BLUE NOTES 99: Otter Ocean Policy, Plus Awards Auction, so Bayou something

May 15, 2012
By David Helvarg

Tweet

In this Issue
Politics Gets Otter
Your own MPA Expedition
Master of Ceremonies
Seaweed Spotlight: Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium
99 Issues Young

Politics Gets Otter

Political Otter?

The U.S. economy remains in such dire straits that Congress has barely had time to introduce a bill to exclude sea otters from migrating into southern California waters. Representative Elton Gallegly from Simi Valley in inland California has introduced the “Military Readiness and Southern California Sea Otter Conservation Act,” on what must have been an opposite day since the bill’s aim is to exclude sea otters from migrating back into their historic range though no one at the Pentagon seems to care. The bill was inspired by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s recent decision to give up on a failed 25-year policy supported by commercial fishing interests of trying to stop the otters heading south. Past captures and relocation killed a number of young otters trying to colonize new territory. But in recent years the small population around Monterey has failed to grow and so is at risk of extinction should a major oil spill or other disaster strike. The bill claims if the otters are allowed to establish a new population off someplace like Malibu they’ll interfere with military exercises. Six months ago I spent time with the Navy and Marines training off southern California and not one sailor or marine expressed fear of otters to me. In fact they got kind of excited when we’d spot dolphins, whales and sunfish in the waters off the ship. Still a California sea urchin diver told a House committee, “We need to balance the needs of all species, including human beings.” Apparently California’s sea otters, now numbering around 2,700, threaten to crowd out California’s 37 million people. The seaweed citizens group Friends of the Sea Otter calls Gallegly’s bill “dangerously counter-productive.” No wonder otters like seaweed. (For more on otters see the new movie Otter 501 from Benchley Award winner Mark Shelley.)

Political Otter?

It’s stories like this that make one wish President Obama’s National Ocean Policy (NOP) could get implemented sooner rather than later. After all it aims to resolve conflicts among different ocean users by getting more-than-20 federal agencies with licensing and other authority in the marine environment to eliminate their own conflicting mandates on ocean management, reduce bureaucratic redundancies and work with regional groups and stakeholders to embrace local solutions to assure healthy productive seas. Perhaps sound ocean planning that balances economic activity and ecosystem services can be one of those rare bipartisan causes we can all embrace?

Or perhaps not. On May 9, on almost straight party lines, the House passed a Commerce budget amendment proposed by Republican Representative Bill Flores of Texas, voting

Political Otter?

246-174 to eliminate all funding for the National Ocean Policy. Flores, whose major campaign contributor is the oil & gas industry, was following the lead of House Resources Committee Chair, Washington State Republican Representative Doc Hastings (see Blue Notes #98 & #84), whose major contributor is also (you guessed it!) oil and gas. Hastings calls the NOP “mandatory Ocean Zoning…to block economic activity.” We know whose economic activity he’s talking about (see above). While many ocean interests like offshore wind, ports and shipping, fishing captains, scientists, environmentalists and various states support NOP, the oil and gas industry does not. It has created a front group, the National Ocean Policy Coalition, that opposes the NOP because, unlike everyone else willing to come to the table to try and better manage our public seas, they already have priority seating.
Top

Your own MPA Expedition

In 2000, scientists suggested that 20 percent of the ocean ought to be set aside as marine protected areas (MPAs) where extractive industries and dumping would not be permitted.  But according to UN data recently provided The New York Times just 1.6 percent of the ocean has been protected to date.

After a contentious ten-year battle, California recently decided to set aside 15 percent of state waters for some level of protection. A 7-year scientific survey of an earlier MPA around the Channel Islands found a rapid restoration of endangered fish, and growth of larger and more numerous fish and improved wildlife in the protected areas. That survey was carried out by Marine Applied Research and Exploration, or MARE. I recently accompanied the non-profit ocean science contractor on a survey of one of the newest MPAs off Bodega Bay.

Their ROV submersible is green, about 6 feet by 4 high by 3 wide with cameras and prop thrusters within its metal frame and plugs into 600 feet of 1,000-volt yellow umbilical power cable on a spool. A few miles offshore, they hook the top of the ROV to a winch, hold its bottom rails on both ends to steady it, and slide it into the water where it whirs off 40 feet before Dirk Rosen, founder of MARE, dives it.

Dirk “flies” the robot from inside a small blue surplus military van (shipping container) secured on the deck of their leased fishing boat and equipped with a thinly padded bench, six video screens and a toggle joystick controller. They’ve also attached a video screen to the outside of the van that allows me to watch the ROV descend past a sea nettle and lots of tiny krill.

Once on the rock and mud bottom 250 feet below, the ROV’s cameras show lots of flowery tunicates, a brightly colored nudibranch (sea slugs) and big white furry-topped mushroom-like anemones. Its lights catch a big Ling Cod, then another as it (the ROV, not the fish) moves along at a stately half knot. There’s a multi-legged reddish Sun Star and a group of juvenile Canary rockfish – an endangered species now safe within this MPA. Four grad students from Cal State Monterey are taking notes while laser lights on the ROV size the fish for both still and digital video recording. There’s a beautiful little multi-finned sculpin feeding on the krill caught in the ROV’s lights, raising a little cloud of sediment as it scrambles after one and then another. “Shrimp cocktail anyone?” ex-fisherman, now MARE deck officer Steve Holz asks on behalf of the fish. The ROV moves on. And there’s another sea nettle and a hagfish (aka slime eel) and more cod and soon it’s time to raise the robot sub. Despite some technical glitches, both mechanical and software-based, they deployed it two more times that day.

Up on the bridge, boat Captain Tim Maricich tells me working with the robot sub crew is easy, “nothing I haven’t done 1,000 times before putting out crab pots or deploying gear.”

While I got to ride along on this expedition (and with the Navy) for my next book, The Golden Shore, you and a friend can also experience a day-long MARE expedition off California. This is one of the many exciting items up for bid in the 5th annual Peter Benchley Ocean Awards Auction that starts online today.

