What Happened Last Week? : Diving for Cancer Cures and More

1. The Undersea Hunter Hosts Scientists Searching for Deep Sea Cancer Cures

The Undersea Hunter, long time partner and supporter of Sea Save Foundation, just released a description of an exciting expedition they took in the southern Caribbean. The expedition was alongside Pharmamar, a bio-pharmaceutical company, and the main goal of the trip was to search for cancer cures in the deep sea. The team took a series of samples at depths of 45 to 250 feet. All of the samples were done by hand with no equipment to ensure environmental preservation. During the two weeks, the team collected over 400 samples, most of which were sponges. The divers dove using Trimex which is a gas mix of helium, oxygen, and nitrogen that reduces the narcotic effect of deep diving. Read more...

This is just another way the team at The Undersea Hunter is helping scientists, filmmakers, and the everyday diver discover the complexity of life below sea level, and not only in their home base of Costa Rica but all over the world! The founders of The Undersea Hunter, Avi and Orly Klapfer and Yosy Naaman, and the rest of the team share Sea Save Foundation's commitment to ocean conservation and preservation. Both organizations have a shared passion to protect and preserve the waters of Cocos Island, a World Heritage Site and premiere diving destination. Not only is it a beautiful location, but because it has minimal human settlement, it serves as a vital baseline for scientific study. In February 2017, Sea Save Foundation and The Undersea Hunter have organized a trip to experience the waters of Cocos Island. Interested in this opportunity? More information can be found here! 

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2. Cheers to New Beverage Innovation!

For years, pictures promoting marine conservation have shown different species with plastic six pack rings around their fins, heads, beaks, ect. Saltwater Brewing in Delray Beach, Florida has developed an edible six-pack ring that will help save marine life from being entangled and reduce plastic debris. The packaging was developed from spent grain from the brewing process! Saltwater Brewing is paving the way for innovative and environmentally conscious packaging and we hope others will consider following! Read more...

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3. UN Treaty - Fights Illegal Fishing  

Last week, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced that six countries will ratify the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA). With the addition of Dominica, Guinea-Bissau, Sudan, Thailand, Tonga, and Vanuatu, 30 countries have now ratified the international treaty. PSMA will require captains to make advanced notice of their arrival in port, increased documentation and through inspections. It has been estimated that one in every 5 wild-caught marine fish has been illegally caught. Not only does illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing contribute to the overfishing issue but, it also causes economic plain for many coastal communities.   Read more...

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4. Accountability for California's Massive 2015 Oil Spill

This is a tragic headline. Remember the 2015 Santa Barbara, California oil spill? Well, a Santa Barbara County grand jury has just indicted Plains All American Pipeline with 46 criminal counts. The company's operations oversights caused around  143,000 gallons of crude oil to flow into the coast. The company was found to have 175 operating violations which involved pipeline corrosion, operator error, pump failure, and equipment malfunction. The arraignment for the case is scheduled for June 2nd.  Read more...

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5. Discovery Channel Announces Jaw-Some Shark Week

Only one more month until Shark Week! That's right, we are gearing up to start watching some amazing footage and programs June 26th through July 3rd. Discovery Channel has announced the line up and descriptions of the programs. This year, Discovery will continue the commitment to showing their audiences true footage in nature. Many of the shows include footage and findings from scientific studies. We can't wait!  Read more...

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Be sure to "LIKE" http://facebook.com/SeaSave to ensure our "Last Week in Review" is delivered to your newsfeed every Monday. 

Sea Save Foundation is committed to raising awareness of marine conservation. The Week in Review is a team effort produced by the Sea Save staff to provide a weekly summary of the latest in marine research, policy, and news.

Week in Review: Will We See the End to Marine Animal Captivity?

1. Will We See the End to Marine Animal Captivity?

Last month an advocacy group named Australia for Dolphins launched an appeal to end dolphin captivity in New South Wales. The legislative bid has received a tremendous amount of cross-party support. A young dolphin died last year at one of the two dolphin parks in the state. It was revealed that the dolphin died from ingesting leaves, stick, and a small piece of metal which all lead to an ulcer forming in his belly. Now that SeaWorld in the United States has announced that it will end the killer whale breeding programs and exhibitions, will we continue to see a reduction in captive animals? Read more...

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2. Sea Level Rise Swallows 5 Whole Pacific Islands!

That's right, SWALLOWS. This week, Environmental Research Letters published an article revealing that at least five reef islands in the remote Solomon Islands have been completely lost to sea-level rise and coastal erosion. Other islands are experiencing significant erosion but remain above sea level. The engulfed islands ranged from one to five hectares and were actually home to families. For the past 20 years, the sea surrounding the Solomon Islands has risen at three times the global average- approximately 7-10mm per year.    Read more...

