Sea Notes

Oil, Wind & Water

What's the future of offshore energy development in the United States? Two visions are on view this week, in stark contrast.

In the Gulf of Mexico, oil is gushing at a rate of up to 5,000 barrels a day from an undersea well following an explosion and fire on a drilling platform. The oil is now washing ashoreon the Louisiana coast, threatening wildlife refuges, commercial fisheries and popular beaches -- including nesting beaches for the Kemp's ridley: the world's most endangered sea turtle.

The Coast Guard is considering setting the slick on fire to burn off some of the oil. And with no prospect of containment, the damage could spread to Florida and other Gulf Coast states.

BP, which owns the well, faces billions of dollars in losses -- and a significant blow to its "Beyond Petroleum" image as an emerging green energy company. Politicians are quickly rethinking support for expanded offshore oil development in U.S. waters.

Fifteen hundred miles away, the story was much different. In Massachusetts, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar gave the federal green light to the nation's largest offshore wind energy farm. The controversial project off Cape Cod could eventually generate enough electricity to power 200,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts -- and spark similar clean-energy developments around the country (and the green jobs that come with them).

With global climate change already threatening ocean wildlife, and carbon pollution from fossil fuels a major cause, the choice seems clear.

Sustainable Seafood: An Interview with Suzanne Goin

Suzanne Goin is the creator of April's Seafood Watch Sustainable Seafood Recipe: Spot Prawns with Tomato Confit, Garlic and Chile.

A much-honored and influential chef with a long commitment to sustainability, Suzanne Goin has been recognized by the James Beard Foundation as California’s best chef, and for her cookbook, Sunday Suppers at Lucques.  In 2008 and 2009, she was a Beard Award nominee as the nation’s outstanding chef, and she is the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s 2010 Honored Chef of the Year. In this interview with Seafood Watch, Goin talks about her approaches to cooking and sustainability.

What inspired this recipe?

As is so often the case, the product itself is the inspiration—when those beautiful prawns come in I want to show them off and celebrate them. This dish is something I cooked once when we were staying at a house in Santa Barbara in the summer—the yellow tomato confit is rich and acidic and really coats the prawns. I love eating them with my fingers too.

What do you like best about spot prawns, besides the fact they’re a Seafood Watch “Best Choice?”

They are very tender and sweet. The meat is actually a little soft—another reason I like to cook them with the shells on. They can almost be a little mushy if you take them out of the shells.

Does this recipe work with other kinds of seafood?

Oh yes, it’s great with other small shrimp as well or with a grilled piece of fish with the shallots-garlic-tomato sauté over the top.

You’re known for your use of local, organic and sustainable ingredients. Where did this commitment come from?

I was actually first turned on to the local food movement working for George Germon and Johanne Killeen at Al Forno in Providence. They used to drive to the shore and buy amazing beefsteak tomatoes from a local farmer and serve them simply with olive oil, vinegar, red onion and basil. But I was immersed in it during my years at Chez Panisse in Berkeley.

It takes effort to find fish on the “Best Choices” list, fresh local vegetables or prepare a home-cooked meal after a busy day. Why is it important to do these things?

We need to take care of the resources we have and not deplete them.  Food and eating is our chance to make a choice every day—what you put in your body matters to your health and to the planet.

As a working mom, what advice do you have about how to find good ingredients and make cooking manageable?

I know it’s really hard, but if you use great ingredients you actually have less work to do to make things taste good. I would develop a repertoire of salsas and condiments (salsa verde, tapenade, citrus salsas) that can easily and quickly finish dishes. I cook really simply for my kids—roast chicken, sautéed or steamed broccoli, brown rice, baked or grilled fish, corn on the cob, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes cut in half with a dollop of yogurt and lemon—it’s not fancy stuff.

We ask Seafood Watch Advocates to let chefs at their favorite restaurants know they care about sustainable seafood. Do you think this has power?

