Today we once again salute the slimy, the ugly, the misunderstood beauties of the deep, hagfish and friends! Celebrate the beauty of ugly with us, on the 8th annual Hagfish Day
The beautiful hagfish.
Hagfish hanging out.
It’s Hagfish Day!
Category Archives: WhaleTimes Updates
WhaleTimes introduces Year of the Vaquita
WhaleTimes Director Ruth Musgrave with life size model of vaquita.
WhaleTimes’ 
volunteers spent a wonderful day at the Oregon Coast Aquarium helping raise awareness of the vaquita and how people can help save them. Most people were unaware of this adorable little porpoise. But were ready to join us and become part of TEAM VAQUITA. You can become part of TEAM VAQUITA, too. One way to help vaquita and other ocean animals is to demand sustainable seafood. If the restaurant or store doesn’t sell sustainable seafood, simply eat or buy something else. Save vaquita and other ocean animals by voting with your dollars.
Join us throughout 2017 to celebrate the Year of the Vaquita, raise awareness and save this beautiful little porpoise.
Creep into the DEEPEND Summer Camps Start MONDAY!
Kids around the country will discover the amazing research and researchers from the DEEPEND Consortium. We are excited our Virtual Science Team includes kids and camp leaders from:
- Adventure Science Center Nashville, Tennessee
- Catawba Science Center Hickory, North Carolina
- GulfQuest National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico Mobile Alabama
- Liberty Science Center Jersey City, New Jersey
- Maine Discovery Museum Bangor, Maine
- Museum of Discovery and Science Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Museum of Natural History, Univ. of Colorado Boulder, Colorado
- Navarre Beach Marine Science Station Navarre Beach, Florida
- Oregon Coast Aquarium’s Oceanscape Network Newport, Oregon
- Pacific Science Center Seattle, Washington
- Science Center of Iowa Des Moines, Iowa
- Tallahassee Museum Tallahassee, Florida
- Univ of Michigan Museum of Natural History Ann Arbor, Michigan
See 60 Minutes segment on Vaquitas
This 60 Minutes segment about vaquitas is a must watch!
Join WhaleTimes, Oregon Coast Aquarium’s Oceanscape Network, and Southwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries as we celebrate 2017 Year of the Vaquita and Save the Vaquita Month every March. Don’t just join us, make a difference. DEMAND sustainable, traceable seafood.
savethevaquita {at} this website
Vaquitas on 60 Minutes this Sunday at 7 p.m.
2017 Year of the Vaquita
If you missed the news, it’s not good. There are only 60 vaquita left in the entire world. This small porpoise is only found in the Gulf of California in Mexico. Vaquita are the most endangered marine mammal species in the world.
If we do not help now, vaquita could become the SECOND whale species to go extinct in 10 years. Scientists declared the Chinese (baiji) river dolphin extinct in 2006. Sadly, with little or no fanfare. We can’t allow that to happen to vaquita.
WhaleTimes and the Oregon Coast Aquarium’s Oceanscape Network are working with vaquita experts from Southwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries and other organizations to raise awareness. We have declared 2017 the Year of the Vaquita. And annually March is Save the Vaquita Month.
Is your seafood vaquita-friendly? It’s simple and yet the most important thing you can do to protect so many species. People who do not insist on sustainably caught seafood are a big part of the problem. (Sorry, we do not have time to sugar-coat this one).
Start TODAY. If you eat shrimp, fish, or other seafood it must be sustainably caught. If you do not know the how it was caught, if other animals were killed in the process, and/or you cannot trace its route from the sea to your plate do not buy it, eat it, or sell it. If the restaurant does not have a sustainable seafood policy, find another one. If your grocery store does not have a sustainable seafood policy, buy elsewhere. Buy locally and sustainably caught seafood whenever you can.
Is there time? We think so. The Pacific gray whales almost went extinct — twice. Northern elephant seals, bald eagles and others almost became extinct, too. Public awareness and concern helped turn the tide and now gray whales, elephant seals, and bald eagles have large healthy populations. Let’s do that for vaquita!
Though 2017 is the Year of the Vaquita, help us start saving the vaquita today.
More to come.
Today is Fintastic Friday!
Happy Fintastic Friday. Together we can save sharks, skates, and ray!
Fintastic Friday is here!
Friday May 13, 2016 is an important holiday, Fintastic Friday: Giving Sharks, Skates, and Rays a Voice!
WhaleTimes created Fintastic Friday: Giving Sharks, Skates, and Rays a Voice to help raise awareness and encourage advocacy to protect elasmobranchs. 
This special annual holiday is celebrated worldwide.
Humans are not doing their job to protect sharks. Movies, books, and news outlets have created and perpetuated a false, but stereotypical view of sharks. This misguided hatred has caused a lack of compassion or understanding about sharks’ significant role in the health of the ocean. People hear even less about skates and rays.
On average, only 10 people are killed by sharks a year — in the entire world. BUT people kill more than 11,000 sharks EVERY HOUR of every day. Can you imagine people remaining mum if that number were whales? Dolphins? Penguins? Or some other popular species? Never.
We’ll say it again, People are not doing their best to protect sharks.
WhaleTimes believes kids are the future of sharks. No one is louder and more enthusiastic than a kid who cares. Kids love sharks. They haven’t seen the movies or heard the skewed, sensationalized, and poorly researched news clips. We want kids from all over the world cheering, SAVE THE SHARKS on this special holiday and every day.
Summer Camps!
Join us at the DEEPEND. Discover the incredible research, meet the scientists, play games, create crafts and more! Enroll in a Creep into the DEEPEND Summer (or Fall) Camp near you:
- Adventure Science Center
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Catawba Science Center
- Hickory, North Carolina
- GulfQuest National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico
- Mobile Alabama
- Liberty Science Center
- Jersey City, New Jersey
- Maine Discovery Museum
- Bangor, Maine
- Museum of Discovery and Science
- Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Museum of Natural History, Univ. of Colorado
- Boulder, Colorado
- Navarre Beach Marine Science Station
- Navarre Beach, Florida
- Oregon Coast Aquarium’s Oceanscape Network
- Newport, Oregon
- Pacific Science Center
- Seattle, Washington
- Science Center of Iowa
- Des Moines, Iowa
- Tallahassee Museum
- Tallahassee, Florida
- Univ of Michigan Museum of Natural History
- Ann Arbor, Michigan
(Organizations are incorporating and sharing DEEPEND Research within their summer camp program. Summer camp program, topics, title, and registration policies vary depending on the museum, science center, or aquarium. First come first served.)
Oceanscape Network highlights WhaleTimes Director
Congratulations to our very own Ruth A. Musgrave for her efforts in shark and ocean conservation, her new book MISSION: SHARK RESCUE (National Geographic Children’s Books March 2016) and for being highlighted by Oregon Coast Aquarium’s Oceanscape Network as part of their S.T.E.A.M. Powered: Profiles in Science, Creativity and Exploration.
This multi-part series features five women who are at the tops of their fields in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. Over the 2015-16 school year, one week will be dedicated to each person, highlighting their education, careers and innovative contributions to their various disciplines — including the discovery of new species, the 
exploration of hostile ecosystems and the conservation of marine species.
This week, schools are encouraged to submit students’ questions to Ruth via the Oceanscape Network.
Ruth is also sharing her shark conservation message with students throughout Oregon as part of a community service effort with Barnes and Noble (Tualatin) and throughout the world through Skype interviews.
Go Ruth. And thank you for helping raise awareness of sharks.
We sure have a lot to celebrate this year for Fintastic Friday: Giving Sharks, Skates, and Rays a Voice. Don’t forget to celebrate with us on May 13.