oceanrev's blog

Do you know where to get the best local, sustainable seafood?  Do you clean up plastic litter, even if it’s not yours and no one is watching?  Do you take reusable bags to the grocery store? In other words, do you live blue? 

 

Well then, here’s a marble.

 

If someone hands you a small blue marble don’t be surprised.  Here’s what to do:  give it away to someone who is also taking care of our little blue planet.  Or give it to someone else along with a tip about how to live blue: where to get the best local organic food, how to avoid plastic waste, or which politicians and businesses are true blue.

 

Then pause for a moment and consider that thousands of similar recycled-glass blue marbles are passing from hand to hand right now, making their way around the Earth, our big blue marble.  If you get one, give one.  And then, please share your story with all of us at BlueMarbles.org and inspire others to live blue.  Next June, we’ll check in on all the stories those blue marbles tell.  

 

Blue Marble is the name given to the most replicated photo ever, it’s the one made by Apollo 17 astronauts as they pointed their Hasselblad camera back at an illuminated Earth.  From up there we looked small, fragile, beautiful…and blue.  Sort of like a blue marble.

 

Understandably, the green patches of our planet get most of the eco-attention—albeit not nearly enough—while the blue expanses quietly take the hit.  I’ve heard it said that less than 1% of eco-funding goes to caring for the blue world. But, the fact is we live on a blue planet, not a green one, or a brown one.  Earth is mostly water, surrounded by a light blue or dark blue sky.  Life came from the ocean, and most of our planet’s life and habitable space is in the ocean.  We know all too well that the ocean gives us our climate, the air we breathe and food to eat.

 

But we’ve treated Big Blue like a giant dump.  Our chemicals, exhaust, emissions and trash are blown away with the breeze or washed away with the tide.  Invisible.  Out of sight.  Out of mind.  Global warming, ocean acidification, toxic seafood and plastic-laden seas and beaches mean that dilution is no longer a viable solution to pollution.

 

But our hope isn't false or shallow.  Soon, the health of the ocean, once the wallflower of the environmental movement, will move center stage, and not a moment too soon.

 

Those in the know say that 2010 is going to be a big year for the blue parts of our planet.  Beginning with World Ocean Day this June 8th (now recognized by the UN) a string of ocean events flows outward including the 100th anniversary of the birthday of Archie Carr, the father of sea turtle conservation, the premier of the IMAX film OCEAN, World Ocean Day 2010 and the anniversary of Jacques Cousteau’s 100th birthday.  Ocean explorer Dr. Sylvia Earle, aka “her Deepness,” has made a global network of marine protected areas her TED Prize wish.  Our new administration is poised to change the way climate change and energy politics are played for the better (to put it mildly).

 

The message is quite clear: we must do more for the ocean, we must do it better and we must do it now.

 

Your local “blue” organizations—the frontline warriors—need your help.  These days “help” means money, so update your memberships at Save Our Shores, Surfrider, O’Neill Sea Odyssey, FishWise and all the other blue orgs today.  While you’re at it, renew your commitment to the national organizations like Ocean Champions, Ocean Conservancy and Oceana, the people who, day-in and day-out, lobby for and shape the plans and policies that will restore healthy oceans.  Hit the beach, roll up your sleeves and volunteer to pick up that trash even when no one is watching.  Without local support these groups are not going to make it, which means neither will we.  

 

If you’re not convinced, just consider what our ocean would look like without the people who have fought for it through the years.  More oil rigs, an extra few thousand tons of trash, lots more runoff, fewer fish, whales and turtles, lack of public access and poorer ocean illiteracy leap to mind. 

 

We all owe these ocean saints a world of thanks.  Maybe your neighbor, teacher, co-worker or partner is one of them.  In fact, I’ll bet you’re one of them, too.  If so, then one day, very soon, I hope someone puts a blue marble into your hand and says, “thank you.”  

 

And then, when that blue marble is yours, you’ll know exactly what to do with it.

