Sea Notes

Fish Out of Water

Friday's our usual film day, but this new video we posted to YouTube this afternoon is too cool not to share.

Check out the leaping blennies -- the original "fish out of water"!

Film Friday: A fish story

This week's film is a precautionary fish tale! Enjoy!

Friday's Featured Film: A Glorious Fourth

If you're out celebrating the Fourth of July, Sea Notes Blog wishes you good fellowship, good food, a great view of the fireworks and a renewed sense of connection on this Day of Interdependence.

Here on the Monterey Peninsula, we're hoping the marine layer lifts long enough so we can see the coastal fireworks display staged by the City of Monterey. (And that everyone but the city will stow their own fireworks -- a critically dry year that already has the Big Sur community in danger).

For your enjoyment, a natural fireworks show from the ocean, courtesy of comb jellies, provided by our colleagues up the coast at the Vancouver Aquarium. Want to learn more about jellies? We've got  information and images from our Jellies: Living Art special exhibition, which closes Sept. 1.

Friday's Film: Plight of the Condor

Although today's movie feature is more about the flight of the condor, this critically endangered bird and an important component in the California coastal ecosystem is facing probably its biggest challenge since it was re-introduced back into the wild in 1991. A fire, sparked by lightening, is raging through prime condor habitat off the Big Sur coastline. It has already burned around 40 square miles of wilderness, and continues to burn.

Earlier this week, staff from Ventana Wildlife Society, with amazing courage and assistance from equally courageous U.S. Coastguard helicopter crew managed to rescue seven young condors and their adult mentor bird from the condor sanctuary (where young condors start their education before being released into the wild). Sadly, the staff learned later that the sanctuary had been burned.

You can follow the progress of the staff and their hopes and fears for the condors who are living wild in that area, and for the condors with chicks in the nest. It is a tense and worrying time for all involved. The work to return this endangered species to the wild has been painstaking and monumental, and our hopes and prayers go out to the birds and all involved in their recovery (including the brave firefighters who are working night and day to control the fire).

Here's a close-up look at these amazing birds at Grimes Point, on scenic Highway 1, south of Big Sur

Friday's Featured Film: Surf's Up

It's too nice in Monterey today. Ridiculously beautiful day. Not a day to be sitting at a computer. It's a day to be at the beach.

But.....before I go out to celebrate the arrival of summer, a Friday double feature for you.

First, this spectacular surfing clip (NOT someone surfing a tsunami, despite the name).

Then, music to set the mood for the day: Vintage Beach Boys, circa 1969, "Surfin' USA. It doesn't get much better.

Friday's Featured Film: An Ocean Song

Sometimes being around the ocean just makes you want to sing. Anyone who lives along the coast -- or who wishes they could -- can identify with the feelings expressed so well by Portuguese singer Eduardo Mourato, a native of the Azores.

This is The Blue Ocean, the English-language music video version of his song O Mar dos Açores. Catchy tune, wonderful footage of the Azores, and a lot of heart.

(If you're inspired to visit the Azores, you can include a whalewatching trip that supports marine mammal and sea turtle research.)

Here's wishing you a weekend adventure of your own by the shores of the blue ocean closest to your heart.

Film Friday: Discovering Ocean Secrets

"We are now at the point, in the middle of the 21st Century, where we have the tools to study the blue part of our planet," says Dr. Barbara Block in this latest KQED Quest show featuring one of our partners, the Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) program. You may recall that the latest juvenile white shark to be released earlier this year from the Aquarium is wearing a satellite tag (two in fact). We receive frequent reports via satellite, that let us know he is still safely navigating the waters off Baja California.

This short video piece shows what it takes to tag bluefin tuna and the rarest of sea turtles, the Pacific leatherback. Right now, you can help save leatherback sea turtles from a new threat. Go to our web site to learn more and to take action for turtles today!

Friday's Featured Film: The Magic of Sharks

In a week when we mourn the deaths of two men killed by sharks near San Diego and in Mexico, it's a good time to recall that sharks inspire awe as well as fear.

We need to hold and honor that sense of awe, because if we succumb to fear (or greed), the ocean will lose the great predators whose survival is essential to the health of ocean ecosystems.

Sadly, officials in Mexico unleashed a slaughter of sharks following the death of a young American surfer in the waters near Puerto Vallarta. Our friends at WildCoast are leading a campaign to stop the senseless killing, just as the Monterey Bay Aquarium and others are calling for an end to shark finning worldwide.

Filmmaker Howard Hall captures the majesty of sharks in this clip from the PBS Nature program "Shark Mountain." Enjoy!

Friday's Featured Film: Sunset in Malaysia

It's Friday, and it's been a very busy week, what with Earth Day events , public hearings to create new marine protected areas in California and a big step forward in the House of Representatives for Oceans 21 -- legislation to better protect the oceans. And you've been busy, setting a good example by spreading the word about sustainable seafood and the need for global action on climate change.

No wonder you're feeling a little tired. Exhilarated, yes, but ready for a little R&R.

What better way to end the week than to stroll down to the beach, stick your toes in the sand, take a deep breath of the salty air and just....relax and enjoy the sunset.

Friday's Featured Film: High-Def Aquarium

I love YouTube and other video-sharing sites. This was my first experience with high-definition video on the Daily Motion video-sharing site. The fact that it's a very cool exploration of the Monterey Bay Aquarium just makes it even more of a treat. Enjoy!

Another World
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