How To Protect The Ocean

Ocean Talk Friday is BACK! I am happy to say that Nathan and I were finally able to free up some of busy time to reunite for another wonderful episode! Today we discuss the following stories: 1) An Increase in Humpback Whale Sightings (Yay! But why?); 2) Ray Hilborn makes us think about how Fisheries Managers and Biodiversity Manager need to talk; 3) Do Lobsters live forever?; and, 4) Can you put...

Arctic Ocean animals such as the Polar Bear, Beluga whale, Narwhal whale and the Bowhead whale are some of the iconic species that are at high risk of being affected by Climate Change. These animals and their habitats are the exact reason why Susan R. Eaton, who was named one of Canada's top 25 Greatest Canadian Explorers  by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, is leading an expedition of 12...

I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you something about why I started and continue to pursue Speak Up For Blue. In 2010, the BP oil spill had devastated the Gulf of Mexico and anything in the path of the oil and the chemical used to disperse the oil. A number of marine biologists, advocates and conservationists flew down to the Gulf to show people what was happening. They dispersed the image...

When I was a kid, I always dreamed of going on an adventure as an explorer/marine biologist under water via SCUBA diving to discover new species and habitats and speak to the world...underwater. The imagination of a kid is amazing, right? I never thought it would happen until I came across one of the craziest stories I've ever read. There was a guy, a Canadian guy, who was going to defend his Mast...

We all know the Government of Florida is the not most eco-friendly. Governor Rick Scott has mandated his staff to not say the terms "climate change" and "global warming" and now, due to his bad policy for taking away nutrient limitation, he has helped the worst environmental disaster in Florida's history! Lake Okeechobee receives nutrients from inputs such as Agriculture, Sugar companies and resid...

I've been watching Shark Week 2016 all week and reviewing an episode per day. Tonight, I will be reviewing the episode called "Air Jaws" because it's Great White Sharks leaping out of the water after seals and there is actually some science behind it. In the Air Jaws Episode, it seemed different then in the past as it focused on answering a number of questions related to the hinting strategies of...

Shark Week 2016 Marine Biologists Greg Stuntz, Matt Ajemain and professional Shark Tagger Keith Poe try to catch and tag a large Mako Shark called a Grander to find out how these animals behave and predate in the Ocean. there were two studies trying to locate and document movements and feeding behaviour of grander mako sharks, one on the California Coast and the other on the New England Coast. It...

Shark Week: Day 2 follows 2 story lines of shark predators and their feeding behaviour that was believed to take place predominantly in the deep ocean; however, recent sightings make shark researchers think that the Great White Shark in Guadeloupe and the Hammer Head Shark in Bimini, Bahamas are hunting is shallow water. The episode determines why they are observing this behaviour. SUFB Podcast: h...

Shark Week 2016 has begun and discovery Channel is kicking it off with a great episode from University of Miami's Shark Researcher, Dr. Neil Hammershlag, who is trying to answer the question: "Why are there so many Tiger Sharks at Tiger Beach, Bahamas?" Listen in to heat about what Nathan and I thought about the first episode for Shark Week in 2016. Neil's Lab: http://www.sharktagging.com Ocean AR...

Nathan and I are back for another wonderful Ocean Talk Friday on the Speak Up For Blue Podcast! It's an exciting episode because we are on the cusp of Discovery Channel's 2016 Shark Week with a promise for the network of a more science-based program schedule.  Last year, Discovery was under fire as it aired a number of fictional "mocumentaries" during it's 2014 schedule, which angered many people...

Will Finding Dory cause more people to want a "Dory", the Royal Blue Tang, in their aquariums? That is what Ret Talbot is going to help us answer today on this episode of the Speak Up For Blue Podcast.  Ret is a fisheries and sustainability journalist who has taken in interest in covering the issues in the Ornamental Fishing Industry. During our discussion, Ret reveals that data for this industry...

I was very busy this past week, which is why I was only able to post all 3 episodes. I was able to post Ocean Talk Friday with Nathan, so we were still able to provide you with some great content. I wanted to take this episode to talk to you about how Marine Conservation really works because of two things that happened to me last week that I feel are extremely important to address with regards to...