 

On June 5th Celebrate World Ocean Day and Ocean Revolution 5 at the Catalyst with the Mother Hips and Hot Buttered Rum (catalystclub.com)

Research Released Today Reports Almost 3,000 Endangered Loggerhead Sea Turtles Washed Up Dead on Baja California Sur Beaches Over Five-Year Period

For Immediate Release: October 13th, 2008

Media Contacts:

S. Hoyt Peckham (hoyt@biology.ucsc.edu; 831.566.0510)
Wallace J. Nichols, PhD (wallacejnichols@me.com; 831.426.0337)

Conservation efforts needed to protect endangered species from accidental and deliberate capture; SEE Turtles conservation tourism offers one solution to high death toll

Santa Cruz, CA - Wallace J. Nichols of California Academy of Sciences and University of California Santa Cruz researcher Hoyt Peckham have been counting endangered sea turtle carcasses; one part of their work to assess and eliminate threats to endangered loggerhead sea turtle populations in Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Their co-authored research, which was published today, yielded shocking results - almost 3,000 sea turtles were found dead along a 27-mile stretch of coast during a five-year period from 2003 to 2007.   The full report can be accessed freely online in the open access journal Endangered Species Research [http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/esr/bycatch/bycatchpp13/].

"We have counted so many dead turtles.  We have piles of data on thousands of carcasses.  What we need now are conservation actions, viable solutions and real alternatives for these fishermen," said Wallace J. Nichols, co-author and Research Associate with California Academy of Sciences.

With publication of their findings, the scientists are increasing awareness of the problems facing sea turtles in this area, which are accidental capture during fishing operations, known as "bycatch", and illegal fishing for turtles, or "poaching". Along with their Mexican coauthors and colleagues, they hope this report will encourage Mexico's government agencies to finalize creation of a refuge that protects turtles and encourages sustainable fishing in the area.

The study underscores that bycatch, and to a lesser degree poaching, are significantly impacting this endangered animal's chances for survival.

"We're seeing what are apparently the highest documented bycatch and stranding rates in the world," commented lead author Hoyt Peckham of UC Santa Cruz. "But the high bycatch rates offer us all an unexpected conservation opportunity. By working with just a handful of fishermen to diminish their bycatch we can save hundreds of turtles," added Peckham.

The authors partnered with local fishermen not only to assess bycatch but also to increase awareness of its far-reaching effects and work towards ending the threat. "Once aware of the ocean-wide impacts of their local bycatch," commented Hoyt Peckham, "fishermen strive to fish more cleanly by switching to different techniques, target species or areas – as a result, bycatch levels were down in 2008." Additionally, local fishermen are calling on the Mexican government to designate a sea turtle refuge that would officially protect the turtle bycatch "hotspot".

One of the best solutions to these problems is to increase awareness among fishermen about the consequences of their actions and to offer an alternative livelihood.  Conservation tourism can help provide an alternative for Baja California's fishermen.  Some fishermen look to turtle conservation tourism as an alternative to dwindling, inefficient fisheries.

Through training and a steady tourism market, many fishermen and former poachers have come to value sea turtles more alive than dead, as giving eco-safe tours can yield more income than fishing.

SEE Turtles is a conservation tourism program that highlights communities protecting sea turtles.  SEE Turtles helps by bringing much needed income tocommunity-based sea turtle conservation efforts, providing economic alternatives to fishermen and poachers, and inspiring travelers to take a more active role in protecting sea turtles.

The program links travelers with critical sea turtle conservation sites so that vacation dollars make a difference for sea turtles and for the livelihood of community residents who protect them.

North Pacific loggerhead sea turtles travel more than 7,000 miles from Japan to Baja California Sur to feed and grow in nearshore waters, spending up to 30 years there before returning to Japan to breed.  The number of nesting females in Japan has declined by 50 to 80 percent  over the past 10 years.

For more information about sea turtle conservation tourism opportunities and how to book a trip, visit www.seeturtles.org  or contact Brad Nahill (brad@oceanrevolution.org)

