How To Protect The Ocean

There are 100s of people that try to get in the Marine Science and Conservation field every year. It's difficult to find a job let alone build a career in Marine Conservation. However, there are certain things you can do to help increase your chances to get a job within your career path. Well, you need to have a career path in the first place. This episode, I discuss why you need to have a career...

The International Shoreline Cleanup occurs in September every year. It's a way to get people to understand how much plastic and debris washes up on beaches.  Greenpeace Canada has released a report identifying the common pieces of trash that was found along the shorelines in Canada. The CBC covered the report and why the corporations should be responsible for the items they create. Some corporatio...

What do you do when your government doesn't follow up on its pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? You take them to court. That is what a group of organizations did to the Dutch Government. An appeals court ruled that the government had to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020. This cut will include closing a coal plant that was just opened last year.  The ruling opens the discussion...

Local communities can be great examples of showing great conservation examples as they conserve their community in order for them to survive for generations. A recent example was brought to the forefront by Mongabay's Jennifer O'Mahony . The example was of a Senegalese Community that went through a transformation of the way they management their land and water resources to sustainably live as a su...

I'm confused. First, an article comes out with a list of the 100 companies that contribute 71% of the Global Greenhouse Gases (the list was made up primarily of oil/gas and coal corporations). Then, an article comes out saying that the meat industry is responsible to contributing more than the oil and gas industry. Which one contributes more? And does it matter? Here are the sources: List of 100 C...

I've met with many people over my career you provide them with advice on how to get a Marine Conservation Career. In fact, I created an online course for it a few years back. I enjoy helping people as I got helped by my colleagues; however, there are somethings that I wish I could provide better advice on. That is harassment in the workplace.  I recently was told about a situation a friend of mine...

Another IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change) report has been released and things haven't gotten better regarding Climate Change...things are worse. The report predicted that massive droughts and flooding will occur that will change coastlines forever and it will happen sooner than expected.  Am I surprised, no. We have not done enough as a human species to reduce climate change. In fac...

On of the main arguments for reduce meat content lately has been to help reduce climate change. According to studies, cow flatulence emits methane, a greenhouse gas. In fact, the meat industry is said to contribute 4% of the global greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. An estimate puts 3 tons of methane for every cow...that's a lot of farts and burps! However, there may be a way that the amount meth...

A quick episode today. This episode is based on the various reactions of a family who encountered two whales during their family adventure in Puget Sound. Let's just say some family members were enjoying the once in a lifetime experience and others were scared out of their wits.  The whales were under the boat and lifted the boat slightly, so I can understand why some of the family members were af...

Jellyfish are amazing creatures, just ask Rebecca Helm; however, some jellies can get a little dangerous if one happens to get stung by a jelly.  In this episode, I talk about how Climate Change is causing concern about a specific kind of jellyfish in Australia that is moving south due to warming waters. The sting of this particular jellyfish can cause extreme pain and "make you want to die." Quit...

Sei Whales were hunted to population collapse back before the 1960s and there hasn't been another Sei whale spotted in the Canadian North Pacific since. Until now that is... Canadian Government researchers heard what seemed to be Sei Whales sounds during a summer monitoring study in 2018. The research team spotted the whales swimming with a pod of fin whales not long after they heard the sounds. S...

You can't stop natural disasters from happening, but you can protect the people who live along the coastlines through emergency planning policies.  This episode I use the events that happened in Indonesia this past week to discuss how important it is to have governments who are willing to ensure emergency planning procedures are implemented, are tested and changed based on vulnerabilities found th...

A new study was published looking at the future of global Orca populations and the results are not good. We've discussed the challenges that the Southern Resident Orca Population face with lack of Chinook Salmon and contamination problems; however, we have not yet discussed the health of other populations. The Orca study that the Guardian wrote about covers global populations. Results of the study...

It's not secret that I am not a fan of the Ocean Clean Project that is spearheaded by Boyant Slat. I don't think the device that he is building will clean up the Oceans from plastic pollution or even the Pacific Garbage Patch; however, a colleague and friend John Davis has a different perspective on the project giving me more hope about the evolution of the project.  John is well versed in how the...

Mongabay just published an article on how researchers have discovered 3 new species, including a blood red-coloured branching coral in a protected area off the coast of Panama.  The species  Thesea dalioi is 1 of 2 species found in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and 1 of 27 species in the coral group. The species was named after Ray Dalio, a US philanthropist who funded the research and made it possibl...

It's been a while since I've done an episode where I told you the purpose of this podcast and why I recently made the business, Speak Up For Blue Media and Communications Inc., real!  I also wanted to do this because there are many new users as of late and I wanted to make sure that all of you know what Speak Up For Blue (SUFB) is about and why I made it a business.  You also find out where I want...

Japan has hunted whales in the South Pacific Ocean for decades killing hundreds of whales each year under the "scientific purpose" tag. We all know the tag is not true, but no country can do anything about the loophole in the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) policy.  However, after the latest vote of maintaining a moratorium on whaling, Japan threatened to leave the IWC. If they leave, the...

Two people were bitten by sharks in Australia within a 24 hour period. I don't even know what the chances of having a shark bite within the same bay in 24 hours are; however, the right thing to do is not kill sharks. We know it doesn't reduce the incidents of shark bites. Politicians think that it helps solve the problem.  Take a listen to the episode and let me know what you think in the Facebook...

There are so many marine parks that hold marine mammals in captivity in Asia. It's ridiculous!!! It seems that the marine mammal theme park in Asian countries is thriving, except maybe it has hit a bit of a downturn. A marine park just outside Tokyo, Japan closed its doors due to low attendance. The problem is that the owners LEFT THE ANIMALS AT THE PARK!!!! Fish, penguins and a lone dolphin named...

I took part in a discussion in a different Facebook Group that had to do with growing a Social Enterprise. The discussion was a question regarding Dead Zones in the Ocean. The question came up after I introduced myself in the group as a Marine Ecologist to which I usually get a reply regarding a question about the Ocean. The question of what is a Dead Zone in the Ocean was quickly followed up by s...

PETA is spending some energy on a small Lobster Shell Company in New Brunswick, Canada as the company was in the news due to the smell coming from the plant. The smell was bothering neighbours. The company has since worked on rectifying the issue, but PETA has a permanent solution for the plant. You won't get a smell if you stop killing lobsters and other shellfish. However, the are some problems...

The Trump administration is holding a set of public listening meeting between August 31st and November on the topic of allowing commercial fishing in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). You might be asking "why would anyone allow commercial fishing in MPAs that are probably designed to protect habitats from overfishing?" And you are completely right. There really is no reason for this type of deregulat...

There is a BIG problem in the Marine Science and Conservation field and it goes with how the science and research is shared. Science in itself is supposed to be freely shared amongst the public; however, that is not the case. Journals hold the vital research methodologies and results behind a paywall that is only available to people who can afford the annual access of a set of journals that could...

The Southern Resident Orca population is a terrible shape. The Orca known as J50 has recently disappeared causing concern for scientists, conservationists and advocates in Canada and the US. There are now only 74 Orcas left in that population.  The major contributing factors to the situation with the Orca population are the lack of chinook salmon and the increase of ship traffic along the West Coa...

Overfishing is putting a dent in the oceans seafood supply; however, it is difficult to quantify what damage has been done. Scientists are trying to determine the damage from overfishing by trying to determine the amount of the ocean we are fishing. There are a couple of labs that used a global fishing dataset to assess the amount of ocean is taken up by fishing. The two labs have come to very dif...