Sea Notes

Film Friday: Sharks - Denizens of the Deep

Here's some amazing footage of the rare and elusive six-gill shark. This shark is occasionally seen in Monterey Bay by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).

The shark was filmed during a submersible dive off the northeast coast of Molokai at a depth of 1000m (3280ft). Includes great ecstatic live commentary by University of Hawaii Oceanography Professor Jeff Drazen!

Many thanks to Dr. Craig Smith (University of Hawaii) and Dr. Eric Vetter for permitting release of this footage which was obtained as part of their research data set.

Five Ways to Help Sharks

I came across this great blog yesterday: "Five ways to help sharks". One of the suggestions is to use the Seafood Watch pocket guide to make choices for healthy oceans. Great idea! The shark shown above is a spiny dogfish shark. This little shark often shows up as subsitute for cod in fish and chips. So always remember to ask what is in your breaded fillet and where did it come from?

You can Take Action on our web site on a number of the other suggested action items - including overfishing, plastic bag litter and lost fishing gear - all issues which affect shark populations and their ability to keep up with the demand for their fins, and the impacts of accidental catch in a number of fisheries.

It is estimated that worldwide 100 million sharks die each year in fisheries. It is little wonder that many scientists fear that this could lead to the extinction of a number of shark species.

Please try to find at least one way you can help sharks today!

Voice of the shark

Half way through "Shark Week" and I'm still seeking a good news story. So instead I decided to turn my attention to those who are trying to draw attention to sharks and the issues they face.

I remembered an email we received from Ana Patricia Henriquez, and her illustration "Sharks in jeopardy" that you can see here. Ana learned about the problems sharks are having through a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Later, in a Graphic Communications class at the City College of San Francisco, tasked with depicting an endangered species Ana immediately thought of sharks. She hopes the illustration will draw attention to the issues. It sure would make a great postage stamp! Thanks Ana for sharing this with us.

Next meet one woman shark hero Sonja Fordham. She is the director of the shark conservation program at Ocean Conservancy and policy director at the Shark Alliance. She is a long-time advocate for sharks, seeking an end to overfishing, shark-finning and habitat destruction.

You can read Sonja's blog for shark week and share her passion and tips for becoming a voice for sharks.

Shrinking Sharks?

This week is Discovery Channel's Shark Week - which is often an opportunity for a media frenzy with stories such as, "Killer shark ate my RV". A quick Google news search shows hit after hit of "shark attacks" and new methods to prevent them. All typically human centric.

The truth is, sharks have so much more to fear from us, than we of them. The man-eating sharks problem is resulting in the estimated deaths of 50 million sharks a year to remove the fins necessary to meet the needs of the growing audience craving shark-fin soup. Scientists studying basking sharks now believe they're seeing the consequences of this hunt - smaller sharks.

Ivory poaching resulted in a predictable Darwinian response of smaller elephants with smaller tusks. The genes for larger tusks wiped out of the gene pool with selective hunting of bulls with the largest tusks. Similarly, larger sharks have larger fins, and therefore have a higher value.

It has been shown that populations of animals under pressure breed earlier, and have less robust young. A double hit for fish and shark populations already struggling to meet our demands.

I'm going to look for some positive shark news to report. Let's hope there's some out there in shark week. They need it!

Monday's Inspirational Photo - A story of survival

This weekend, I took my first trip along the Big Sur coastline, since the devastating fires passed through that we reported on over a month ago. I was eager for a glimpse of one of the fire's surprising lessons; that the population of California condors living in our area had "gone native" and found their own food supply in troubled times.

Biologists from Ventana Wildlife Society, the local organization responsible for the introduction of condors back to their former home, were delighted when access to the region was once again open, and they were able to account for almost all the birds. In fact, one that had been "missing" until only this past Friday, hopped right onto the cliff in front of me, as I watched number 35 above, all within sight of the fire's lightening-triggered starting point.  

With most of the birds accounted for, staffs' attention must turn to the rebuilding of the condor Sanctuary in the Big Sur back country. This facility is critical to the work they do, both to maintain the health of the released birds, but also as a "training area" for young birds before release. The fire swept through the non-profit's facility, totally destroying the large aviary, along with other important structures and equipment. The condors are captured each year at the sanctuary and tested for lead poisoning. Feeding on carcasses of animals shot with lead bullets was one of the main causes for the almost complete extinction of the species. Sadly, this still continues to be an issue and the flock is closely monitored.

Find out more about Ventana Wildlife Society and the incredible work they are doing to bring back this amazing bird at their website and keep your fingers crossed that the condors that are yet to be heard from will show up on the radar soon!

Committing to Action

In my last blog I talked about the TUNZA children’s conference  in Stavanger, Norway that I attended. In one of the workshops I participated in, we concluded that to solve pressing world problems we would all need to work together. That doesn’t just mean all of us in the U.S., that means all of us in the entire WORLD. If we don’t, we might end up having to move to Mars to escape the state of the earth. When we work together, we can address everyone’s needs, and use our collective thinking to solve our problems.

