How To Protect The Ocean

Marine Conservation saw a couple of great government moves at the end of last week.  Orca Captive Breeding and Shows Banned in California The state of California passed a law banning captive breeding of orcas as well as orca shows. This essentially puts a nail in the coffin to orca shows and breeding at Marine Mammal Parks such as SeaWorld in California and could pave the way for other states such...

Nathan and I are back again this week with a FULL episode of Ocean Talk Friday. Last week we only got to cover 2 stories due to a bad Skype connection (podcasting problems), but this week we were able to really bring it this week! Today's stories include: 1) How do Shark Teeth bite (talking about adaptation); 2) Do Ocean Acidification Laboratory Studies provide the same results as field studies (h...

Travis Nielsen is our guest today on Interview Wednesday. He is a marine scientist and the person who was responsible for managing the logistics at the International Marine Conservation Congress in St. John's, Newfoundland. Essentially, he made sure that everyone enjoyed themselves at the conference by everything running well. And I must say that he is damn good at his job. I met Travis at the IMC...

Marine Conservation is a very rewarding career and you will recall that I've said this before; however, this is not an easy field in which we work. You will soon find out that the environment is not always the top priority for governments or businesses to act unless it causes severe and consistent economic damage to the point where the cost outweighs the amount of money that someone can gain from...

Nathan Johnson and I got together again to discuss (while fighting a bad Skype connection) some Ocean articles that we read over the past week.  We were able to discuss 2 articles in particular: 1) Why the expansion of the Hawaiian National Marine Monument was just the beginning ; and, 2) President Obama has a Hawaiian fish named after him . Here are some articles that we didn't get to during the...

Dr. Brett Favaro is not only a researcher at the Marine Institute at Memorial University, but he was the co-chair of the International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC 2016) in St. John's, Newfoundland this past August. If you haven't figured it out yet, the IMCC 2016 was a bit life changing for me.  Brett was kind enough to take time off his busy schedule at the IMCC to chat with me about the p...

I am pleased to announce that Ocean Talk Friday is back after a 3 week hiatus. Nathan and I got back together to discuss the latest and important topics covered in the news. Today we discussed the following topics: 1) The Hawaii National Monument expansion; 2) The economy of marine conservation; 3) Seamounts are vulnerable and we need to do something about it; 4) What to do when poverty meets mari...

Interview Wednesday's continues with the International Marine Conservation Congress Series where I had the chance to interview a number of people who are involved in Marine Science and Conservation.  We had the chance to interview Dr. Asha DeVos from Sri Lanka for a second time at the conference to tell her story of how she became a Marine Biologist; what she thinks of the field; and, how she thin...

Over the past few months, I have had the opportunity to chat with a number of people inquiring over switching their career to one in Marine Science and Conservation. Usually, the people are ranging in age between 30-50 and working in a business/finance field and they just don't find that the their career offers anything of meaning in their lives. They tend to be searching for something where they...

Marine Education is a way of building resilient Oceans for the future. You would think that anyone living along an Ocean's coast would know more about the Ocean than someone who lived inland; however, that is not always the case. There are cultural stigmas that often exist within coastal communities. For instance, Nikita Shiel-Rolle, a marine biologist in the Bahamas, said that many Bahamians cann...

 The current model for marine conservation funding is flawed because scientists and conservationists cannot fund for their infrastructure anymore. They can only fund based on projects and results. As usual, some organizations took advantage of the old funding model and results were not received by the foundations so everyone now suffers. Project based funding coupled with more organizations seekin...

In the absence of an Ocean Talk Friday, I picked 2 stories that cover some of our favorite topics (Climate Change and Sharks) to discuss. The first story is about how the US is still divisive on the issue of climate change (ugh!). I talk about the frustrations of hearing arguments against climate change based on a belief system as opposed to adapting to its consequences and reducing our climate ch...

