November 2013 - Mission Blue

Monthly Archives: November 2013

California Fracking

Contaminated water. Greenhouse gas pollution. Dead wildlife. And grave threats to public health.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing — and the industrial development that comes with it — have left a grim trail of damage across America. This damaging oil and gas–drilling technique involves injecting millions of gallons of highly pressurized water, sand and toxic chemicals deep into the earth.
Now fracking has become a major issue in the Golden State. But Californians still have time to safeguard their water, air, wildlife and health from this dangerous and poorly regulated form of oil and gas production.
And the Center for Biological Diversity’s helping that happen.
California officials must move quickly to address this dangerous practice. To protect our health and future, fracking should be banned in California. …

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Hong Kong Kids’ Aerial Art Encourages the Public to Respect Sharks

Each year, up to 73 million sharks are killed for their fins. Most end up in shark fin soup, a delicacy in both Hong Kong and Mainland China.  However, the last few years have seen a sea change in Hong Kong’s attitude toward shark finning—and an event early this month demonstrated how far the island territory has come.
On November 8th, nearly a thousand children, their teachers and ocean community leaders gathered on Repulse Bay Beach on the south side of Hong Kong Island. They were there as the culmination of Kids Ocean Day, an educational program that links students to the ocean environment, and raises awareness of human impact on the ecosystem.
Directed by aerial artist John Quigley, the kids lined up to form a shark with a severed fin, accompanied by the words “Save Me” in Chinese.…

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Dame Roz Savage Talks Ocean Rowing at Buckingham Palace

You’ll have noticed that I don’t often blog on personal subjects these days, preferring instead to focus on my three pet topics of Adventure, Inspiration, and Environment, but I think you’ll want to hear about this.
Yesterday I went with my mother, sister, and partner Howard, to Buckingham Palace to collect my MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire.) The award itself was announced in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June, but it was only about six weeks ago that I’d received the notification of the date of my investiture – giving me plenty of time to panic about what to wear. 
The notification arrived with lots of detailed information, and an enormous certificate in copperplate handwriting, signed by Her Majesty, but no hint as to who might be conducting the investiture ceremony.  …

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Ghost Gear – A Scary Matter

Having removed tons of abandoned fishing gear throughout southern California over the last 11 years, Ocean Defenders Alliance (ODA) recently launched Operation Deep Sweep, which represents an exciting new phase for us.
In late August of this year, we moved our two boats from our homeport in Los Angeles County up to Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard, CA.  As a part of this operation, we are now removing ghost gear from the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuaries (CINMS!)
Plans in place to protect and preserve
The Channel Islands are a chain of eight islands located off the coast of Ventura, California that received National Marine Sanctuary (NMS) status in 1980.  ODA applied for, and was granted, a permit that allows us to go into this protected area and remove any hazardous man-made debris we find.…

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Global Ocean Refuge System Launched by Marine Conservation Institute

Recently at the Third International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC3) in Marseille, France, Marine Conservation Institute announced a new effort to recover and maintain the diversity and abundance of marine life, the Global Ocean Refuge System or GLORES (pronounced glôr-ees).
Human activities are threatening our oceans and pushing many marine species toward extinction.  MPAs are the most cost-effective way to protect the diversity and abundance of ocean ecosystems, but less than 3% of the sea is protected (the area of stronger, no-take protection is lower, ~1% according to MPAtlas.org).  GLORES will be a worldwide system of protected areas to prevent mass extinction of marine life.  As the human population grows, climates change and oceans acidify, a diversified portfolio of protected places ensures us against these changes. …

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