Other items in the auction include a day sail for six aboard the yacht once owned by Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, ocean getaways to Monterey, Napa, Muir Beach and a Mexican eco-resort, a painting by Wyland, a photograph by Brian Skerry and other art, goods and opportunities such as a cartooning lesson with the creator of Sherman’s Lagoon.
Top

Master of Ceremonies

Speaking of cartoonists, we’re very pleased to announce that the master of ceremonies for the 2012 Benchley Awards will be Sherman’s Lagoon creator Jim Toomey. A dedicated marine conservationist and sailor with an advanced degree in environmental management, Jim generously donates art and time to a number of marine causes. He also sits on the board of Blue Frontier Campaign and is the illustrator of BFC’s book, 50 Ways to Save the Ocean.
Top

Seaweed Spotlight
A regular feature of Blue Notes where we shine the light on a group from the Blue Movement Directory in order to create a more self-aware and collaborative movement. This month we feature the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.

This month’s organization is also the lab of 2012 Peter Benchley Science winner Dr. Nancy Rabalais. Dr. Rabalais is the Executive Director and a Professor at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON).

To get to Cocodrie, Louisiana, about 85 miles southwest of New Orleans, you take Highway 56 out of Houma past the oil tank farms, and sugar cane fields. Pretty soon you’re driving past houses and trailers jacked 15 feet off the ground, with wetlands and water all around. Cocodrie (fractured French for “crocodile”) may not be the end of the world, but when you think you’re close, look off to your right and you’ll see what appears to be a small tan airport terminal on concrete pylons. That’s LUMCON. Rather than commuter planes, several work boats are docked off to one side, including the 116-foot steel-hulled Research Vessel Pelican.

Nancy Rabalais first began studying the Gulf of Mexico’s nutrient runoff problem (Dead Zone) out of LUMCON in 1985, along with colleagues Gene Turner (whom she later married) and Bill Wiseman. Today she runs the lab founded in 1979 to study the economic and cultural value of Louisiana’s coastal and marine environments.

LUMCON is so close to the environment in fact that it lost its roof to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and its vehicles to flooding during Rita a few weeks later, then was battered again by Hurricane Ivan in 2008 and Tropical Storm Lee in 2011.

“The mud that builds the marsh also ends up on our grounds and in our buildings. We’re 18 feet above sea levels but we’ve had water half way up our pillars,” Dr. Rabalais says.

She once showed me her Dead Zone research transect sets (study tracks) going back a generation. Most of the lines are compass straight except for the first two years, which curve oddly. “That’s where we were trying to stay close to the oil platforms,” she grins. “The first year out I had a 21-foot Boston Whaler to work off of so if the weather got rough we’d have someplace to run to. Then we got a 45-foot boat and later began doing our summer research cruises off the Pelican.”

Today some 3,000 university students and 6,000 K-12 students make annual field trips to the lab that has some 80 employees including 6 faculty, researchers, librarians and boat crews operating on a bare bones budget of about $9 million a year.

Perhaps best known for Dr. Rabalais’ work on the Gulf’s nutrient fed oxygen depleted Dead Zone LUMCON researchers also study aquaculture, larval fish development, salt marsh processes, even coral (offshore oil rigs can act as artificial reefs colonized by coral polyps). LUMCON is also part of an ongoing study following the 2010 BP Gulf blowout, comparing biological processes in three oiled and unoiled marsh habitats over several years including Terrebonne Bay where it’s located which wasn’t badly oiled and Barataria Bay to the east, parts of which were. “We’re out here on the frontlines for hurricanes, oil & gas, the marsh, you name it,” Dr. Rabalais notes with pride.
Top

99 Issues Young

For our 100^th Blue Notes we’d love to hear from you. Tell us what you think about Blue Notes and if it’s meeting your need for actionable intelligence on our ocean planet. Email us!
Don’t forget to bid on our awesome auction items starting today! See what we have for you. All proceeds benefit Blue Frontier Campaign and our work to grow the Blue Movement.
Top

Blue Vision Summit | Peter Benchley Ocean Awards | Make a Donation | Blue Movement Directory

Find us on

Blue Frontier Campaign on Causes

BLUE NOTES #98: Peter Douglas Remembered, Going Deep and more

April 17, 2012
By David Helvarg

In this issue
Remembering a Hero of the Coast
Going Deep
Election Year Nonsense
Oily Seas
Clean Sweep for Earth Day
Blue Movies
Seaweed Spotlight: California Coastal Commission
Sharing is Good

Remembering a Hero of the Coast

Peter Douglas, creator and long-time executive director of the California Coastal Commission was fighting an ongoing battle with cancer when he learned he’d been named the Peter Benchley Ocean Awards’ Hero of the Seas for 2012. He wrote that he was honored and would be there to accept if his body and the universe gave him dispensation. Sadly, Peter passed away on April 1. His now posthumous award is in recognition of 40 years working to assure public access to and scenic protection of California’s more than 1,100 miles of spectacular coastline. Last year a delegation from the World Bank visited California and told him his state has the best coastal protection on earth.

Want to know more about Peter’s legacy? Read an appreciation piece I wrote that appeared in the Los Angeles Times Easter Sunday.
Top

Going Deep
Another Benchley Award winner in the news, though for far more sanguine reasons, is our 2010 Excellence in Exploration champ Don Walsh who in 1960 became one of only two humans to reach the deepest point on earth when he and Jacques Piccard dove 7 miles below the Pacific into the Mariana Trench. On March 25, Don was aboard James Cameron’s support ship when the Hollywood director and explorer became the 3rd human to make that journey in a high-tech elevator-shaped submersible. Don will be in San Francisco June 1 to present the 2012 Benchley Explorer Award to Ocean in Google Earth.

