Sorry to make this difficult, but I've built a new blog on WordPress.com!
From now on, People Protect What They Love can be found at http://lovethesea.wordpress.com/
Thanks to all my followers :) hopefully you can still follow me at my new site!
05 June 2011
27 May 2011
When I Grow Up, I Want to Be A Sea Turtle Researcher...
Today as I was finishing that last blog post and flipping through images on Marine Photobank, a family of three stopped by the office asking about our work with sea turtles. My supervisor was in the other room, so I jumped up to greet them and give them free stickers and postcards and tell them about the leatherback sea turtles off the California coast.
They were visiting from Martha's Vineyard and had found a stranded, cold-stunned Kemp's ridley sea turtle last year on the island. After recovering at facilities at the New England Aquarium and University of New England, the family had the pleasure of releasing it back into the wild from Cape Cod. How awesome! The little girl was adorable—very hyperactive, and loved talking about "her turtle." I wanted to pick her up and squeeze her she was so adorable. As they were preparing to leave I thanked the little girl for helping us save the sea turtles. "Someday, I want to be a sea turtle researcher," she told me.
Me too.
Sea Life Threatened by Entanglement
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| Crab pot buoys, usually found as marine debris. |
Last night I attended a presentation coordinated by the American Cetacean Society (ACS) on marine life entanglements. The presentation was given Kathi Koontz who works with the Marine Mammal Center on the Whale Entanglement Team. She is part of a group that responds to reports and sightings of entangled whales along the California coast. A very cool weekend job—I’m extremely jealous!
First, what sort of debris and objects are found on entangled animals? Mostly fishing line, fishing nets, various ropes, crab pots, buoys, fan belts, and much more. The majority of this material is made of plastic, which will not degrade or lose its shape and therefore causes significant damage.
Most of this debris is picked up by the animal and dragged for hundreds and hundreds of miles before the animal may be disentangled. Whale entanglement teams in Hawaii have reported findings of Alaskan fishing gear from the Bering Sea on entangled whales.
In some cases, debris may weigh a whale or other animal down so it cannot surface or cannot move. Other times attached buoys can slow down whales and not allow them to dive underwater.
It was reported at the meeting that 50 percent of the sighted marine animals possess scars from entanglement.
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| © Alberto Romeo/Marine Photobank |
The whole disentanglement business started at the Center for Coastal Studies to help free-swimming humpback whales and North Atlantic right whales off the Eastern United States coast.
A variety of specially designed gismos and gadgets are used to cut off the entanglements without harming the whale. If the disentanglement team cannot remove the debris, they may attach a telemetry buoy that will track the animal’s location so they may find it another day and try again.
Back in the days when gillnet fishing was allowed between the Farallones and the California coast, harbor porpoises were caught in the hundreds in the gillnets. Fishermen used to pull them up out of the water and cut off their fins and flukes to let them loose. Naturally, they would then die at sea and wash up onshore. The fishermen would rather kill thousands of animals instead of cut up their precious fishing nets.
Now that these gillnet fisheries have been outlawed in the area, the harbor porpoises are slowly coming back to the San Francisco Bay. Yay! See? This isn't just a lost cause, by preventing entanglement we could see positive change in our marine ecosystems.
Just last August the Whale Entanglement Team out here in California went in search of a reported entangled humpback whale off the coast of Mendocino. Instead, the team found an entangled gray whale with a rope and buoy wrapped around its body, through its mouth, and over both pectoral fins and the peduncle (the what?!). When the team tugged on the line to see if it would come lose on its own, they noticed that the line had severed the left pectoral fin. Eventually they were able to cut off the line, and the gray whale swam free; however, no sightings of a gray whale with a missing left pectoral fin have been reported since then so we don’t know what happened to the poor thing.
In the Farallones back in 2005, divers rescued a humpback whale that was caught by lines and crab pots and could not swim away. Article here!
So far in 2011 there has only been one report of an entangled whale near Monterey, but no further sightings of the animal.
Entanglement is a problem with all animal species, not just whales, and not just marine animals. Birds may choke on bottle caps and balloons, or get caught in those plastic six-pack holders. Sea turtles, sharks, and seals may get caught in fishing gear.
The Marine Mammal Center also focuses heavily on entangled seals and sea lions along the California coast, who are often found with fan belts or fishing line wrapped around their necks and snouts so they are unable to feed or breathe properly. In one instance, they had rescued a sea lion with fishing line around its neck that had cut through its skin and severed its trachea. Another sea lion had line wrapped around its mouth so it was unable to feed.
Entanglement is just one type of human interaction that harms marine animals. Other forms of human interaction may be fishing bycatch, seal bombs, or even just people shooting at the animals with a gun. Not as uncommon as you think.
Also, seal bombs. I hadn’t heard about seal bombs until last night. People throw bombs at seals to scare them away. And also accidentally blow them up. The following quote is from the Friends of Animals website:
To catch fish, people have used explosive devices, hoping to deter marine mammals from interfering with their equipment or catch. Seal bombs still cripple those they are meant to deter… Seal bombs are small pieces of dynamite that can detonate under water. Often, a seal bomb is placed inside a fish and fed to a sea lion – even though deliberately using seal bombs to harm marine life is prohibited.
So please, if you would like to help out:
- Cut up circular pieces of plastic and trash so that it cannot be caught around an animal’s neck.
- Participate in beach cleanups to remove hazardous debris, or bring your own trash bag to fill up when you go to the beach.
- Reduce your plastic use.
- Be responsible for your fishing gear—don’t let it float away. Clean up all of your fishing lines and nets.
- Don’t buy balloons.
- Volunteer at a marine mammal center!
- Spread the word.
25 May 2011
True Cost of Chevron - 5/25
True Cost of Chevron, a set by TonyaHennessey on Flickr.
The Sea Turtle Restoration Project and friends joined up with others to protest at Chevron's shareholder meeting. Chevron is avoiding responsibility for the destruction it has caused to ecosystems and communities everywhere.
20 May 2011
Green Sea Turtles!
Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) are the species you commonly see in Hawai'i. They were listed under the Endangered Species Act on July 28, 1978. The populations along Mexico's Pacific coast and in Florida are listed as endangered, along with populations in the Mediterranean; everywhere else the remain threatened.
