“You Dirty Beach!” Cleanup Event in Hermosa Beach Rewards Volunteers with Tickets to Universal Studios
Coastal CODE, Alaskan Brewing Co., and JACK-FM team up to celebrate International Coastal Cleanup Day with local beach cleanup event
WHAT: Clean up the beach and score a ticket to Universal studios. That’s the deal that 93.1 Jack FM are extending to Southern Californians this September 17 for International Coastal Cleanup Day at the “You Dirty Beach!” cleanup event. For their good deeds, volunteers will also receive a customized t-shirt along and some other goodies. Joining in on the cleanup are Alaskan Brewing Co. and its philanthropic ocean health foundation, the Coastal CODE.
WHY: To remind beach-goers that “Clean Oceans Depend on Everyone” with an opportunity to help keep the Pacific Coastline healthy, and what better time to do it? International Coastal Cleanup Day is an annual event that draws nearly half a million people worldwide to participate in local cleanups. With the “You Dirty Beach!” cleanup at Hermosa Beach, locals can join in this global movement, and get rewarded for it, too.
WHERE: Check in for volunteers will be at Hermosa Beach Pier in Downtown Hermosa Beach
WHEN: Saturday, September 17, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
HOW: No advance registration needed. Walk-in volunteers are encouraged to check in on site.
WEB: More information available at jack.radio.com
Second Annual “You Dirty Beach!” Cleanup In Seattle Rewards Volunteers with a Chance to see JOURNEY
Coastal CODE, Alaskan Brewing Co., JACK-FM and local businesses team up to celebrate International Coastal Cleanup Day with Seattle beach cleanup event
WHAT: Clean up the beach and get a chance to see JOURNEY at the Key Arena on October 21. That’s the deal that Alaskan Brewing Co., its philanthropic ocean health foundation Coastal CODE and 96.5 Jack FM are extending to Seattleites this September 17 for International Coastal Cleanup Day and the second annual “You Dirty Beach!” cleanup event. For their good deeds, volunteers will also receive a customized t-shirt along with free admission passes to the Seattle Aquarium and a gift certificate to Salty’s on Alki.
WHY: To remind Seattleites that “Clean Oceans Depend on Everyone” with an opportunity to help keep the Pacific Coastline healthy, and what better time to do it? International Coastal Cleanup Day is an annual event that draws nearly half a million people worldwide to participate in local cleanups. With the “You Dirty Beach” cleanup at Alki Beach, locals can join in this global movement, and get rewarded for it, too.
WHERE: Check in for volunteers will be at:
Tully’s Coffee
2676 Alki Ave. SW
Seattle, WA 98116
WHEN: Saturday, September 17, 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
HOW: No advance registration needed. Walk-in volunteers are encouraged to check in on site.
Decade-Long Study Reveals Recurring Patterns of Viruses in the Open Ocean
Viruses fill the ocean and have a significant effect on ocean biology, specifically marine microbiology, according to a professor of biology at UC Santa Barbara and his collaborators.
Craig A. Carlson, professor with UCSB’s Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, is the senior author of a study of marine viruses published this week by the International Society for Microbial Ecology Journal, of the Nature Publishing Group.
The new findings, resulting from a decade of research, reveal striking recurring patterns of marine virioplankton dynamics in the open sea, which have implications regarding our understanding of cycling of nutrients in the world’s oceans.
Marine viruses encompass enormous genetic diversity, affect biogeochemical cycling of elements, and partially control aspects of microbial production and diversity, according to the scientists. Despite their importance in the ocean, there has been a surprising lack of data describing virioplankton distributions over time and depth in open oceanic systems.
Posted on Science Daily
Preserving 4 Percent of the Ocean Could Protect Most Marine Mammal Species, Study Finds
Preserving just 4 percent of the ocean could protect crucial habitat for the vast majority of marine mammal species, from sea otters to blue whales, according to researchers at Stanford University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Their findings were published in the Aug. 16 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Of the 129 species of marine mammals on Earth, including seals, dolphins and polar bears, approximately one-quarter are facing extinction, the study said.
“It’s important to protect marine mammals if you want to keep the ocean’s ecosystems functional,” said study co-author Paul Ehrlich, professor of biology and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford. “Many of them are top predators and have impacts all the way through the ecosystem. And they’re also beautiful and interesting.”
Mapping marine mammals
To pinpoint areas of the ocean where conservation could protect the maximum number of species and the ones most vulnerable to extinction, the researchers overlaid maps of where each marine mammal species is found. Their composite map revealed locations with the highest “species richness” — the highest number of different species.
Posted on Science Daily
A Scary Report Card on the World’s Oceans
Work in environmental journalism for very long, and you can eventually become inured to catastrophe. Every ecosystem is on the brink of collapse; every endangered species is just a few steps from extinction; every government decision to authorize an oil well or a coal mine is the one that will push carbon emissions over the edge. The language of environmentalism is the language of scarcity and loss, a constantly repeated message that we cannot continue living the way we are, or else. Sometimes the sheer, relentless doomsaying is enough to make you want to take a long, air-conditioned drive in a nice SUV.
But while news of Earth’s impending doom can sometimes seem exaggerated, there’s one environmental disaster that never gets the coverage it really deserves: the state of the oceans. Most people know that wild fisheries are dwindling, and we might know that low-oxygen aquatic dead zones are blooming around the planet’s most crowded coasts. But the oceans appear to be undergoing fundamental changes — many of them for the worse — that we can barely understand, in part because we barely understand that vast blue territory that covers 70% of the globe.
That’s the conclusion of a surprising new report issued by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), a global panel of marine experts that met this year at Oxford University to examine the latest science on ocean health. That health, they found, is not good. According to the authors, we are “at high risk for entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history.” It’s not just about overfishing or marine pollution or even climate change. It’s all of those destructive factors working cumulatively and occurring much more rapidly than scientists had expected. “The findings are shocking,” says Alex Rogers, the scientific director of IPSO. “We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime, and worse, our children’s and generations beyond that.”