To this end, at the conference we met three times over the course of five days  in  “action groups”. We met in these groups to discuss ways to better protect our environment. At the end of the conference, all of our ideas were summarized into a list of commitments that we hoped every child in the world would work to implement.

We brainstormed  commitments on 4 themes; water, energy, biodiversity, and production and consumption. These commitments are things that each and every one of us can do every day to help our earth. I truly enjoyed attending the action groups. It was really rewarding and it was wonderful to hear the ideas from  people from other countries.

Here is an example of a commitment that we made in each of the four categories:

• Water: Participate in a beach, river, or lake clean-up.
• Energy: Turn off lights when not in use.
• Biodiversity: Plant a tree on every birthday.
• Production and Consumption: Minimize the use of plastic bags and paper. (For example, always remember to write on both sides of paper and then recycle it!)

The rest of the commitments that we came up with are listed on UNEP's web site. I am going to try to implement each and every one of these commitments. You can read the commitments agreed upon at the conference and implement them in your life too! 

Green Energy Update

As scientists get new tools to track the impact of global warming on the ocean, and oil companies eye the prospect of tapping nearly 90 billion barrels of  Arctic oil (a three-year supply at current consumption levels), there are new developments on the green energy front.

First, researchers from Stanford University and the Carnegie Institution for Science believe there's potential to use abandoned agricultural land to  grow crops for conversion into biofuel -- easing the energy crunch without worsening the world food shortage or contributing to global warming.

Second, the high price of oil means that alternative sources for auto fuel -- like converting garbage to gasoline -- now make economic sense.

Finally, check the reports from Wired.com blogger Chuck Squatriglia for the buzz about 100 MPG plug-in hybrid cars coming out of San Jose this week, where the Plug-In 2008 convention drew crowds.

In a week when Nobel Prize-winner Al Gore issued a challenge for the United States to to convert 100 percent of its energy production to green sources within a decade, these were all positive signs.

And that's good news for the future of the oceans.

Great Whites at Night

For shark lovers, National Geographic Channel is offering a cool alternative to the Discovery Channel's Shark Week. Friday night (with repeats at other times), it's airing a segment called "Sharkville" on its Wild series. The show highlights new findings that great white sharks are hunting successfully at night -- complete with infrared video footage to document the work.

There's a preview video and photos at the National Geographic Channel site, and also a video clip of the sharks at night as part of an interview with New Zealand shark researcher Ryan Johnson by Bill O'Reilly.

Most interesting is Johnson's conclusion that the sharks are able to prey on seals at night because of the light spilling onto the water from coastal development around Mossel Bay, where he did his work.

Final note: If you want to take part in white shark research projects there, the South African Marine Predator Lab occasionally offers internships.

No internships with the white shark research project at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, or with our colleagues at the Tagging of Pacific Predators. But lots of good information and images.

Friday Film: Aquariums & Other Oddities

Just for fun this Friday,the Oddee blog's compilation of the 9 Coolest Aquariums in the world. (Somehow they overlooked the Monterey Bay Aquarium and other public aquariums, but when you're competing with a toilet inside a giant aquarium, a telephone booth aquarium and the iPond, well......). There are video clips along with photos. Here's one: the Aquapict faux jellyfish aquarium.

It's all a perfect companion to the Zooillogix collection of the weirdest fish tanks you've ever seen. And just the thing for a few idle minutes on a summer Friday.

After that, it's time to get outdoors and renew your connection with nature. There's a world of adventure waiting for you out there.

Think OCEAN

At the recent World Ocean Day event, Ayla Besemer (2007 official explorer), Alexa and I (this year's official explorers) had a booth about saving the oceans. At the booth we had wrap-n-mats, which are plastic coated cloths that are a reusable substitute for plastic bags.  We also had reusable water bottles, reusable lunch bags, and cloth napkins. These things make up a zero waste lunch.

We showed the public how they could take part in saving the oceans.  We passed out Seafood Watch pocket guides and "Think OCEAN" cards. Think OCEAN lists 15 super easy things you can do to conserve the oceans starting today. On the list are simple things like recycling, carpooling, and changing to compact fluorescent light bulbs. While talking with aquarium-goers we referred to the presentation Save Our Seas, which is about ocean conservation. We explained that you could learn three main things from the presentation: what the ocean gives us, why the ocean is in trouble, and most importantly, what you can do to help.

Ayla and I presented Save Our Seas at Trinity and Oak Knoll Schools in Menlo Park, Bear Creek Elementary in Boulder, CO and at World Ocean Day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We quizzed the audience on their knowledge of the ocean by asking them questions about the pacific trash vortex, the age of the ocean, bottom trawling, and a lot more. In the first section we showed the audience why we should conserve the oceans. We explained that the ocean gives us a lot of things like food, a mode of transportation, and a place to have fun. Next, we went over major topics like overfishing, all types of pollution, and global warming. In the final section we talked about recycling, eating sustainable seafood, and other ways to save the ocean. Ayla and I had a blast giving this presentation to more than 150 people in the aquarium's auditorium that day!