Ocean Doctor » Ocean Doctor

George Jetson, Meet Mother Nature – The Latest in Green Tech from CES 2012, Las Vegas

Ocean Doctor — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:30:58 +0000

January 23, 2012: The Ocean Doctor finds himself in an unusual location for a marine biologist: The desert. We visit the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the largest trade show in the world, to bring you highlights of the latest in green technology, including smartphone apps that talk to your appliances and save energy; wind turbines for the home; next-generation LED lighting that beats the pants off of compact fluorescent bulbs; an amazing way to keep your gadgets from dying prematurely and ending up in landfills; and a Jetsons-like electric unicycle that can effortlessly take you to and from work.

The Ocean Doctor airs weekly on WebTalkRadio.net. Want to listen on your iPod, iPhone or mp3 player? Download the mp3 file or subscribe on iTunes and don’t miss a single episode. Or listen to us on your iPhone, Android phone, WebOS phone, BlackBerry or tablet, including the iPad, with the free Stitcher SmartRadio app. See the complete list of episodes. Follow The Ocean Doctor on Twitter — Become a Fan on Facebook! Submit a question and I’ll try to answer it on the air. Even better, record your question or comment on our special message line and I might play it on the air. Call: (805) 619-9194. You can also leave questions and comments for this episode below. Like the show? Learn how to become a sponsor.

George Jetson, Meet Mother Nature – The Latest in Green Tech from CES 2012, Las Vegas

Yes, it’s true. The Ocean Doctor is a geek. This week he introduces his geek side to his green side. The result? A trip to Las Vegas, Nevada to visit the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the largest trade show in the world, to explore the latest in green technology, that can save you energy, save you money, and even save your smartphone from the landfill should it decide to land in the toilet. Links to all of the vendors interviewed appear below on this page.

The latest in green technology at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photos: Alan & David Guggenheim)

Links and Notes

More on the National Ocean Policy:

CES 2012 Green Technologies Featured on the Show:

VIDEO: Ocean Checkup – Ocean Doctor on Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour

Ocean Doctor — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 21:20:16 +0000

Dr. Kirsten “Kiki” Sanford is joined by The Ocean Doctor, David E. Guggenheim on Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour for a checkup on the oceans’ health.

This show originally aired on the TWiT Netcast Network on December 23, 2011. Visit the show page at TWiT.tv.

VIDEO: 60 Minutes – Anderson Cooper and David E. Guggenheim Explore Cuba’s Coral Reefs

Ocean Doctor — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:49:12 +0000

(CBS News) 60 Minutes cameras take you on an underwater adventure off the Cuban coast to one of the world’s most pristine and vibrant coral reefs, known as the Gardens of the Queen. Anderson Cooper scuba dives with marine biologist David Guggenheim, dodging giant groupers and sharks, to explore this increasingly rare oasis. Scientists estimate that 25 percent of the world’s reefs have died off and much of what’s left is at risk.

Watch on YouTube

Cuba Marine Research & Conservation Program at The Ocean Foundation

Ocean Doctor — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:39:22 +0000

Because of the decades-old U.S. economic embargo of Cuba, scientific collaboration between U.S. and Cuban scientists has been exceedingly difficult. Even though research is a permitted activity and U.S. scientists are allowed to travel to Cuba, the harsh logistical and political realities have prevented all but a few U.S. institutions from successful collaborative projects in Cuba.

The Cuba Marine Research and Conservation Program has been based at The Ocean Foundation (TOF) since 2008 and is built on more than 12 years of work in Cuba by TOF Senior Fellow, Dr. David E. Guggenheim, who directs the program, and TOF Research Associate, Fernando Bretos. The program is a regional effort to study and conserve the shared marine resources of the Gulf of Mexico and Western Caribbean.

DEEP in Enemy Territory: A New Book by Dr. David E. Guggenheim (Fall 2012)

Ocean Doctor — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:02:10 +0000

Coming in 2012: Deep in Enemy Territory: An American Marine Scientist’s Mission to Promote Conservation and Friendship in Cuba by David E. Guggenheim.

