Protecting Cuba's Abundant Coral Reefs

In the waters off the Southeast coast of Cuba there's a near-pristine coral reef reserve called Jardines de la Reina, or the Gardens of the Queen. In this national park, groupers, snappers and many other reef fish flourish, along with several species of sharks. Although many of the world's best-known reefs face destruction in the face of global warming and other threats, large portions of the Gardens of the Queen remain remarkably healthy. Read the essay>>

Greening the Fleet: How URI's  Work On the R/V Endeavor Can Help You

In 2010, as carbon emissions produced by human activities rose well over 3% in the U.S. to 5,638 million metric tons of CO2, the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) decided to explore ways to make their fleet's present and future more environmentally sustainable. UNOLS began to promote the goal of "greening the fleet", which is still exploring the technologies and practices best-suited to move forward in developing and maintaining more efficient research vessels. The Graduate School of Oceanography at URI has taken this goal to heart, and research is currently underway to make their vessel, the R/V Endeavor, one of the most eco-friendly ships in the nation's academic fleet. Read the essay>> 

Sea Turtles-A Call For Conservation: Why now…and how

Protecting sea turtles is not only an act of compassion; it reinforces a necessary link in the fragile chain of our earth's ecosystem. And when humankind is in harmony with the "world of the sea turtle" and the ocean at large, the benefits are far reaching-we are all connected. The sea turtles that exist today represent an evolutionary lineage that dates back at least 110 million years. Based on current data and trends, sea turtles are considered by many to be on the brink of extinction; immediate action is imperative if they are to rebound. Read the essay>>  

In from the Wild Sea: Salmon and Tradition in Alaska's Bristol Bay

The commercial fishing boats plying the waters of Alaska's Bristol Bay were once wooden sailboats. Boatyards built these double-enders of Port Orford cedar planking with stout ribs of white oak. From these 30-foot vessels, fishermen pulled their nets by hand and in this way they caught millions of wild salmon each year. Fishing in these boats was "not a push-button experience," as one fishermen's daughter put it. Read the essay>>

Water Chestnuts Everywhere (But Not The Kind You Eat)

An account of removing an invasive species...On Saturday, August 4, 2012, the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyWRA) and Groundwork Somerville made one last summer push in a multi-year effort to eradicate the invasive Water Chestnut from the Mystic River in Massachusetts, and removed a record-breaking 806 20-lb. baskets of Water Chestnuts in one morning! With the help of hundreds of volunteers every year since 2010, we have managed to remove over 250,000 pounds of this detrimental invasive plant, or the equivalent of about 20 acres. By the end of 2012 we expect to have removed another 310,000 pounds, but even so, are barely able to keep up with the frantic spread of this invasive plant. Read the essay>>   

Saving Sharks: One Fin at a Time!

Whether you love or fear them, sharks are undeniably fascinating creatures that play a vital role in the health of marine ecosystems.  With over 400 species of sharks ranging in size from 6 inches to 40 feet long, they are certainly diverse as well.  Each species has evolved special adaptations to their environment that have helped them to survive since before dinosaurs. Read the essay>>  

 

The Great South Channel

Have you ever wondered where whales go to eat? Or why certain places in the ocean have more food than others? Well the scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are wondering as well. Read this month's Ocean Watch Essay: The Great South Channel - Where marine life meets to feast every spring - to learn more about copepods, currents, autonomous underwater gliders, and why they are all hanging out off the coast of Cape Cod. Read the essay>>

River Herring: Their role in coastal and marine ecosystems

This spring, as New England sailors leave their harbors for the open ocean, the last remaining schools of river herring will start a journey of their own as they migrate from open-water feeding grounds to their native rivers. Alewife and blueback herring, collectively known as river herring, were once found in nearly every coastal river in the Northeast. Now, federal fisheries managers are evaluating these fish for a potential listing under the Endangered Species Act. Read the Essay>>

Life in the Deep Sea

It is said that we know more about the moon, (on average 235,000 miles above),  that we do about the deep sea (about 2.5 miles below), but what we do know about the deep sea is astounding and the creatures unimaginable. Read the Essay>>

 