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| Photo Cred. Sean McKenna |
Appearance: Range from blackish to gray, to green, to brown in color depending on locational breeding populations. Greens tend to have unique identifiable markings. Yellow-white underside ("plasteron"). On average they weigh around 250 lbs and can grow to between 3 and 5 feet long.
Locations: Greens are the most widespread of all sea turtles with crucial breeding grounds in the Caribbean, North America, Central America, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Mediterranean. Also Hawai'i and other Indo-Pacific island areas. Basically they're everywhere. A cute little population of greens has been established in the San Diego Bay, attracted to the warm water from the Duke Energy power plant.
Reproduction: A significant factor behind their depleting numbers is that they don’t reach sexual maturity until they’re between 20-50 years old. Thousands of sea turtles are killed by pollution, boat strikes, or other reasons before they’ve had a chance to mate and lay eggs. Even if females do reach sexual maturity, they only lay eggs every two to four years.
Food: Adults are primarily vegetarian, eating mostly seagrass and algae. Occasionally they'll eat a jellyfish or two (See video). Baby greens are omnivorous and eat sponges, mollusks, and jellyfish.
Threats: Poaching, drowning in fishing equipment, destruction of nesting beaches, and ocean pollution.
***Fun Fact: Contrary to popular belief, the green sea turtle was not named for the color of its shell, but because it has green fatty tissue under its shell.
19 May 2011
The Shark-Free Marina Initiative
Their motto is, "Reducing worldwide shark mortality, one marina at a time."
Here are the basics: A shark-free marina does not allow shark to be killed and landed at their facility. Through the Shark-Free Marina Initiative, businesses are able to register as shark-free and mandate that no caught shark is allowed on their docks. In some states, fishing for shark is still legal ( so the initiative also allows businesses to register as shark-friendly. A shark-friendly business asks fishermen to release caught shark, and strongly discourages international shark fishing.
Why do people kill sharks?
Shark fin soup is a traditional Chinese dish served at weddings, symbolizing wealth, power, and honor. An estimated 70 million sharks were caught and traded last year. Due to its cultural importance, the demand for shark fin soup still remains despite having significant impacts on diminishing shark populations. Hawai'i was the first state in the U.S. to ban shark fin soup, and now the Oregon House just passed a bill to ban it. Hopefully other states will follow suit?
In addition to soup shark is prepared in other ways, but soup is the main problem because fishermen will catch a shark, chop off its fins, and throw it back out to the ocean to bleed and die.
Personally, the thought of eating it makes me gag.
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| © Fiona Ayerst/Marine Photobank |
Sharks are also being thoughtlessly murdered as bycatch in fisheries. The target species may be tuna or swordfish, but fishing methods are not species specific. Therefore sharks, dolphins, whales, seals, sea turtles, and marine birds are all caught unintentionally.
What will happen if all the sharks are gone?
Total ecosystem collapse. Sharks are a keystone species, and regulate populations of other marine animals such as stingrays and various fish. If the populations of these prey organisms grow out of control, the ecosystem becomes imbalanced.
I will attempt to explain:
No sharks/top predators --> More prey --> Prey animals eat more smaller animals (like crab/shrimp/scallops/smaller fish) --> Prey populations explode --> Prey populations eat ALL of the smaller animals --> No more shrimp or scallops for anyone (including humans) --> prey populations die --> this trend continues down the food chain until ecosystem reaches zero productivity.
I hope that made sense. Long story short, sharks and other top-predators like tuna and carnivorous whales are incredibly important to oceans worldwide.
People are beginning to learn that sharks really aren't as dangerous as the Hollywood movies portray them to be. They're actually more dangerous to you if you eat them: shark is known to have high levels of mercury and toxins due to biomagnification.
Watch the PSA:
Click here for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Sharks.
How can you help?
You can do your part to keep sharks on this planet by choosing smart, sustainably caught seafood. Avoid tuna or swordfish unless they were caught with a pole by a local fisherman. Ideally you want to stay away from any fish caught using gillnets, and avoid eating shrimp caught with shrimp trawls!
Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch
Dolphin Washed Up Dead — Gulfport, MS
Still more and more dead animals are washing up on Gulf of Mexico beaches. This dolphin, covered in orange spray paint, was found in Gulfport, Mississippi on May 15th by a local woman. The carcass had been tagged on May 13th by the Institute for Marine Mammal Research (the orange spray paint on the carcass says "IMMR"). The IMMR apparently just left it there to be cleaned up later, decomposing in the hot sun.
Laurel Lockamy, the Gulfport resident, returned the previous day just as a yellow bulldozer arrived to scoop off the dead dolphin and carry it away. The bulldozer carried it away down the beach, and dumped it behind some beach vegetation. So now it is still decomposing in the hot sun, but now it's behind some bushes.
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| © Laurel Lockamy - Gulfport, MS |
These are beaches where families take their kids to play. Dead animals keep washing up... is this safe? Why aren't parents worried about their kids playing next to dead, decaying sea turtles, dolphins, and birds on the beach? The strandings of dead animals have become so frequent in the Gulf now that locals have begun bringing their cameras with them to the beach and documenting the strandings themselves.
“All these dead things on the beach. It never used to be like this before. I’m almost afraid to walk on the beach anymore," said Laurel.
Read the article about this dolphin stranding.10 May 2011
How Most People View the Ocean
There's really so much out there that we don't know and understand. So let's not just ignore it.
09 May 2011
Bill Nye's Climate Lab!
Find the website here.
Bill Nye the Science Guy has been a hero of mine for as long as I can remember seeing his shows on TV and in grade school classrooms. He's now got this cool new website "Bill's Climate Lab" to show how everyone can make a difference in the fight against global climate change. It's really neat!
At first I thought it would be lots of "kids stuff" I already knew, but it actually has some pretty solid science and I realized it is actually more focused for adults more than kids.
Bill Nye is the coolest, ever!
Bill Nye the Science Guy has been a hero of mine for as long as I can remember seeing his shows on TV and in grade school classrooms. He's now got this cool new website "Bill's Climate Lab" to show how everyone can make a difference in the fight against global climate change. It's really neat!
At first I thought it would be lots of "kids stuff" I already knew, but it actually has some pretty solid science and I realized it is actually more focused for adults more than kids.
Bill Nye is the coolest, ever!
It's Now Sea Turtle Nesting Season in the Gulf!