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3. The Robot Exploring the Deepest Parts of the Ocean

The Okeanos Explorer has spent the last month exploring one of the largest mysteries in the world, the Mariana Trench. The scientists have used the ROV Deep Discoverer to conduct daily dives at depths between 250 to 6,000 meters. During the expedition research will be conducted on the hydrothermal vents, mud volcanoes, seamounts, and sea life at these extreme depths. The United States government expedition is streaming live video from the Mariana Trench until July 10th! Take a look  here...

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4. Fueling El Nino

El Nino has been a hot topic this year, no pun intended. The 2015 and 1997 El Ninos were the strongest on record in the month of October. A new study provides insight into how the current El Nino formed in the Pacific Ocean. The team reviews the sea surface and sub-surface temperatures, winds, and volumes of warm water in the Pacific ocean to analyze how the factors are related. Sea surface temperatures and winds are closely coupled but, there is still some unpredictable behavior. According to the study, it is possible that the easterly winds in 2014 actually gave rise to the 2015-2016 El Nino. The winds prevented the transportation of warm   Read more...

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5. Northern Galapagos Islands Home to World's Largest Shark Biomass

A study published in Peer just revealed that the northern Galapagos islands of Darwin and Wolf are home to the largest shark biomass reported to date- around 12.4 tons per hectare. You know what my first thought was...let's go diving to see all of them! 

So sure, there are a lot of sharks in that area but, why do we really care? Well, the presence of these top predators indicate a healthy marine ecosystem. Although there is a large shark biomass, the abundance of reef fish in the area has been reduced by over fishing. This area only gained full protection after the Ecuadorian government announced the creation of a marine sanctuary around Darwin and Wolf in March.  Read more...

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Be sure to "LIKE" http://facebook.com/SeaSave to ensure our "Week in Review" is delivered to your newsfeed every Thursday. 

Sea Save Foundation is committed to raising awareness of marine conservation. The Week in Review is a team effort produced by the Sea Save staff to provide a weekly summary of the latest in marine research, policy, and news.

Sea Save Foundation's "Week in Review" May 7, 2016

1. World Needs to Unite to Combat Coral Bleaching- UN Considers International Treaty

Yes, and here's why. The United Nations treaty for the Agreement on Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction will help us focus on greater biodiversity preservation. This treaty has been a topic of conversation for 12 years. Recently there was a pre-negotiation process that helped define the prime issues:1) Creating marine protected areas and marine reserves, 2) Implementing environmental impact assessments for maritime activities, 3) Improving technology transfer and capacity building for developing countries, and 4) Managing and distributing the benefits of marine genetic resources. To learn more about the significance of this treaty and how it differs from any other international agreement  read here...

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2. CITIES Prep - Record Backing to Protect Sharks From Fin Trade

In September, Sea Save Foundation will travel to South Africa as official attendees of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.) The international community will convene for this critical meeting.  During this meeting, 182 member countries will review proposals to add 13 species of sharks and rays to the CITES list. If these proposals are passed, this would double the proportion of the shark-fin trade CITES regulated to 20 percent. Over the last three years, there has been a drastic increase in implementation and enforcement action against illegally traded shark fins. Last year, Hong Kong confiscated more than a metric ton of illegally traded shark fins. Sea Save is looking forward to attending the conference in Johannesburg in September and help continue the shark protection around the world. Read more...

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3. Ocean's Oxygen Starts Running Low

This week, an article was published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles revealing that climate change is not only warming the world's oceans but making it harder for marine life to breath. Increase temperatures are altering the levels of dissolved oxygen in the world's oceans. Using an earth system modeling approach, the scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Georgia Institute of Technology mapped out changing oxygen levels across the world's oceans through the end of the 21st century. As soon as 2030 to 2040, climate-drive declines in oxygen levels will be detectable in oceans all over the globe. Read more...

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4. Wave of Dead Sea Creatures Hits Chile's Beaches

Last year, scientists found over 300 whales dead on Chile's Pacific beaches. At the start of the year, a surge in algae in the water choked to death an estimated 40,000 tons of salmon in the Los Lagos region. That was approximately 12 percent of the annual salmon production in Chile. This month, 8,000 tons of sardines washed up at the mouth of the central Queule River while thousands of dead clams piled up on the coast. Why are all of these abnormal things occurring? Scientists blame the anomalies on El Nino.  Read more...

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5. Shark Are Going with the Flow

A team of scientists from Nova Southeastern University, Florida, and Bradley Wetherbee of the University of Rhode Island recently studied the habits of three shark species- tiger, lemon, and Caribbean reef. The study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE revealed that although all three species are present year-round in the deep coral reefs, the sharks use patterns differ. The findings suggest that fish prey location may influence the movements of their shark predators. The lemon shark presence was associated with seasonal grouper spawning aggregations. Read more...

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Be sure to "LIKE" http://facebook.com/SeaSave to ensure our "Week in Review" is delivered to your newsfeed every Thursday. 

Sea Save Foundation is committed to raising awareness of marine conservation. The Week in Review is a team effort produced by the Sea Save staff to provide a weekly summary of the latest in marine research, policy, and news.