On Tuesday, August 25, 2020, Dr. Ann Schmierer of Wild Rivers Land Trust presented the webinar you can view below. The topic of “regenerative agriculture” is an extremely important one as it addresses climate change, air pollution, and water pollution. But what does this have to do with Shoreline Education for Awareness? We are about oceans and marine life.

Here is the link. We know that whatever happens on land makes its way to the ocean. One example is the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico that has been created by all of the agricultural chemicals farmers are using in the Midwest that drain off their land into the water and flow down the Mississippi River to the Gulf. And, of course, methane gases from cow manure increase the level of methane from nature, and add to global warming, ozone layer destruction, and negatively impact the health of our oceans and marine life just as harshly as the polluted water does. The practices of agriculture have enormous impact on our oceans.

It is encouraging to hear what Ann presented about the healthy changes that are right now happening across the nation in the agricultural industry. While you will see that her borderline acceptable internet connection created a few moments of voice distortion, the points are clear and the graphs are informative. Agriculture is moving in a healthy and sustainable direction – benefiting both the environment as well as the health of the living beings (human and other) who are eating these healthier and higher quality products. And farmers and ranchers are seeing greater profit margins as well. A win-win all around.

How great will it be when the marine aquaculturalists figure out how to farm the sea in an equally healthy and sustainable way?

Enjoy this presentation.

Environmental horrors have been happening throughout history. But with today’s technology, the degree of environmental devastation has increased astronomically. Read the following articles on Seabed Mining to understand the threat that our ocean floor faces.

Seabed Mining Threatens West Coast

Seafloor mining is basically as bad as it sounds

Maybe you’ve heard about the crisis in kelp worldwide. It has been disappearing at warp speed as climate change and urchin proliferation have destroyed nearly 90% of the world’s kelp forests. Take a look at this article and see what some are doing to offer a solution to this problem.

Capturing Carbon with Underwater Gardening

The following comes from Hakai Magazine in Vancouver, BC. It’s reassuring to learn just how rigorous the research is that points us in the right direction for next steps in protecting and preserving our oceans’ marine life.

Ask any environmental scientist about their biggest challenge and many of them will tell you—or at least, many of them have told me—that it’s not always getting the data, it’s processing it. Acousticians scrub through thousands of hours of hydrophone recordings for a few precious seconds of whale song. Oceanographers parse endless temperature and salinity logs from monitoring buoys to find trends. It’s astounding how often science’s rate-limiting step is just dealing with all the information.

The University of British Columbia’s Sea Around Us initiative has just compiled a mind-blowing volume of data on fish stocks around the world. They measured species biomass since 1950 and looked specifically at how much of the fish that people like to eat is actually in the ocean. This scope of study is valuable, and this one draws a pretty clear picture: we’re decimating most of our favorite fish.

The group used computer-based statistical methods to assess over 1,000 populations of 483 fishes and invertebrates humans find delicious and found 82 percent of these populations had dwindled beyond what can support maximum levels of fishing. Some places were worse than others, but with such big data the overall trend is clear.

Next comes the question of policy. Catch limits and protected areas can help stocks recover. Implementing them, however, can be tricky. Sustainable aquaculture can alleviate fishing pressure, too. But whatever comes next, the first step in any solution is getting a clear picture of the problem. Now, there are some good numbers to lean on.

So this week, let’s give a shout-out to the researchers, students, and everyone everywhere crunching numbers and weeding through and making sense of the deluge of information out there. Without them, we’d be far more in the dark about the problems, and solutions, of our world.

Amorina Kingdon
Staff researcher and writer for Hakai Magazine

Article by Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press

“This could mean a lot of problems to many species.”

Here’s a great article calling all of us who live on or visit the Oregon Coast. With budget and staffing cuts due to Covid-19, we can step up and help protect and preserve the coastal places we love and use.

Cleaning up litter is nothing new since we have had a great group of volunteers doing cleanups regularly. But with the pandemic still going strong, it’s a good reminder to those of us out on the beaches regularly to bring a bag with us and pitch in to fill the shortage of staff.

A CALL TO ACTION

If you want to know more about one of the keystone species in our rocky shores habitat, read the following article from Olympia Washington’s Works in Progress newsletter. To me it underscores the fact that there are so many things we can and must do to protect and to restore the environment we depend upon for our futures.

Eel Grass: An Aquatic Star

The Black Oystercatcher is a unique shorebird species that is a conspicuous and charismatic bird of the coast. Because of their small global population size, low reproductive rate, and reliance on rocky intertidal habitats, they are considered a “species of high conservation concern” and act as an indicator of intertidal ecosystem health. Click on the link below to get the full story. This important work could not be done without many volunteers and conscientious visitors to our rocky habitats who know the importance of keeping a respectful distance from all of our marvelous marine life!

Black Oystercatcher Project

Are you ready to return to Oregon’s wonderful State Parks? Like many of us, you have probably been itching to get out again after having been observing the stay-at-home guidelines we have been living under. You many have questions about our State Parks.

Watch the video below and get lots of answers. Enjoy our parks. Stay safe. Have fun!

Oregon State Parks Message for Reopening

There are so many things going on at once or our planet Earth, and with all of the news media and social networking blasting us every day – 24 hours each day, it’s getting harder to determine what’s real, what’s important, and what we can allow into our crowded schedules and minds.

Keeping all this in mind, I want to encourage you to read the following excerpt from Mark Kurlansky’s book, Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of their Common Fate. Perhaps you will agree that the history Mr. Kurlansky presents is more than merely interesting. It is critical to all living on Earth.

A World Without Salmon