Yes, absolutely. When we first started our restaurants it felt like no one (customer wise) knew what we were talking about in terms of sustainability, organics or local. And now customers will say “Oh, are those Maryanne’s tomatoes?” Or, “Is the swordfish local and harpoon-caught?” It’s amazing.

Tales of Whales

What a week for whale news!

On the positive side, there are reports of record sightings of rare right whales off the Rhode Island coast. It's a great opportunity for New England whale aficionados, even if it doesn't reflect a sudden surge in the population. (Current estimates: There are only 400 North Atlantic right whales left in the world.)

There's also news about orcas. Genetic research concludes that there at least three distinct orca species, though they may appear identical to our eyes. Their feeding preferences differ, too. One species favors Antarctic seals, another fish.

The existence of distinct species could mean that different populations face greater threats to their survival. Orcas are not now protected under the Endangered Species Act. That could change, based on the status of the newly identified species.

Whale poop is in the news, too. Australian scientists believe iron-rich whale droppings act as a fertilizer, sparking plankton blooms that help sequester carbon in the Southern Ocean. No details yet on how significant a contribution this might make to global greenhouse gas reduction.

As we learn more about these remarkable, intelligent animals, we're still debating whether it's OK to hunt them for food.

The International Whaling Commission is considering a compromise plan that would end the global ban on commercial whaling adopted in 1986.

Perhaps Andrew Revkin, the Dot Earth blogger for the New York Times, has a solution: Rename the IWC as the International WHALE Commission to reflect our current relationship with the world's cetaceans.

Photos courtesy National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (top); and Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation

 

Acid Ocean Alert

The dramatic change in ocean chemistry -- unprecedented in the past 800,000 years-- was an Earth Day topic on Capitol Hill. Our colleagues at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute played a major role, as did actress Sigourney Weaver, a star of Avatar and narrator of the documentary film Acid Test that details this growing threat to ocean life.

The setting was the U.S. Senate subcommittee in charge of ocean issues, chaired by Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell. (She's the co-author, with Sen. Susan Collins of Maine,of legislation that would cut U.S. carbon pollution 83 percent by 2050.)

Witnesses -- scientists including MBARI's Jim Barry, a commercial fisherman, a scuba diver and Ms. Weaver -- largely agreed that ocean chemistry is shifting, becoming more acidic, and that the consequences are bad news for ocean food webs and coral reefs.

Oyster farmers in Washington state are already noticing the effects. Now the prestigious National Research Council has concluded that the problem is real, and happening at a rate we've never seen before.

Ocean acidification is one of the critical issues we address in our new special exhibition, "Hot Pink Flamingos." The new report lends urgency to the need for people to reduce our carbon pollution -- in our own lives, through our individual choices, and by acting together in our communities.

You can read the full testimony of witnesses, and watch an archived webcast of the hearing, here. If you want to see Acid Test, it's available online as well as on DVD. Or watch the 22-minute film now:

Sustainable Seafood Stars

Earth Day's just one day a year, but living Earth Day ideals all year long can truly make a difference. That's why it's encouraging to note two big sustainable seafood commitments announced on Earth Day 2010. Both involve the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program. 

Delaware North Companies, a family-owned hospitality and foodservice company that manages everything from national parks to sports arenas and airport properties, announced it will drop 90 percent of the species on the Seafood Watch red "Avoid" list immediately. By year's end, it will have a plan to deal with the remaining 10 percent of red-list species. This is all part of the company's longstanding "Green Path" commitment to sustainable business practices.

On the same day, Holland America Line -- a leading international cruise ship company -- announced it will start offering sustainable seafood on its ships this summer, in partnership with the Bellevue, Washington-based Marine Conservation Biology Institute. More details to come, but Seafood Watch will be the basis for Institute seafood recommendations.

Coupled with announcements earlier in 2010 by Safeway stores, Trader Joe's and Target stores, it's clear that the sustainable seafood movement has reached a point where it's becoming the norm rather than the exception.

Great news for the future of the oceans.

