A Few Pics from Coastal Cleanup Day: Leo Carrillo State Beach - Malibu, CA

California Coastal Cleanup Day 2012

Epic Video: The World's Best Scuba Diving Destinations

Uh. maze. ing.


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Beyonce Knowles Scuba Dives in the Red Sea, Feels Grounded by the Ocean

Even celebrities can't resist the perspective our beloved sport offers participants.

She explained: "I'm always happiest when I'm surrounded by water, I feel like a mermaid, I think I was a mermaid.

"The ocean makes me feel really small and it puts my whole life in perspective. It reminds me I'm a very little piece of this huge earth and it humbles me and grounds me. It makes me feel almost like I've been baptised and I'm born again when I get out of the ocean."

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She explained: "After I finished the last tour, I was a bit overwhelmed and overworked and my mother was the person who preached to me - almost harassed me - every day, saying, 'You really need to live your life and open your eyes, you don't want to wake up with no memories and never being able to see the world.'

"I never realised I needed a year off and I never realised I didn't know how to take a year off.

"I went scuba diving in the red sea and the coral was spectacular, it was unreal that something that beautiful exists and I was so close to it.

"I was in such a great peaceful state it inspired purity. I was able to spend time with my family and pick my nephew up from school and it gave me time to reflect and think about my life."

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The Inspirational Jacques Cousteau

If this video doesn't make your heart race, we're not sure what will.


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Suite Life: A Room Beneath the Indian Ocean

WOW! How's this for a honeymoon suite with a view?

When it comes to honeymoon destinations, most newlyweds have set aside a nice little bundle for their ultimate getaway.

But a unique suite in the Maldives - while offering unbeatable views of the local marine life - is likely to eat up the entire average wedding budget, let alone the honeymoon accommodation costs.

Conrad hotels are offering a breathtaking suite at their Maldives Rangali Islands resort, which has to be seen to be believed.

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Happy World Oceans Day 2010!

Today is the day (but shouldn't be the only day) we set aside every year as an opportunity to honor and raise awareness about issues surrounding the world's oceans!

From the United Nations, which in 2008 declared June 8 as World Oceans Day:

... World Oceans Day allows us to highlight the many ways in which oceans contribute to society. It is also an opportunity to recognize the considerable challenges we face in maintaining their capacity to regulate the global climate, supply essential ecosystem services and provide sustainable livelihoods and safe recreation.

To help celebrate the effort behind and the celebration of World Oceans Day, 10% of all Neutral Dive Gear proceeds today will be donated to The Ocean Project.

Tasked with instilling in people a lasting and measurable awareness of the importance, value, and sensitivity of the ocean, The Ocean Project in partnership with the World Ocean Network has been promoting World Oceans Day since 2003. And we're so thankful for all their hard work.

So grab some stylish scuba threads and help us donate to a terrific organization working diligently to advance ocean conservation!

Tomorrow... Oceans

Are you as stoked as we are to see this?


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For all the info, visit Oceans | Disneynature.

Mysterious Current Drags Away Divers at La Jolla Cove

There are some crazy currents being reported out of San Diego this week.

Scuba enthusiasts are urged to take extra precautions in the waters off La Jolla Shores today following a report of a strong underwater current that pulled about a half-dozen divers into deep water and made it difficult for them to surface.

The group of divers reported getting caught in the undertow while roughly 30 feet underwater about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, San Diego lifeguard Lt. Andy Lerum said.

They said the phenomenon lasted about 10 minutes and rapidly pulled them 30-50 feet deeper. Several described hanging on to the edge of a deep underwater canyon in the area to keep from being dragged farther down.

The divers eventually surfaced, feeling the grip of the current lessen as they reached the top, Lerum said. There were no injuries.

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Be careful out there, folks.

Obama Gives US First National Ocean Policy

President George W. Bush's ocean conservation legacy was responsible for creating the Marine Protected Area around the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, known as the Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Monument.

Now, President Obama has now given the United States the first national ocean policy.

President Barack Obama on Friday set up a task force to craft the first US national policy for sustainably managing the country's oceans, drawing praise from environmentalists who said the move was long overdue.

"We are taking a more integrated and comprehensive approach to developing a national ocean policy that will guide us well into the future," Obama said in a proclamation declaring June "National Oceans Month."

The proclamation was issued along with a memorandum setting up the high-level Ocean Policy Task Force.

"Our nation's economy relies heavily on the oceans ... They support countless jobs in an array of industries including fishing, tourism and energy," the president said.

The task force will be led by the chair of the Council on Environmental Quality -- the main environmental policy adviser to the US president -- Nancy Sutley, the memorandum said.

Made up of senior policy-level officials, it will draft several recommendations and draw up a "comprehensive, integrated, ecosystem-based" framework for sustainably using the resources of US oceans, coasts and the Great Lakes.

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It's always nice to see top politicians taking ocean conservation seriously.

Hat tip: Dive Photo Guide

Empire State Building Goes Blue for World Oceans Day

In recognition of (the first ever) World Oceans Day, the Empire State Building will be going blue this evening.