Latest reports from sea turtle biologist Donna Shaver of Padre Island National Seashore indicate that 78 Kemp's ridleys have already nested along the Texas coast! Want to see exactly where they've been nesting? Click here for a map!
In addition, the Atlantic green turtles are nesting in Tortuguero, Costa Rica; the loggerhead turtles are nesting on the West Florida coast; leatherbacks have arrived to nest on Eastern Florida beaches as well as Southern Georgia. There's a lot going on everywhere!
But now that the sea turtles are nesting and the little hatchlings will emerge soon, there is much to be done to ensure that the babies make it out to the sea. Here's a quick little list of just some ways to help out:
It's exciting news to hear about nesting sea turtles, especially with the abnormally high numbers of stranded turtles popping up everywhere in the Gulf of Mexico. This year so far we've already seen the sea turtle death toll reach way higher than the normal average (around 150 reported). Most of the time though, accidental catches of sea turtles by fishermen are not even recorded, and the dead sea turtle is thrown overboard to sink and decay at the bottom of the ocean. Scientists estimate that the real number of marine mammals harmed in the BP spill may be up to 50 times higher than what we can observe.
In addition, the Atlantic green turtles are nesting in Tortuguero, Costa Rica; the loggerhead turtles are nesting on the West Florida coast; leatherbacks have arrived to nest on Eastern Florida beaches as well as Southern Georgia. There's a lot going on everywhere!
But now that the sea turtles are nesting and the little hatchlings will emerge soon, there is much to be done to ensure that the babies make it out to the sea. Here's a quick little list of just some ways to help out:
- Owners of beachfront property must turn out any porch lights after sunset, and use blackout curtains to keep light from getting out of their homes and shining out towards the beaches. Light bothers nesting sea turtles (except for red light). Plus, little hatchlings use light reflection off of the waves from the moon and stars to guide themselves toward the water. If they instead follow city lights inland, you will have lots of dead baby sea turtles all over city streets and parking lots in the morning.
- Again, if you own beachfront property, make sure you clear the beach of any umbrellas, chairs, or other obstacles that may block a sea turtle mother from nesting on the beach.
- And also, lock up your garbage because loose garbage = raccoons = animals that will eat baby sea turtles.
- Clean up beach litter to prevent sea turtles from becoming entangled, or to prevent them from eating it. Ingestion of plastic causes intestinal blockages, malnourishment, and may eventually lead to death.
- Support sea turtle conservation projects! Join a volunteer night patrol.
It's exciting news to hear about nesting sea turtles, especially with the abnormally high numbers of stranded turtles popping up everywhere in the Gulf of Mexico. This year so far we've already seen the sea turtle death toll reach way higher than the normal average (around 150 reported). Most of the time though, accidental catches of sea turtles by fishermen are not even recorded, and the dead sea turtle is thrown overboard to sink and decay at the bottom of the ocean. Scientists estimate that the real number of marine mammals harmed in the BP spill may be up to 50 times higher than what we can observe.
The high number of sea turtle deaths may not even be because of the oil spill—it is most likely because of shrimp trawling. The data all points to shrimp trawling as the top killer of sea turtles in the United States.
Daily Inspiration
'Today, in the cutest voice, my 8-year-old daughter asked me to start recycling. I chuckled and asked, “Why?” She replied, “So you can help me save the planet.” I chuckled again and asked, “And why do you want to save the planet?” “Because that’s where I keep all my stuff,” she said. Makes Me Think'
03 May 2011
Human Overpopulation
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| Wear a condom now... save the spotted owl. The Center for Biological Diversity was handing these out at ISTS in April. They're condom packages that feature various endangered species and provide information about humankind's overpopulation of Earth and the trouble it has caused for various endangered species. Humans are the most populous mammals on this planet, and we consume most of the natural resources available. We cut down trees that may have once been shelter for a tree frog, bird, beetle, monkey, or some other animal. We pollute bodies of water, home to dozens of species of fish, frogs, etc. We develop coastal areas for our own living, and destroy the nesting areas for sea turtles and the habitats of hundreds of other species. You get the picture. As more and more of us populate the Earth, we are running out of resources for even ourselves. (See post on Earth Overshoot Day) So if you and your significant other are planning on having a hundred kids, please think again. Don't have more than two (to replace you two). Even better, adopt. Find more at http://www.endangeredspeciescondoms.com/ |
STRP Google Oceans Posts!
This is what I've been working on for the past few months, and finally my posts are up on Google Oceans! There are three up so far: One about Australian flatbacks, one about Ostional's sustainable practices, and one about Kemp's ridleys nesting at Padre Island National Seashore. Check them out!
28 April 2011
Today I Added Up Totals of Stranded Sea Turtles...
One of my tasks at my internship today was to go through a bunch of excel sheets and total up the number of stranded (dead) sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico. Quite a depressing job. It took a while, because there were different sets of data for Alabama, Florida (Gulf coast), Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Florida and Texas by far had the greatest numbers, but I suspect it's because of their longer coastlines.
Here's what I found:
2007... 1252 total strandings.
2008... 1078 total strandings.
2009... 1259 total strandings.
2010... (BP oil spill) 2264 total strandings.
2011... we are not even half way through the year and the total number recorded is 1184.
:( Not a happy day at work today.
Here's what I found:
2007... 1252 total strandings.
2008... 1078 total strandings.
2009... 1259 total strandings.
2010... (BP oil spill) 2264 total strandings.
2011... we are not even half way through the year and the total number recorded is 1184.
:( Not a happy day at work today.
27 April 2011
Dolphin Sighting—Summer 2010
26 April 2011
Earth Overshoot Day
I found this article on Wikipedia about Earth Overshoot Day or Ecological Debt Day. Basically it is the day each year where the people of Earth enter a period of "deficit spending" of natural resources. Each year the date falls earlier and earlier, signifying humanity's overconsumption of Earth's available natural resources. What happens when we get to Jan 01? How long does humanity have left, really?
Not to scare you or anything.
The Ecological Debt Day for 2010 was August 21; 2009 was September 25.
Time to start practicing sustainability!
The BP Oil Spill—1 year and 6 days later
The short-term effects we've all seen: tar balls washing up on shores, oil plumes remaining underwater, oiled animals washing up, coastal habitats destroyed. But as the oil is slowly dispersed, it doesn't mean that it has gone away from the ecosystem. It's still there, but just in smaller batches and smaller parts. Oil that washes up on sandy beaches, for example, just sinks down into the layers of sand where it remains for decades, and possible centuries. There is still oil and tar on the beaches near Santa Barbara from an oil spill in 1969, and that spill was only 80,000 to 100,000 barrels.