Are 'microplastics' marine pollutants? 
Experts start to ask if tiny particles might be clogging ocean food chain 
By Jessica Marshall Discovery Channel 
We've all heard about sea turtles, dolphins or seabirds dying from entanglement in six-pack rings, plastic bags or other detritus - or from bellies full of mistakenly swallowed plastic. But some marine researchers are concerned about the effect that much smaller bits of plastic may be having on the seas. 
So-called "microplastics" may concentrate pollutants, be ingestible by the ocean's tiny denizens - from zooplankton to filter feeders like clams and mussels - and move up the food chain.  
A group of scientists gathered this month to identify what's known about this problem and where more research is needed.  
"We know that stuff breaks down, and as it breaks down, it forms smaller and smaller pieces of plastic," said workshop organizer Joel Baker of the University of Washington, Tacoma. "But there's another story, and that is that there are some processes that either purposefully or inadvertently create microplastic particles in their own right."   One such source is nurdles, the little plastic pellets used as the raw material that's molded or extruded into plastic products.  
A growing source is tiny plastic spheres - less than a millimeter across, and in some cases just microns in diameter - used in new industrial abrasives or in cosmetics as exfoliants, Baker said.  
"Because they're used as abrasives, presumably they're pretty hard and pretty resilient to breakup," he said. "The general rule of thumb is, if it doesn't break down pretty quickly, it ends up in the ocean. We don't have any way of monitoring for them. We have no idea, really, if they're having any impact on any organisms."  
Estimates of exactly how many particles are in the ocean give a wide range.  
"You tend to have numbers that are much less than one per cubic meter," Baker said. "But if you do that in terms of the number of pieces per square kilometer of sea surface, it's tens of thousands."   Amphipods, lugworms, barnacles and mussels take up microplastic in aquarium experiments. Fish and birds in the wild have been found with microplastic pieces in their bodies. But the extent and effect of this ingestion is not yet known.   Plastic specks in the oceans appear to adsorb poorly water-soluble pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and persistant pesticides like DDT. This might give creatures that ingest pellets a superdose of toxins that can accumulate up the food chain.   "There's some indication that when the animal ingests those, they not only get the physical damage to the gut, but those pollutants can desorb into the animal," said workshop participant Douglas Helton of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Debris Program, in Silver Spring, Md.   On the other hand, the pellets might act like pollutant sponges that mop up the contaminants and sequester them out of harm's way, Baker said.   One study presented at the meeting suggested that the amount of pollutant accumulated by one type of marine worm decreased when more plastic was added to sediment in an aquarium, suggesting the latter mechanism may work in that case.   One of the outcomes of the workshop was to identify areas where the greatest effects are likely to be seen.   "There are probably areas where it floats on the surface, and those are lagoons and marshes," Baker said. "The other place is coastal urban sediments, where it has settled to the bottom."   These are good starting points for additional research, because if microplastics are causing problems, such locations should show the effects most directly, he added. In the meantime, taking steps to reduce plastic debris - large and small - is a good idea, Helton said. "I don't think there's any right amount of plastic to dump in the ocean."   (c) 2008 Discovery Channel URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26994478/ 

BOSTON, Massachusetts, February 15, 2008 (ENS) - Bottom trawling, an industrial fishing method that drags large, heavy nets across the seafloor, stirs up huge, billowing plumes of sediment on shallow seafloors that can be seen from space.As a result of scientific studies showing that bottom trawling kills vast numbers of corals, sponges, fishes and other animals, this fishing method has been banned in a growing number of places.Now satellite images show that spreading clouds of mud remain suspended in the sea long after the trawler has passed. There are tens of thousands of trawlers worldwide. They fish for shrimp and finfishes. Some bottom trawling operations catch 20 pounds of "bykill" or "bycatch" for every pound of targeted species.

Read MORE: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2008/2008-02-15-096.asp

http://www.akaction.org/ published a press release and story in ADN:

Alaskans discover nasty things about plastic Perhaps rubber duckies don't belong in tub

By MEGAN HOLLAND mholland@adn.com <br> (Published: November 9, 2007)

Want to know what toxic chemicals are floating around in congressional candidate Ethan Berkowitz's blood? How about in an Alaska fisherman's urine? Both men participated in a national study on detecting what compounds from common household products stay with us.

The results? Not good for either of them, according to Alaska Community Action on Toxics. The nonprofit is pushing for legislation to ban what it says is poisoning us -- substances used mostly to make plastics.

The chemical groups tested have scary names: Phthalates, Bisphenol A (BPA), and Polybrominated diphenol ethers (PBDEs).

The first are used in vinyl products like shower curtains and rubber duckies. The second are used to make baby bottles and linings of metal food cans. The third are toxic flame-retardants added to plastic on things like televisions and computers.