Tall Ships for Sustainability

Our first video Ocean Watch Essay, featuring the Schooner Adventuress, explores the mission of tall ships dedicated to environmental education. From providing youth science stations to sustainably supporting a full-time crew, tall ships around the country are making a difference to conserve the marine environment. Watch the video>>

 

Winterizing Your Boat

For many of us, A boater's least favorite time of year is approaching, the weekend when you give up your aquatic existence and haul your boat out of the water. Check out our guide to winterizing your boat to ensure that your boat is winterized in the most environmentally friendly manner possible. Read more>>  

 

The Impacts of Hurricanes Underwater

Earl, Irene, Katrina, Floyd, Bob, Katia… they have all caused major destruction, loss of life and devastation to many. It is extremely likely that you know the devastating impacts hurricanes can have on our coastal communities, but what goes on beneath the waves as the thunderous beasts unleash on the shore line? Read more>>

Ocean Dead Zones

What is a Dead Zone? A dead zone is an area of an ocean (or lake) that has too little oxygen to support marine life; it is hypoxic. This is a natural phenomenon that has been increasing in shallow coastal and estuarine areas as a result of human activities. Read More>>

The Lionfish Invasion

Beautiful, elegant, vibrant, graceful and unique ….. but we shouldn't be admiring  them in the Atlantic. The red lionfish (Pterois volitans) and devil firefish (Pterois miles) are native to the coral reefs of the South Pacific, but now not a long-haul flight away. Unfortunate accidents in the early 90's have led to their invasion and spread across much of the Caribbean Sea and as far north up the east coast to Rhode Island. Read More>> 

Water, Water Everywhere, But What Drops Should You Drink?

Here at Sailors for the Sea, we've been getting a lot of calls and emails lately asking, "how can I use fewer bottles?"  It maybe partially due to our recent push to get boaters and boating events to reduce their use of plastic by setting up water refill stations and owning refillable bottles themselves, and we're happy to see that it's catching on! Read More>>

Update on Plastic Gyres Science by SEA

Sailors for the Sea has written a lot of about plastics on our website, and we have more than once highlighted the concept of the ocean gyres, where "islands of trash" float, trapping fish, choking birds, and grow larger with the passage of time. Despite widespread concurrence on the subject, confusion remains, due to the fact that these gyres are not actually floating mats of garbage the size of entire states, an image fostered by some of the earlier, more publicized reports. They are, rather, concentrations of surface and sub-surface floating debris at the convergence of ocean currents. But how much plastic is really there? Conflicting reports and opinions have made it difficult to get a secure handle on the magnitude of the problem. Read More>>

 

Law of the Sea

The Law of the Sea (LOS) convention ensures international stability and peaceful use of the world's seas and oceans governing all activities on, over and under international waters. The treaty clearly defines its members' rights to offshore fishing, deep sea mining and navigation, while sustaining ocean resources for future generations. The treaty also guarantees safe passage in international waters of military planes and ships for peaceable means and provides clearly defined laws for countries to follow in order to avoid international military incidents. Read More>>

 

Salmon Aquaculture Reform

Though the name "king salmon" belongs to a fish from the Northwest United States, the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) once ruled the waters of Long Island Sound, stretched its influence into the rivers of Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, and was a well-known symbol of Maine's fisheries.  In the 21st century, the Atlantic salmon has become another struggling fish on the ever-growing list of endangered species. Read More>> 

 

High Seas Fisheries Management Gets Low Marks

Fishing on the high seas-areas beyond the 200-nautical-mile jurisdiction of coastal states-is increasing, largely driven by advanced vessel and gear technology, which facilitates fishing far from shore. High seas fisheries are overseen by various regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs)-intergovernmental bodies made up of nations that have agreed to cooperatively manage fish stocks beyond their national boundaries. Read More>>

 

Offshore Energy Reform

On April 20, 2010, an explosion and fire aboard an oil drilling platform killed eleven workers and unleashed a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Beyond the immediate human tragedy, the Deepwater Horizon disaster has imperiled the ecosystem along the U.S. Gulf Coast and impacted residents who depend on a healthy Gulf of Mexico. The spill raises serious concerns about drilling in sensitive habitats from the Gulf to the Arctic Ocean, as well as broader questions of national energy policy. Read More>>

 

 