Very cool!

Hat tip: Alisa

Happy World Oceans Day 2009!

Here's a little background from The Ocean Project:

The concept for World Oceans Day was proposed in 1992 by the Government of Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and it had been unofficially celebrated every year since then. Official designation by the U.N. is a significant step in conserving and protecting our world's ocean.

World Oceans Day provides an opportunity each year to celebrate our world ocean and our personal connection to the sea. The Ocean Project, working closely with the World Ocean Network each year, helps to coordinate events and activities with aquariums, zoos, museums, conservation organizations, universities, schools, businesses.

As of 2009, "World Oceans Day" has been officially declared by the United Nations as June 8th each year! Congratulations to all for helping make this happen!

Today, do your best to wear blue and tell two!

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Nation's Largest Desalination Project Up for Final Approval

Here's an interesting story out of Southern California.

Desalination's transformation into a viable, mainstream water technology has long hinged on nettlesome fights over permits and politics. But with the largest proposed seawater conversion plant in the United States poised to be approved this week in San Diego, there is another problem: money.

The proposed $300 million plant, which would be built next to a coastal power station in Carlsbad, Calif., has long been viewed as a symbol of desalination's plight in the United States. The project developer, Poseidon Resources Corp., has been winding its way through a maze of state and local agencies for six years, battling community groups, environmental organizations and wary politicians who fear desalinated water will mean added expense and environmental damage.

But that picture could change if the San Diego Regional Water Board votes for final approval. The stakes are high for desalination as many in the industry consider the plant a test case that could trigger a wave of development, especially in thirsty California.

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The question is, of course, what will this mean for coastal wildlife and shallow ocean life in the area?

Further, in 2007 Florida's largest desalination plant was five years old and $40 million over budget. At a time when California is so deeply in debt, are residents to expect the same from this project?

If this development is approved, let's hope project managers do everything in their power to limit -- and avoid all together -- any negative environmental or fiscal impacts to California.

Hat tip: Blogfish

Jellies Gone Wild

Large concentrations of jellies are apparently causing a stir as of late.

Huge swarms of stinging jellyfish and similar slimy animals are ruining beaches in Hawaii, the Gulf of Mexico, the Mediterranean, Australia and elsewhere, U.S. researchers reported on Friday.

The report says 150 million people are exposed to jellyfish globally every year, with 500,000 people stung in the Chesapeake Bay, off the U.S. Atlantic Coast, alone.

Another 200,000 are stung every year in Florida, and 10,000 are stung in Australia by the deadly Portuguese man-of-war, according to the report, a broad review of jellyfish research.

The report, available on the Internet at http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/jellyfish/index.jsp, says the Black Sea's fishing and tourism industries have lost $350 million because of a proliferation of comb jelly fish.

The report says more than 1,000 fist-sized comb jellies can be found in a cubic yard (meter) of Black Sea water during a bloom.

They eat the eggs of fish and compete with them for food, wiping out the livelihoods of fishermen, according to the report.

And it says a third of the total weight of all life in California's Monterey Bay is made up of jellyfish.

Human activities that could be making things nice for jellyfish include pollution, climate change, introductions of non-native species, overfishing and building artificial structures such as oil and gas rigs.

George W. Bush's Ocean Conservation Legacy

Blogfish has a good post on what many would assume to be an oxymoron: George W. Bush's ocean conservation legacy.

Can this be real? Yes, at least for oceans. President Bush is considering some new Marine Protected Areas, and he's already an ocean conservation champion for his work creating the Marine Protected Area around the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, the Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Monument.

To the casual observer of politics, this may appear to be a simple case of legacy-building -- a half-hearted attempt to do something memorable just before the end of a president's term.

But, as Blogfish points out, the Bush administration has actually done a good job to help end overfishing. And as we have shared with you in the past, President Bush actually created the largest marine preserve and has promoted ocean conservation with various events like the White House Easter Egg Roll.

Regardless of your politics, let's join Blogfish and give President Bush credit where credit is due.

Miss Indonesia Feels Connection to the Sea, Compelled to Help Conserve

And we're cool with that.

In fact, we're cool with just about everything Miss Indonesia does.

With her celebrity status, Miss Indonesia 2005 Nadine Chandrawinata could become a messenger or ambassador for any cause she wants.

But the 24-year-old actress and model said she wanted to be an ambassador for coral reefs because she is a ocean lover.

“I have some kind of connection with the sea. If I fall in love or if I’m feeling blue, I will go to the sea. The sea also gives me inspiration and ideas. So I think I have to do something for the sea,” Nadine told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a national meeting on coral reefs in Jakarta on Wednesday evening.

Her concerns for sea conservation has seen the international environmental organization, the World Wildlife Fund, choose her as its ambassador for marine conservation. Wakatobi regency in Southeast Sulawesi province has also chosen Nadine, who is a certified diver, as its eco-tourism ambassador.

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Hat tip: Dive Photo Guide

Who is the Nouveau Cousteau?

