The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Office of Ocean Exploration and Research announces the:

Journey into Midnight: Light and Life Below the Twilight Zone 

June 7-23, 2019

Join our Science Team as they explore bioluminescence in the deepest parts of the Gulf of Mexico! 

 Despite being the largest habitat by volume on the planet, the water column remains one of the most poorly explored environments. This is especially true once one moves below 1000 m into the bathypelagic realm.

From June 7 to June 23, 2019, join a team of deep-sea experts as they explore some of the deepest part of the Gulf of Mexico between 3,750 and 4,384 meters (12,303 and 14,383 ft) specifically to study bioluminescence and vision capabilities of the organisms that live there. The rest of the summer WhaleTimes will share their discoveries with you. What we learn is sure to be illuminating!

NOAA Ocean Exploration Webinar for Educators

Journey into Midnight – Light and Life Below the Twilight Zone 2019 Expedition

Tuesday, June 4, 2019 at 4:00 PM EDT

Please register at:  https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8902228179294145281

Despite being the largest habitat by volume on the planet, the water column remains one of the most poorly explored environments. This is especially true once one moves below 1000 m into the bathypelagic realm.

Join Dr. Edie Widder, world renowned deep-sea explorer and founder of the Ocean Research and Conservation Association (ORCA), as she shares the fascinating science behind the upcoming NOAA Ocean Exploration and Research supported expedition, Journey into Midnight: Light and Life Below the Twilight Zone.

From June 7 to June 23, 2019, Dr. Widder and her team will explore bathypelagic depths (the water column below 1000 m) in the Gulf of Mexico to study bioluminescence and vision capabilities of the organisms that live there. What we learn is sure to be illuminating!

This 60-minute webinar will provide an introduction to the expedition and associated education resources available online.

Questions? Contact susan.haynes@noaa.gov.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Journey into Midnight: Light and Life Below the Twilight Zone

Mark you calendars for the exciting NOAA-OER deep-sea cruise to Sigsbee Deep in the Gulf of Mexico.

Ocean explorers Dr. Sönke Johnsen, Duke University; Dr. Tamara Frank, NSU; Dr. Tracey Sutton, NSU; Dr. Edith Widder, ORCA; Dr. Heather Judkins, USFSP; and Heather Bracken-Grissom, FIU will explore below 1000 meters.

Hope you can join us.

Find out more: Creep into the Deep: Journey to Midnight

More to come…

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Deep See in the Deep Sea workshops Broward County Schools

 

 

 

 

Florida here we come! How do deep-sea animals use light to communicate? What would it be like to look through the eyes of a deep-sea animal? How do ocean scientists use DNA to study deep-sea populations? Next week, K-6th grade students from Broward County School will find out! Dr. Tamara Frank, deep-sea explorer and professor at Nova Southeastern University and  WhaleTimes Director Ruth A. Musgrave will spend the week traveling to schools throughout Broward County Florida sharing Dr. Frank’s deep-sea research.

“This is our third year visiting the Broward County schools,” said Dr. Frank. “The kids and schools are amazing and we are looking forward to another exciting week.”

This program was funded NSF Award 1556279 entitled “Collaborative Research: The Evolution of Bioluminscence and Light Detection in Deep Sea Shrimp (Oplophoridae and Sergestidae)”

 

Kids see through the eyes of a deep-sea animal

 

 

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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.