Synopsis: Marine scientist and conservationist Dr. David E. Guggenheim (the “Ocean Doctor”) tells the story of his decade-long effort to bring collaboration in science and conservation between Cuba and the U.S. to a new level. He tells the story against a backdrop of Cold War-era politics, maddening bureaucracy, and the daily challenges of Cuban life while introducing us to Cuba’s unimaginably beautiful underwater ecosystems and the Cuban scientists dedicated to protecting them. His story is timely, illustrating how marine biologists have succeeded where diplomats have failed in bringing the two countries closer together. Deep in Enemy Territory brings a personal, in-depth view of an enchanted yet troubled island that few Americans have seen for half a century.

A portion of profits will support The Ocean Foundation’s Cuba Marine Research and Conservation Program.

www.DeepInEnemyTerritory.com

Excerpt from Deep in Enemy Territory by David E. Guggenheim

My tired eyes panned frantically but in vain for even the slightest evidence that I was in my lane — or any lane — as we sped toward an awaiting vessel in a tiny coastal village I had never heard of. Our deadline was nightfall, which had been ominously enveloping us. The Cuban Coast Guard officials at our destination would soon pack up and return home to their families, decreeing it was too late for the Reina to leave port.

We were hours late, stymied by typical Cuban obstacles, including trying to rent a pair of reliable cars for the journey from Havana, an ordeal which took fully half a day, punctuated by bursts of exhaustive negotiations, fists full of cash, and cross-town dashes to promised vehicles that didn’t exist. We were also slowed by the inevitable breakdown of one of our “reliable” vehicles along the highway. Thanks to a pair of tie wraps and Cuban-inspired ingenuity, we were able to jury rig a repair.

The six-hour drive east along Cuba’s major axis became increasingly harrowing with every minute as a determined sun slid steadily into the mountains behind us. My grip on the wheel tightened until my hands throbbed. In Cuba, darkness transforms a drive in the countryside from simply a challenging journey into a nail-biting adventure, especially on this final stretch of highway leading into Ciego de Ávila Province.

As the pale gloaming gave way to darkness, oncoming headlights scattered across our filthy windshield, causing momentary night-blindness and frustrating whatever hope I had of being sure I was in my lane. Such certainty would have provided a morsel of desperately-needed comfort, though far from a guarantee of safety.

This stretch of autopista had three narrow lanes, impossible to discern in the darkness. “Which direction is the middle lane?” I asked my Cuban friend and colleague who lived somewhere beyond the far end of this highway. His matter-of-fact response confused and terrified me. “It’s both directions. It’s a passing lane,” he replied. I protested, “You’ve got to be kidding!”

Eighteen-wheelers with blinding headlights barreled toward us in the center lane, seemingly inches away, their explosive wake — together with my own instinctive reaction to steer away — lurching our small station wagon toward the dirt shoulder, where invariably our headlights would reveal the rapidly approaching rear end of a horse and the unlighted cart it was pulling. And so I’d veer to the left and hold my breath, hoping we weren’t coming up upon a slow-moving vintage 1950s Chevy without working tail lights.

This maddening dance down the highway continued into the early evening as the autopista slowly gave way to the narrow two-lane secondary roads that wound through acres upon acres of sugar cane. When I finally released my death grip at a small town service station, an American reporter observed of the bizarre mix of horse-drawn buggies, bicycles, decrepit old American cars, rusted Russian Ladas and Moskvitches, and modern Asian and European vehicles we had encountered, “It’s like the whole history of human transportation on one road,” he observed.

This moment — and countless more throughout each of my 60 visits to this unusual island – seemed to be the realization of a science fiction book I had enjoyed as a teenager. In Gordon Dickson’s, Time Storm, swirling storms in time criss-cross the planet, leaving in their wake a world divided into a patchwork of different time periods. The story’s protagonist must journey through the often-bizarre juxtaposition of different time periods in close proximity.

