The OceaNoise2017 conference I attended last week was more than a playpen for “ocean noise elites.” There was a structure to the event which drew an arc over the dominant themes of the Ocean Noise topic. I was honored to…
Author: mstocker
Field Report from Barcelona
I spent last week at Vilanova i la Geltrú – just down the coast from Barcelona, Spain at OceaNoise2017, a conference specifically focused on ocean noise pollution issues. All conferences have a purpose, but this one also had a personality.…
The Tantrum of the Oilmen
If it wasn’t otherwise abundantly clear, the splurge of Executive Orders (EO) over the last two weeks confirm that the US President has handed the reins (or should I say “handed the reign”) of the executive branch over to the…
Where the rubber doesn’t hit the road
I am stepping outside of our remit to send only ocean-specific issues in our newsletters to invite you to engage in Participatory Democracy. In these extraordinary times most of us living beings are looking on with horror as the litany…
The Spirits of Earth Day
Just once a year, for the last 47 years, we as a nation have taken a day to pause and reflect on how much we love this planet. For those who were not around and up on your hind legs…
Whales and Climate Change
A few weeks back a number of us were down in Baja California visiting the friendly whales of San Ignacio Lagoon. For those not familiar with this mysterious and delightful phenomena, the gray whales of Baja seem to enjoy frolicking…
The Song of the Sea
Rutgers professor of Estuary and Marine Ecology. And OCR friend Judith Weis sent us an article about how the environmental health can be determined by listening. The paper by Katherine Indeck (et al.) described in the article explored the sounds…
2016 Progress Report – A thick year!
It has been my habit to keep our newsletters “short and sweet” – less than 500 words so they can be read in a minute or so. But I just finished compiling a progress report for our institutional funders to…
Long distance calling!
While there are a number of varied species of baleen whales that are adapted to their particular habitats and natural histories, there are a few things they have in common; they’re all much larger than we are, they all graze…
The sound of climate disruption
It has been known for quite some time that excessive anthropogenic carbon dioxide is modifying ocean chemistry, increasing acidity, and compromising shell growth in calciferous sea life. The effects of this have been confirmed in sea snails, corals, and oysters,…