Amazing, Amazing Oceans

"There's a lifetime of entertainment in your own back yard, if you just take the time to look." -- Paul Ehrlich

Our ocean planet is alive with marvels, hidden below the surface, waiting for us to discover, experience and enjoy. It's something well worth remembering, and celebrating, this Earth Day.

Sea Notes was created to help inspire conservation of the oceans, in the same way that the living exhibits at the Monterey Bay Aquarium connect people with marine life in ways we hope will inspire them to preserve healthy oceans for future generations.

We've shared some great stories in the blog over the past three-plus years, many describing people's interactions with sea life: An underwater photographer's life-changing encounter with an Antarctic leopard seal; a gentoo penguin's miracle escape from a pod of pursuing orcas (captured on video, no less!); the diver who decided the 11-pound lobster he caught for dinner deserved a better fate; or the aquarium staff members who were, quite literally, "star struck" one day.

In honor of the 40th Earth Day, add these to the list:

-- A 68-year-old surfer in Hawaii, who took a 10-second ride on the back of a tiger shark after it bit his board and flipped him into the water...and then calmly swam back over to his board and kept surfing after the shark swam off.

-- A fearless octopus in New Zealand, so enamored of a diver's video camera, that it snatched it and swam off, with the camera still filming. You won't believe how the diver retrieved the camera. (The soundtrack's great, too.)

Do you have your own favorite stories, videos and photos of our amazing ocean planet? We'd love to hear about them. And Happy Earth Day to all!

Julie Packard: A Simple Way to Save the Oceans

This Earth Day, I'd like to suggest one simple thing we can do to ensure thriving oceans for the future:

We can vote with our dollars for seafood that’s caught or farmed in sustainable ways. When we do so, we’re creating market demand that will get the attention of fishing enterprises and aquaculture producers.

As we help change the way seafood is caught and farmed, we’ll help ocean ecosystems stay healthy. And, as we celebrate the th Earth Day this year, it's great to acknowledge that our sustainable seafood choices are already making a difference.

The abundance of the living oceans has been integral to the story of human society over time. Thatincludes not just our enjoyment of a day fishing or boating, or the kaleidoscopic beauty of a kelp forest or coral reef. Fishing has been the economic basis for thriving coastal communities for millenia, and it provides a vital source of protein for more than a billion people worldwide.

At the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we’ve long been aware that global demand for seafood is one of the most powerful forces transforming our oceans. In 1999 we created our Seafood Watch program to give individuals, chefs and major seafood buyers nationwide the tools they need to make better decisions –- and to become forces of positive change.

Over the past decade, Seafood Watch has had greater and greater impact on seafood-buying decisions. The two largest food service companies in North America –- ARAMARK and Compass Group -– are Seafood Watch partners, working with us to shift millions of pounds of seafood to more sustainable sources.

Major retailers, including Target stores, are also using Seafood Watch information to eliminate unsustainable seafood from their shelves. When the Disneynature film OCEANS debuts on Earth Day 2010, guests at the premier screenings will receive Seafood Watch pocket guides.

For the growing number of people who want up-to-date seafood information at their fingertips, our Seafood Watch iPhone app was recognized as the best smart phone app in Treehugger.com’s 2010 "Best of Green" Awards. More than 200,000 people have downloaded the app since we introduced it last year. (We also offer a robust version of Seafood Watch for users of other mobile devices.)

There’s one more reason to vote with our dollars for sustainable seafood. It’s good for our health.

Last October, in collaboration with scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Environmental Defense Fund, we created a new "Super Green" list of seafood items that are good for you, and good for the ocean. The "Super Green" choices are low in environmental contaminants (like mercury and PCBs), are high in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, and are caught or farmed in ways that protect the health of the oceans.

If you haven’t started already, get and use a Seafood Watch pocket guide beginning now, for Earth Day 2010. Download the guide from our website or get the app for your smart phone. Tell your friends. And speak out at the seafood counter and the restaurant.

Your small, individual actions are contributing to a sea change that’s making a big difference for the future of the oceans.