Unfortunately, as an exciting new race to return to the ocean’s depths is forming up between James Cameron, Richard Branson and other private citizens, the Obama administration is looking to zero out funding for NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration. Having stopped a Republican plan to gut NOAA’s Satellite Program, the White House has decided to eviscerate a number of NOAA’s marine programs including public education, marine sanctuaries and exploration. At the same time it’s undermining the Coast Guard’s ability to carry out its at sea environmental and law enforcement missions, cutting its 2013 budget 4 percent (versus 1 percent for the Pentagon). It also plans to reduce the number of large new Coast Guard Cutters from 8 to 6 even as it funds 20 new Navy ships of the same size and cost. For more on this sorry tale of two ships check out my April 2 story in Roll Call.
Top

Election Year Nonsense

Does President Obama want White Sharks to feed on your children? Republicans in Congress are open to the idea. The House Committee on Natural Resources chaired by Republican Doc Hastings of Washington (see Blue Notes # 84) recently held two hearing on how the President’s Ocean Policy to better coordinate federal agencies and various users of our public seas is actually an attack on our right to go fishing and/or a Federal plot to undermine Alaskan sovereignty. Committee members have also brought up UN Agenda 21 (from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit) a favorite red herring of right-wing conspiracy buffs who believe environmental protection is part of a UN plot to undermine U.S. sovereignty. Red herrings, by the way, have proved to be among the most sustainable fish. Rep. Hastings is now asking the House Committee on Appropriations to introduce language in all its agency budgets prohibiting funding for the National Ocean Policy. A more down to earth perspective on ocean policy can be found from the Coalition for Healthy Oceans or our National Ocean Policy page.
Top

Oily Seas
Remember in 2008 when Barack Obama campaigned for President promising to help get us out of the recession by building a green energy economy that would “solve two problems at once”? He’s now running for re-election bragging there’s been more oil and gas production in his first term than under any President in 30 years. He recently went on a 4-day energy tour without once mentioning climate change. Ocean energy activist Richard Charter (another past Benchley winner) has alerted us to a series of Department of Interior public hearings coming up in the next few weeks that could lead to offshore oil drilling along the eastern seaboard. For more information visit Adopt An Ocean.

The administration has already given permission to Shell Oil to begin exploring for oil in the Arctic Ocean this summer on the premise that if the 2010 BP blowout in the Gulf wasn’t exciting enough to get your heart racing, wait till there’s a spill during an Arctic Ocean storm. The risk-averse moderates at Greenpeace have decided to dampen the climate-thrill junkies by organizing some ship-based protests this summer.

Our friends at 350.0rg are also organizing global actions on climate change May 5 called Connect the Dots. You can participate or save photos from the winter before this one so your grandkids can see what the word ‘winter’ once meant (also polar bear and coral reef).
Top

Clean Sweep for Earth Day
In Richmond, California, we’ll be celebrating Earth Day and our election victory over a planned Mega-Casino at Point Molate, 422 acres of stunning and largely undeveloped city owned headlands on San Francisco Bay (see Blue Notes # 68 & 81). Citizens for a Sustainable Point Molate (a project of BFC), along with the Watershed Project, will be holding a beach cleanup on Saturday April 21 from 10:30 AM – 1:30 PM. We expect this public beach, which has been fenced off since 2004, will soon be reopening. Work gloves and a delicious BBQ will be provided to the clean-up crew. Among our expected guests will be BFC’s Ocean Explorer Roz Savage (most recently spotted being received by the Queen). RSVPs are requested.
Top

Blue Movies
One World One Ocean will be launching their new IMAX film To the Arctic about a single mom polar bear and the challenges of raising two cubs on her own plus the extra hassle of fossil fuel fired polar melting. Check for it in IMAX theaters around the nation starting around Earth Day.

On April 28 I’ll be joining the marine artist, composer and now filmmaker Wyland for the premier of his new film about the Gulf oil spill, ‘Blues Planet: Sounds,’ at the Newport Beach Film Festival. As an extra treat: the film includes a music track by Taj Mahal.

2009 Benchley Media Award winner Mark Shelley of Sea Studios also has a new film opening in May, Otter 501 about a girl and her furry marine weasel friend. I’m about to watch it and can’t wait to find out how much adorable I can stand.

And of course we all look forward to Benchley Award (2010) and Academy Award winning director of The Cove Louie Psihoyos’ next film in which I expect him to make the threat of global extinction cinematically compelling and somehow hopeful. In the interim we have four autographed copies of The Cove DVD and oversized movie posters that will be up for auction at the Benchley Awards. (Stay tuned for how you can bid on these items!) Did I mention that Louie, Mark, Wyland and the MacGillivrays, founders of One World One Ocean, will all be attending the 5th Annual Peter Benchley Ocean Awards event June 1 in San Francisco? Join us!
Top

Seaweed Spotlight
A regular feature of Blue Notes where we shine the light on a group from the Blue Movement Directory in order to create a more self-aware and collaborative movement. This month we feature California Coastal Commission.

In the 10th installment of our series based on the Blue Movement Directory, we’d like to profile Peter Douglas’s Legacy, the California Coastal Commission. You don’t normally think of a state agency as part of the blue movement but then again, Peter credited the commission’s success to its public engagement. “People come to the commission and they’re listened to, get inspired and they fight because they know they can make a difference,” he told me in our last interview in 2011.

“Peter was a coastal activist and he recruited other activists to be part of the commission,” agrees the agency’s legislative director Sarah Christie.

The Commission’s mission, established by ballot initiative in 1972 and codified into law in 1976 is to, “Protect, conserve, restore, and enhance environmental and human-based resources of the California coast and ocean for…current and future generations.”

As an independent, quasi-judicial state agency it has a range of powers including granting (or denying) building permits within the coastal zone, an area defined by the State as ranging from a few hundred yards wide in urban zones to several miles deep along Big Sur, the Redwood Coast of northern California and other rural areas. Of course the fact you can use ‘rural areas’ and ‘coastal’ in the same sentence, and in the most populous state in the nation no less, is itself testimony to the huge and positive effect at controlling coastal sprawl the Commission has had over the past 40 years.

Along with permitting and requiring that every coastal county develop LCP – Local Coastal Planning – and periodically upgrade it to guarantee protection and public access to the coast, the commission runs a number of other programs on a starvation budget including educational outreach, creating the California Coastal Hiking Trail (now over half completed), promoting coastal clean-ups, publishing guides to state beaches, parks and resources, and fighting off federal attempts to expand offshore drilling, sink old nuclear submarines or burn toxic waste from incinerator ships (an EPA proposal during the Reagan administration).