Welcome back to Ocean Talk Friday. I apologize that this episode is the only one for this week. I was at a Conference that I will be speaking about in one of the episodes for next week. So more on that next week. I was lucky enough this week to have Nathan join me again and we discussed Oceans Day, again. It's a big day and lots of things to discuss. Here is a list of articles that we discussed: S...

On this episode of Ocean Talk Friday, Nathan Johnson and I talk about World Oceans Day and how the Ocean affects us all. Every other breath you take is thanks to the Ocean providing us with Oxygen. We need to change the way we treat our Oceans by changing the way we go about our daily lives. We need to change the products we consume, the plastics we make and buy that get thrown away and end up in...

The Australian Government once again overreacted to a shark bite incident last week after a surfer was bitten by a Great White Shark and later died from his injuries. The father of the surfer made a statement to the press expressing his disatisfaction with the choice of the government to cull (hunt) Great White Sharks and other large sharks as he said his son, Ben, would not want any shark killed...

A colleague of mine and the Facebook Group Manager of the Citizen Scientist for the Oceans group posted a couple of articles about Marine Conservation and Marine Protected Areas. In each article, the topic was how Marine Protected Areas were not as successful because they couldn't protect against 2 things: Local stakeholders (shark fishermen) who didn't have alternative livings to take care of the...

It's unfair that Harambe got shot because a 4 year old boy ended up in the Gorilla Pen and Harambe got a hold of him. Was he protecting the boy? Was he scared of the crowd and that is why he dragged the boy through the water trying to intimidate the crowd? Was was the boy allowed to get in the pen in the first place? Where were the parents? Killing Harambe was a tragic event from a messed up situa...

Last week, I recorded and posted a podcast episode ( http://www.seapkupforblue.com/session162 ) about the upcoming move Finding Dori. In that episode, I quoted some excerpts from a Washington Post article which took information off the website of a non-profit organization that misrepresented data. This means that I helped spread the misrepresented data as well.  I didn't do it on purpose. I just d...

Welcome back to another Ocean Talk Friday with myself, Andrew Lewin, and Nathan Johnson. There were some great, powerful stories out this week that we just had to talk about. Here they are: Study finds 5% of organizations get majority of the Funding and it hasn't been affective; Cephalopod populations have been on the rise since the 1950s in the face of a changing Ocean; A brewing company designed...

Travelling is always difficult. You have to find a place to stay that is worth the money you pay, you want good food, you want a nice beach, you want great culture, and you want to friendly people. After you have all of that, you want to make sure you are protecting the Ocean and the Environment in general. That's a problem...that's always a problem because there is very little information on how...

I can't wait for the Sequel to Find Nemo entitled "Finding Dori." It's a great set of movies that are entertaining and full of marine conservation messages.  However, Finding Nemo caused a bit of a surprised effect on will populations of Clownfish (the species of the Nemo and his father). Everyone wanted Nemo in their tanks at home. Currently, 1,000,000 clownfish are plucked out of the sea and exp...

There were a number of articles that we could talk about this week, but Nathan and I narrowed it down to 4 important topics for Ocean Talk Friday: Alternative Fisheries Management Necessary; Greenpeace goes after a prominent Fisheries Professor (a little petty if you ask us!); Shell spills oil in the Gulf of Mexico near Louisiana and no one is talking about it; and, Palau increases its No-Take Mar...

I am so happy to be bale to provide this interview for you with Jillian Morris. She is a great biologist, videographer, educator and conservationist. Jillian tells us how she got to where she is today from childhood playtime in the ocean and seeing her first in-person shark when she was 8 to filming them at close range to change the perspective of shark behaviour in kids all over the worlds.  We a...

Mossel Bay in South Africa is facing a surge of long lining. Last Thursday I was contacted by a representative from Keep Fins Alive who was concerned of an increase in fishing pressure from long lining vessels from Eastern Cape. Keep Fins Alive (KFA) stated that the vessels have over-fished the demersal fish population in their bay and now are spending a lot of money in gas to travel to Mossel Bay...

Did I ever tell you that this is my favourite day of the week? We have another episode of Ocean Talk Friday with myself, Andrew Lewin, and Nathan Johnson. We choose 4-5 articles that we feel made a big impact this past week and talk about them, their science and their conservation implications.  Today we discussed the following: 1) The resurgence of the Ross Sea MPA proposal; 2) Mussels smell befo...