See Oceans, Save Oceans

At the Monterey Bay Aquarium we've always been convinced that when you expose people to the wonders of the ocean, they'll fall in love and be inspired to help. That's the premise of the new movie from Disneynature -- OCEANS, which premiers this Earth Day -- April 22. In fact, if you attend during the first week of the movie, Disneynature will make a donation on your behalf to protect our fragile coral reefs. So far, just the sales from advance tickets has protected over 790 acres in the Bahamas!

Practical steps to making a difference is what we're all about, as we inspire people to take action for the oceans. Whether it's writing your representatives, picking up trash or choosing sustainable seafood - it all helps.

We've partnered with Disneynature to produce a special copy of our Seafood Watch pocket guide, that will be distributed in movie theaters during preview showings of OCEANS. We hope that the never-before-seen imagery will connect people through their hearts first, then their stomachs, and they'll take care to make ocean-friendly choices in the future!

According to the filmmakers, "If you think you've seen the ocean, you've not even scratched the surface." Dive into the website today, book your advance tickets, sit back, relax and enjoy the wonders of our ocean planet with this extended featurette, with ocean legend, Sylvia Earle.

Carnival of the Blue #35

Carnival of the Blue, the monthly Best of Ocean Blogging, returns for April, courtesy of the good folks over at Oh, for the Love of Science. Everything from bone-eating worms and dolphins in science fiction, to cool video of skeleton shrimp. And a few pink flamingos, too.

Check it out.

A Spirited Climate Conversation

It's never easy to talk about issues that make us uncomfortable, or that ask us to change the way we're used to doing things. That's true in our personal lives, and equally true of big social issues that affect many people.

But it's essential to start these conversations, especially  when the issues are as significant -- and urgent -- as global climate change.

That's why we decided, in our new exhibition, Hot Pink Flamingos, to tackle the topic directly. The connection between climate change and life on land is well known. Its impact on the oceans has largely been an untold story -- until now.

It's gratifying to see how engaged our visitors have been with the issue just in the few weeks that the exhibit's been open. They're especially interested in hearing about what they can do to make a difference.

Of course, our living exhibits are still the big draw. The flamingos, spoonbills and other wading birds have a steady crowd; the coral reef, so lively and colorful, is a magnet for visitors. There are always a few kids in the crawl-in area to peek underwater at the sea turtles, and people tracking the penguins as they swim past the exhibit windows.

The pleasant surprise has been how much they're responding to other parts of the exhibit, where we get deeper into problems and solutions.

More than 100,000 people have already visited the exhibit. At least 10,000 have written down the ways that their faith and values call them to be better stewards of Earth, and described the ways their communities can -- and are -- making changes that reduce carbon pollution and build a stronger economy.

More than 18,000 people have taken a simple pledge ("Ditch the car," "Savor the season", "Grab a bag"), and then watched themselves "living" their pledge in an interactive video animation. They're sharing whether they feel hopeful or concerned about climate change, and whether they believe we will (or won't) deal with the issue as a global society.

Not everyone is happy about the messages, or the way we tell the story. Some folks question climate science, and whether people are playing a significant role in global climate change. We haven't heard objections to our recommendations that folks bike more and drive less, or buy local produce, in season, rather than food shipped in from across the ocean.

California's beef and dairy farmers have taken strong exception to the science suggesting cows are a significant source of greenhouse gases, and that reducing red meat and dairy consumption (just a bit) is one way to address the issue. In particular, they object to the cow with a gas mask we use to dramatize the point.

The exhibit’s intent isn’t to tell people to stop eating beef and dairy -- in fact, most of us at the Aquarium do, and aren’t about to give it up -- but to put it forth as one of any number of ways each of us can take a simple personal action to help with the climate change problem.

At the same time, we highlight the innovative spirit of some dairy farms that are converting cow manure into biogas energy. Small actions add up, and the oceans -- and all of us -- benefit from less greenhouse gases.

Starting conversations, getting people talking about climate change and ocean wildlife, helping people take responsibility for their part of the solution. That's what Hot Pink Flamingos is all about. It won't always be an easy path. Because the stakes are high, it's one we have to take.