Every year in April there are two events that give us all a chance to pause and appreciate; to dip deeply into gratitude and remember the vigilance and effort it takes to deter the voracious appetites of “capital market forces”…
One Body of Water
Five Years Hence – BP’s impact on the future of energy
Five years ago today a un-controlled gas “kick” blew apart a sub-standard well installation that began what is to this point the largest single fossil fuel disaster in human history (if you exclude the 2005 US Energy Policy Act). From…
Historic sound recordings – and recordists celebrated
Just a few weeks ago a notice came across my desk about a marine mammal acoustics symposium hosted by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) at the whaling museum in New Bedford Massachusetts. The occasion was to celebrate the legacy of…
A pretty good week for the Ocean!
As the comment period for the Outer Continental Shelf 2017 – 2022 Five Year Plan (OCS 2017-2022 DPP) came to a close we received a ruling on the NRDC et. al. vs. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) on the agency’s…
BOEM’s eggs are hatching chickens
Back in August of 2014 the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) attempted to mitigate public outrage for a hastily made decision on opening up the US Atlantic continental shelf to seismic surveys by publishing an unsubstantiated puff piece on…
OCR Comments on the 5 year Offshore oil and gas leasing proposal
I’ve just filed our comments on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s 2017-2022 Five Year Outer Continental Shelf energy leasing plan. While wind and tidal energy would need leases as well, this plan is singularly focused on oil and gas…
Cuttlefish hearing – in living color
Cuttlefish are perhaps one of the more complicated critters you’re likely to encounter. Related to the squids and the octopus they have many of the same highly visual adaptation of being able to rapidly change color and even textures of…
There goes the neighborhood…
Today the Obama Administration, through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), released the 2017-2022 five year offshore leasing plan. Although some areas in the Chukchi Sea were recently put “off limits” due to their importance for subsistence use by…
Final appeal for 2014
As promised in an earlier appeal, this is our final appeal for 2014 – and your last chance to modify your 1040’s by a contribution to Ocean Conservation Research. It is also our last chance this year to express how…