Of course in protecting the coast from unsound development the Commission has gained many powerful enemies. As a result, over the years its’ staffing has been slashed from 212 to around 120 people. Since 1980 its budget has grown marginally from $13 to $16 million while inflation has grown 150%. Along with various past Governors trying to defang the Commission (Governor Pete Wilson tried to get Peter Douglas to resign as its Executive Director) the commission is also under ongoing attack in the legislature. Just last week the State Senate defeated a proposal to zero out funds for Local Coastal Planning that would have ended decades of successful collaboration between the Commission and coastal communities up and down the state. Governor Brown is supportive but also asking all state agencies to practice “belt tightening” whereas the coastal commission is so starved for resources its got no belt holes left.

Still, a suggestion quoted in The New York Times obituary for Douglas that without him the Coastal Commission might now collapse fails to ring true.

“Peter’s strengths came from the fact he had a strong law behind him and it’s a tragedy Peter is gone but the Coastal Act hasn’t gone,” explains the commission’s Sarah Christie. “It’s still strong and the agency he built is still strong and public support for the coastal commission and its mission is stronger than it’s ever been.”
Top

Sharing is good

If you enjoy Blue Notes feel free to post them on your website or share them with your friends. And if you’d like to see them continue we invite you to make a financial contribution to Blue Frontier Campaign.

Blue Vision Summit | Peter Benchley Ocean Awards | Make a Donation | Blue Movement Directory

Find us on

Blue Frontier Campaign on Causes

Enjoy the sand and the water and leave it as clean, or cleaner than you found it.

1: Go to the Beach 

For many of us, our sense of wonder over our blue-marble planet began with a trip to the beach. The beach still remains the number one outdoor recreational activity for all Americans, with some 68 million of us hitting the ocean sand every year.

Looking out over a vast and seemingly unknowable ocean, or looking through a face mask into a world of brightly colored fish and corals, can also begin a child’s transformation—the realization that each of us is something much larger than ourselves, something both mysterious and deeply attractive.

To keep this time special we need to take care of the beaches we visit, whether for a day, a weekend or a summer. And to take care of the beaches, we need to enlist the help of the younger generations.
Top Main

Coastal Clash

Source: KQED – Classroom Science
Project: Water Motion
Link: www.kqed.org/w/coastalclash/classroom-science.html

In this lesson: Students are given an opportunity to interact with the aspects of physical oceanography that affect development of our ocean fronts. There are four separate units, each designed to build upon each other, but each can be used individually as well.

These lesson plans focus on:

1. Energy must be provided to move water. Movement of water determines the ability of water to transport materials.

2. Sand Movement Cycle: Sources of sand movement along the shore and the removal of beaches into trenches

3. What happens when human activity interferes with the normal sand cycle?

4. Why does the beach pattern change as it does between summer and winter? How does an El Nino year affect the pattern?

Top  Main

Currents: Bad for Divers, Good for Ocean

Source: NOAA – Ocean Explorer – Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Exploration
Project: Deep Sea Currents
Link: www.coralreef.noaa.gov/education/educators/resourcecd/lessonplans/resources/current_lp.pdf

In this lesson: Students will learn about deep sea currents. Students will be able to discuss the general effects of topography on current velocity. Students will be able to describe, compare, and contrast major forces that drive ocean currents. Students will be able to discuss how velocity affects the ability of a current to transport sand. Students will be able to explain why deep-sea precious corals are more frequently found in areas having strong currents.

Top Main

3. Dive Responsibly

IMAGE
Take only pictures and leave only bubbles,
while exploring underwater wonders.

Today, diving and snorkeling have become hugely popular activities, with some 5 to 10 million Americans scuba-certified and 2 million actively diving on a regular basis. Divers and snorkelers often become leading advocates for the protection and restoration of marine wilderness.

Ironically, through careless behaviors, lack of experience, or lack of awareness, underwater visitors can also damage the very wonders they go below the surface to enjoy.
Top Main

Dive In!

Source: NOAA’s Aquarius Inner Space Station
Project: Physics of Underwater Diving
Link: www.aquarius.uncw.edu/education/lessons/Aq%20Dive%20In.pdf

In this lesson: Students will learn how buoyancy, pressure and light affect underwater research. Students will be able to explain Archimedes’ Principle, and explain how this principle applies to scientists working underwater. Students will be able to identify the source of atmospheric and underwater pressure, and explain how these pressures vary with altitude and depth. Students will be able to identify two ways in which light is affected when it passes through water.
Top Main

Designing an Underwater Habitat for Humans

Source: NOAA’s Aquarius Reef Base – The World’s Only Undersea Research Station
Project: Engineering and Life Support
Link: www.aquarius.uncw.edu/education/lessons/habitat_design.pdf

In this lesson: Students will be able to identify the basic needs for human life support in a non-terrestrial environment. They will also be challenged to use critical thinking skills to make the optimum use of a limited space, which must provide a base for research and day-to-day life. Students must also identify and mitigate safety risks.
Top Main

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

How to Use this Guide

I. ENJOY
1: Go to the Beach
Coastal Clash
Currents: Bad for Divers, Good for Ocean

3: Dive Responsibly
Dive In!
Designing an Underwater Habitat for Humans

8: Take Kids Surfing, or Have Them Take You
Motion in the Ocean, What Causes Currents and Waves?

9: Fish for Fun, Food, and the Future
Net Results
No Fishing?
Gone Fishin’
To Fish or Not to Fish
Top

II. CONSERVE
12: Eat Organic and Vegetarian Foods
The Dead Zone
The Dead Zone – A Marine Horror Story

13: Eat Seafood that’s Healthy and Sustainable
Teachers Guide to Sustainable Seafood in the Classroom
Do You Know the Fish You’re Eating?
Marine Migration

15: Conserve Water
Water Use and Conservation
Life in a drop of Water

16: Conserve Energy to Help the Seas and Yourself
Global Warming
Climate Curriculum for Teachers
How Big is Your Footprint?
Energy Awareness Quiz
Energy in Today’s Global Society
An Exploration of Wind Energy & Wind Turbines
Green Fuel

18: Prevent Sea Turtles from Going the Way of Dinosaurs
Introduction to Sea Turtles
Sea Turtle Science
Food Webs, Part I

19: Use Less Plastic
You are what you eat: Plastics and Marine Life
Marine Debris: A Legacy of Litter
Top

III. CLEAN
23: Keep Your Household Refuse Nontoxic
Get to the Point

24: Drive a Fuel-Efficient Car, Join a Car Pool or Use Public Transit
Energy and Cars: What does the future hold?

