oceana's blog

I’m sure that many of you have visited or crossed the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA at some point in your life. Maybe even sailed near it. But imagine rowing to it. From Japan. But that is what Chris Martin and Mick Dawson are attempting to do in their Golden Gate Endeavour: be the first to row across the North Pacific Ocean without assistance. The two incredibly experienced rowers set off on May 8 and are currently 70 days and just over 2300 miles into the trip.

Chris and Mick departed from Choshi in Japan with everything necessary for the journey, including all food and supplies, a water desalinator, and solar panels to power the communication and video systems. They also specifically designed and constructed their boat, christened “Bojangles,” for this trip. Twenty-three feet long and six feet wide, it is the most advanced ocean rowing vessel ever built. Which is a good thing, considering what they are facing.

As I'm sure you'll agree, watching fireworks on the water is like nothing else. You stare up in awe at these massive explosions of color, and when it’s over, you always wish for more. However, if you're out on the water this weekend, especially in Florida, be aware of the effects that you may be having on nesting sea turtles and coral reefs.

This weekend falls right in the middle of the nesting period for sea turtles, who come up onto the beach to lay their eggs. Sea turtles like dark quite beaches, so as I’m sure you can imagine, thousands of people on the beach watching fireworks pose quite a problem for the turtles.

Yesterday, Ocean Watch set sail from Seattle's Puget Sound on the first continuous 25,000 mile clockwise circumnavigation of the North and South American continents. The journey is known as Around the Americas, and the crew will "use science-driven, on-the-water activities and education materials to draw attention to the changing condition of the oceans."

The journey is slated to take 13 months, and the crew will conduct research and make 31 stops to give presentations about what's happening to the seas.

Check out the Around the Americas site for regular progress updates -- we certainly will be!

Tomorrow is World Turtle Day, which was started in 2000 by American Tortoise Rescue. The day's purpose is "to bring attention to, and increase knowledge of and respect for, turtles and tortoises, and encourage human action to help them survive and thrive." In honor of the day, today's Scanner is, naturally, all about sea turtles.

This week in ocean (er, turtle) news,

...The crew of Telefonica Black, a sail boat competing in the Volvo Ocean Race, discovered a sea turtle stuck on its keel. The turtle came unhitched and swam off, apparently uninjured.

Here's a first for the Volvo Ocean Race: as the NYT reported, the seven remaining yachts had to make a detour to go around a whale sanctuary near Boston this weekend.

The boats, which can reach 30 mph, sailed around the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and the North Atlantic right whales that are feeding in the area. Due to the boats' speed, a collision with a whale can be disastrous for both parties -- the animal may be killed and crew members could be thrown into rigging (that's the sailing apparatus, for all you non-sailors).

Marine mammal collisions are increasingly a problem. Several sailors in the recent Vendée Globe race sustained severe damage to their boats after hitting what they believed were marine mammals. And one sailor in the Artemis trans-Atlantic race last May had to abandon his boat after he reported striking a large sea mammal.