PBDEs were found in very high rates in both Berkowitz, 45, and the Haines fisherman, 54-year-old Tim June, an environmental activist who co-founded Alaska Clean Water Alliance. Both volunteered with three other Alaskans and 30 other Americans for the national study called "Is It In Us?" done by a coalition working for greater regulation of manufacturers using the chemicals.

"It's no great source of pride that I have some of the highest levels among the participants across the 50 states," Berkowitz said after a press conference in Anchorage on Thursday.

"It could be that I spend too much time in front of the computer. It could be that my mattress has bad chemicals in it. It could be too much time in airplanes. It could be the cell phone. I just don't know what it is," said the former state House minority leader. "But it is more than my individual use of products that's contributing to this. Everyone of us that participated in this project has different personal habits and everyone of us has some level."

The hazardous products on display at the press conference included a Nalgene bottle, a toaster, a My Little Pony and a rain jacket.

The study sponsors say the chemicals have been linked to birth defects, cancer, infertility and a host of other health problems. But it's not clear if any of the pollutants is making anyone sick, according to the Centers for Disease Control, which says more research is needed.

Patricia Hunt, a molecular expert at Washington State University who was not part of the study, said BPAs are of particular concern because a growing body of literature shows that even a low dose may affect fetal development.

Phthalates, used to soften plastics, have been banned in toys in Europe. California has imposed a similar ban on certain types of Phthalates in toys beginning in 2009. California also has a ban on certain types of PBDEs which takes effect in 2008.

In Alaska, Rep. Andrea Doll, D-Juneau, plans to present a bill banning PBDEs.

Pamela Miller, executive director of the Alaska anti-toxic group, said the chemicals may be getting into us from food containers, or maybe from breathing them, for example, when we take hot showers and the plastics on the shower curtain are released. They are also found in household dust, she said.

"The problem is they're everywhere in our environment," Hunt said. "You can't actually see when you are being exposed. ...We can't go completely crazy because it's impossible to really remove plastics from our lives. But we can think differently about how we use it."

She no longer microwaves food in plastic containers, she said. She also doesn't put them in her dishwasher because the heat may be releasing the chemicals.

The other Alaskans who volunteered to be tested were Cathy Rexford, the Alaska director of Native Movement; Lori Townsend, an Alaska News Nightly journalist; and Democratic congressional candidate Diane Benson.

Find Megan Holland online at adn.com/contact/mholland or call 257-4343.

 

'Microplastics' may pose previously unrecognized pollution threat

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071029092034.htm

 

 

Submicroscopic particles of PVC (shown via electron microscope) and other plastics may pose a previously unrecognized pollution threat. (Credit: Courtesy of Emma Teuten, University of Plymouth, UK)
ScienceDaily (Nov. 2, 2007) — Microscopic particles of plastic debris that litter marine environments may pose a previously unrecognized threat to marine animals by attracting, holding, and transporting water pollutants, a new study by British researchers is reporting.

Emma L. Teuten and colleagues note long-standing awareness that large pieces of plastic waste, including cargo wrapping sheet plastic and six-pack rings, can sicken and kill fish, birds, turtles and other animals.

Seawater eventually breaks down these large pieces into microplastics, which can adsorb high levels of PCBs and other toxins. Microplastics also enter the environment directly from use as "scrubbers" in household and industrial cleaning products. However, little research has been done on the environmental impact of these tiny, pollution-packed pellets.

In the new study, researchers exposed several different types and sizes of microplastics to phenanthrene, a major marine pollutant, and used a model to predict their effects on a group of sediment-dwelling marine worms (lugworms).

The scientists found that addition of just a few millionths of a gram of contaminated microplastics to the sediments caused an 80% increase in phenanthrene accumulation in the tissues of the worms. Since lugworms are at the base of the food chain, phenanthrene from microplastics would be passed on and biomagnified in other marine animals.

The finding suggests that microplastics are an important agent in the transport of pollutants in marine organisms and throughout the global environment, the researchers say.

The study "Potential for Plastics to Transport Hydrophobic Contaminants" is scheduled for the Nov. 15 issue of ACS' Environmental Science & Technology.

 

Adapted from materials provided by American Chemical Society.

A recent Forbes.com article ranked the 50 states on six environmental criteria.  Vermont wound up at the top (most green) and West Virginia at the bottom.  Giving WV a run for their money to the bottom of the eco-barrel was Indiana.