25: Don’t Use Your Storm Drain as If It Were a Toilet
Where’s the Point?

26: Upgrade Your House Above Hurricane Code
Do you Want to Risk it?
Images of Katrina

28: Protect Our Waters from Invasive Organisms (Exotic Critters)
Alien Invasion
Ballast and Invasive Species on the Great Lakes
Top

IV. PROTECT
30: Support Your Local Wetlands
The Fragile Fringe
Dirty Mud

31: Restore a Stream, River, or Watershed
Eyes on the Estuaries
Watersheds and Wetlands

32: Live a Reasonable Distance from the Beach
I’ll Stay Here if it Kills Me
Get Smart

33: Count the Fish: Then Do Some Light Housekeeping for Them
Management of Coral Reefs

34: Protect the Dunes So They’ll Protect Us
Who Moved the Beach?

37: Work to Create Wilderness Parks under the Sea
Marine Ecosystem Invention
Marine Protected Areas: Case Studies
Marine Protected Area: Stakeholder Debate

40: Keep Oil off Our Shore
To Drill or Not to Drill
Goo-b-Gone: Cleaning Up Oil Spills
Top

V. LEARN & SHARE
46: Learn How to Navigate and Read the Tides
The Moon Made Me Do it
Ups and Downs
Plot Your Course
Teachers Notes for Navigating by the North Star

48: Go on a Live or Virtual Ocean Expedition
Ocean Exploration
Underwater forensics

50: Be a Seaweed Rebel
Top

Introduction

As a child, I spent a lot of time gazing at the stars and I remember feeling cheated because I was born a generation too soon to explore distant planets. It wasn’t until I discovered snorkeling and scuba diving at the age of 15 that I realized there were whole other worlds of wonder right off our shores. And I’ve never looked back.

The ocean remains a largely uncharted and unexplored frontier wilderness, filled with unique habitats and innumerable ‘alien’ species that scientists are only now beginning to identify. The ocean drives both climate and weather and is the source of over half the oxygen on earth, an essential ingredient for all life forms. It provides us with recreation, transportation, protein, energy, security, medicine and a sense of awe and wonder from sea to shining sea.

Unfortunately, it is also at risk from a cascading series of human impacts including pollution, over-fishing, loss of coastal and marine habitat and climate change. The ocean is in short a great and challenging subject in which one can engage high school students, grades 9-12, from a science, social studies or marine ecology perspective.

Blue Frontier Campaign (BFC) works to promote unity and build the constituency needed to enact solutions to the challenges faced by our ocean, our coasts and the communities that depend on them. We are dedicated to providing tools for marine education

One of our tools is my book 50 Ways to Save the Ocean which was illustrated by Sherman’s Lagoon cartoonist Jim Toomey and contains a foreword by Philippe Cousteau. This teacher’s guide has been prepared by Blue Frontier Campaign’s Samantha Elkoni and is intended to augment the book in the classroom.

50 Ways to Save the Ocean includes a resource guide on the last 39 pages covering ways to expand one’s engagement with the ocean, and is referenced to each of its chapters. If you would like to purchase 50 Ways to Save the Ocean for your classes you can do so by contacting the publisher New World Library sales & marketing at www.newworldlibrary.com. For more information on Blue Frontier Campaign visit www.bluefront .org or e-mail info@bluefront.org

Thank you for your service to our future.

Regards and best fishes,

David Helvarg
Author and Founder of Blue Frontier Campaign
Top

How to Use this Guide

This guide is intended to supplement the use of 50 Ways to Save the Ocean in the classroom by bundling reputable and relevant lesson plans from existing resources into one, easy to use document. This supplemental guide focuses on those parts of 50 Ways to Save the Ocean that are most appropriate for high school teachers’ lesson plans, so not every Way in 50 Ways to Save the Ocean is covered.

Each Way in this document is numbered and corresponds with the appropriate Way in 50 Ways to Save the Ocean. Each Way contains a short description of the lesson plan so teachers can decide if it is something they want to use. To access the lesson plan, click the associated URL, which will take you directly to the source. Sources are cited at the top of each lesson plan.

All descriptions contained within this document were taken directly from the lesson plans. All URLs were accessible at the time of the publishing of this document. Blue Frontier Campaign is not responsible for broken links. If you come across any broken links, let us know and we’ll do our best to resolve the issue. We hope you find this Teacher’s Guide useful.

We are interested in collaborating with marine-based organizations and individuals. If you are interested in submitting a lesson plan for any of the 50 Ways including those not listed here, please contact us at info@bluefront.org.
Top

Tweet

______________

 Explore our exciting collection of auction items! You’ll be able to make bids on select items online through our site. Other items will be available May 24th on Charitybuzz.

______________

EXPERIENCES

Monterey Ocean Days Package for Two

Treat yourself and someone special to a one-of-a-kind experience in Monterey, California. Visit iconic coastal California sights and meet Benchley Award recipients Mark Shelley and Dr. Steve Palumbi.
+ Stay two (2) waterfront nights on Cannery Row at the InterContinental The Clement Monterey
+ Go behind the scenes of the world-famous Monterey Aquarium
+ Tour the adjacent Hopkin’s Marine Station with Lab Director and 2011 Benchley Award winner Dr. Steve Palumbi
+ Receive a signed copy of Dr. Palumbi’s book The Death & Life of Monterey Bay
+ Fly over beautiful of Monterey Bay and Big Sur with Aquarium VP, Fish & Game Commissioner and aircraft pilot Mike Sutton
+ Explore Elkhorn Slough by kayak on a two-hour tour with Sea Studios Foundation’s Director and 2009 Benchley Award winner Mark Shelley for a chance to see the star of his new film Otter 501

Estimated Value: $1,200 Terms & Restrictions: Hotel stay is based on availability with no black out dates at the hotel; valet parking included; the certificate will expire on June 1, 2013. Hopkins Marine Station, Flight & Aquarium visit must be scheduled in advance. Must be able to swim to partake in kayak tour and be minimum age of 12. Schedule to be mutually worked out. 

