USA & Territories | Ocean Doctor | Ocean Conservation in Action

The Fish You’ll Eat Tomorrow

May 8, 2011 By Ocean Doctor

May 9, 2011: They are the maddening questions that haunt us when eating seafood: What fish is safe to eat? What fish is sustainable? Is farmed better than wild caught? Our guest is Marianne Cufone, now Executive Director of the Alliance for Sustainable Aquaponics, with sound advice on eating seafood and a glimpse of the fish and other food you’ll eat tomorrow. Also: The Ocean Doctor’s next expedition and more about the film, “Cuba: The Accidental Eden.”

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Filed Under: Cuba, Cuba Research & Conservation, Podcast, Sustainable Aquaculture, USA & Territories Tagged With: Alliance for Sustainable Aquaponics, aquaculture, Food and Water Watch, Marianne Cufone, Mary Queen of Viet Nam Community Development Corporation, New Orleans East, ras, recirculating aquaculture systems, Sustainable Aquaculture

The Gentleman Biologist of Pier 39

April 25, 2011 By Ocean Doctor

April 25, 2011: Take a walk out to the end of San Francisco’s Pier 39, and you’ll hear an interesting symphony of barking California sea lions and reactions of delight and amusement from droves of human onlookers. And if you’re lucky, you might also find the “Gentleman Biologist of Pier 39,” Tim Vogel, a volunteer at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, who has pursued tech career in Silicon Valley but has never forgotten his Seacamp roots. He spends hours teaching and inspiring visitors about the incredible wildlife of the West Coast and the wonders of science. Also: An update on the penguin rescue effort from Tristan da Cunha by Trevor Glass, Director of the Department of Conservation there.

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Filed Under: Cape to Cape Expedition, Nightingale Island Disaster Penguin & Seabird Rescue, Podcast, South Atlantic Ocean, Tristan da Cunha, Nightingale Island, Inaccessible Island, USA & Territories Tagged With: California sea lions, Cape Town, Inaccessible Island, Marine Mammal Center, Nightingale Island, oil spill, Oliva, penguins, Pier 39, Prince Albert II, San Francisco, Sausalito, sea lions, Seacamp, seals, Silversea, Timothy Vogel, Trevor Glass, Tristan Da Cunha, wildlife rehabilitation

The War, The Exodus, The Hurricane, The Oil Spill: One Gulf Community’s Determination to Endure (Part 2)

November 22, 2010 By Ocean Doctor

November 22, 2010: CONCLUSION: Village de l’Est, known locally as “Versailles” in New Orleans East, holds the highest concentration of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam. Settled in 1975 by Vietnamese refugees when Saigon fell to the Communists, the community’s residents bought boats and have fished the Gulf of Mexico — 80 percent of the community is dependent on fishing and the fishing industry. But in 2005, Hurricane Katrina nearly wiped the community off the map. Still recovering from that disaster, the BP oil spill now leaves the future of fishing uncertain in the Gulf. Now, in a partnership with The Ocean Foundation, the community is looking at next-generation land-based fish farming as a solution. Join The Ocean Doctor in a visit to this unique community that is determined to do whatever it takes to endure.

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Filed Under: Gulf of Mexico, Podcast, USA & Territories Tagged With: Aquaculture Developments, bp, bp deepwater horizon, bp oil spill, Daniel Ngueyn, Father Vien Nguyen, Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana, Mary Queen of Viet Nam Community Development Corporation, May Nguyen, MQVN CDC, New Orleans, New Orleans East, oil spill, The Ocean Foundation, Tuan Nguyen, Versailles, Viet Village Urban Farm Sustainable Aquaculture Park, Vietnam, Vietnamese Community, Village de l'Est

The Gulf of Mexico: What’s at Stake

May 28, 2010 By Ocean Doctor

This video highlights the vast diversity of marine life throughout the Gulf at risk from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster. The video provides an underwater tour of the Gulf by sub and scuba, encompassing the U.S., Cuba and Mexico. Produced for the opening of the first State of the Gulf of Mexico Summit in 2006, it was also shown before Congress on 5/19/2010 as part of the testimony of Dr. Sylvia A. Earle.

Filed Under: Conservation, Cuba, Cuba Research & Conservation, Gulf of Mexico, Ocean Doctor's Reflections, Places, USA & Territories Tagged With: bp deepwater horizon, Cuba, Gulf of Mexico, SCUBA, sea turtle, submarine, video

Waiting for the Oil…

May 17, 2010 By Ocean Doctor

Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys

On July 18, 1975, the tanker Garbis spilled 1,500 to 3,000 barrels of crude oil into the warm, turquoise, coral-rich waters roughly 26 miles south-southwest of the Marquesas Keys, Florida. The oil was blown ashore along a 30-mile stretch of the Florida Keys, east of Key West. I was 16 and enjoying my second summer at Seacamp, a marine science camp on Big Pine Key. Rumors of the spill raced throughout the campus until finally, instructor James Smithson decided to find out for himself what menace might be approaching. He took a small away team aboard his 21-foot Mako, “Isurus,” and made haste south toward the reef tract. We waited impatiently for word back as the sun fell to the horizon and scattered its tranquil orange glow across the water. What I saw next filled me with dread. The Isurus entered the harbor, its white hull stained with enormous swaths of dark brown oil. In that moment the menace was no longer abstract, and to my young mind, everything we treasured — the corals, the mangroves, the fish, the turtles –was on the brink of extermination. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Conservation, Featured, Gulf of Mexico, Ocean Doctor's Reflections, Places, USA & Territories Tagged With: corals, Cuba, florida, florida keys, oil spill, Seacamp

A Message to Eastern Airlines, 35 Years Late

June 24, 2009 By Ocean Doctor

Remember Eastern Airlines? I do. And I’m forever grateful to the long-gone carrier for transporting me to a new world exactly 35 years ago, a world that I’ve never left. On June 24, 1974, I boarded Eastern Airlines flight 35 in Philadelphia, sat myself in seat 12A, a window of course. Scheduled departure was 900am. The Boeing 727 rumbled down the runway, and two and half magical hours later, a 15-year-old teenager from Philly found himself in Miami, Florida, eager with anticipation of catching his first glimpse of the Florida Keys, wherever they were. I didn’t know. Someone had to draw a map for me on a napkin.