iPhone/iPad Marine GeoGarage application for NOAA charts

Marine US universal app displays all NOAA nautical charts online from GeoGarage servers with the ability to use them offline with previously browsed tiles cache.

Click here to learn more about Marine GeoGarage for iPhone/iPad including a demo video.

New online map shows network of protection for North America’s marine ecosystems

Virtual fly-over using the CEC's North American Environmental Atlas through ecoregions (level I-III), priority conservation areas, marine protected areas and habitat maps of marine species of common conservation concern

From CEC

Marine protected areas map promotes understanding of North America’s shared ocean resources to enhance biodiversity conservation and protection of critical marine habitats

North America’s nearly 2,000 marine protected areas represent an unprecedented effort to protect the continent’s fragile marine environments and are found throughout the marine ecoregions that encircle our continent.

The latest map from the North American Environmental Atlas—coordinated by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC)—for the first time brings together information about all types of marine protected areas in Canada, Mexico and the United States, offering details about protection status and those responsible to manage the sites.

The marine protected areas information is provided by the Canadian Council on Ecological Areas, Quebec's Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks , Mexico's Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas, and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA National MPA Center.

A functional network of marine protected areas is crucial for maintaining ecological integrity and protecting migratory species and transboundary habitats.
They are also important to help ecosystems recover from or adapt to a wide variety of threats, including pollution from oil spills, overexploitation and rapidly changing environmental conditions.

“North Americans are particularly reliant upon oceans. At the same time, human economic activity is driving changes profoundly affecting the integrity and balance of our marine ecosystems, with serious habitat destruction, wildlife impacts and loss of biodiversity. Greater knowledge and collaboration are essential elements in safeguarding these priceless ecosystems,” said Evan Lloyd, CEC Executive Director.

Different levels of protection in North America’s marine ecoregions :

In meeting the extraordinary challenge of protecting North America’s rich and fragile marine ecosystems, the map shows the important strides Canada, Mexico and the United States have made in establishing protected areas.
However, challenges remain to ensure that adequate protection and management extends throughout all ecoregions.
Although some ecoregions have limited number of protected areas the Alaskan/Fjordland Pacific ecoregion, for example, has protected areas covering almost 80 percent of the ecoregion. Likewise, the Northern Gulf of Mexico ecoregion has more than 250 protected areas.

Map tools and resources for teachers, students and others :

To celebrate previous week’s World Oceans Day, the CEC has brought together tools and resources to help decision makers, industry, universities and other learning institutions, as well as concerned citizens better understand North America’s shared ocean resources.

These maps and publications include:

• A new map viewer using Google Maps & Google Earth to explore all of the Atlas’ marine ecosystems maps and data.
• Marine Ecoregions of North America: a set of maps and detailed descriptions that provide a platform for sound management and conservation of marine biodiversity.
• Baja California to the Bering Sea: an assessment of 28 priority conservation areas requiring concerted conservation action along North America’s West Coast.
• Conservation action plans for four marine species of common concern for North America: vaquita porpoise, humpback whale, leatherback turtle and pink-footed shearwater.

How a small sponge may save an ocean

From Andy Mathisen (AllVoices)

A small marine invertebrate known as a Glass Sponge has probably helped keep Haida Gwaii and Hecate Strait a little safer from oil exploration today.
Canadian Fisheries & Oceans Minister Gail Shea announced in Ottawa today that certain reef areas in Hecate Strait where the sponge resides are to be "areas of interest".
Conservation groups applauded the announcement as this is the first step towards designation as a "Marine Protected Area" which would see the area protected from development in perpetuity.
On Monday, the Federal Government announced a 10km protected area in all the waters around the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve on South Moresby Island.

Although a moratorium of both oil exploration and oil tanker traffic has been in place for decades...the past few years have seen keen interest by both the BC Provincial Government and oil companies to develop the oil and gas reserves in the area.

At present, Enbridge wants to build a pipeline from the Athabaska tar sands project down to Kitimat, BC. This could mean oil tankers plying the precious and precarious coastline.
Many see a showdown in the works between the two levels of government over these issues
BUT...for the time being the rich marine diversity of Hecate Strait and nearby Haida Gwaii is safe.
We may end up owing a great thanks to these rare little glass sponges!
(see video narrated by well known Canadian enviro-icon Dr. David Suzuki)

As you watch it imagine the impact of the "Goo in the Gulf" oozing through this rich kelp forest...covering clams, spoiling sponges, tarring birds and sickening seals!
Is it worth a short burst in jobs and megabucks for already rich oil companies?
Many think not !!


Links :

• Fishery and Oceans : Area of interest for potential Marine Protected Area in Pacific Region
• CPAWS : Glass sponge reefs
  

Image of the week : travelling by sea

‘In Search of Missing Pieces’ is a series of original sculptures by French artist Bruno Catalono.