And so to the outsider does Cuba seem to be caught in its own time storm, with relics of a century past coexistent with early 21st century modernities: Horse-drawn buggies stopped at a traffic signal alongside modern Hyundai sedans; sixty-year-old rotary phones still in regular use alongside shiny new iPhones. It is disorienting to travel through an island where so much is still frozen almost as it was more than a century ago, with more than half of century of isolation and crushing economic embargo from its nearest neighbor, the United States.

Little did I have any inkling when I first set foot on this exotic island what lay in store over the next decade. I underestimated everything, from this island’s relentless gravitational attraction that would pull me back time after time, even after I had given up hope of succeeding there. Nor did I appreciate what difference I could possibly make, a gringo from Washington, DC without a drop of Latin blood in his veins and little memory of the Spanish he had struggled with during his undergraduate studies decades earlier. But I would soon discover — and treasure — my newfound Latin soul.

Neither had I anticipated that I would be swept away within my own “time storm.” As we resumed our mad dash to the tiny coastal village of Jucaro before the Coast Guard officials left, the awaiting Reina, a converted fishing boat, was to be my shiny silver DeLorean, destined to take me on a 500-year journey though time that I can still barely believe.

Subscribe to our VIP list to receive additional excerpts from the book, exclusive behind-the-scenes updates, invitations to special events, and be first in line to receive a copy once it’s published!

Parrot Fish: The constant gardeners of the world’s reefs

Ocean Doctor — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:30:46 +0000

Australian scientists have urged greater consideration for the brilliantly-hued parrot fishes that tend and renew the world’s imperilled coral reefs.

“Parrotfishes are the constant gardeners of the reef. They play a crucial role in keeping it healthy, suppressing weed, removing sediment and helping the corals to regrow after a setback,” explains Professor David Bellwood of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

In a major new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Prof. Bellwood, Dr Andrew Hoey and Prof. Terry Hughes have investigated parrot fish populations on 18 coral island reefs extending from Mauritius in the west Indian Ocean to Tahiti in the central Pacific.

“Parrot fish fulfill a number of key roles on the reef. They remove sick and dead corals and clean areas for new corals to settle, they remove weedy growth, and they cart away literally tonnes of sand and sediment that would otherwise smother the corals,” Prof Bellwood explains.

Read the rest of this article at ARC Coral Reef Studies…

Note: Newswire stories are provided as a courtesy of OceanDoctor.org. Content of these articles is provided by external sources.

The Ocean Foundation Annual Report 2011

Ocean Doctor — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:24:44 +0000

The Ocean Foundation now hosts more than 50 ocean-related projects, including all of the work we do, including our Cuba Marine Research and Conservation Program, The Ocean Doctor’s “50 Years – 50 States – 50 Speeches” Expedition, and The Ocean Doctor Radio Show. You can browse or download The Ocean Foundation’s Annual Report 2011 below.

The Ocean Foundation has continued its work to support, strengthen, and promote those organizations dedicated to reversing the trend of destruction of ocean environments around the world. We work with donors who care about our coasts and oceans to add value to marine conservation initiatives by providing conservation grants, hosting projects and funds, and collaborating with important campaigns and opinion leaders. As the community foundation for the oceans, we are fostering best-in-class projects and promoting solutions for healthy oceans and the people who depend upon them. We have been able to adapt to a changing economic climate while maintaining our integrity as honest brokers for marine conservation philanthropy

Dr. David E. Guggenheim — the “Ocean Doctor” — serves as Senior Fellow of The Ocean Foundation and Director of its Cuba Marine Research and Conservation Program.