 I had the chance to sit down with Dr. Easkey Britton during the International Marine Conservation Congress at the beginning of August for a 1 one 1 interview to discuss all the cool things that she is doing around the world.  Easkey describes how a surfing trip to Iran (yes, Iran!) changed the lives of many young Iranians by introducing them to surfing and bringing them together as a community. S...

The Marine Conservation community is large and represented from all parts of the Earth. More and more people are entering this wonderful community every day, but they aren't sure how they can help protect the Ocean to the point that they might give up because the problems are too big and they don't think they can bring about change. Well, I can't have that! So I decided to list these 7 ways that y...

Marine conservation is a wide ranging field in which people all over the world, from various cultural, professional and religious backgrounds take part. Why? It's because they have a great passion for conserving the Ocean. Regardless of the passion, the field is huge and it can be difficult to find a way that you can "fit in" to the field to make a significant impact in the area you specialize let...

Plastic pollution in the Ocean is a worldwide epidemic affecting water quality and the health of Ocean species more than we already know. Over 100,000 marine mammals (whales, dolphins), sea turtles, seabirds and fish are killed each year by marine debris including plastic pollution. Plastic pollution is an Ocean issue that is not debated as other issues are (climate change) as it has been document...

The Jairo Mora award was announced at the International Marine Conservation Congress in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada last week to increase the support to people working in developing countries where their right to protection in their job where their well being may be threatened. The award is named after Jairo Mora, a sea turtle conservation biologist who worked in Costa Rica to protect eggs fr...

Whale captivity has been a debated issue since the first orca was captured off the coast of Washington State; however, efforts to free wild caught and captive-bred orcas, belugas and dolphins have not been discussed in great detail...until this year. Blackfish, a documentary film describing the multitude of problems Orcas face in captivity and the dangers it poses to humans, was a key catalyst in...

Nathan and I are finally here at the International Marine Conservation Congress where we will be networking with old and new colleagues, talking science, and interviewing scientists and conservationists who do everything they can to understand and protect the Ocean.  We decided to talk about our first day at the conference and discuss the sessions we attended including how there was quite a bit of...

Nathan and I are prepping for the International Marine Conservation Congress being held in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. We are super excited for this opportunity and were are looking forward to sharing all the wonderful things that we will learn at the conference. We will also introduce you to some people involved at the conference as well. Today, we are talking about the following BIG storie...

Sea Turtles migrate great distances in every Ocean to complete their life cycle. They stop in different places to feed (forage) to refuel for the next leg of their amazing journey. There are some animals that literally hop on the sea turtle's backs (wow, that's lazy) and travel with them for the rest of their journey. These critters, or as we scientists call them: epibionts, can help researchers b...

Marine Conservation Conferences are a huge part of working in the field of Marine Science and Conservation. Sure, there are was to connect with people online and make some great professional relationships; however, there is nothing like face to face conversations that really allow you to make a lasting impression on someone. I am preparing to go to the International Marine Conservation Congress in...

Nathan Johnson and I are back with another Ocean Talk Friday. Here are the stories that we are talking about today: 1) Dory has been captive bred!; 2) First Nations and Recreational Fishers fight over rights to fish; 3) There are some coral reefs that are doing better than expected; and, 4) How YOU can save the Ocean! Join the Arbonne Blue Team http://www.speakupforblue.com/teamblue Instagram: @sp...

Blackfish has caused a change in tide for the plight of captive marine mammals as the public is demanding for the release of Orcas and other marine mammals from captivity. Sea World was forced to stop its Orca shows, which had the whales do tricks in exchange for food and the entertainment of the crowd; however, they do not want to release the animals into their natural setting due to the wild bei...

Drones are normally known for being used robots for destruction by the military as well as spying on other people. For the most part, people still think of drones as dangerous; however, that reputation is getting better as drones are being used for various business services.  Real estate agents use drones for making videos of the properties for sale and videographers are taking spectacular videos...