Assessing the Health of Coral Reefs

Today's descriptions of coral reefs are often filled with doom and gloom. Reef fisheries are in decline, corals are dying at unprecedented rates, and the reef waters are filled with harmful bacteria. We know that there are a number of causes for these problems-unregulated fishing, unintended climate change, and uncontrolled pollution-but what we don't know is how to reverse this trend and move toward a healthier and more productive future for coral reefs. Read More>>

Inside the Plastic Vortex

Last summer, minutes before leaving port on a voyage to the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, Chief Scientist Miriam Goldstein was frank about what might and might not be encountered during the expedition to a place that's become known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch." Goldstein made it clear to fellow scientists, cruise volunteers, and a few members of the news media that SEAPLEX would be an exploratory voyage. Read More>>

Climate change misconceptions and realities

The issue of climate change has received so much attention in recent years that it has become difficult for interested citizens and policymakers to separate facts from fiction. Climate change is one of the most cutting edge research fields in modern science, but the field has existed for more than a century and much knowledge has been established with high certainty and confidence. This page clears up some of the most common misconceptions about the science of climate change. Read More>>

Protecting Bluefin Tuna

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, seven of the 23 commercially fished tuna species, including bluefin, northern albacore, bigeye and yellowfin, are overfished or depleted. An additional nine species are on the brink of being overfished. The boats seeking these tuna are responsible for more hooks and nets in the water than any other fishery. Read More>>

 

National Ocean Policy 

The increasing industrialization of our oceans threatens the fragile health of marine ecosystems. If poorly planned or managed, drilling for oil and natural gas in federal waters, developing aquaculture and building wind, wave and tidal energy facilities all have the potential to damage America's marine environment. Currently, several federal agencies manage industrial activities in our oceans under a number of statutes, and there is little coordination or consideration of the cumulative impacts their decisions have on the health and productivity of marine ecosystems and coastal communities. Read More>>

Don't plastic the Pacific

by Roz Savage
Just a week ago I arrived in Madang, Papua New Guinea, after rowing a total of 8,000 miles across the Pacific in a 3-stage journey that started under San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in 2008. Coupled with my solo row across the Atlantic in 2005-6, I have now spent cumulatively nearly a year of my life at sea in a 23-foot rowboat, just inches above the waterline.

This has put me in a unique position to observe the visible impact that humans have had on the ocean. On a beautiful calm day, with sunlight glinting off the waves, it is heartbreaking to see a plastic bottle floating on the water. Mankind's impact is felt everywhere. Read More>>

Save Our Sharks

by Jim Abernethy
Sharks today are facing the threat of extinction. It is estimated that nearly 100 million sharks are needlessly harvested from the ocean each year. Scientists believe that if sharks become extinct we will essentially destroy the delicate balance that is necessary for the survival of thousands of marine species! Severe depletion of certain species is already revealing devastating effects in some areas of the world. Allowing the marine ecosystem to collapse is not an option for mankind. Read More>>

 

Invasive Species

A species that is not indigenous to its ecosystem, and whose introduction may cause harm to native species and human health is termed invasive.  Often not thought of as 'invasive'  at the time of introduction, these species make their way into new ecosystems both intentionally-exotic pets, hybridization, food, pest control, landscape ornamentals-and accidentally such as 'stowaways' that attach themselves to shipping ballast tanks, shipping crates, travelers, or become mixed into seed purchased from other countries. Read More>>

Harmful Algal Blooms and Human Epilepsy

Courtesy of NOAA and the National Ocean Service
NOAA researchers have found that exposing laboratory animals to a toxin produced by blooms of microscopic ocean algae can induce seizures and eventually lead to epilepsy. Working with the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California, and other partners, the scientists initially suspected that something amiss in the marine environment could be causing epilepsy in marine mammals and other wildlife with seizures that washed up on California beaches over the past decade. Read More>>

 

bioaccumulation

Throughout the food chain, bioaccumulation - the process by which contaminants such as mercury, arsenic, PCBs, etc. concentrate and magnify as it moves up the chain - is a threat to all species. Specifically within our ocean environments, as with most ocean pollution, first affected are the littlest of creatures (the phytoplankton). Due to their small size, the amount of pollution absorbed by the phytoplankton is concomitantly small, but when a zooplankton gobbles up 10 of these guys suddenly the pollution swells 10 fold as it rests in the zooplankton's body. Then, along comes a smelt or a perch which eats 10 zooplankton; the fish now has 100 times the toxic pollution as the tiny phytoplankton. This continues through to sharks, whales, eagles, polar bears, and humans. Read More>>

