Sylvia Earle is one of the ocean’s staunchest defenders. A National Geographic Society Explorer in Residence and former chief scientist with NOAA, Earle has spent a lifetime documenting the rapid decline of the world’s oceans and calling for more action to defend the body of water that cradles the world’s continents.
Her most recent undertaking, dubbed Mission Blue, is to set-up a global network of Marine Protected Areas to safeguard and restore much-degraded marine habitats. A new Netflix documentary, also titled Mission Blue, follows the life and work of Earle, culminating with her recent efforts to implement marine parks across the world’s oceans, dubbed Hope Spots.
Long thought invulnerable to human kind’s impacts, marine ecosystems have been plagued by overfishing, pollution, and poor management. Now, global warming and ocean acidification—both caused by burning fossil fuels—are threatening to upend whole ecosystems.
The new documentary is available on Netflix to stream.
(08/12/2014) Shark fin demand has dropped precipitously in China in just a few years, according to a new report by WildAid. Shark fin traders in Guangzhou—the current informal capital of the shark fin trade—say their sales have fallen by 82 percent in just two years, according to WildAid.
(08/11/2014) Eelgrass is an important part of many ocean ecosystems, but is disappearing due to human impacts. However, a study published recently in found eelgrass beds could benefit from a restoration technique using seed-filled pearl nets.
(08/06/2014) The iconic blue-footed booby of the Galapagos Islands has suffered a population decline of 50 percent in less than 20 years, according to research conducted by biologists from Wake Forest University.
(08/06/2014) Bumphead parrotfish are noisy feeders. They break off large branches of corals using their powerful beaks, grind them up in their bodies to extract nutrients, and expel the undigested material in large cloudy plumes of feces. Their voracious feeding is, however, not just a loud, messy affair. During the course of their feeding, they also change the coral reef ecosystem in numerous ways.
(07/30/2014) The ultimate goal of all species on the planet is procreation, the act of making anew. But few mothers could contend with a deep-sea octopus, known as Graneledone boreopacifica, which researchers have recently observed guarding its eggs for four-and-a-half years (53 months), before likely succumbing to starvation soon after.