blogs

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.

While Oceana's Ranger catamaran prepares for its expedition later this summer, there is a fascinating expedition currently being lead by the Living Oceans Society. A vessel carrying two Deep Worker manned submarines left British Columbia on World Oceans Day (June 8) and has been exploring the Hecate Strait and the Queen Charlotte Basin ever since.

The goal of the expedition is to study deep water corals and document threats to their well being. As Oceana has documented in fisheries around the world, one of the most glaring and obvious threats to corals is destructive bottom trawling. Watch this video from the British Columbia expedition, which features a bottom trawling animation and video from Oceana.

Sitting in the North Pacific Ocean, just north east of Hawaii, lays a
veritable garbage patch, estimated to be twice the size of Texas. Its contents
are as varied as the people and nations from where the stuff has traveled,
including plastic bags, to fishing nets, to tires, to discarded kids toys,
unbelievable numbers of plastic bags, hundreds of odd flip flops, tennis shoes
and the list continues.

The area is known by several names - the Plastic Vortex, the Eighth Continent,
the Great Garbage Patch, yet it's surprising how little people know of the
issue and the devastating threat it poses to our oceans.

Applications are still being accepted for the 2009 BoatUS Foundation
Environmental Leadership Award, which will be given to a group, organization,
company, marina or individual who have made a significant contribution towards
improving waterway health and educating boaters about environmental issues.
The deadline to apply is June 30, 2009.

Details:
http://www.boatus.com/news/PR_Full.asp?ID=403

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.

West Marine is proud to introduce our new Pure Oceans product line, a selection of boat care products specifically formulated to be kinder to the environment while delivering equal performance to less environmentally-friendly formulas. This new line includes soaps, cleaners, and surface care products that are less toxic, less environmentally persistent, and less bio-accumulative than more harmful, conventional formulations.

Be good to your boat, and be good to the environment with West Marine’s new Pure Oceans Boat Care Products.

Visit http://www.westmarine.com

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.

A victory for ocean lovers everywhere. After three years and thousands of petitions, the United Nations has officially declared June 8 as World Oceans Day. The UN designated June 8 as World Oceans Day in 1992, but every year since then organizations, schools, aquariums and ocean advocates have unofficially celebrated that day. Now, thanks to a new resolution, the designation is official every year as of this year.

It's undeniably significant that one of the world's most powerful governing bodies has decided to take a day to celebrate the bounty and beauty of our seas. Our hope is that this designation encourages people to appreciate all the oceans have to offer, every day of the year.

For Spinsheet magazine's March issue, OCYC Commodore Kristen Berry wrote about marinas and yacht yards being the starting point for sailors to contribute to water conservation - specifically in the Chesapeake Bay. For you sailors in Virginia and Maryland especially, this article is a must read. (hint: Toggle to Full Screen)