 

CORAL reef refugees

by Peter Glynn, Ph.D.
Coral reefs in all tropical seas have experienced unprecedented mortality and devastation during the past few decades. This is a result of several factors, all largely precipitated by humankind's mismanagement of Earth's resources. Global warming and ocean acidification are a result of accelerated increases in greenhouse gas emissions (especially CO₂). These conditions result in coral bleaching, death and lowered rates of calcification in surviving corals. Less than one-half of global reefs (46%) are considered to be in a stable or recovering state. Read More>>

The Science of Around the americas

by Michael Reynolds
Around the Americas is a "voyage of discovery", and our primary mission is to build awareness throughout the Americas of increasing threats to our fragile ocean environment and to mobilize North and South Americans to take action to improve the health of our oceans.  As such, we are not out to prove or disprove any particular scientific hypothesis.  We nonetheless recognize that we are in a unique position, both by virtue of our size, our route, and by being under sail a good deal of the time, and are using this vantage point to acquire multiple data sets for members of the scientific community. Read More>>

Conserving our corals

by Andrew Baker
Coral reefs are some of the most important and productive places for life on Earth. By some estimates, coral reefs contribute about $300 billion to the worldwide economy each year, providing resources for everything from tourism to medicinal products. Reefs also provide our shorelines with protection during hurricanes and strong winds, and they serve as nursery grounds for juvenile fish and other animals caught for humans to eat. But with the effects of both man-made and natural factors, corals are facing a dangerous future with much warmer and more acidic oceans than we have today. Read More>>

 

CORALS HIT AN ACID NOTE

by Christopher Langdon
A couple of years ago, my colleague coral reef biologist Dr. Andrew Baker and I established a laboratory specifically testing what life in the ocean might be like for animals years from now. As a chemical oceanographer I am interested in how corals respond to the combined stress of global warming and ocean acidification; two threats considered imminent in today's climate change debate. Read More>>

Small Alterations in Habitats Have Grave Impact on Broader Ecosystems

Habitat alteration, simply put, is a change, or alteration, to a particular environment. What is unclear from its designation, however, is the adverse affect changes - big or small - have on the broader environment and related plant and animal life. According to the Nature Conservancy, habitat alteration, along with invasive species, are the two main causes of fish extinction. Furthermore, in the United States 40 percent of fish and amphibians, 50 percent of crayfish, and 70 percent of mussels are endangered due largely to habitat alterations resulting from such practices as bottom trawling, anchoring, coastal developments, and cyanide and blast fishing. These activities create change with devastating effects on marine ecosystems. Read More>>

Nonpoint Source Pollution

Nonpoint source pollution originates from various sources including run-off from the surface of pavements and lawns, secondhand sources like car exhaust and lawn fertilizer, and even boat hulls, which on a near daily basis, are in direct contact with water. Read More>>

Oceans Without Fish?

Remember the saying, "There is more than one fish in the sea?" Well, this encouraging metaphor might soon find itself frighteningly untrue. The major culprit is overfishing -- a non-sustainable practice in which the removal of fish outpaces their ability to reproduce. This can, and does occur in any body of water from a pond to our vast oceans. Read More>>

Plastics in our Oceans

Imagine the massive breadth and spread of our great state of Texas . Now imagine every milli-inch of that piled high with trash: bottle caps, cigarettes, cigarette lighters, tampon applicators, plastic nets, discarded flip flops, Frisbees, soda bottles, diapers, you name it. Now take that image, double it, and plunk into the water. That's what is floating around the eastern corner of a 10-million-square-mile oval known as the North Pacific subtropical gyre. Read More>>

Ocean Acidification

For decades now, our oceans have absorbed nearly one-third of excess carbon dioxide produced since the industrial revolution, conceivably staving off a far greater climate change crisis than we are currently facing on land. With a daily intake of twenty-two million metric tons of carbon dioxide, and a yearly projection of two billion tons, our waters can no longer keep up with the demands we are making. Read More>>