How To Protect The Ocean

A megaproject is proposed to move forward to build an 800 metre long pier for the island of Cozumel to accommodate four more cruise lines per day (in addition to the current 3 cruise lines per day). The pier will also be designated as a home port leading to a series of condos that will be built for cruise staff. The proposed megaproject is a risk to the local coral reefs for which most tourists co...

The Ocean Clean Up Project recently released a video showing a trawl net releasing plastic pollution that it supposedly hauled from the ocean and released on the deck of a shipping vessel. However, there seemed to be some things that did not add up in the video.  There was no bycatch from the fishing net used to clean up the plastic. The plastic was intact, which is very different than most of the...

I saw a video today about how the generation known as Generation Z is battling two different lifestyles. There is the progressive lifestyle that is led by the likes of people like Greta Thunberg and there is the excessive lifestyle that is led by the likes of people such as Kylie Jenner. The former lifestyle is worried about the planer while the latter lifestyle is worried about the shallow parts...

Are you wondering whether you should eat aquacultured seafood products? People seem to be down on aquaculture stating that there are many environmental issues. They aren't wrong as issues such as feed for the animals, risk of invasive introductions on species, and disease have come up in the past. I wanted to know whether those issues have been addressed? Are we seeing an improvement in aquacultur...

How do you define success? People often consider success as making a certain amount of money, having a family, and/or accomplishing specific goals in life. However, have you ever considered your sustainability as a measurement of success in your life?  I saw a post on Facebook recently that posed the same question. I never really thought about how well I prioritized being sustainable in my life. I...

Last week, we saw what really happens at sea with industrialized fishing. 100,000 dead fish were discarded from a net and floating on the ocean taking up 3,000 square meters (32,300 square feet) in size.  The fish were discarded from the 2nd largest trawling vessel in the world. The FV Margivis can haul in 18,000 tons of fish and process at sea.  The representatives for the ship explained that a r...

I found out about an organization in Canada that works with students, teachers, and volunteers to clean up plastics along beaches and wetlands and help reduce the amount of single-use plastics in Canada.  You just know I had to get the Executive Director, Natasha Tucker, on the podcast to talk about her organization and get the details on the federal government's promise to ban certain single-use...

In the last episode, I talked about the strategies, that were observed by marine mammal researchers, of orcas demonstrated to hunt blue whales in NSW, Australia.  After publishing the episode, an audience member reached out to me on Instagram and shared a website with me that described how a pod of orcas helped whalers in Eden, Australia to hunt large baleen whales such as blue whales in the 19th...

Scientists recently observed three separate hunting events of orcas against blue whales. Two hunting events were in 2019 (16 days apart) and the last event was in 2021. The first event was on a healthy individual.  The scientists observed the hunting events in Bremer Bay (South West Australia) where three orcas lined up along the side of the blue whale and pushed it underwater while two orcas woul...

Blue carbon could possibly be a term that is the least known in conservation by the public. It's an important term that has many positive outcomes for the ocean and our planet.  Rosie Sherwood is an artist who would like more people to understand blue carbon and the role it plays in fighting climate change. She is working with the Plymouth University's Marine Institute as a resident to help the pe...

A study based in Seychelles found that there some fish species will remain on a reef after the corals have bleached, which could help maintain fisheries and some form of nutrition for humans.  Coral reefs are at risk from or are bleaching in many parts of the world, which could have negative implications on the fish communities and the human communities that rely on them for food. The study identi...

A Greenpeace research vessel discovered a new colony of Gentoo penguins in Antarctica. It is the only colony that has been detected this far south on the icy continent. It's an important discovery because Gentoo penguins prefer low-lying, rocky areas that have no ice.  The ice in Antarctica is melting six times faster than it was in the 1970s due to climate change. Melting ice will have an effect...

There was a headline on Rollingstone magazine (link below) that mentioned the Doomsday Glacier was on the verge of melting. The headline didn't make me feel good about where we were at on reducing climate change, but it also didn't motivate me to do anything about it because the problem seemed too big.  Conservation optimism is important when trying to change people's behaviour to live for a bette...

