Story Map on Marine Megafauna Bycatch

Check out this great story map on ArcGIS, put together by my former Marine Geography professor, Dr. Ellen Hines!

Below is a short excerpt from the story map:

"Bycatch, or deaths caused by fishing activities, is the greatest human threat to coastal marine mammals. Animals can get caught in many of the most common types of fishing gear, including gill nets, seines, longlines, pots, and traps.

"Approximately 300,000 marine mammals are taken from the world's oceans each year due to global fisheries. However, few data exist that quantify the effects of bycatch on populations.

"Dr. Ellen Hines of the Estuary & Ocean Science Center of San Francisco State University has co-developed an open source toolkit to map and measure the risk of marine mammal bycatch in developing countries. Using a science-policy approach, she works with in-country partners to create flexible, data-driven tools to characterize bycatch risk based on animal distribution, abundance and populations structure, fisheries effort, and interaction rates. In turn, these data support practitioners in localized planning and decision-making efforts in order to 'get to the bottom of bycatch' in Southeast Asia and beyond."

Humpbacks and Empty Nets

Check out this video I took a couple weeks ago! It's a short clip of humpback whales that I saw while out on a boat with my Marine Resources class. We were out in the ocean, just outside the Golden Gate.

Also, if you have an hour's worth of time for TV, check out "Empty Oceans, Empty Nets," a PBS documentary on overfishing. Although this documentary first aired in 2002, the problems faced by fisheries and by the world's oceans 16 years ago are no different to the ones they face today; in fact, the problems are often much worse. Overall the documentary provides a strong, educational, and still timely summary on the state of seafood and commercial fishing.

Fabulous Wetlands with Bill Nye The Science Guy

I think Bill Nye is great but as someone who works in a lab that works on several wetland restoration projects I was extra excited to find this old video!

Thirty years ago, Bill created this short video about Washington State's wetlands called Fabulous Wetlands. In it, he shows us why it's important to preserve estuaries and to reduce pollution:

This video was sponsored by the WA Department of Ecology. You can clearly see precursors to Bill Nye the Science Guy here. The same humor (and the same outfit!) is already there.