The Ocean Foundation Annual Report
The-Ocean-Foundation_Annual-Report-2011.pdf

16.5 MiB
78 Downloads
Details...

Big Day in European Shark Conservation

Ocean Doctor — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:02:28 +0000

Big news in shark conservation from our sister organization, Shark Advocates International: EU Officials Sign UN Migratory Shark Initiative, Propose Stronger Finning Ban

Bergen, Norway. November 21, 2011. The European Union (EU) today became a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Sharks, just as the European Commission announced a proposal to strengthen the EU ban on shark “finning” (slicing off a shark’s fins and discarding the body at sea). An EU representative signed the Shark MoU at a ceremony at the 10th Conference of the CMS Parties which opened today in Bergen while the announcement on the finning proposal came from Commission headquarters in Brussels.

“Today the EU has taken two major steps for sharks that demonstrate continued progress in European policy and offer new hope for safeguarding these vulnerable species on a global scale,” said Sonja Fordham, President of Shark Advocates International, who is attending the CMS meeting. “We call on the EU Council and Parliament to promptly adopt the European Commission?s finning ban proposal and encourage all fishing nations to fully engage in ensuring CMS shark conservation initiatives succeed.”

The CMS Shark MoU was completed in early 2010 to promote conservation of migratory sharks, particularly the seven threatened species listed under the global CMS treaty: great white, whale, basking, shortin mako, longfin mako, spiny dogfish (Northern hemisphere), and porbeagle sharks. More than 20 CMS Parties and cooperating non-Parties (such as the United States) have now signed the Shark MoU. Beyond more MoU signatories, next steps include finalization of an accompanying action plan and a meeting of the signatories. Later this week, CMS Parties will also consider a proposal from Ecuador to list manta rays, similarly vulnerable relatives of sharks, under the CMS Appendices. CMS has 116 Parties.

After years of debate, the European Commission has proposed an amendment to the EU shark finning ban that would close loopholes stemming from special permits that allow fishermen to remove shark fins at sea. Mandating that all shark fins remain attached through landing, as proposed by the Commission, is the most reliable way to prevent finning. The “fins naturally attached” policy is supported by most conservationists and scientists, and is in place for most U.S. and Central American fisheries; it has been opposed by officials in Spain, whose fishermen rank 3rd in the world for shark catches. The Commission’s proposal will now be considered by the European Council of Fisheries Ministers and the European Parliament through a process that is expected to last at least six months.

Shark Advocates International (SAI) is a project of The Ocean Foundation established to advance sound policies for sharks and rays. SAI works with the Shark Alliance coalition to promote a stronger EU finning ban.

Media contact: Liz Morley, +1 843.693.5044

Why Dolphins Must be Freed — A Plea from Ric O’Barry (“The Cove”)

Ocean Doctor — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:10:35 +0000

November 14, 2011: He was the former trainer of the most famous dolphin of them all, Flipper. There were actually five “Flippers” in all, and when the most well-known of them all, Kathy, died in Ric O’Barry’s arms, he made the profound transition from training dolphins in captivity to combating the captivity industry. His work was featured in the Academy Award-winning film, The Cove (2009), which used covert techniques to expose the brutal dolphin hunt that persists in Taiji, Japan. Ric shares his powerful message with us. Also: What would you do if your nation was going to disappear off the face of the Earth? We get a dramatic answer from ten warrior dancers of the tiny Pacific coral atoll nation of Tokelau.

Why Dolphins Must be Free — A Plea from Ric O’Barry (The Cove)

Left to Right: Ric O'Barry, Lincoln O'Barry and David E. Guggenheim

For millions around the world – even in the Soviet Union – a TV show from the sixties captivated us and, if we weren’t already in love with dolphins, we soon would be.

Our very special guest is Ric O’Barry who was the former trainer of Flipper. There were actually five “Flippers” in all, and when the most well-known of them all, Kathy, died in his arms, he made the profound transition from training dolphins in captivity to combating the captivity industry. His work was featured in the Academy Award-winning film, The Cove (2009), which used covert techniques to expose the brutal dolphin hunt that persists in Taiji, Japan. Ric shares his powerful message with us and you may be surprised that Ric O’Barry is not as angry at the Japanese fishermen responsible for the brutal killing of dolphins as he is with people you may have considered role models.

