tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-224241442008-05-10T15:19:59.958-07:00Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comBlogger597125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-36661158593991713482008-05-09T22:47:00.000-07:002008-05-09T22:49:11.670-07:00

Greenpeace protesters disrupted the Brussels Seafood Show last week, locking themselves to booths, broadcasting messages, and unfurling banners. Why? Greenpeace said "we got our message out today directly to fish suppliers that unless fisheries go sustainable then neither those who trade in fish, nor our fish stocks, have a future." But did they really get their message out to fish suppliers

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-7236657171401895822008-05-08T09:45:00.000-07:002008-05-08T10:29:50.533-07:00

This is the way to advance seafood sustainability! There is now a Common Vision for Sustainable Seafood that is supported by a wide range of conservation groups and seafood businesses. For more information, here is the press release announcing the new effort. If you're a seafood business person and you're interested in helping to advance a shared vision for sustainable seafood, please

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-10197657032331564952008-05-07T20:46:00.000-07:002008-05-08T09:16:18.861-07:00

What was your first taste of conservation? Love of nature? My guess is that your senses were involved before your brain. Maybe you saw something fantastic, or had a blissful time soaking up nature in a beautiful place. Then what happened? You saw a threat and got worried or even angry about harm to nature? If you're like me, you fell in love with nature first, and only later had your

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-84495414290158847012008-05-06T19:10:00.000-07:002008-05-06T20:58:58.065-07:00

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is in the news again. Today, the Washington Post profiles a citizen hero who saw the nasty mess and is trying to do something about plastics in the ocean. Or, if you prefer your news with a sharper edge and a foul tongue, then check out the sharp reporting of VBS-TV as they sail into the Garbage Patch and pull no punches regarding what they find. Why all the

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-50103527827981521182008-05-06T13:44:00.000-07:002008-05-06T13:44:20.128-07:00

Watch out, jumbo squid may be coming to an ocean near you. They're coming at me at least, moving north into Oregon and Washington's ocean waters. And this may be just one more result of climate change. Some worry that the voracious predators will harm already-depleted salmon populations, but we humans should not deflect the credit for that achievement. It's much more fun to ponder the

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-55829805452686522302008-05-05T15:59:00.000-07:002008-05-05T16:25:35.762-07:00

is on an island, thank goodness...far from parts well traveled, in unchartered waters beyond the Sea of Certainty, on the Island of Doubt. This outpost of Scienceblogs.com welcomes all who dare to abandon all dogma. Stop by for the best of ocean blogging if you can do without dogma.

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-480115695865268542008-05-05T11:01:00.000-07:002008-05-05T11:22:36.996-07:00

Give me sunshine and CO2 and I'll make a highly useful and convenient energy source. Sounds too good to be true? Well it isn't. You can kiss climate change goodbye, thanks to a blue-green algae from the ocean. Umm...that is if all the kinks can be worked out. But hey, it's a great concept that deserves a chance. Scientists produced genetically modified cyanobacteria that convert

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-27364998578817732482008-05-03T14:30:00.000-07:002008-05-03T23:17:07.869-07:00

A bad behavior spree by a sea otter that took indecent liberties and actually killed up to 20 young seals a few years back seems more extreme than the much-noted recent example of a a seal that attempted to mate with a penguin. Somehow, the heinous otter crimes have gone unnoticed. The story is that at least two sea otters sexually assaulted young seals and killed the victims through drowning

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-71751905134819933702008-05-02T11:43:00.000-07:002008-05-02T11:43:49.240-07:00

Bad news from the deep dark and scary ocean, a new sea monster is rising from the depths and threatening people. Or at least it's threatening our uses of the ocean. It's toxic water with no oxygen, and it's getting worse thanks to global warming. Low oxygen dead zones are not a new thing, but a new study says that the dead zones are getting bigger and scarier, probably because of global

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-53805955159523749962008-05-01T11:46:00.000-07:002008-05-01T11:46:43.224-07:00

Some stranded people were rescued from a remote Pacific Island. The question is: why would anyone want to leave? No, it's not Gilligan's Island, it's Palmyra. It's beautiful, pristine, perfect, and why would anyone want to leave? I suppose it would get old after a while, but I'd love the chance to find out how long I'd have to be there before I got tired of it and wanted to leave.

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-75624570693609781392008-04-29T22:31:00.000-07:002008-04-29T22:31:22.774-07:00

Will our oceans get hammered by climate change? Is it true that corals are already being harmed by climate change? The US Congress wants to know, and decided to ask a panel of experts in a hearing today. The answers? Climate change is already harming oceans, and corals are the canaries in the coal mine, showing impacts before most other ocean life. Climate change is first an ocean issue.