Available for bidding soon on Charitybuzz.
Top

Sail like the Stars: Here’s Looking at You, Kid!

Sail aboard the 62’ schooner Santana on San Francisco Bay. Built in 1935 and now completely restored to museum condition, this schooner is rich in maritime history and a piece of old Hollywood. Current owners and long-time sailors Paul and Christine Kaplan will take your group of up to six (6), hosted by Host Committee member Deb Castellana, for an afternoon sailing adventure on the beautiful yacht once owned by Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Not available for charter, this truly is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and is guaranteed to provide you and your guests with a very memorable and unique sailing experience. Lunch will be provided.

Estimated Value: $1,200 Terms & Restrictions: Date to be mutually arranged within 2012 and not during America’s Cup related events.

Available for bidding soon on Charitybuzz.
Top

Napa Valley Chapellet Estate Vineyard Tour

Tour the 500-acre Chapellet Estate Vineyards and winery at Pritchard Hill, home to one of the finest and most exclusive labels in California. Hailed as “Napa’s Grand Cru”, it is recognized as one of the world’s preeminent sites for growing Bordeaux varietals. This estate tour for six (6) includes lunch and a case of spectacular wines. Owner & Managing Director Jon-Mark Chapellet will guide you on a private tour that is not available to the public.

Estimated Value: $1,500 Terms & Restrictions: Advance reservations required. Accommodates up to six (6) adults, ages 21 and up.

Available for bidding soon on Charitybuzz.
Top

Muir Beach Weekend Retreat

Wake up to the sound of waves crashing on the coastline below. Star gaze while soaking in the hot tub. Boogie board and kayak out on the water. Relax at beautiful Muir Beach and take in the breath-taking scenery. This beautiful four-bedroom, two-bathroom private beach house can be yours for a weekend retreat. Accommodates up to eight (8) for two (2) nights.

Estimated Value: $1,000 Terms & Restrictions: Advance reservations required.

Available for bidding soon on Charitybuzz.
Top
 

Four Nights In Mexico at Playa Viva Eco-Retreat

Spend four (4) amazing nights in a Deluxe Suite or similar room at new and beautiful Playa Viva, a sustainable boutique hotel on Mexico’s Pacific coast. Enjoy 200 acres of private reserve with close to a mile of pristine beach from the comfort of your luxury casita. This Eco-Luxe hotel is “Where Your Vacation Meets your Values.” Valid for up to two (2) adults and two (2) children.

Estimated Value: $2,000 Terms & Restrictions: Certificate is good for 1 year from date of award expires June 1, 2013. Award includes airport ground transportation (to and from) all meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) plus snacks and non-alcoholic beverages, daily yoga (except Sun) and Wi-Fi in common area. Award does NOT include airfare or additional services such as massages/spa, tips, excursions, boutique purchases or donations to turtle sanctuary. Award is not transferable. Winner must register name, email address and phone number with info@PlayaViva.com within 30 days of winning award, either by award presenter or winner directly. Blackout Dates: Certificate is good during dates when Playa Viva offers High and Low Season rates. Blackout dates as specifically defined as dates when Playa Viva offers Holiday Season rates. Holiday Season rates are most often the following weeks but check online reservation system for details – Christmas Week, week prior to Christmas, New Years Week, Easter Week and the Week Prior to Easter. All other weeks are available for use unless otherwise reserved or defined by Holiday Rates in Playa Viva reservation system.

Available for bidding soon on Charitybuzz.
Top

Blue Ocean Film Festival Whale Passes 

Every two years ocean leaders, filmmakers, photographers, scientists, explorers, entertainment executives—and the general public—gather in Monterey, California, at BLUE to honor the best in ocean filmmaking, learn more about issues facing our oceans, and to collaborate on improving the future of our oceans and humanity. The 2012 event will take place September 24-30, 2012. You’ll receive two (2) Industry Delegate places that include the Film Festival, Industry Conference and Conservation Summit along with select VIP Awards Presentations Parties and Special Events.

Estimated Value: $2,000  Terms & Restrictions: For FILM SCREENINGS: Unlimited access to film screenings, Early access seating for all regular screenings, & General access for Opening Night special screening. For INDUSTRY CONFERENCE: Industry workshops, Choice of 1 Master Classes (dependent on availability, limited capacity), Additional Master Classes @ $250, & Choice of 2 Speed Pitching sessions (Filmmakers & Producers ONLY, based on availability, registration required). For CONSERVATION SUMMIT: Conservation & policy panel discussions & Early access seating. For KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS: Early access seating. AWARD PRESENTATIONS, PARTIES & SPECIAL EVENTS INCLUDED: Opening Night Reception Sunset Center, Networking Reception, Making Waves Award Presentation & Reception, BLUE Carpet Awards Ceremony, BLUE Carpet Awards Gala, Fashion Show & Auction, Celebrate the Sea Concert & Wrap Party. Exclusive option during registration process for Industry Delegates to purchase one additional guest ticket to each of the events listed above. (If you pass on this opportunity during registration you will need to wait until tickets go on sale to the general public on August 15th, subject to availability.)

Available for bidding soon on Charitybuzz.
Top

Salmon Fishing Trip OR Bay Cruise for Four

Bidder’s choice: Wild Salmon season fishing trip for four (4) guests OR A fabulous bay tour for four (4) any time of year aboard 27′ Orca out of Tiberon, California, (located on San Francisco Bay) with expert angler and conservationist David Schwartz. The bay tour includes stops at Sam’s Waterfront Bistro and Angel Island plus you’ll cruise past Alcatraz, the San Francisco waterfront and other sites of interest. Lunch will be served on board.
Estimated Value: $600  Terms & Conditions: Schedule to be mutually worked out.

Available for bidding soon on Charitybuzz.
Top

Science at Sea Mission

Be part of live conservation science at sea! A full day for two (2) off the coast of California with Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) robot submersible operator Dirk Rosen and Marine Applied Research and Exploration (MARE). Spend the day aboard the FV Donna Kathleen taking video and still images of fish and marine wildlife surveys with University of California graduate students in newly created state Marine Protected Area (MPA). Breakfast and lunch will be provided on board.