“So who's at the bottom? Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Indiana and, at No. 50, West Virginia. All suffer from a mix of toxic waste, lots of pollution and consumption and no clear plans to do anything about it. Expect them to remain that way,” wrote Forbes.com.

That last short line bothers me for its hopelessness.  

I spent my college years in Indiana.  I hiked, rode a mountain bike and paddled my kayak across the state dozens of times over.  I snorkeled and scuba dived in the quarries, got lost in the forests and corn fields and considered the place mostly beautiful in a rolling midwestern fire-colored leaves in fall, green-blanket in summer sort of way.

This month I returned to DePauw, twice.  Once for an eco-celebrity (e.g. Greg Watson, Bill McKibben, Bobby Kennedy and others) laden conference on sustainability and the next for the 100th anniversary of Old Gold homecoming weekend, to receive a distinguished alumnus professional achievement award for our science and environmental advocacy work.

Aside from not feeling quite up to “distinguished alum” status just yet, I was truly honored to be on campus for both events.  Combined, they gave me a sense that all was headed in the right direction in Greencastle, Indiana, as far as the environment goes.  

Add to that a meeting at Indiana’s organic Endangered Species Chocolate Company, lunch at Traders Point organic creamery, DePauw’s recent acquisition of 500 acres of quarry and land that has been turned into a Nature Park, the adjoining new Prindle Institute for Ethics--a building with an eye to local materials, sustainability and deep thought about our planet’s future.  

There’s even talk on campus at the Delta Chi house of a student-led sustainable fraternity/sorority movement.  That’s some serious progress from two decades ago when I was there.

Altogether one just might confuse Indiana for somewhere like Vermont, Oregon, or Santa Cruz County, California.  

For a moment.  In the right light.

I’m counting on DePauw and its new science and ethics programs to produce some courageous and creative young environmental leaders to bring our beloved Indiana into the modern world of cleaner air, water and food.  And the economic prosperity and well-being that follows.  And to compete for a top ten spot on Forbes’ list.

For the sake of all children and the nature of the place, and ourselves.  

And local, organic ice cream, of course.  Organic chocolate bars, too.

The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/17/world/europe/17c...
click link above for the full article

TISZAKESZI, Hungary — This summer the cardinals at the Vatican accepted an unusual donation from a Hungarian start-up called Klimafa: The company said it would plant trees to restore an ancient forest on a denuded stretch of land by the Tisza River to offset the Vatican’s carbon emissions.

The trees should absorb as much carbon dioxide as the Vatican will produce in 2007.
Enlarge This Image

photo: Tamas Dezso for The International Herald Tribune

An angler on his way to the Tisza River, near where environmentally degraded land will be restored as a forest.

The young trees, on a 37-acre tract of land that will be renamed the Vatican climate forest, will in theory absorb as much carbon dioxide as the Vatican will produce through its various activities in 2007: driving cars, heating offices, lighting St. Peter’s Basilica at night.

In so doing, the Vatican announced, it would become the world’s first carbon-neutral state.

Today is International Coastal Cleanup Day.  Hundreds of thousands of people around the world got outside and cleaned up their coast, removing thousands and thousands of pounds of stuff that now WON'T be in the ocean.  Some walked, some swam, some dove, some paddled.
At our "thank you" event for participants in Santa Cruz, put on by Save Our Shores, we heard that Santa Cruz County cleaned up A LOT more garbage this year than last and had record attendance in the event.  My guess is that happened all over the world, thanks in part to 11th Hour Action and the 11th Hour film.
At the SC event I met a man named Tom Jones who is paddling his paddleboard along the entire coast of California to bring awareness to this cause: plastic in the ocean.
I'll let you read about Tom for yourself.  But the guy has passion, serious SERIOUS cojones to paddle through our sharky waters all day every day, and major energy for this global cause.  Support him if you can, and better...be inspired by him to do your own thing.
http://www.californiapaddle.com
Hope that you all got out and cleaned your coast today!
J.
http://www.wallacejnichols.org

http://www.SHRIMPSUCK.org
Email us at info@oceanrevolution.org to add your name or the name of your organization, school, or business to the growing list of Ocean Revolutionaries who have taken the SHRIMPSUCK.org Pledge.

The Pledge:

"I won't eat shrimp anymore!"