An interesting article by Kimberly Cutter.

Not long ago, it must have seemed to Fabien Cousteau that the end of his troubles was in sight. After decades of struggling in the shadow of his ocean-exploring father, Jean-Michel Cousteau, and his iconic grandfather, Jacques Cousteau, Fabien was coming into his own.

He had completed his first self-produced film, a controversial shark documentary, Mind of a Demon; he had a starring role in his father's hit series, Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Adventures; he had a deal with a cable network to create his own series. Most important, the legal battles that had plagued the Cousteaus for the past decade seemed to be coming to an end.

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Great White Sharks Look for Girlfriends in Underwater Singles Bar

Now here's a story for your Friday!

Great white sharks travel huge distances and mysteriously spend up to six months gathered at an isolated spot in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii.

Satellite tagging has revealed that male and female sharks make frequent and repetitive dives together, which may be linked to courtship.

The stretch of ocean the sharks make for - from both California and Mexico - is not a particularly rich feeding ground but it may act as a "singles bar" where they can find a mate.

"There is something going on there but as yet we don't know," said marine biologist Professor Ron O'Dor. "Maybe it's just a good place to pick up girl sharks."

The shark mystery is one of thousands to emerge from an ambitious attempt to compile the first comprehensive survey of life in the world's oceans.

The Census of Marine Life is a 10-year project which will summarise everything known about all forms of life in the sea.

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New Wonders Found In The Oceans' Depths

From CBS News:

A city of brittle stars off the coast of New Zealand, an Antarctic expressway where octopuses ride along in a flow of extra salty water and a carpet of tiny crustaceans on the Gulf of Mexico sea floor are among the wonders discovered by researchers compiling a massive census of marine life.

"We are still making discoveries," but researchers also are busy assembling data already collected into the big picture of life in the oceans, senior scientist Ron O'Dor said.

The fourth update of the census was released Sunday ahead of a meeting of hundreds of researchers that begins Tuesday in Valencia, Spain. More than 2,000 scientists from 82 nations are taking part in the project, which is to be completed in 2010.

A discovery that delights O'Dor is that many deep-ocean octopuses share an Antarctic origin. As the Antarctic got colder, ice increased and octopuses were forced into deeper water, he said in a telephone interview.

Salt and oxygen are concentrated in the deeper waters, he said. This dense water then flows out, carrying along the octopuses that have adapted to the new conditions, enabling them to spread to deep waters around the world.

Deep-water octopuses worldwide, he pointed out, lack the ink sack that allows their shallow-water cousins to shoot out a camouflage screen.

After all, if they live where it is dark, ink is unnecessary, said O'Dor, a Canadian member of the research team.

Patricia Miloslavich, a senior scientist from Venezuela, is pleased with newly-discovered mollusks, from snails to cuttlefish to squids.

Once the census is complete, the plan is to publish three books: a popular survey of sea life, a second book with chapters for each working group, and a third focusing on biodiversity.

O'Dor said also researchers are working with the online scientific journal PLoS ONE, which is open to anyone and thus would make the results readily available.

Scientists at this week's sessions will hear about the discovery of what the researchers call a brittle star city off the coast of New Zealand.

The brittle stars, animals with five arms, have colonized the peak of a seamount - an underwater mountain - where the current flows past at about 2.5 miles per hour. The current delivers such an ample food supply that thousands of stars can capture food simply by raising their arms.

Researchers found a carpet of small crustaceans inhabiting the head of the Mississippi Canyon in the Gulf of Mexico. There are as many as 12,000 of these small crustaceans per square yard.

Read the other findings...

Happy World Ocean Day!

Today, join us in celebrating the - yes, we admit - unofficial holiday, World Ocean Day.

World Ocean Day began on 8 June 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. However, it is not an officially recognized secular holiday by the United Nations as of yet.

World Ocean Day is an opportunity every year to honor the oceans and products they provide, such as seafood, as well as marine life itself for aquariums and pets. The oceans also provide sea-lanes for international trade. Global pollution and over-consumption of fish have resulted in drastically dwindling population of the majority of species.

The Ocean Project, working in partnership with the World Ocean Network, is working to build much greater awareness of the crucial role of the ocean in our lives and the important ways people can help. World Ocean Day provides an opportunity to get directly involved in protecting our future – beach cleanups, educational programs, art contests, film festivals, sustainable seafood events, and other planned activities help to raise consciousness of how our lives depend on the ocean. These two organizations are collecting signatures to a petition to be presented to the United Nations asking them to designate June 8th as World Ocean Day.

Dive Photo Guide has a cool list of just a few benefits the world's ocean provides in its tribute to World Ocean Day.

The world's ocean:

• Generates most of the oxygen we breathe
• Helps feed us
• Regulates our climate
• Cleans the water we drink
• Offers us a pharmacopoeia of potential medicines
• Provides limitless inspiration

So to celebrate, do yourself, your dive buddies, and the ocean a favor and sign this petition to make World Ocean Day official!