Thriving Oceans

Coinciding with a 4.0 magnitude earthquake centered approximately 20 miles offshore on Saturday, July 11, was a mass stranding of Humboldt squid. According to news reports dozens of squid averaging 3-4 feet in length and up to 40 pounds beached themselves in La Jolla.

However, Scripps Institute is indicating the mass stranding was not caused by the earthquake, but was perhaps triggered by rapidly changing ocean temperatures, or a contaminated diet. Check out the CBS news report and some raw video footage from NBC…

It definitely took longer than I expected to get back in the swing of a daily routine after a one week stay in Maui, followed up by a weeklong business excursion to San Diego (of which began 14 hours after returning home), and finally returning home to a rather unproductive work week that culminated with a celebration of independence.

So with that said, and my apologies to delayed email responses, I decided to start anew with some information that may or may not have already circled through the web.  Just as I left for the islands, The End of the Line officially premiered, bringing the plight of our fisheries to the big screens of the world.  And wouldn’t you know it, but I missed the local showings while I was traveling.  However, I like the message so I am looking for any feedback from those you have managed to catch a viewing.

Additionally, the film is more than a movie but a campaign of which is self-described:

The End of the Line is not against fishing. It is not against eating fish. But it is for a responsible attitude  towards the oceans. The film has three messages for consumers, citizens and companies:

Ask before you buy: only eat sustainable seafood.
Tell politicians: respect the science, cut the fishing fleet
Join the campaign for marine protected areas and responsible fishing

So check out the website to find a local screening, make sure you grab a safe seafood list, and ‘Sign Up and Claim Your Piece of Ocean’.

Here’s the trailer…

The California Department of Water Resources is experimenting with a new way to save salmon in the delta.  “Preliminary results show that an experimental, non-physical fish barrier is working to help keep young Chinook salmon and steelhead in a more direct path to the ocean and away from agricultural diversion and the state and federal pumping plants. The bubble curtain barrier project combines acoustics and a strobe-lit sheet of bubbles to create an underwater wall of light and sound at frequencies that repel juvenile Chinook salmon.”

Check out the video…

Happy WORLD OCEAN DAY 2009!  The United Nations has officially declared June 8th as World Ocean Day and declared it as an “opportunity to raise global awareness of the current challenges faced by the international community in connection with the oceans.”

“The oceans are essential to food security and the health and survival of all life, power our climate and are a critical part of the biosphere.”

So what do our oceans do for us…watch this NatGeo video:

Video released by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography

“The resulting video, recorded using ambient light at 100 meters (328 feet) depth, not only successfully gave the fishermen a clear idea of how the thieving whales were stealing the fish-they pluck the line at one end to jar the black cod free at the other end, somewhat like shaking apples from a tree-but it gave scientists a chance to match the animal’s acoustics with video depictions of its physical features.”

Watch the video here