Celebrate Earth Day with an excellent book by Christy Peterson

Our Earth Day Celebrations might be smaller and quieter this year, and even with social distancing being the guiding rule, just being outside on a beautiful day is a wonderful way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this unique day.

How much do you know about Earth Day?  Find out by reading an excellent new book written by WhaleTimes’ own Christy Peterson, Earth Day and the Environmental Movement: Standing Up for Earth (Twenty First Century Books). It earned a starred review from Kirkus, as well as buzz from School Library Journal and Booklist.

Earth Day and the Environmental Movement: Standing Up for Earth (Twenty First Century Books) On April 22, 1970, an estimated twenty million people held in a teach-in to show their support for environmental protections. This new celebration, Earth Day, brought together previously fragmented issues under the same banner. It was the largest nationwide event ever, and lawmakers took notice. But one day didn’t change everything. Fifty years after the first Earth Day, climate change remains a dire concern. The divide between political parties continues to widen, and environmental policy has become an increasingly partisan issue. The spread of disinformation has also made climate change a debatable idea, rather than scientific fact. A new generation of advocates continues the fight to make environmental policy a top priority for the United States and for nations around the globe.

Order your copy today from your favorite bookseller.

A cool week with sharks

Cool kids. Cool speakers. Cool sharks. We may be having a heat wave here in the Pacific Northwest, but it’s been a cool week for our Sharks vs People program. Trista and Sage, shark experts from the Oregon Coast Aquarium  shared their expertise with summer camp students at two cool science centers — the St Louis Science Center and the Science Center of Iowa.

Sage, Trista, and the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Thank you!

 

 

Today is Fintastic Friday!

Today is Fintastic Friday: Giving Sharks, Skates, and Rays a Voice! Celebrate with us. Tell your friends. Post a Shark Conservation Zone sign and more!

Flat Stanley helps WhaleTimes and DEEPEND scientists celebrate Fintastic Friday. You can, too!

Vaquita: Landmark Fisheries Management Accord Reached in Hermosillo!

Since it is Save the Vaquita Month, we thought we’d share this news with you.


Press Release from The Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans (CEDO) “Healthy Ecosystems AND Vibrant Communities”

On February 27, 2018, in Hermosillo, Sonora, MX, the Intercultural Center for Desert and Ocean Studies (CEDO) and fisheries authorities from the Mexican National Commission of Agriculture and Fisheries (CONAPESCA) and National Institution for Fisheries and Aquaculture (INAPESCA) met with Sonoran fishermen to seal their commitment to fishing sustainably in a region known as the “Puerto Peñasco to Puerto Lobos Biological and Fisheries Corridor.” This is a leap forward for the conservation of natural resources and ecosystem services in the upper Gulf of California, which has been infamous for the inter-sector challenges and conflicts associated with preventing the extinction of the vaquita marina (Phocoena sinus) and lucrative, illegal fishery for the endangered totoaba, of which the vaquita is collateral damage. Without ignoring this difficult situation, CEDO has moved its focus towards an area that years ago reached out for help in order to establish an ordered, equitable and sustainable artisanal fishing industry.

 Participants at the meeting included municipal, state, and federal government officials, environmental and academic organizations, and artisanal fishermen representing six fishing communities including Puerto Penasco, Bahia San Jorge, Santo Tomas, Desemboque, and Puerto Lobos. All parties agreed to formalize the Corridor as a special area for the integrated management of coastal fisheries and the habitats that sustain them.

 Tens of thousands of artisanal fishermen depend on the highly productive waters of the Corridor ecosystem, which sustains more than 50 commercial species, including crab, snail, elasmobranchs, and scale fish. For the past three years these communities have been compiling, analyzing and building consensus for establishing a network of Fisheries Refuge Zones, community-based management areas, catch-quotas, and permits that strengthen fishing rights and keep extraction at sustainable levels. It is now clearer than ever to the fishermen of the Corridor that sustainable and resilient fisheries require a healthy and productive environment.

 CEDO, a Tucson and Puerto Peñasco based environmental non-profit organization, working in the region for the past 38 years, has succeeded in engaging small scale fishermen with scientists and decision-makers in order to find reasonable solutions to the complex problems that surround this chaotic industry. In contrast to the top-down approach taken in the upper northern Gulf to prevent vaquita mortality, the Corridor Program focuses on buffering the primary economic activity currently sustaining local communities: Fishing.

