Recent Blog Posts

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!