Ric O’Barry started out capturing and training dolphins for the Miami Seaquarium and through the 1960s became the head trainer for the five dolphins who collectively played Flipper on the beloved American TV show seen around the world.

Captive bottlenose dolphin and Ric O'Barry (Photo: David E. Guggenheim)

When Kathy, the dolphin who most often played Flipper, died in O’Barry’s arms, he realized that capturing, displaying and training dolphins to perform tricks was wrong. On Earth Day in 1970 he founded The Dolphin Project, an organization dedicated to educating the public about the plight of dolphins in captivity. He also pioneered work to demonstrate rehabilitation and release as a viable alternative for captive dolphins. He has has since rescued and released over twenty-five captive dolphins in Haiti, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Brazil, The Bahamas and the United States.

Delighting in the company of wild dolphins...in the wild -- White Sand Ridge, Bahamas. Ric O'Barry advocates enjoying dolphins in their natural habitat, not in captivity. (Photos courtesy of Christine Guinness)

See more of Christine Guinness’ spectacular photography and video at: www.ChristineGuinness.com

For the last 40+ years he has shared his firsthand knowledge of the harmful effects of captivity on dolphins at numerous lectures and conferences around the world. In 1991 in recognition of his contribution to the protection of dolphins O’Barry received an Environmental Achievement Award, presented by the United States Committee for the United Nations Environmental Program. In 2007 he became a marine mammal specialist for Earth Island Institute and director of the Save Japan Dolphins Campaign

Working with Save Japan Dolphins, O’Barry leads an international effort to stop the killing of dolphins, end the trafficking in live dolphins to theme parks and captive swim-with-the-dolphins attractions and continues to lecture and speak out against the captivity industry.

O’Barry is featured in the Academy Award winning documentary film The Cove, which brought the world’s attention to the hidden connection between the killing, capture, trade and display of dolphins all over the world. O’Barry and his son Lincoln O’Barry are also behind the Blood Dolphin$ TV show for Discovery’s Animal Planet, which continues on where The Cove left off.

If you haven’t seen The Cove, it is a compelling, chilling and remarkable documentary whose impact continues to grow around the world.

Ric doesn’t smile much. He’s no-nonsense and serious. But that belies a tremendous warmth and compassion – especially for the world’s dolphins.

The Cove — Trailer

Water is Rising

Tokelau Dancers (Photo: Danee Hazama, courtesy of WaterIsRising.com)

A visiting group of performers from “Water is Rising” – representing the Pacific coral atoll nations of Kiribati, Tokelau, and Tuvalu – gave an impromptu, unscheduled performance in their street clothes, right in front of the Giant Squid exhibit at Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.

Kiribati, Tokelau and Tuvalu are tiny, with populations of 100,000, 1,500 and 12,000 respectively. As highlighted in the Copenhagen UN Climate Change Conference of 2009, these Pacific atolls are at the front lines of global warming. With their highest elevations at only 9 to 15 feet above sea level, they risk becoming the first cultures on earth to be submerged by climate change.

A group of 36 dancers and musicians from the islands are on tour in the U.S. to raise awareness about climate change. Below is a video of the warrior dance by 10 warrior dancers from Tokelau. As the group spokesperson told the audience, the highest point on Tokelau is a coconut tree. In earlier times, the warrior dance was meant to intimidate others. It’s energy is hypnotic and you may agree it conveys the vigor and passion of a culture that wants very much to survive.

Links and Notes

Citizens of the Sea, available at Amazon.com:

Protected: Jardines de la Reina Video

Ocean Doctor — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:49:52 +0000

Languages:	English
Author:	The Ocean Foundation
Platforms:	Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Linux, Mac OS X
Requirements:	PDF Reader
Date:	December 1, 2011