Did you ever wonder what happens to your pee and poo after you flush the toilet? I bet you never thought you would read those words on this podcast, but the fact of the matter is our water quality is dependent on how well our sewage treatment plants can stop nasty stuff that we excrete from getting into our waterways, including the ocean. Mongabay posted a great editorial about how the world is de...

You likely heard of the undersea volcano that erupted in the South Pacific near the island of Tonga as it was all over the news. The eruption reached 20 km in the air and the blast was visible from space. Unfortunately, the eruption caused Tsunami-like waves to crash into the island of Tonga and cause damage to properties, cut out power, and flood many parts of the island.  New Zealand is sending...

Coffee pods are popular in most households. You can make any type of coffee quickly without any mess of having to take teaspoon measurements of the coffee beans and pour them into the coffee-maker. All you have to do is pop them into the designated area and press a button and voila! A wonderful coffee to start your day! However, are you aware that your coffee pod may not be recyclable even though...

Is visiting the Antarctic on your bucket list? If so, you may want to take the right boat to get there.  PhD researcher at the University of Cambridge, Arlie McCarthy, wrote a great piece that we should all be talking about regarding invasive species reaching the Antarctic on Conversation.com. The article describes the difficult path invasive species have had to travel to reach the shores of the A...

There was a great conversation happening on TikTok (yes, TikTok) on Dr. Virginia Schutte's account regarding wastefulness and our environment.  The video series started with Virginia stitching another creator on her comments about being judged for her family using paper plates. Virginia responded by saying that she chooses not to judge anyone on their lifestyle and rather approaches people with lo...

There is a prediction that says the ocean will have warmer water with less oxygen that will be more conducive to smaller mesopelagic fish. A study was recently published in Science and covered on Mongabay news that provides empirical evidence from 130,000 years ago (where, warmer and less oxygenated waters occurred) that shows the prediction could happen.  The same conditions that were present 130...

Another Indus river dolphin was found dead near the Taunsa Barrage (a damn) in the Indus River (Pakistan) bringing the total to three Indus dolphins in the past month found dead. This past dolphin was found in fishing gear, which is the greatest threat to the population that is already limited by the physical barriers of six barrages within the river.  Non-governmental organizations are trying to...

The people of Cornwall, UK are enjoying the increased number of marine mammal sightings over the past couple of years; however, unfortunately, they are also seeing an increased number of marine mammal strandings.  New sightings might have to bring about new policies that can change the way people in Cornwall fish and use the ocean in the future.  Link to article: https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/...

Watching Netflix's new movie Don't Look Up made me feel seen as no other movie has before. The movie is a satire on how society reacts to the news of environmental disasters and depicts scientists as whistleblowers that are annoying to society's day-to-day living.  Many non-scientists felt the frustration and anger of Jennifer Lawrence's character that was a Ph. D. candidate who was passionate abo...

A friend recently recommended a podcast to me where the host interviewed Dr. Jane Goodall. Dr. Goodall is a terrific scientist and is known for her studies on great apes where she lived with apes in the wild for many years.  During the podcast, the host, Jay Shetty, discussed how hope could help fight the war on nature. I've heard from family and friends that they lose hope after hearing the doom...

We need to do many things to reduce Climate Change and there are companies that are working around the clock to help bring renewable energy to the forefront in order to get them online.  You may notice more windmills in the Ocean or near highways and the acres of land dedicated to solar panels. The latter is the focus of today's episode, solar panels.  One of the major challenges to adding more so...

The people are fed up with the broken promises of climate action by governments and will eventually resort to violence if the government doesn't clean up its act with the oil and gas industry. Dr. David Suzuki thinks that blowing up pipelines is inevitable if governments continue to ignore the people's wishes of climate action now.  The speech is getting a lot of heat from conservative-leaning med...