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-42193369337212417922008-04-29T09:47:00.000-07:002008-04-29T09:53:15.619-07:00

Yes, it's true for corals just like people. Share the love and you'll be glad you did. Saving corals is an economic miracle. Worldwide, corals generate $9.6 billion per year in money that people can put in their pockets, thanks to coral-related tourism alone. That's a lot of love that corals give us. Will we return the favor and do what it takes to save corals? Or will we piss away all

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-48680269504867225722008-04-29T09:30:00.001-07:002008-04-29T09:38:16.769-07:00

Hold onto your hats, it's Coral Week at Deep-Sea News. Did you know that some corals glow? Or why some places have more corals? Well, join your genial hosts Craig (right), Peter, and Kevin, along with some special guest bloggers, as they tell you some strange and wonderful things about corals. And who is that man in the photo anyway, looking so Neptune-ish? Go to Deep-Sea News and find

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-22231939051215573072008-04-28T10:37:00.000-07:002008-04-28T10:38:09.718-07:00

What better way to see the Great Pacific Garbage Patch than in a boat made of plastic bottles? The Algalita Marine Research Foundation will make a raft out of plastic junk, call it "Junk," and sail across the Pacific, through the garbage patch, to Hawaii. It's a boat of the Junk, by the Junk, and for the junk. You can read about it on their blog, of course. Now there's a shifting

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-61890354898587164092008-04-27T18:50:00.000-07:002008-04-27T19:09:41.730-07:00

Swimmer killed by great white shark. A very rare event, but this one hits close to home. I used to swim on this beach in Southern California. Worrying about shark attacks is silly, the risk is very, very low. But it's hard to avoid picturing the horrendous image of being held in the mouth of an 18-foot long, 2,000 pound shark. Especially after watching this shark attack video. I do NOT

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-30502680356457516092008-04-26T20:22:00.000-07:002008-04-26T20:29:24.666-07:00

Want to know what can happen to a shark if he's not careful? See what happens to Sherman of Sherman's Lagoon as he gets his fins sliced off, reattached, and lives through the whole ordeal, as Sherman's Lagoon takes a stand for saving sharks. Here's the opener from last Sunday, and if you go to the Sherman's Lagoon website you can watch Sherman's adventure over the next week (April 14-20,

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-35024809641051469182008-04-25T08:21:00.000-07:002008-04-25T08:57:01.030-07:00

Wouldn't it be nice if fish had someplace to hide in the ocean? A safe area where invasive, high-tech fishing couldn't get them? My kids understand the idea, when they play chasing games there's always a safe "base" where they can't be chased--often daddy's leg. In the good old days, fish could always hide somewhere. Rough ground where fishing gear would snag, or small pockets of habitat

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-20416731270194142162008-04-24T22:05:00.000-07:002008-04-24T22:06:29.603-07:00

OK this is just too weird. Songbirds are contaminated with mercury near a river in Virgina where the fish are too mercury-contaminated to eat. But the birds don't eat from the river. What gives? Oh, it's the spiders. The mercury-laden songbirds are getting it from mercury-contaminated spiders. Nobody knows yet how how the spiders are getting the mercury. Unless the spiders are eating the

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-49405692416718764192008-04-23T19:36:00.000-07:002008-04-23T19:55:43.741-07:00

It’s interesting and a bit unfortunate to watch the battle currently raging over communicating science. This battle has now devolved into a false battle between truth and persuasion, as though they're mutually exclusive. It's possible and desirable to use smart communication and accurate persuasion to build public support and acceptance of science, and to strengthen the role of science in

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-5569358512580804372008-04-22T15:19:00.000-07:002008-04-22T15:20:12.975-07:00

If you build good sustainability incentives into state law, they will come to Oregon with green jobs. Such was the promise when renewable energy legislation was being debated. It worked. Now the Oregonian reports a wave of green energy jobs is coming to Oregon. The promise of sustainability is real, and it's time to bury the tired old conservation vs. jobs story. Conservation and

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-18411364896299088402008-04-22T09:02:00.000-07:002008-04-22T09:17:00.390-07:00

This is the day for LOVING the earth. Get excited, unleash your passion, revel in the glory of being alive on this wonderful planet. Go outside, breathe the air. Feel the sun or the rain or the cold. Stoke your fires for the days ahead. We can work on Earth Day, but let's all take the time to feel the earth and stay connected. And let's remember to treat earth like a lover.

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-18085166813913508332008-04-21T13:17:00.000-07:002008-04-21T13:17:57.940-07:00

There's no mystery in this year's salmon collapse. We killed our salmon many years ago, and we just failed to notice. Why do others see a mystery? Because they weren't paying attention. This year's salmon crash was inevitable, now that we've reduced our salmon portfolio to just a few stocks. Lacking a diverse portfolio, a bad year for one stock is a very bad year overall. Think of

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-4960450194049503632008-04-20T16:36:00.000-07:002008-04-20T16:36:22.269-07:00

Who says we can't undo damage done to the environment? Here's a success story. A 13 inch rainbow trout made history last week. It swam upstream to spawn in the Clark Fork River, past the former site of the Milltown Dam. This is quick success for the restoration project, and it should give hope to everyone that ecosystem restoration can work. Blogfish brought you the news of the Milltown

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-70837158852349250062008-04-19T19:59:00.000-07:002008-04-19T19:59:23.567-07:00

Organic food is a success story right? But some organic farmers are going back to conventional farming, even though demand for organic food is high and prices are high. Is this a problem? YES! Sustainable seafood people should watch and learn. Rising costs snowball from farm to market, scaring off customers. Prices are skyrocketing for organic food, according to the New York Times. Some

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424144.post-89089940693873315292008-04-18T11:39:00.000-07:002008-04-18T11:45:44.588-07:00

Imagine you had an aching gut, and your doctor told you that you're gonna die because you ate too much plastic and your stomach and intestine were clogged and split open. Ugh, what a way to go, from eating little bits of plastic mixed in with your food, and the occasional super-realistic plastic steak or burger. It's not a horror story, it's a tragic reality for too many ocean animals because

Mark Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333424116503463839noreply@blogger.com