So what about now? What are the long-term effects we are seeing? Well, for starters, some of the dispersal chemicals used in the cleanup process are known carcinogens to humans. So people involved in cleanup are at risk, and now these chemicals are out in the ocean where they have the potential to harm marine life as well. (If you haven't noticed I'm probably more concerned with the marine life in the Gulf, who cares what happens to the humans involved.) Also, I've just read on Wikipedia that dispersants have a serious impact on phytoplankton as well. We're killing the whole food chain/Gulf ecosystem from the bottom, up.
Other long-term effects we've seen: In 2011 alone, 77 dolphins have washed up dead on Gulf shores, but it's also been concluded that that number may be up to 50 times less than the real number of dolphin deaths caused by the spill. I think there's been about 200 since the spill. And what's more is all this scientific data is now being held and won't be shared because it is being used in the criminal investigation of the oil spill. So we won't know for sure what's going on for a while. You should check out this article, but beware of sad photos :(
At least 250 dead sea turtles have washed up in 2011 alone, over 130 seen this month alone. Usually about 150 dead turtles wash up every YEAR. So we've hit some unfortunate records there. That doesn't even count the other 400 plus turtles that were impacted because of the spill, primarily Kemp's ridleys but also loggerheads, greens, and hawksbills that inhabit Gulf of Mexico waters.
STRP Action Alert click here!
On the human health side of things—oil is not good for you. It damages your respiratory tract, your skin and causes miscarriages. The fishing industry is suffering seriously from the spill, costing people their livelihoods. Gulf coast tourism was affected as well. Overall, is offshore drilling worth the risk? We'll be seeing these effects for years and decades, probably centuries to come. I hope someday people will realize that fossil fuels are not the answer—we need clean, renewable energy now!
Someone please answer me: Why haven't we learned from our mistakes?
25 April 2011
Maybe Someday I'll Live in Hawai'i
The first full day we were in Hawai'i my dad, my brothers and I jumped on a boat and went off to scuba. I was certified in Hawai'i and the only other location where I've scuba dived is Breakwater in Monterey, CA. Where it is cold. And the vis was terrible. And the conditions were overall horrible. Maybe future experiences will make up for that one day.
Me, my bros, and my cousin all ready for a day of scuba!
The most amazing, coolest, awesomest, inspiring thing I've ever done in my life: night dive with manta rays. They are so graceful and beautiful my breath was completely taken away. Just be sure they don't swim right at your head and nearly take your mask off.
My family and I dove with 13 mantas, the largest measured 16 feet wide!
And on Earth Day I took a picture of my blue marble next to the beautiful ocean :)
And I got to see some cute little green sea turtles!
ISTS Day 4: The Last Day
So I took a week-long break to Hawaii (which I will talk about later), but I feel I must sum up my experience in San Diego at the International Sea Turtle Symposium.
Basically the last morning was filled with lots of running around, packing up the tabling supplies, loading the car, sitting around, looking for people, more sitting around and then sitting through a few interesting sessions. Tabling over the course of ISTS was probably the low point of the conference, and talking to people about my poster was definitely the high point.
I was so glad to be done with tabling. At times it was fun to talk to passer-bys and get them interested in what STRP is doing, having them sign our petitions and giving out free stickers. It was definitely a great deal more interesting to sit in on scientific presentations and try to figure out what in the world they were talking about. On the last day in particular, there were two sessions I sat in on. The first was "Population Assessments" and the second was "Threats."
In the population assessments session I learned that there are seven different breeding stocks of leatherbacks in the Atlantic, the largest of which breed in French Guiana. Some other guy started talking about hawksbill sea turtles found in Jumby Bay and Buck Island in the Caribbean—those two locations I only remember because of their funny sounding names. And there was a lot of confusing terminology being thrown around, such as neophyte and remigrant. After a while I caught on: a neophyte is a first time nesting sea turtle, and a remigrant is a sea turtle that has returned, or remigrated (aha!), to nest again at the same beach.
In the threats session the most notable memory I have is listening to this guy with an Australian accent say the words "bathymetric depth" over and over and over again. Also learned about el Niño and la Niña and how they influence hatchling success and sex ratios.
Friday morning we took down our beautiful posters. I was registered as a student, I was given the opportunity to have my poster assessed, but unfortunately I never got the results back. I felt like I did a really great job anyway. Mostly because quite a few people approached me to tell me so. I guess that was enough of an assessment for me. You can take a look at my poster and others by STRP here!
To finish off ISTS with a bang, they had Dr. Wallace J. Nichols give the closing speech, and as always he handed out Blue Marbles and encouraged us to pass them along to others. I think I ended up with three blue marbles over the course of the week.
I'm glad I ended up taking this opportunity to travel down to San Diego and publish this poster. To be quite honest it'll do wonders for my résumé, but I think it was more valuable for me to be meeting people and seeing what other activists, college students and scientists are working on and what I may able to research or work on in the future. Maybe next year I'll find an internship with sea turtle research?
Also thank you thank you thank you to the friends I stayed with in San Diego. They made the week so fun and less stressful for me!
Basically the last morning was filled with lots of running around, packing up the tabling supplies, loading the car, sitting around, looking for people, more sitting around and then sitting through a few interesting sessions. Tabling over the course of ISTS was probably the low point of the conference, and talking to people about my poster was definitely the high point.
I was so glad to be done with tabling. At times it was fun to talk to passer-bys and get them interested in what STRP is doing, having them sign our petitions and giving out free stickers. It was definitely a great deal more interesting to sit in on scientific presentations and try to figure out what in the world they were talking about. On the last day in particular, there were two sessions I sat in on. The first was "Population Assessments" and the second was "Threats."
In the population assessments session I learned that there are seven different breeding stocks of leatherbacks in the Atlantic, the largest of which breed in French Guiana. Some other guy started talking about hawksbill sea turtles found in Jumby Bay and Buck Island in the Caribbean—those two locations I only remember because of their funny sounding names. And there was a lot of confusing terminology being thrown around, such as neophyte and remigrant. After a while I caught on: a neophyte is a first time nesting sea turtle, and a remigrant is a sea turtle that has returned, or remigrated (aha!), to nest again at the same beach.
