Tag archives for oceans
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It’s not everyday you get to see large-scale illegal fishing in progress. But on April 14, that’s exactly what passengers aboard the National Geographic Explorer seem to have witnessed. This passenger ship was two-thirds of the way through a voyage up the coast of West Africa, and guests were enjoying a day at sea. As…
Posted by Opening the Blue Vision Summit 4 in Washington, D.C., on Monday, author and ocean advocate David Helvarg said of Congress, “A lot of them are hardwired like sharks, they respond to stimuli like money or votes” (see Helvarg’s posts in Ocean Views). The summit, which ends today, is “the biggest ocean day on the Hill,”…
Dead or Alive: The Promise of Tourism for Shark Conservation
Posted by IZILWANE on May 8, 2013 When many people hear the words shark and tourism in the same sentence, the first thing they think of is how to avoid these creatures of the deep. The second thing is the ubiquitous image of a small diver in a shark cage, coming face-to-face with a great white in a caricature of what these…
Posted by Fishing for shad on the Potomac River at Fletcher’s Boathouse is a spring tradition for many Washington-area anglers, including me. As a food source for larger fish, birds of prey, and other animals, shad provide a great example of the interconnectedness of nature—which for decades hasn’t received enough attention from fisheries managers. Although we’ve made…
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By Mark J. Spalding, President, The Ocean Foundation One recent weekend, I drove north from Washington, D.C., with some trepidation. It had been a beautiful October day the last time I headed to Long Beach, New York. Then, I was excited about seeing colleagues in the Surfrider International community who were gathering for their annual…
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This article was originally published by the Center for American Progress. It should come as no surprise that a president who grew up in Hawaii and has been known to enjoy the occasional vacation on Martha’s Vineyard would prioritize policies that result in the improved management of America’s oceans and coasts. In the past…
Acclaimed French environmentalist, photographer, and filmmaker Yann Arthus-Bertrand has been traveling in the U.S. to premiere his recent film Planet Ocean. Arthus-Bertrand’s photos have been published numerous times in National Geographic media, and he recently sat down with the National Geographic Channel to discuss his 2009 film Home. His new film Planet Ocean is narrated by…
By Andreas Merkl of Ocean Conservancy I recently joined Ocean Conservancy as its new CEO because I believe in one simple but very ambitious premise: the ocean must be at the very center of the key challenge of our time. That challenge is how to meet the enormous resource demands of a rapidly growing global…
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What do National Geographic Explorer Dr. Sylvia Earle, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Congressman and senate candidate Ed Markey, Ralph Nader, the marine artist Wyland, a syndicated cartoonist, a coast guard admiral, a coastal paddler, the head of America’s largest port and a young woman submarine pilot all have in common? They, along with hundreds of other…
We recently wrote about a two-headed bull shark found by fishermen. One of our readers, Christopher Johnston, then sent us an email with photos he had taken on September 27, 2008 of a similarly surprising find: a two-headed blue shark. As far as we know these photos have never been published anywhere before. As we…
By Mark J. Spalding, President, The Ocean Foundation Last week, Enric Sala of the National Geographic Society spoke about the Society’s Pristine Seas program, 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…
Cleaning Up the World’s Ballast Water
Posted by Michael Fry on April 2, 2013 
According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations agency responsible for the prevention of marine pollution by ships, water carried in ships’ ballasts is a top threat to global biodiversity and marine ecosystems. How? By transporting thousands of species out of their native environments and depositing them elsewhere around the world, where they…
By Michael Conathan and Shiva Polefka This article was originally published by the Center for American Progress. When President Barack Obama convenes his cabinet in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, one might be left with the impression that defenders of our oceans are rather pointedly underrepresented. The Department of Commerce, which oversees the National Oceanic…
We’ve written about a cyclops shark, freshwater sharks, and whorl-toothed sharks, but we have to add a new curiosity to the digital curio: a two-headed shark. A fisherman working off the Florida Keys recently caught a bull shark, then opened it up to find that it contained two live fetuses, including one highly unusual one with two…
“When it comes to the Ross Sea and Antarctica we’re not going to wait for a crisis to take action,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told a crowd at National Geographic headquarters yesterday evening. Kerry was joined at the podium by Terry Adamson, EVP of National Geographic; Karen Sack of The Pew Charitable Trusts,…
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Marine protected areas (MPAs) are part of the management toolbox that can ensure sustainable use of the oceans and provide the world with fish proteins. Yet, even as benefits of MPAs related to food security, ecosystem services, and livelihoods are known, we currently fail on our commitments to protect 10% of the oceans by 2020.…
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A type of burrowing worm that lived 508 million years ago has solved an evolutionary puzzle, a new study says.
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With packaging holding in place nearly all of our consumer desires, slow decomposition rates, and swirling debris fields the size of Texas in our oceans – it seems plastic isn’t going anywhere fast. A recent Comment piece in Nature by authors Chelsea Rochman at UC Davis and Mark Anthony Browne at UC Santa Barbara offers…
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Lemon sharks have social networks, despite the lack of Facebook and Twitter—and learn from their interactions, according to recent research.
While it has become popular to disparage California as, “the once great state,” and bemoan its high taxes, troubled schools, and slow economic recovery, I can’t imagine trading a day on the California coast watching whales or catching waves for a day anywhere else along America’s shoreline or interior. I just went scuba diving off…
Posted by How many fish are in the ocean? How much water does a wild river carry? How much oxygen does a forest produce? These are the kinds of questions posed by “Natural Numbers: The Value of the Planet in Minutes.” This new project is producing a series of short – three-minute – documentaries on a range…
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A conservative estimate on shark killings every year adds to urgency to international regulators considering new protections.
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I just returned from an incredible trip scuba diving with great hammerhead sharks. This was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. While underwater I was amazed by these awesome predators. I was able to capture a series of photos (both during day and night) of these mysterious creatures. As you look…
By Mark J. Spalding, President, The Ocean Foundation It’s gray whale migration season on the west coast of North America. Gray whales make one of the longest migrations of any mammal on Earth. Every year they swim over 10,000 miles roundtrip between Mexico’s nursery lagoons and feeding grounds in the Arctic. At this time of…
Posted by “We gotta do better, it’s time to begin. You know all the answers must come from within…. Come on and take a free ride….” From where I write, on the coast of California, I can look out and see dolphins swim gracefully through forests of ocean kelp. But I know that on the other…