Estimated Value: $1,000 Terms & Restrictions: Guests aboard the FV Donna Kathleen must be sea worthy and physically able and are responsible for their own safety and insurance. Guests are responsible for their own transportation to the embarkation dock and back home. Port is likely out of Palos Verdes, but subject to change. All operations personnel are busy with their own jobs and responsibilities. Work at sea is inherently dangerous. There is no doctor aboard. Heavy equipment is being handled from a moving platform (the ship).  During the survey the ship must proceed very slowly, and it rolls/pitches a lot. The ship cannot come ashore early as this is true research. Date is TBD in early November, 2012. Departure will be roughly at 5:30 am and return to port up to 12 hrs later. Expires 20 November 2012. Bid increment is $25.

Opening bid: $500   Buy now price: $2,000  PLACE YOUR BID
Top

Cartooning Lesson with Sherman’s Lagoon creator Jim Toomey

Would you like to see your political cartoon published in a real newspaper? Jim Toomey, creator of Sherman’s Lagoon, will help you turn your issue, your pet peeve, or whatever you’d like to say to the public, into a political cartoon. Then, he’ll help you get it published in a real newspaper. Jim Toomey has been writing and drawing the daily comic-strip which is syndicated to over 250 newspapers in North America and in six languages around the world for the past 18 years. Sherman’s Lagoon combines two of his life-long passions: art and the sea. Newspaper publication is not guaranteed, but online use is unlimited. Lesson can be conducted virtually.

Estimated Value: Priceless  Terms & Restrictions: Subject to mutual availability.

Available for bidding soon on Charitybuzz.
Top

Dinner with Author Plus Autographed Books

Dine with author and Blue Frontier Campaign founder David Helvarg. In addition to delicious food and stimulating conversation, you’ll receive autographed copies of five of his books: Blue Frontier, 50 Ways to Save the Ocean, Rescue Warriors, Saved by the Sea, and War Against the Greens. David’s books have received praise from ocean icons Sylvia Earle, Philippe Cousteau, Ted Danson and others.

Estimated Value: Priceless  Terms & Restrictions: Subject to mutual availability. Bid increment is $25.

Opening bid: $200  Buy now price: $1,000  PLACE YOUR BID
Top

VIP Aquarium + Harbor Tour & Lunch with Aquarium Director 

Enjoy a one-of-a-kind experience in Long Beach, California for two (2) at the Aquarium of the Pacific, one of the great aquariums of the nation. It displays over 11,000 animals in more than 50 exhibits that represent the diversity of the Pacific Ocean with Aquarium president and CEO Dr. Jerry Schubel. This VIP experience includes:
+ Two (2) admission and behind the scenes passes to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California.
+ A $50 certificate to have lunch in Cafe Scuba during your visit.
+ Two (2) passes for a cruise: winner has the choice of Harbor or Whale Watch cruise.

Estimated Value: $200  Terms & Restrictions: Advance reservations required. Lunch with Dr. Schubel is subject to his availability.  Bid increment is $25.

Opening bid: $200 Buy now price: $1,000  PLACE YOUR BID
Top

Whale Watching off Farallon Islands with Oceanic Society

The Farallon Islands, just 27 miles off San Francisco, lie amid the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, a food-rich marine ecosystem that attracts whales, dolphins, seals and seabirds each summer and fall, to feed and to breed. Get two (2) tickets for Sunday Whale Watch boat tour led by an expert naturalist who assists with locating whales, identifying seabirds and other marine life, and who provides informative presentations throughout the trip on the islands and marine ecology of the area. Full-day whale watching cruises depart from San Francisco at 8:00am aboard the 56-foot Salty Lady Coast Guard certified vessel on Saturdays and Sundays from mid-May through November. Farallon Islands whale watching participants will receive a free DVD, Farallon Islands: Past, Present and Future. Produced by the Oceanic Society in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the film provides a virtual walking tour of the islands, introducing the viewer to the islands’ researchers, refuge staff and former residents as they provide first-hand insights about the wildlife, history, and current conservation efforts.

Estimated Value: $250.00 Terms & Restrictions: Advance reservations required. Bid increment is $25.

Opening bid: $100  Buy now price: $300   PLACE YOUR BID
Top

Beach Blanket Babylon

Steve Silver’s Beach Blanket Babylon is the longest running musical revue in theatre history. Hailed as “a constant cascade of showstoppers” by the San Francisco Chronicle, Beach Blanket Babylon follows Snow White as she takes a fast-paced journey around the world and encounters hilarious pop-culture characters, including Lady Gaga, President Barack & Michelle Obama, Mitt Romney and the Queen of England. Bid today and these two (2) tickets can be yours!

Estimated Value $180.00 Terms & Restrictions: Advance reservations required. Subject to availability. Bid increment is $25.

Opening bid: $100   Buy now price: $360  PLACE YOUR BID
Top

ART

Manta Ray: Sumi-E Brush Art Original by Wyland

Don’t miss your chance to bid on this original and elegant painting by renowned marine life artist Wyland. Sumi-E style painting uses minimal brush strokes, black paint on white canvas, to communicate the essence of the subject.

Estimated retail value: $8,210.  Available for bidding soon on Charitybuzz.
Top

First Swim by Brian Skerry

A Fine Art Print by this year’s Excellence in Media Benchley Award winner and National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry. The image shows a Harp Seal pup making its first swim in the icy waters of Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence. Size ix 16″x20″.

Estimated Value: $400  Bid increment is $50.

Opening bid: $400   Buy now price: $2,000  PLACE YOUR BID
Top

Original Sherman’s Lagoon Comic Strip

Original, signed & dated,Sherman’s Lagoon Comic daily comic strips measures approximately approximately 5″x14″(13 cm X 36cm). Artwork is black and white, drawn with india ink on bristol board, and has a few imperfections such as rough pencil marks in light blue, and spots of white-out. The frame is not included.