In the threats session the most notable memory I have is listening to this guy with an Australian accent say the words "bathymetric depth" over and over and over again. Also learned about el Niño and la Niña and how they influence hatchling success and sex ratios.
Friday morning we took down our beautiful posters. I was registered as a student, I was given the opportunity to have my poster assessed, but unfortunately I never got the results back. I felt like I did a really great job anyway. Mostly because quite a few people approached me to tell me so. I guess that was enough of an assessment for me. You can take a look at my poster and others by STRP here!
To finish off ISTS with a bang, they had Dr. Wallace J. Nichols give the closing speech, and as always he handed out Blue Marbles and encouraged us to pass them along to others. I think I ended up with three blue marbles over the course of the week.
I'm glad I ended up taking this opportunity to travel down to San Diego and publish this poster. To be quite honest it'll do wonders for my résumé, but I think it was more valuable for me to be meeting people and seeing what other activists, college students and scientists are working on and what I may able to research or work on in the future. Maybe next year I'll find an internship with sea turtle research?
Also thank you thank you thank you to the friends I stayed with in San Diego. They made the week so fun and less stressful for me!
14 April 2011
ISTS Day 3: Foraging, Physiology, and Movement... Among Other Sea Turtle Things
There was nothing special about today, but I managed to see most of the presentations dealing with foraging and movement of sea turtles. Most specifically I was able to see a number of presentations about leatherback sea turtles, my new obsession. These gigantic creatures are kind of freaky looking at first, but being the biggest and most unique of the sea turtle species I now find myself absolutely in love with them. I keep hearing Marc Ward of Sea Turtles Forever talk about one leatherback female named Rosie that he's seen nesting repeatedly, and oh gosh I wish I could be there to see her!!
Anywho, back to the conference. I had planned to be here since 8am watching presentations, but honestly I cannot get up that early no matter how hard I try. I arrived just in time to watch a presentations about conservation of leatherbacks and loggerheads in South Africa. It was supposed to be about conservation, but it also talked a lot about how the different biologies of the turtles allowed for one species population to recover faster than the other (the leatherback being better suited for recovery). The reason for leatherbacks having more success is because their nesting is less specific, and so they cover a wide area. The loggerheads return to very selective beaches. There were also several comments made about how now the population of leatherbacks in that area is estimated to be made largely of males now, an explanation for why not more females are coming to nest on South African beaches. Or something like that.
I saw another super cool presentation about loggerhead babies being tagged and released off of Western Florida, and they were observed following the Gulf Stream north, but also swimming away from the stream, unexpectedly. There was another presentation about Australian flatback turtles and their migration patterns, as well as those of Eastern and Western Pacific leatherbacks (yes, there's a difference). The West Pacific leatherbacks are so cool because depending on where they nest and at what time of year, they follow different migration routes. Those that breed in the winter tend to stay around Australia and tend to be larger in size, especially longer in length. Those that breed in the summer migrate across the entire Pacific ocean to forage off the Western U.S. coast, and tend to have a wider carapace (shell).
One last thing I learned today: the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Shelf is an important foraging location for juvenile loggerhead turtles born in Eastern Florida. It was observed in a study being presented that there are distinct seasonal and day/night trends in the sea turtle surfacing behavior. It was observed that loggerheads rarely dive deeply at night, which would make sense because there is less light for foraging so why waste the energy.
Sorry if I bore you, but you did have the choice to stop reading you know.
Now I'm just manning the table, protecting our merchandise with my life. We're out of free chocolate (bummer), but on the bright side I got a free poster of butterflies in Sri Lanka. I also got a free poster from a Nicaraguan organization. And speaking of posters I haven't been able to check out that other plastics one yet. It will happen tonight sometime! One hour until my last poster presentation!
Anywho, back to the conference. I had planned to be here since 8am watching presentations, but honestly I cannot get up that early no matter how hard I try. I arrived just in time to watch a presentations about conservation of leatherbacks and loggerheads in South Africa. It was supposed to be about conservation, but it also talked a lot about how the different biologies of the turtles allowed for one species population to recover faster than the other (the leatherback being better suited for recovery). The reason for leatherbacks having more success is because their nesting is less specific, and so they cover a wide area. The loggerheads return to very selective beaches. There were also several comments made about how now the population of leatherbacks in that area is estimated to be made largely of males now, an explanation for why not more females are coming to nest on South African beaches. Or something like that.
I saw another super cool presentation about loggerhead babies being tagged and released off of Western Florida, and they were observed following the Gulf Stream north, but also swimming away from the stream, unexpectedly. There was another presentation about Australian flatback turtles and their migration patterns, as well as those of Eastern and Western Pacific leatherbacks (yes, there's a difference). The West Pacific leatherbacks are so cool because depending on where they nest and at what time of year, they follow different migration routes. Those that breed in the winter tend to stay around Australia and tend to be larger in size, especially longer in length. Those that breed in the summer migrate across the entire Pacific ocean to forage off the Western U.S. coast, and tend to have a wider carapace (shell).
One last thing I learned today: the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Shelf is an important foraging location for juvenile loggerhead turtles born in Eastern Florida. It was observed in a study being presented that there are distinct seasonal and day/night trends in the sea turtle surfacing behavior. It was observed that loggerheads rarely dive deeply at night, which would make sense because there is less light for foraging so why waste the energy.
Sorry if I bore you, but you did have the choice to stop reading you know.
Now I'm just manning the table, protecting our merchandise with my life. We're out of free chocolate (bummer), but on the bright side I got a free poster of butterflies in Sri Lanka. I also got a free poster from a Nicaraguan organization. And speaking of posters I haven't been able to check out that other plastics one yet. It will happen tonight sometime! One hour until my last poster presentation!
ISTS Day 2: Student Day
So I'm sitting in the middle of a session titled "Conservation Through Social, Economic, Cultural, and Legal Pathways." I've heard some pretty interesting stuff so far, but it isn't hard to catch on because it's not science so I can multitask for the time being. More on that later.
