Recent Blog Posts

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.

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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)