Category archives for Ocean
Posted by Time for another Phenomenal Friday Fact!
Over the past 25 years, 8,763,377 volunteers have cleaned up
291,514 miles of coastal land and waterways in 152 countries and locations
while participating in the Ocean Conservancy’s annual International Coastal Cleanup. Although the event is only one day each year, it is still the world’s largest volunteer effort for ocean health.
Volunteers have collected a whopping 166,144,420 total debris
items worldwide since the first event 25 years ago. This includes 52,907,756
cigarettes, 7,825,319 plastic bags, 1,248,892 balloons, and much more.
Not all items recovered are so ordinary! Some of the weirdest
finds include a whole toilet, a wedding dress, a family of crawdads living in a
purse, and even a grand piano!
Even though the 2011 International Coastal Cleanup has passed, you can still help! Grab a parent and host a Clean Seas Party.
Have you ever participated in a park or creek cleanup?
National Geographic and Oceana scientists, in collaboration with the Chilean Navy, have traveled to the remote Salas y Gómez Island, some 200 miles (about 323 kilometers) east of Easter Island, Chile, for an expedition to uncover what lies beneath the unexplored waters.
A team of 18 scientists and filmmakers will be looking at everything from algae to corals to fish and sharks. Sharks will be satellite-tagged for both short and long-term tracking. Robots will go down hundreds of meters in the ocean and special cameras will descend to 12,000 feet (3,657 meters) to record life for the first time at this depth and location.
Follow the expedition.
You may think of the ocean as the big body of water you see at your favorite beach, but the ocean is much more than that. All animals, including humans, need water to live, and water passes from ocean to the air and back again through the water cycle. The world’s oceans also help us to breathe, giving us more than half of our oxygen.
I Am the Ocean is a call to raise awareness of this vital resource and the problems facing it. Learn more about I Am the Ocean on National Geographic.
Photograph by Enric Sala, National Geographic
Watch the video of frogfish swimming near Cocos Island.
Easily mistaken for a sponge when standing still, this frogfish–a favorite of the Ocean Now expedition team–waddles the seafloor beneath Chatham Bay off Costa Rica’s Cocos Island. Learn more about Cocos and see more of the frogfish at ocean.nationalgeographic.com.
To Readers of the Green Scene blog following the Ocean Now Expedition
SUBJECT: A Message From Cocos Island
FROM: Enric Sala
Thank you so much for following our expedition to Cocos Island and the Las Gemelas seamounts. The whole team is thrilled to know that you’re watching and reading about our work!
We’ve seen incredible animals here, including a whale shark, hammerhead sharks, sea turtles, marble rays, and the astonishing frogfish–which walks on the seafloor and looks like a sponge!
I wanted to reply to some of the comments and questions you had for us. (Photograph by Ford Cochran)
PurpleAnimalLUV, I agree with you completely: Sharks ARE sooo cool and are misunderstood. Go Green (and Blue), and spread the word!
Sylvia Earle, Enric Sala, and other researchers and scientists are on an expedition to Cocos Island to document the ecosystem and find ways to better preserve the ocean for the future!
Send a friend or family member one of these amazing e-cards so they can learn more about Ocean Now and find ways to help ocean conservation efforts.
Pick an E-Card to send.
Enric Sala swam with 100 white tip sharks during a night dive at Cocos Island in Costa Rica. Sala and a team of scientists from Ocean Now are surveying and showing the last pristine places in the ocean.
Would you want to swim with sharks?
Watch videos of Enric diving with white tip sharks and hammerheads!
Follow the Cocos Island Expedition on Ocean Now.
Photograph by Enric Sala
Real pirates once buried their treasure on Cocos Island. Now a team of scientists, led by Enric Sala and Sylvia Earle is diving into the waters surrounding this beautiful island in Costa Rica to learn more about the fertile seamounts where hammerhead and white tip reef sharks feed during their migratory journeys.
The Ocean Now researchers will document the marine life they find during the month of September. They will be reporting about the turtles, manta rays, and sharks they find.
Follow the Cocos Island Expedition and become involved!
Photograph by Sarah Wilson
Last year, 400,000 volunteers all over the world helped remove 6.8 million pounds of trash from waterways during the annual International Coastal Cleanup day, according to the Ocean Conservancy. Find a location near you and sign up to help in this year’s cleanup on September 19.
Learn about the Ocean Now expeditions on National Geographic.
It may seem as if the world’s oceans are so vast that nothing could hurt them. Unfortunately, that’s not true. The oceans suffer from people dumping stuff that they don’t want (pollution) and taking too much from the ocean that they do want (overfishing). You can help turn this problem around.
You probably already know how to help fight pollution: Participate in stream, river, and beach cleanups; don’t litter; and don’t dump things into storm drains. But you may not realize that too many fish–including the bluefin tuna (pictured)–are being taken from the sea. Some overfished species are disappearing–such as sharks.
People kill 100 million sharks every year. The desire for shark fin
soup is one big reason so many sharks die. These fish are caught, their
fins are cut off to be sold and the rest of their bodies are thrown
back into the sea.
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