

By Mark J. Spalding, President, The Ocean Foundation
A version of this blog originally appeared in National Geographic’s  Ocean Views.

One recent Monday, I got to spend the day doing something outside, not in a conference room, not in my office, just out in one of North America’s great natural wonders.   My day began at 7, when the Executive Director of the Mobile Botanical Gardens, Bill Finch (who is also a Senior Fellow with us at The Ocean Foundation) picked me up at my hotel in Mobile, Alabama.  With John Adornato, head of the Sun Coast region of the National Parks Conservation Association, we headed out to the Brookleigh Aeroplex to meet Skip Tonsmeire, a volunteer pilot with SouthWings. Continue reading →

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In Honor of Mother’s Day

Posted on May 11, 2013 by admin

By Mark J. Spalding, President, The Ocean Foundation

On a recent trip to Maine, I had the opportunity to visit two exhibits at Bowdoin College’s Peary-McMillan Arctic museum. One was called Spirits of Land, Air, and Water:  Antler Carvings from the Robert and Judith Toll Collection, and the other was called Animal Allies:  Inuit Views of the Northern World.  The Inuit carvings and prints on display are extraordinary.  Artifacts and inspiring text within the exhibit, as well as photographs by Bill Hess support the elegant displays. Continue reading →

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After the Storm: What Next?

Posted on May 3, 2013 by admin

By Mark J. Spalding, President, The Ocean Foundation
A version of this blog originally appeared on National Geographic’s Ocean Views 

One recent weekend, I drove north from Washington with some trepidation.  It had been a beautiful October day the last time I headed to Long Beach, New York, across Staten Island and on by the Rockaways.  Then, I was excited about seeing our colleagues in the Surfrider International community who were gathering for their annual meeting.  Our hotel and gracious host, the Allegria, opened right onto the boardwalk and we watched hundreds of people jog, stroll, and ride by on their bikes, enjoying the ocean.

Continue reading →

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3rd Anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Posted on April 23, 2013 by admin

By Cynthia Sarthou, Executive Director, Gulf Restoration Network and
Bethany Kraft, Director, Gulf Restoration Program, Ocean Conservancy

The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster severely impacted portions of the Gulf ecosystem along with the region’s economies and communities. That damage, however, occurred against a backdrop of decades-long challenges ranging from loss and degradation of wetlands and barrier islands along the coast to formation of “dead zones” in the Northern Gulf to overfishing and lost fisheries production, not to mention damage from severe and more frequent hurricanes..  The BP disaster triggered a national call to action to go beyond the impacts of the blowout and address the long-term degradation the region has suffered. Continue reading →

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Happy Earth Day!

Posted on April 19, 2013 by admin

By Mark J. Spalding, President, The Ocean Foundation
Earth Day is Monday, April 22nd 

Earlier this month, I came home excited about what I had seen and heard at the CGBD Marine Conservation Program Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon.  Over three days, we heard from a lot of terrific people and had the opportunity to talk to a number of colleagues who also invest in those who work so hard to defend our oceans. The theme was ”Vibrant Communities and Cool Oceans Along the Pacific Rim: A Look at Successful Conservation Projects that use Innovative Solutions to Change the World.”

So where did those Innovative Solutions come from? Continue reading →

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Innovative solution of blue carbon helps manatees, dugongs, sea turtles, sea horses and many fish species

Posted on April 10, 2013 by admin

By Mark J. Spalding, President, The Ocean Foundation
A version of this blog originally appeared on National Geographic 

Last week, Enric Sala of National Geographic Society spoke about the Society’s Pristine Seas Mission, which has visited an array of countries to highlight the important marine regions that need protection. In 2012, Sala led an expedition to the Pitcairn Archipelago, which is famous as the refuge of the HMS Bounty mutineers.   On this trip, Sala’s team discovered a coral “paradise,” where as much as 90 percent of the sea bottom is covered with healthy coral, providing a habitat for a kaleidoscopic variety of dazzlingly colored fish and lightning-quick reef sharks. Continue reading →

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Water On My Mind

Posted on April 1, 2013 by admin

By: Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, co-founder of SEE Turtles, SEEtheWILD, & LiVBLUE among other organizations.
This blog originally appeared on Mission Blue. 

Take a stroll through your favorite bookstore.

Notice that lining the shelves in the best-selling non-fiction section are a great many books about the neuroscience of magic and happiness, memory and fear, music and our subconscious.

BlueMind ImageA quick scan of any of these books–and their relatives–for the words “ocean”, “water”, “nature” will largely come up short. Try it yourself.

Continue reading →

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A Billion Baby Turtles

Posted on March 27, 2013 by admin

By: Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, co-founder of SEE Turtles, SEEtheWILD, & LiVBLUE among other organizations.

If you’ve watched Animal Planet you know that odds are generally working against sea turtles.

From the moment an egg is deposited in a sandy nest on a tropical beach, to the first time a baby turtle touches the sea, to decades later when she returns as an adult to lay her own eggs on very same beach, life is an endless series of life-and-death challenges for a sea turtle.

Continue reading →

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Seagrass Awareness and the SeaGrass Grow Campaign

Posted on March 25, 2013 by admin

By: Seagrass Recovery
This post originally appeared on Seagrass Recovery’s Blog.

We are into the third week (one more week left!) of Florida’s Seagrass Awareness Month and the Seagrass Recovery crew wanted to showcase one of our partners, The Ocean Foundation, who is helping us in our efforts to conserve and promote seagrass ecosystems.

Continue reading →

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Ocean Connectors – Linking People and the Sea Around the World

Posted on March 22, 2013 by admin

By Frances Kinney, Director of Ocean Connectors

Winston Churchill said “to improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”

Ocean Connectors ArtworkThe Ocean Connectors program has linked people and sea life around the world for nearly a decade, and the time has come for change.  I am currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Marine Conservation and Biodiversity at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and my capstone project focuses on developing a strategic plan for the Ocean Connectors program.  Continue reading →

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