Yesterday was Student Day at the symposium. This didn't really mean much, I sat through some talks in the morning, sat at the table all afternoon, had another poster presentation session, student mixer (lame—I got my free drink and went to go sit at the Turtle Island table again), and then the film festival. The presentation I especially wanted to see yesterday was "To Eat or Not to Eat? The Roles of Choice and Vision in Ingestion of Marine Debris by Sea Turtles" by a student of University of Queensland named Qamar Schuyler. There are only four of us here that have done work with plastics and their affects on sea turtles, including myself and my supervisor, so naturally I had to see what she had to say.
Qamar's work was based of the Eastern coast of Australia and over the course of a few years she and her supervisor had performed over a hundred necropsies on dead turtles that had washed up onshore. I don't recall her saying anything about plastic causing these deaths; their research was mainly focused on what types of plastics turtles were eating and seeing if the sea turtles had a preferred choice of plastic.
A few people dropped by my poster yesterday. There is always someone who walks by and comments on the impossibility of ridding the earth of plastics completely. "You're working towards the impossible," they say. Screw them, they'll be kicking themselves in their graves when I achieve the impossible. I'm not trying to ban every single plastic ever made, but to decrease the amount we use/produce significantly would have positive effects all over the world.
Right now I'm just waiting for another five minutes until there will be coffee and pastries served out in the main hallway, then I'll probably stop by the table and see if I can attend any more presentations this morning. I'm probably going to switch over from advocacy to the more science/biology/foraging research oriented speeches, so won't that be interesting?
Later, I can't wait to see poster #217 which is the other plastic debris poster up in the display room. But more on that later!
Yesterday was Student Day at the symposium. This didn't really mean much, I sat through some talks in the morning, sat at the table all afternoon, had another poster presentation session, student mixer (lame—I got my free drink and went to go sit at the Turtle Island table again), and then the film festival. The presentation I especially wanted to see yesterday was "To Eat or Not to Eat? The Roles of Choice and Vision in Ingestion of Marine Debris by Sea Turtles" by a student of University of Queensland named Qamar Schuyler. There are only four of us here that have done work with plastics and their affects on sea turtles, including myself and my supervisor, so naturally I had to see what she had to say.
Qamar's work was based of the Eastern coast of Australia and over the course of a few years she and her supervisor had performed over a hundred necropsies on dead turtles that had washed up onshore. I don't recall her saying anything about plastic causing these deaths; their research was mainly focused on what types of plastics turtles were eating and seeing if the sea turtles had a preferred choice of plastic.
A few people dropped by my poster yesterday. There is always someone who walks by and comments on the impossibility of ridding the earth of plastics completely. "You're working towards the impossible," they say. Screw them, they'll be kicking themselves in their graves when I achieve the impossible. I'm not trying to ban every single plastic ever made, but to decrease the amount we use/produce significantly would have positive effects all over the world.
Right now I'm just waiting for another five minutes until there will be coffee and pastries served out in the main hallway, then I'll probably stop by the table and see if I can attend any more presentations this morning. I'm probably going to switch over from advocacy to the more science/biology/foraging research oriented speeches, so won't that be interesting?
Later, I can't wait to see poster #217 which is the other plastic debris poster up in the display room. But more on that later!
13 April 2011
Blue Marbles
The story behind the blue marbles...
"When you've been given a blue marble, it is a gift to you for the good work you are doing for the planet. Over one million blue marbles are traveling from person to person right now.
Hold your marble in front of you: this is how our planet appears from 1 million miles away.
Hold your marble in front of you: this is how our planet appears from 1 million miles away.
Look closely into your blue marble at a light: in that much seawater you'll find an abundance of life and virtually every element.
Hold your marble to your head and think of someone who helps heal the world.
Hold it to your heart, and imagine presenting your blue marble as a gift to them with a simple, "thanks for doing what you are doing".
Carry your marble until you find the right person to give it to. Then, ask them to pass it along too. This is all we have: our only home, a fragile and beautiful blue marble."Taken from bluemarbles.org
Yesterday I received a blue marble from the See Turtles table at ISTS. Made my day!
ISTS Day 1: "Well this is going to be interesting, isn't it?"
Technically day 1 was Monday, but nothing exciting happened except for that myself and the other members of the Turtle Island Restoration Network team arrived at the symposium safe and sound. Now we're all registered, and things yesterday really kicked off.
This morning was the welcome event, which I missed... whoops. But there were lovely talks by Jeffrey Seminoff, the ISTS President, Peter Pritchard, a well known sea turtle zoologist, and Karen Bjorndal, a Prof at U of Florida who is also a sea turtle conservationist. Or I guess they were lovely, I wasn't there but I heard good things. The lesson here is to get there at 8 am even if you are told you don't have to be.
I did arrive just in time for the four-hour-long special session on "Finding Common Ground in Fisheries Management."It was a panel session made up of a few fishermen, a few men from the commercial fishing industry, an economist, a random professor who somehow knew something about fisheries but not sea turtles, and two representatives of environmental organizations (STRP and the Sea Turtle Conservancy).
First off, this symposium has over a thousand people in attendance. For some reason they decided to make this whole panel a bunch of old white men (and one woman), and the most diversity obtained was from an old white Australian man. They couldn't have gotten anyone else from the hundred other countries in attendance to speak about artesian fishing communities? Really?
Well despite that, the panel was incredibly interesting because of the bickering that went between Todd Steiner (STRP Director) and the fishermen/commercial fishery fellows. The first panelist introduced was a man named Peter Dupuy, who is a bitter California fisherman. Bitter, because he is no longer allowed to fish in California waters, understandable. He made his point that he had never harmed sea turtles with his fishery, and then showed pictures of Ostional, Costa Rica and claimed that they were poaching eggs. For a little background: Ostional is a community that harvests sea turtle EGGS in low low numbers. In exchange they provide necessary protection for the rest of the eggs, and they do not harm any of the actual nesting mother turtles. Overall, it is a completely sustainable program that has actually been beneficial to the sea turtle population.
Obviously someone didn't do his research. He also started calling unnamed NGOs "eco-terrorists"
The next panelist that was introduced was Marydelle Donnelly from the Sea Turtle Conservancy, and she flat out said that the National Marine Fisheries Service was to blame for not doing enough to help endangered sea turtles affected by the fishing industry.
