“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”
Jacques Cousteau
Our Oceans Our Lives is an educational blog chronicling inspiring stories and lessons learned during our sailing expedition from Maine to Florida to the Bahamas and beyond – exploring the health and sustainability of our oceans, coastal habitats, and the communities that depend upon sustainable marine resources in order to survive. Although we will identify major threats, we will focus on inspiring solutions.
Our oceans are the lifeblood of our planet and flow over nearly three-quarters of Earth’s surface. They hold 97% of our planet’s water, produce more than half the oxygen in our atmosphere, and absorb the most carbon from it. The air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, and products we consume come from and are transported over the oceans. The oceans also regulate global temperature and climate; form the clouds that bring us fresh water; supply living and non-living resources: from fisheries to minerals and renewable energy; and provide social and economic goods and services: from tourism and recreation to marine transport and security. No matter where we live, our quality of life, and indeed life itself, depends upon healthy oceans!
Our Oceans are the largest ecosystems and largest life-support systems on Earth. But they are in peril – facing a myriad of problems. They are 30% more acidic than they were at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and over 90% of Earth’s excess heat from global warming has been absorbed by them. This trend is killing them! And we know the main villain behind climate change: our addiction to burning dirty fossil fuels.
And the problems continue… Overfishing is devastating the diversity of marine life: 90% of big-fish stocks have disappeared since 1950. Warming temperatures, runoff from fertilizers and pesticides, and the dumping of harmful chemicals are causing a growing number of ocean dead zones with over 400 lifeless areas known to exist today. Mercury pollution is traveling from coal power plants to oceans to fish to our dinner plates. Plastics are accumulating in a great patch of plastic soup the size of Texas in the Pacific. Discarded plastic bags floating in the ocean look a lot like jelly fish, a staple food source of sea turtles, and when digested, are killing them. And as millions of plastic bottles and containers end up in the ocean, they break down into billions of tiny shards of micro-plastics consumed by and killing untold numbers of marine life. And the loss of critical wetland and estuary habitat (nature’s nurseries), are disappearing in urban sprawl.
Yes, the problems our oceans are facing are big; But the SOLUTIONS are BIGGER! We have the knowledge, technology and resources to restore our oceans to a healthy state. David Brower once said: “Polite conservationists leave no mark save the scars upon the Earth that could have been prevented
had they stood their ground.” If we want to stop the pollution and loss of habitat that is killing our oceans and pass on to our children and grandchildren a healthy world capable of supporting life, the time for action is now! On the boat we call planet Earth, we have only ourselves to look to for help! It is not enough to know and not act! Solutions are here, and we need to care enough to implement them.
Our Oceans Our Lives blog will introduce you to the issues threatening our oceans, and most importantly, to inspiring people and organizations working to conserve and restore the health of ocean and coastal habitats and the human communities that depend on them for survival. We will introduce you to fishermen and scientists, conservationists and civic leaders, teachers and students, families and ordinary citizens – all of whom share a love of our oceans and an unflinching commitment to restoring them to a healthy state. Come meet people who tackle the impossible and succeed – people who may inspire you to do the same…
This blog will take a systems approach in focusing on five key areas:
- Climate change – and its impact on ocean warming, acidification, and loss of marine life
- Ocean pollution – everything from plastics to agricultural runoff, from chemicals to human waste, and from coal to mercury… to our dinner plates
- Overfishing – and its impact on marine life and the sustainability of coastal communities
- Estuaries – including loss of habitat, pollution and human impacts on the health of wetlands (nature’s aquatic nurseries)
- Storytelling – a key focus is on telling stories of inspiring people who have committed their lives to restoring healthy ocean habitats so that both marine life, and the communities that depend on them, can thrive.
David Orr said: “Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up.” This blog is dedicated to those who have rolled up their sleeves and are inspiring others to do the same…
For a look at the compelling need for action to save our oceans, check out the following short videos:
Blue Solutions – Inspiring solutions for sustainable use and conservation of marine biodiversity
Brian Skerry’s Ted Talk: The ocean’s glory – and horror.
To learn more about our climate and ocean conservation expedition, check out this link. To view a video on our project, check out this link.
For information on ocean conservation success stories, check out the Top 10 Ocean Conservation Victories of 2016
To explore what you can do, check out 101+ Ways to Make a Difference.
If you would like to sign-up to receive Our Oceans Our Lives blogs, click here, and stay tuned for inspiring stories and ways that you can make a difference in conserving our ocean habitats.