 The Corridor Program builds on fishermen’s experiential knowledge, fine-scale ecosystem and species-specific data that fishermen have helped to collect, and good relationships among different sectors, to facilitate a transparent and participatory process known as Coastal-Marine Spatial Planning. In the near future, CEDO hopes to bring other stakeholders into this framework to reduce future conflicts and maintain high standards of environmental and community well-being. CEDO also aims to create clear market incentives that reward fishermen who work according to best management practices, bringing sustainable seafood to communities like Tucson where it is in high demand.

 For more information, visit CEDO at cedointercultural.org


Saving vaquita and other ocean animals is also up to you. Be vocal about protecting these animals, raise awareness of the horrible effects of black market/illegal fisheries, and where you can have the biggest impact is to demand sustainable seafood when you buy or eat seafood.  To learn more, check out our What is Sustainability fact sheet.

March is SAVE THE VAQUITA Month

SAVE THE VAQUITA Month (and last year’s Year of the Vaquita 2017) are a collaborative effort of Oregon Coast Aquarium and WhaleTimes, Inc. with technical assistance courtesy of Southwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries.

  • Join TEAM VAQUITA and help us save vaquita, sea turtles, sharks, and other ocean animals. DEMAND sustainable, traceable seafood.

March 2018: Save the Vaquita Month

Helps us save vaquita by raising awareness of the critically endangered vaquita and totoaba, remind everyone to only eat sustainably caught seafood, and celebrate all the ways people are helping to save the vaquita and totoaba.

Summer Camp 2018: Sharks vs People

WhaleTimes announces this year’s summer camp, SHARKS VS PEOPLE. Great whites make headlines. Hammerheads send chills down the spine. Even the prehistoric (and extinct) Megaladon shark has attained legendary status as a monster. The truth is, you’re more likely to become a professional football player, injure yourself fixing the toilet, or get a spider bite than attacked by a shark. More than 500 sharks roam the seas (and some rivers). Some are longer than a school bus. Others swim faster than a killer whale. Some sharks can change color. Many glow in the dark! Sharks’ undeserved fearsome reputation overshadows the real story. The most dangerous animal in the sea is people, not sharks. Many shark species are threatened or endangered. They need our help to save them.  Find out how in this fun and exciting class.

WhaleTimes’ Sharks vs People Summer Camp introduces kids to shark adaptations and species. Throughout this program, special guest Ruth A. Musgrave, author of MISSION SHARK RESCUE  (National Geographic Children’s Books) and EVERYTHING SHARKS (National Geographic Children’s Books), shares her love of sharks, introduces amazing sharks, the scientists who study them, and empowers kids to help save sharks.

This program offered through museums and science centers throughout the country.

Ocean Sciences Here We Come!

Happy New Year!

2018 will be another exciting year for WhaleTimes.

First up on our agenda is the Ocean Sciences meeting in Portland in February.  WhaleTimes Director, Ruth A. Musgrave is presenting a poster.

Other events we already have planed include:

  • a new vaquita research mini-book from WhaleTimes and an update video newsletter (created by Oregon Coast Aquarium’s Oceanscape Network) as part of our Save the Vaquita efforts and curriculum
  • Fintastic Friday: Giving Sharks, Skates, and Rays a Voice (May)
  • following researchers into the deep to study animal vision in hydrothermal vents
  • October 17 is the 10th anniversary of Hagfish Day! Hard to believe this exciting holiday created by WhaleTimes  is still going strong. (October  17)

and so much more!

We hope you can join us all year and help us save ocean animals by promoting the importance of Sustainable Seafood.

Join us to make 2018 the Year of SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD

Happy 2018 from all of us at WhaleTimes. Help us protect and save ocean animals. Whether you live at the beach or a thousand miles from the beach everything you do reaches the ocean. Many people are unaware of the importance of only eating sustainably caught seafood when they order or purchase seafood.

When you purchase sustainably caught seafood, you vote with your dollars and clearly tell suppliers, fishers, and others you care about dolphins, penguins, sea turtles, sharks, manta rays and want them protected.

Here’s more information:

WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE Save the Vaquita k5 Booklet 1 Fact Sheets

Are you doing everything you can to help animals and their homes? Take our 30 Day Challenge and find out: Activity 30 Days to a Sustainable You Save the Vaquita k5 Booklet 2 051017

 

 

Flat Stanley celebrates Fintastic Friday

 

What does everyone want for the holidays? Postcards from the DEEPEND, of course! Throughout December we’ll post a new Postcard from one of our amazing, talented, and simply fun scientists from the DEEPEND Consortium.

Merry Deep Sea or Happy Anglerfish or is it…

Flat Stanley celebrates Fintastic Friday

PDF Version Flat Stanley Celebrates Fintastic Friday