Author: mstocker

Field report from OCEANOISE 2026 – Day 1

One of the virtues of OCEANOISE is that while it includes many academics, it also includes people in ocean policy, marine conservation, and ocean industries. So a lot of work gets done – not just through the presentations, key notes, and poster sessions, but also through the long lunches and social events that orbit around the many discussions stimulated by the programming.

Earth Day 2026 Part 2

While taking this Earth Day to punctuate our appreciation for the our entire planet may seem a stingy expression of gratitude for Mother Earth that sustains all life, it is a great day to take a pause and honor those people who have dedicated their lives to honor Her – every day.

Earth Day 2026 Part 1

For most of modern economic history, the ocean has been valued by what can be taken from it: fish landed, oil extracted, minerals surveyed. The living systems that produce those things, and the much larger web of processes that sustain the planet, have been treated as background. Free. Assumed. 

Aside from the continuation of our dependence on fossil fuel, the “Macondo Deepwater Horizon” blowout was probably the worst fossil-fueled environmental disaster ever.

Don’t say “Fire.”

The Department of Energy wants to excise terms like “climate change,” “green,” “clean/dirty energy,” “emissions,” “carbon/CO2 footprint,” and “decarbonization,” from their internal and external communications.

What’s next?

We have not yet seen how the current administration has synthesized any of the EIS comments we submitted this year, but given their proclivity to pushing the envelope to see what they can get away with, my suspicions are that they will ignore all public input and just see what we’ll do about it.