Estimated Value: $150  Available for bidding soon on Charitybuzz. 
Top

PlasTiko-bot Sculpture by Claudio Garzón

A fun and dramatic piece made from collected plastic debris by Long Beach artist Claudio Garzón. This Steam Punk Leatherback Sea Turtle is part of the Oceanic PlasTiko-Bots series. More views of this sculpture can be found on our flickr site.

Many of us, who live near the oceans, or any body of water for that matter, know that plastic products are one of the top forms of pollution found in these areas. One artist has not only seen this; he has designed an artistic way to not only clean up some of the debris found, but also to creatively re-use it.

The PlasTiko-Bots Marine series is made from that very same plastic pollution that litters our lakes, oceans and rivers.  When you look closely, you can actually begin to make out the 77 different types of individual plastic components that constitute the PlasTiko-Bots Leatherback sea turtle is one of kind art piece made from plastic products collected from our local beaches and the Los Angeles River. Contemporary environmental artist Claudio Garzón has made them in order to call attention to the increasing problem of plastic, and other pollution in these delicate and vital eco-systems.

Estimated Value: $800  Bid increment is $25.

Opening bid: $150  Buy now price: $1,600   PLACE YOUR BID
Top

California Kelp Urn by Courtney Mattison

Kelp forests provide vital habitat for diverse marine organisms like sea otters and urchins, amaze SCUBA divers with their enormity, and inspire scientific exploration and discovery. This hand-sculpted porcelain-white whorl of kelp by artist and ocean advocate Courtney Mattison is a celebration of the beauty of kelp’s fluid form, and inspires the viewer to consider the vast diversity and productivity of species contained within kelp forests that may not be apparent at first glance.

Estimated Value: $800  Bid increment is $25.

Opening bid: $300  Buy now price: $1,600  PLACE YOUR BID
Top

Golden Dolphins by Apollo

Your chance to own the title piece of a new series called “Golden Dolphins” by intentionally renowned environmental artist Apollo. The golden dolphin series is to inspire the thought of how valuable these creatures are to the planet. Apollo has a passion for saving the planet, and its oceans. He believes: “the beauty of our planet should be held in respect as well as reverence and awe! As the caretakers of this precious jewel called Earth, it is our duty to become more harmonious with our environment; for what we hold in our hands is a trust for future generations. What we do today, creates tomorrow.” The painting is acrylic on Canvas 16 x 20 in a display frame.

Estimated Value: $7,500  Available for bidding soon on Charitybuzz.
Top

OCEAN SPORT CLOTHING & ACCESSORIES

Essential Dive Gear

Get ready to get wet. Ocean First Divers of Boulder, Colorado, has donated a starter kit of dive gear by Mares that includes mask, snorkel, dive fins and Suunto Zoop wrist mount dive computer.

Estimated value: $550  Bid increment is $25.

Opening bid: $300   Buy now price: $600  PLACE YOUR BID
Top

MISC.

The Cove Autographed DVD

Place your bid for a copy of The Cove DVD signed by Academy Award winning director and 2010 Benchley winner Louie Psihoyos.

Estimated Value: $30  Bid increment is $5.  4 Available.

Opening bid: $20  Buy now price: $90  PLACE YOUR BID
Top

The Cove Autographed Poster 

Place your bid for a copy of The Cove theatrical poster signed by Academy Award winning director and 2010 Benchley winner Louie Psihoyos.

Estimated Value: $30  Bid increment is $5. 4 Available.

Opening bid: $20  Buy now price: $90  PLACE YOUR BID
Top

Dolphin Confidential: Confessions of a Filed Biologist signed by author Maddalena Bearzi

Who hasn’t fantasized about the unique thrill of working among charismatic and clever dolphins in the wild? We need not live this solely in our imaginations anymore. With Dolphin Confidential Maddalena Bearzi invites all of us shore-bound dreamers to join her and travel alongside the dolphins. In this fascinating account, she takes us inside the world of a marine scientist and offers a firsthand understanding of marine mammal behavior, as well as the frustrations, delights, and creativity that make up dolphin research.

Estimated Value: $30  Bid increment is $5.

Opening bid: $20  Buy now price: $90   PLACE YOUR BID
Top

One World One Ocean DVD & Book Collection

Own a collection of Ocean DVDs from MacGillivray Freeman Films including Coral Reef Adventure, Dolphins, and The Living Sea. Also included is To the Arctic, the companion book to the IMAX film. MacGillivray Freeman Films is the world’s largest independent producer of IMAX® Theatre films shot in the most extraordinary and remote corners on earth. Delight in these entertaining, educational and inspiration ocean films and book.

Estimated Value: $80  Bid increment is $5.

Opening Bid: $50  Buy Now Price: $200  PLACE YOUR BID
Top

Music: The Ventures Autographed CD

Autographed Gold CD signed by 4 band members including three original band members. The Ventures are considered by many to be the greatest “surf band” ever! They are also The Best Selling Instrumental Rock Band in Music History. The Ventures’ style and sound is pure and powerful.

Estimated value: $25  Bid increment is $5.

Opening bid: $20  Buy now price: $100  PLACE YOUR BID
Top

TERMS & CONDITION

Thank you for participating in this auction and supporting Blue Frontier Campaign and the Peter Benchley Ocean Awards. Bids must be equal to or higher than the opening bid listed. Bids should be made in whole numbers. By placing a bid on an auction item, the bidder agrees to pay that amount should it be the highest bid. If the bidder pledges the “Buy Now” price, then he/she will be expected to provide payment within 24 hours. Upon receipt of payment, the item will be removed from the auction. Items are tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law. Generally, this amount is determined by the value paid over the value of the item or service received. Auction proceeds benefit Blue Frontier Campaign.

Online proxy bidding
Online bidders may bid by proxy by including a minimum bid and a maximum bid. They will compete with other bidders up until other bidding stops or their maximum bid is reached – which ever comes first. Bids will increase by set amounts. See each item for set increase amount. Online bidding will begin May 15th and end at midnight May 31th.

Thank You
Blue Frontier Campaign wishes to thank those individuals and companies that have donated items, making this auction and fundraiser possible. And we’d like to thank you for viewing our auction page and bidding on the items.
Top