Welcome to my site. The best way for me to describe the main theme of what I do is to say that I write and speak about ‘How the ocean is changing and what it means for wildlife and for people.’ But I’m interested more broadly in our relationship to the world and to each [...]
Help Us Work to Establish a Protective, National Policy for Our Oceans Our oceans are not just places of wonder and beauty – they are economic engines providing valuable jobs, food, energy resources, and recreation and tourism opportunities. But they are under enormous strain as a result of overexploitation, habitat degradation, coastal pollution, and [...]
For a moment, let’s forget the bad and difficult news. We should celebrate success when we can. One of the literally biggest successes is that in many parts of the world whales are again common, and increasing in number. Yes, Japan, Norway, and Iceland still insist on killing whales commercially. Yes, we kill incredible numbers [...]
The following post by Carl Safina appeared in the New York Times Blog ‘Room for Debate,’ June 9, 2009. For a full version of the blog, click here. The Smaller the Fish, the Better Carl Safina is the founding president of Blue Ocean Institute. His books include “Song for the Blue Ocean,” “Eye of the [...]
Our first dive will be from the beach. We suit up and walk into the shallows, pull our dive-masks down, and plunge seaward. The broken remains of past, vast Staghorn thickets were mounded on the beach and they carpet the shallows. Old-timers tell of thickets of Staghorn and Elkhorn so dense that in the 1950s [...]
I spent last weekend visiting evangelical Christians at several gatherings in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I was surprised by the warm, and indeed, enthusiastic welcome I received. It’s not every day that a secular environmentalist gets a standing ovation from evangelicals in a church. But the message that we are all in this together resonates with [...]
Something that seems new and unusual is suddenly going on. Evangelical Christians in some significant quarters are putting aside their weapons and defenses regarding science, quite publicly. And not just about climate but about evolution and the scientific enterprise itself. As I mentioned last week, a prominent evangelical pastor whom I’ve become friends with, Ken [...]
My recent article in the New York Times was widely discussed and raised a bunch of written reactions. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/science/10essa.html?_r=1&ref=science I’d like to share one positive comment and then summarize and address some of the flames and anger I got for seeming to ‘dis’ Darwin. But first some further clarifications. So few people believe life evolves [...]
My first week in Palau—in the west Pacific several hundred miles east of the Philippines—focused on the recovery of corals. My second week is focused on the effects of sea level rise. Sea level isn’t just rising here; it’s rising worldwide. Near my home on Long Island, east of New York City, beaches have lost [...]
The third and final entry in Research Scientist Dr. Alan Duckworth’s blog on sponge studies in Jamaica. Days 9-12 The settlement plate experiment is now finished, with plates anchored to the reef at two depths in an impact and two control locations. Now we wait 6 months to see what marine organisms have settled and [...]
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