I have written down a bunch of notes from this panel, but for the most part all I have written for the men from the fishing industry is "blah blah blah." They literally did not answer a single question asked of them and they bounced around from topic to topic, offering nothing except their opinions and not encouraging discussion. I believe the entire point of this panel was to get these individuals to see each others points of view, and to find a "common ground" on which they could agree. Naturally, this was not accomplished. There was a lot of talk that managing sustainable fisheries in order to protect sea turtles needs to be a part of a multinational effort, but honestly a bunch of white guys (and a gal) saying this is not going to help matters.
The Australian guy didn't seem to care about much, he explained the scientific method to a bunch of scientists. Really? Necessary? I think not. He did explain that the change in fishing and improved conservation needs to come from within communities, especially artesian fishing communities in third world countries. He said something about reaching out to the witch doctor in order to get the rest of the population to follow. The lesson of this story is, "Always look for the witch doctor first."
I loved most of the points Todd made—I have to, he's my executive director. He confronted the fishery guys about the use of special hooks and Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs), supporting that these technological advances are not going to work to save sea turtles all by themselves. There also needs to be other regulations in addition, there needs to be critical habitat established where fishing will not be allowed, and also a collaboration of efforts on protecting sea turtle nesting beaches. Every stage of the sea turtle's lives needs to be protected in order for their populations to rebound.
After that very long session, I grabbed some lunch and sat at our Turtle Island table in the main room until my supervisor, Chris Pincetich, gave his talk on challenges faced saving sea turtles during the BP oil spill. It was a short presentation but he brought light to a lot of issues that need to be addressed. During the BP spill, he explained, there was no on-water rescues of sea turtles being conducted until much damage had already been done. The coast guard especially weren't concerned with the animals out at sea that might have been affected, they waited until the animals washed up on shore to help them out. Not okay.
After his presentation it was time for the poster presentations and the cocktail hour. I grabbed a glass of wine and headed over to my poster and chatted with several people about my poster. I'll probably do an entire post on my poster and the points made in my poster because this post has really gone on for way too long.
Today is "Student Day" so there is much to look forward too. Student mixer tonight (another free drink!) followed by the Wild & Scenic Sea Turtle film festival where we will be showing The Heartbreak Turtle Today. I'll be here at the symposium until around 10 tonight with free wi-fi access, so I think I'll survive.
Pictures to come! As soon as I find my card reader...
This morning was the welcome event, which I missed... whoops. But there were lovely talks by Jeffrey Seminoff, the ISTS President, Peter Pritchard, a well known sea turtle zoologist, and Karen Bjorndal, a Prof at U of Florida who is also a sea turtle conservationist. Or I guess they were lovely, I wasn't there but I heard good things. The lesson here is to get there at 8 am even if you are told you don't have to be.
I did arrive just in time for the four-hour-long special session on "Finding Common Ground in Fisheries Management."It was a panel session made up of a few fishermen, a few men from the commercial fishing industry, an economist, a random professor who somehow knew something about fisheries but not sea turtles, and two representatives of environmental organizations (STRP and the Sea Turtle Conservancy).
First off, this symposium has over a thousand people in attendance. For some reason they decided to make this whole panel a bunch of old white men (and one woman), and the most diversity obtained was from an old white Australian man. They couldn't have gotten anyone else from the hundred other countries in attendance to speak about artesian fishing communities? Really?
Well despite that, the panel was incredibly interesting because of the bickering that went between Todd Steiner (STRP Director) and the fishermen/commercial fishery fellows. The first panelist introduced was a man named Peter Dupuy, who is a bitter California fisherman. Bitter, because he is no longer allowed to fish in California waters, understandable. He made his point that he had never harmed sea turtles with his fishery, and then showed pictures of Ostional, Costa Rica and claimed that they were poaching eggs. For a little background: Ostional is a community that harvests sea turtle EGGS in low low numbers. In exchange they provide necessary protection for the rest of the eggs, and they do not harm any of the actual nesting mother turtles. Overall, it is a completely sustainable program that has actually been beneficial to the sea turtle population.
Obviously someone didn't do his research. He also started calling unnamed NGOs "eco-terrorists"
The next panelist that was introduced was Marydelle Donnelly from the Sea Turtle Conservancy, and she flat out said that the National Marine Fisheries Service was to blame for not doing enough to help endangered sea turtles affected by the fishing industry.
I have written down a bunch of notes from this panel, but for the most part all I have written for the men from the fishing industry is "blah blah blah." They literally did not answer a single question asked of them and they bounced around from topic to topic, offering nothing except their opinions and not encouraging discussion. I believe the entire point of this panel was to get these individuals to see each others points of view, and to find a "common ground" on which they could agree. Naturally, this was not accomplished. There was a lot of talk that managing sustainable fisheries in order to protect sea turtles needs to be a part of a multinational effort, but honestly a bunch of white guys (and a gal) saying this is not going to help matters.
The Australian guy didn't seem to care about much, he explained the scientific method to a bunch of scientists. Really? Necessary? I think not. He did explain that the change in fishing and improved conservation needs to come from within communities, especially artesian fishing communities in third world countries. He said something about reaching out to the witch doctor in order to get the rest of the population to follow. The lesson of this story is, "Always look for the witch doctor first."
I loved most of the points Todd made—I have to, he's my executive director. He confronted the fishery guys about the use of special hooks and Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs), supporting that these technological advances are not going to work to save sea turtles all by themselves. There also needs to be other regulations in addition, there needs to be critical habitat established where fishing will not be allowed, and also a collaboration of efforts on protecting sea turtle nesting beaches. Every stage of the sea turtle's lives needs to be protected in order for their populations to rebound.
After that very long session, I grabbed some lunch and sat at our Turtle Island table in the main room until my supervisor, Chris Pincetich, gave his talk on challenges faced saving sea turtles during the BP oil spill. It was a short presentation but he brought light to a lot of issues that need to be addressed. During the BP spill, he explained, there was no on-water rescues of sea turtles being conducted until much damage had already been done. The coast guard especially weren't concerned with the animals out at sea that might have been affected, they waited until the animals washed up on shore to help them out. Not okay.
After his presentation it was time for the poster presentations and the cocktail hour. I grabbed a glass of wine and headed over to my poster and chatted with several people about my poster. I'll probably do an entire post on my poster and the points made in my poster because this post has really gone on for way too long.
Today is "Student Day" so there is much to look forward too. Student mixer tonight (another free drink!) followed by the Wild & Scenic Sea Turtle film festival where we will be showing The Heartbreak Turtle Today. I'll be here at the symposium until around 10 tonight with free wi-fi access, so I think I'll survive.
