Alaska | Ocean Doctor | Ocean Conservation in Action

Lights, Camera, Walrus! From Beneath the Ice to the Big Screen

January 10, 2011 By Ocean Doctor

January 10, 2011: Award-winning underwater cinematographer, Adam Ravetch works in one of the most unforgiving, hostile environments imaginable: Under the ice in the Arctic. And with camera in hand, he pursues some of the most elusive and dangerous Arctic life, including polar bears and walrus. The critically-acclaimed film, “Arctic Tale” narrated by Queen Latifah told the story of a polar bear cub and a walrus pup against the backdrop of a changing Arctic environment and showcased 15 years worth of Adam’s incredible footage and insights. Adam joins us this week to tell us how he did it, and what’s next!

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Adam Ravetch, alaska, Arctic, Arctic Bear Productions, arctic exploration, Arctic Exploration Fund, arctic tale, Canada, cinematography, environmental education, explorers club, Greenland, narwhals, polar bears, sarah robertson, SCUBA, Seacamp, walrus

Do We Dare Drill Beneath Arctic Seas?

November 29, 2010 By Ocean Doctor

November 29, 2010: Walter Parker, who has accumulated an incredible 55 years of leadership and experience in Alaska’s environmental issues, particularly as a watchdog of Alaska’s oil industry, joins us to share his unique perspectives on Alaska’s experience with the oil industry and whether we’ve yet learned our lessons. The stakes are high: The push is on to drill beneath the ice in Arctic waters. This week we hear from many of you as we give thanks to Mother Ocean!

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: alaska, bp, bp deepwater horizon, bp oil spill, Exxon Valdez, Mark Spalding, Mother Ocean, oil spill, The Ocean Foundation, Walter Parker

Deep Reflection: Alone in the Dark at 1,300 Feet Below

September 18, 2010 By Ocean Doctor

I am inside a tiny, 1-person submarine beneath the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles offshore from the Alaskan coast. There are 1,300 feet of water between me and the surface. I’m here as part of a Greenpeace-led expedition to shed new light on the unexplored depths here.

It’s freezing cold, completely dark, and forbidding — and it’s utterly beautiful. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bering Sea, Alaska, Featured, Ocean Doctor's Reflections, Places Tagged With: alaska, bering sea, corals, curiosity, deepworker, greenpeace, humility, manned submersibles, trawl, trawling

Beneath the Deadliest Catch: Beauty & Mayhem Under the Bering Sea

September 7, 2010 By Ocean Doctor

September 6, 2010: We return to Alaska’s Bering Sea aboard the Greenpeace ship “Esperanza” and take the DeepWorker 1-person submarine down to nearly 2,000 feet where we’ll find the best and worst things The Ocean Doctor has ever seen underwater. We also visit with Greenpeace Oceans Campaign Leader, John Hocevar aboard the Esperanza.

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: alaska, bering sea, bp, bp deepwater horizon, corals, deepworker, dispersants, dutch harbor, esperanza, greenpeace, Gulf of Mexico, John Hocevar, Mcdonalds, New Orleans, oil plume, oil spill, OtterBox, pollock, The Ocean Foundation, trawl, trawling

You’re a Submarine Pilot!

June 28, 2010 By Ocean Doctor

June 28, 2010: The Ocean Doctor kicks off by taking you on the series’ first weekly field trip aboard the one-person submersible, the DeepWorker, on a dive to 2,000 feet, to the bottom of Alaska’s Bering Sea. Our guest is Jeff Heaton, sub pilot and operations manager at Nuytco, Ltd. in Vancouver where these incredible subs are manufactured. Also: The Gulf of Mexico — What you can do.

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: alaska, bering sea, bp, bp deepwater horizon, corals, Cuba, deepworker, dutch harbor, greenpeace, Gulf of Mexico, jeff heaton, ltd., nuytco, oil spill, submarine, submersible

Google Earth 5.0 – Now With Genuine Ocean!

February 2, 2009 By Ocean Doctor

The ExpeditionCasts podcast is back! The series returns with the video version of the Ocean Doctor’s popular blog post, "Attacked by the Giant Squid’s Cousins." (You can access the video version below.) That’s big news. But the GINORMOUS news is that ExpeditionCasts returns along with a new version of Google Earth. Version 5.0 of Google Earth allows you to explore the other 70 percent of the planet — the world’s oceans — and access

stunning underwater video content from around the world. 1planet1ocean has been privileged to be a contributor to this enormous, er, GINORMOUS project, and you’ll find five ExpeditionCasts videos among the others Google Earth 5.0. Look for them in Alaska’s Bering Sea and off the northwestern coast of Cuba.

50 States – Leg 2: Florida – Oceans vs. Rocky Horror

January 22, 2009 By Ocean Doctor

Leg 2 was going far too smoothly. My flight to Tampa was early. The rental car bus arrived immediately. I didn’t get lost. The sun was shining. Maybe you’re like me, but when things start going this well, I get nervous. Turns out my gut feelings were right. Things were about to get…silly.

Like the expedition’s first leg to California, Leg 2 was also to familiar territory, to a state I had once called home: Florida. My many years in Florida, teaching at Seacamp in the Florida Keys, as president of The Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples, and co-chair of the Everglades Coalition, means that I’ll be returning here twice more to honor the flood of speaking requests I was honored to receive.

Ocean Doctor's "50 Years – 50 States – 50 Speeches Expedition" To Launch in California

December 23, 2008 By Ocean Doctor

A new expedition launches January 7, 2009 in California! The Ocean Doctor’s “50 Years – 50 States – 50 Speeches Expedition“ is a one-year journey of outreach, education, and discovery, announced by Dr. David E. Guggenheim on his 50th birthday (October 6, 2008) to bring, at no charge, speeches about the oceans to schools in all 50 U.S. states plus territories. By its culmination at the end of 2009, the “expedition” will have reached well over 100 schools — from Barrow, Alaska to Rapid City, South Dakota to the Florida Keys — to share firsthand accounts, stories, humor, passion, and important lessons about the oceans and their conservation. Through additional outreach in the visited communities, engagement of the media, and encouraging the visited schools to connect with each other and share their perspectives on the oceans through a new online social network, it is hoped that this project can help encourage an enduring wave of renewed interest in the oceans by its next generation of explorers, scientists and stewards.

The expedition is a joint project of The Ocean Foundation, the project’s fiscal sponsor, along with 1planet1ocean, and is supported by your tax-deductible donations to the “Ocean Doctor’s 50 Years – 50 States – 50 Speeches Expedition Fund” at The Ocean Foundation. Become a supporter!