Alaska Archives - Mission Blue

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Prince William Sound is Alaska’s First Hope Spot!

Prince William Sound lies in the heart of the southcentral Alaska coastline, encompassing 3,500 miles of intricate coastline. With a dramatic landscape of fjords, islands, and over 150 glaciers, Prince William Sound is home to a vibrant diversity of wildlife. Over 220 species of birds share the Sound with brown and black bears (Ursus arctos, U. americanus) and an array of marine mammals including orca (Orcinus orca), minke (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) and humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae).
 

 
Prince William Sound is a resilient ecosystem and holds significant historical, cultural and spiritual value. Past impacts include logging and mining activities, whaling and sea otter trades, the 1964 earthquake, and notably, the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, from which recreation and wilderness values as well as some seabird and marine mammal populations are still recovering.…

Posted in Dr. Sylvia Earle, Featured, hope spots, mission blue, Multimedia, Partner Stories, Photo of the Day, Uncategorized |

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Regulators Empower Fishing Interests in the Bering Sea Hope Spot

We bring sad news today. At a recent meeting in Alaska, fishing regulators voted to kill the Bering Sea Initiative, which sought to bring protection from trawling to vast deep-water canyons that contained 50-85% of all the coral in the region. In partnership with Greenpeace, the Mission Blue community had petitioned the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC) for years to consider the clear scientific evidence provided to them and make commonsense protections for the Bering Sea canyons. Their own scientists even concurred, specifically pointing out Pribilof canyon as a coral hot spot in the Bering Sea. Still, the Council rejected science, supported the fishing industry and trawling remains open for business in waters that contain cascading ridges of centuries-old corals, sea sponges and a host of other marine life – a silent, slow-motion underwater tragedy.…

Posted in .Homepage, Featured, mission blue |

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The Best Science on Alaska’s Bering Sea Canyons Just Got Better

by Jackie Dragon

Scientists have recently made critical new discoveries about some of the most ecologically significant waters in the United States: the Bering Sea canyons. With new information in hand, the case for Bering Sea conservation has never been stronger. 
In more good news for ocean conservation, scientists have recently made critical new discoveries about some of the most ecologically significant waters in the United States: the Bering Sea canyons. Two new studies have mapped the area and its teeming “Green Belt” like never before, pinpointing the locations of fragile coral and sponge habitat in need of protection.
With this new information in hand, the case for protecting these key regions in the Bering Sea has never been stronger.
Two Studies Confirm Importance of the Green Belt
The first new study, by the Marine Science Institute at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Greenpeace, found that the Pribilof canyon is the most significant location for deep-sea corals and sponges along the entire eastern Bering Sea shelf.…

Posted in Partner Stories |

Protect the Grand Canyons of the Ocean

By Courtney Mattison

Hidden below the surface of Alaska’s icy waters lie the world’s largest underwater canyons, both more massive than America’s Grand Canyon. Home to orcas, walrus and fur seals, albatross and kittiwakes, king crab, squid, salmon and coldwater corals, brittle stars and sponges, the continental slope and canyons of the Bering Sea (known as the Bering Sea “Green Belt”) are home to an immense diversity of wildlife. Spanning more than 770,000 square miles between Western Alaska and Russia’s Siberian coast, the Bering Sea is an area of immense ecological value is also the source of more than half of the seafood caught in the United States and is subject to devastating commercial fishing tactics. This week, Mission Blue is launching a petition to urge Alaska’s North Pacific Fishery Management Council to protect the Bering Sea canyons and Green Belt.…

Posted in .Homepage, Featured, mission blue |

Act now to protect our ocean and fresh water

By Riki Ott, PhD on behalf of The ALERT Project
I am a survivor of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, a marine toxicologist, a commercial fisherman, and an author – turned activist. The turning happened 26 years ago today, when I flew over the wreck of the Exxon Valdez in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The Sound – my backyard, my fishing grounds, and most importantly, a place I loved. The giant inky stain on the water was… overwhelming. Intimidating. It was vast, and I was only one person. What could I do? As I flew over the ocean of oil, I realized I knew enough to make a difference… did I care enough? The answer, I knew, would change my life.…

Posted in mission blue |

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Carl Safina Reports from the Gyre

No Refuge: Tons of Trash Covers The Remote Shores of Alaska
A marine biologist traveled to southwestern Alaska in search of ocean trash that had washed up along a magnificent coast rich in fish, birds, and other wildlife. He and his colleagues found plenty of trash – as much as a ton of garbage per mile on some beaches.
by Carl Safina
I am back ashore after an unusual expedition that brought scientists and artists to witness and respond to beach trash on the shores of southern Alaska. I have good and bad news.
The expedition was called GYRE, partly because much of the trash spins out of the North Pacific Ocean gyre, and partly because of the trip’s message: what goes around comes around.…

Posted in Uncategorized |

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Shell Agrees Not to Drill For Oil in the Arctic in 2012

By Andrew Hartsig
This week, Shell admitted what we’ve known all along: the company is just not ready to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean.
This past weekend, a failed test of Shell’s oil spill containment system resulted in damage to the dome designed to contain oil in the event of a spill. In light of the damage to the containment dome, Shell announced that it was abandoning its plans to drill into oil-bearing layers in the Arctic Ocean this summer. The company said its drilling operations in the Arctic Ocean this summer would be limited to “top holes”—initial sections of wells that do not penetrate into known oil-bearing layers.
According to one media report, trouble with the containment dome started when one of the dome’s winches failed to operate correctly.…

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