Pictures to come! As soon as I find my card reader...
06 April 2011
Plastic Debris Density Assessment Video!
So cool, I've made another video for STRP and another project called Sea Turtles Forever. Check it out!
30 March 2011
They're cute, they're little... they're the Kemp's ridleys!
Yesterday was the grand public premiere of STRP’s documentary, The Heartbreak Turtle Today, in Sausalito, CA. The film is about the recovery of Kemp’s ridley sea turtles in the Gulf, and the threats to their survival. Before the film my supervisor gave a presentation about the work he had conducted last summer dealing with the BP oil spill aftermath. We had a decent turn out, a few people bought DVDs, and all of them signed the petition we had out to “hold BP accountable for the disaster in the Gulf.”The Kemp’s ridleys (Lepidochelys kempii)are the most critically endangered of all sea turtle species. Decades ago they were nicknamed the Heartbreak turtle by fishermen who would say these turtles “died of a broken heart” when they were turned on their backs. Because fishermen were (are?) cruel, cruel beings who watch sea turtles suffer as they are flipped on their backs and struggle to get away.
Before the event had even began, the other intern and I were setting up a table of STRP information and merchandise and I came across a pile of old Viva La Tortuga (STRP) newsletters from 2007. Inside was a full page article that read, “Protections in Gulf Waters Lead to Record Kemps Ridley Nestings.” Oh the irony.
Over 10 years ago STRP had convinced then-Texas Governor George W. Bush to close state waters to shrimping from December to May—critical nesting period for Kemp’s ridleys. In the six years before this closure, only 60 nests were laid in total on Texas beaches. In the six years after this closure, there were four times as many nests. A great improvement, but ultimately shrimpers still kill hundreds and hundreds of turtles each year.
More and more turtles have been washing up on Gulf coast beaches. Dead. From oil-related reasons most likely, because the shrimping season is only about to begin.
Despite all this, offshore oil drilling continues…
Kemp’s ridley Profile
Appearance: The smallest of all sea turtle species, they only get to be about two feet long, and weigh up to 100 lbs. Hatchlings are black, but adults tend to be gray-green or dark gray with a cream colored underside.
Location: The only Kemp’s ridley nesting beaches are found on the coasts of Mexico and Texas. Primarily they inhabit the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana waters, but can sometimes be found along the Eastern U.S. coast.
Food: They eat mollusks, crustaceans, jellyfish, algae and seaweed. Crab and shrimp are favorites.
Reproduction: During the daytime, large groups of nesting females emerge from the ocean nearly simultaneously, an event called an arribada. In the 1940s, thousands of Kemp’s ridleys could be seen at once on the same beach. Unfortunately, because of the serious threats they face, only one percent of hatchlings grow to sexual maturity of about 10 years old.
Threats: Shrimp trawls are #1—in 2009 NMFS estimates that over 4000 Kemp's ridleys were killed from interactions with shrimping activities. Poaching is the second big one. Because they nest together in large numbers during the daytime, it is easy for poachers to take the eggs they are laying right from under them. Boat collisions are another threat, and so is ingestion of/entanglement in marine debris. Oh, and last but not least OIL is another big killer. Thanks a lot BP! Also thanks for burning hundreds of sea turtles alive, you jerks.
Visit STRP's website to find more information about Kemp's ridley sea turtles and The Heartbreak Turtle Today!!!!
20 March 2011
Loggerheads!
Loggerheads (Caretta caretta)
The United States Govt. recently has failed to increase protections for the endangered loggerhead sea turtles, despite overwhelming evidence. It is estimated their Pacific populations have dropped by over 80%, and may soon face extinction in the 21st century.
Appearance: Reddish-brown in color, with giant heads and powerful jaws, they weigh around 250 lbs and can grow to 4 feet long.
Locations: Found worldwide in warm and temperate ocean waters, and are the most common sea turtles found in the United States. The most important nesting beaches are on South Florida beaches (U.S.) and on Masirah Island (Oman).
The western coast of the United States is a significant migratory corridor for Pacific loggerheads. Pacific loggerheads will swim across the Pacific to California’s coast from their main breeding grounds in Japan. Baja California is an important area for loggerhead congregation.
Reproduction: They don’t reach sexual maturity until they’re between 20-30 years old, another reason why their populations have been suffering. Too many are killed before they’ve had a chance to mate and lay eggs. Females can lay three or more nests during the nesting season! Even so, of every 1,000 to 10,000 juvenile turtles that hatch, only two will grow up to become an adult.
Food: crabs, fish, mollusks, jellyfish, sea urchins, sponges and shrimp
Threats: Threats are pretty much the same for all sea turtle species: fishing gear-related incidents, loss of nesting habitat, bright artificial coastal city lights, boat collisions, accidental ingestion of or entanglement in plastic and marine debris, poaching and global warming.
According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, drowning or entanglement in longline fishing gear from commercial fisheries is a primary danger to the loggerheads.
Random Fact: The loggerhead is the state reptile of South Carolina and Florida
*Other General Sea Turtle Fact: The sex of sea turtle babies is dependant on temperature. The turtles that are closer to the surface (warmer) will develop as females, and the deeper eggs (colder) will develop into males. With global warming and climate change, the ratios have begun favoring higher numbers of female turtles.
Let's keep these guys from extinction! Every small effort makes a difference in marine conservation! Start out simple by using reusable grocery bags or reducing your driving.
Peace,Love&Sea Turtles!!
Also, P.S.—To whom it may concern, don't be mad I don't mean to steal this pic, I just found it on google image search.
18 March 2011
Plastic vs. Paper vs. Reusable cloth bags
I am getting absolutely SICK of these new articles that say plastic bags are more environmentally friendly than paper.
Can infants/toddlers and animals get caught in plastic and suffocate? Less likely.
Does plastic degrade in the environment? Not for hundreds if not thousands of years. (Nobody knows—they've only been around for half a century)
Not to mention, the only locations that recycle plastic bags are usually grocery stores. You know where you can recycle paper bags? Anywhere that takes paper.
Oh thats funny, because I HAVE been using my reusable bags for over a year. I DO reuse paper bags until they rip or something and then I recycle them. People act like these actions are too inconvenient and stressful, when really, it's so simple I don't even think about it anymore.
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