At first glance, the 'Travelers' sculptures look like amazing optical illusions; as if these statues appear to be floating in mid air. But on a closer look you'll notice that the tops and bottoms of these statues are connected.

Really cool when it's situated outside like in these pictures since the scenery always changes.

Celebrating Captain Cousteau’s centenary

From TheDailyMavrick (by Mandy de Waal)

It is fitting that the centennial milestone of the man who opened the world’s eyes to the wonders of ocean life and helped us to breathe underwater will be marked with year-long festivities that include the re-launch of his beloved ship, Calypso.

The ship that inventor, ecologist, researcher, author and much-awarded filmmaker Jacques-Yves Cousteau spent much of his life aboard to give us our first glimpses of deep-sea life is being refurbished and will sail again to maintain his legacy.

“People protect what they love.” That aphorism voiced by le Commandant Cousteau was his life’s work and purpose. Born on the 11 June 1910 it would take another 26 years before Cousteau would fall in love with the sea. It happened when his friend Philippe Tailliez lent Cousteau a pair of underwater goggles to look at marine life.

He describes the experience and the effect it had on him in his book “The Silent World, A story of undersea discovery and adventure, by the first men to swim at record depths with the freedom of fish.”

“One Sunday morning … I waded into the Mediterranean and looked into it through Fernez goggles…. I was astonished by what I saw in the shallow shingle at Le Mourillon, rocks covered with green, brown and silver forests of algae and fishes unknown to me, swimming in crystalline water. Sometimes we are lucky enough to know that our lives have been changed, to discard the old, embrace the new, and run headlong down an immutable course. It happened to me at Mourillon on that summer’s day, when my eyes were opened to the sea.”

Cousteau would often talk of “making love to the sea.” ''I loved touching water,'' he once wrote. ''Physically. Sensually. Water fascinated me.'' Water, the oceans and all they contained would prove a life-long love affair for Cousteau that would serve humanity well. Cousteau’s work and legacy is the product of his wanting to make humanity fall in love with the sea, just as he did on that sunny Sunday morning in Toulouse.

To achieve his goal, Cousteau created over 120 television works which he refused to call documentaries, but instead called “adventure films”. He wrote and co-authored more than 50 books including his first “The Silent World” which by the time of his death on 25 June 1997 had sold more than 5 million copies in 22 languages. But Cousteau’s influence stretches way beyond getting the world to fall in love with the oceans and fiercely championing marine conservation.

Instantly recognisable by his gaunt silhouette and red knitted cap, Captain Cousteau helped invent the aqualung (better known by its acronym self-contained underwater breathing apparatus or scuba) when he was 33. This was arguably one of the most significant inventions of the 20th century enabling man to explore under water for extended periods and opened a window to a whole new world that had until then been mostly undiscovered by mankind.

Other Cousteau inventions include underwater cameras, filters, lenses and lighting techniques that enabled his film-making and allowed people to see the underwater world in his “adventure films”. He founded two organisations dedicated to the protection of ocean life - the Cousteau Society and its French counterpart, l’Equipe Cousteau.

“If he were alive today, my father would surely be awed by the technology and skill behind the work of his cinematic successors, who share my father’s philosophy that ‘people protect what they love – and we love what enchants us’,” said the legend’s son, Pierre-Yves Cousteau, himself an oceanographer of world renown.

“He would be gratified by the creation of marine protected areas in many countries and by the growing community of scientists working to advance understanding and conservation of ocean biodiversity, such as those completing the first Census of Marine Life and its inventory of ocean species.

“However, I know he would also be distressed by the ongoing pillaging of oceans by industrialized fisheries, by those who decimate the seabed and indiscriminately harvest fish and by-catch by the shipload, by the catastrophes that stem from exploiting off-shore oil resources, and by the acidification of seawater due to greenhouse gases, which threatens the health of all life on Earth.

“In this year, the 100th anniversary of his birth, we owe it to his memory to ensure that the spirit of Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his work inspire new generations,” says Pierre-Yves.

To continue Captain Cousteau’s legacy the Cousteau Society and l’Equipe Cousteau led by his widow Francine are refurbishing the Calypso as a touring educational exhibition.

Sunk and badly damaged when a barge accidentally rammed into it one year before Cousteau’s death, Calypso’s upgrade will include Cousteau-designed one- and two-person mini-submarines, underwater scooters, aqualungs, diving suits, cameras and other equipment used during Cousteau’s filming expeditions which won him numerous Oscars, Cannes’ Palme d’Or and Emmys.

“It has been many years since this renowned ambassador for the seas and oceans last sailed,” said Captain Cousteau’s widow Francine. “We are extremely pleased and excited by the prospect of her touring again – the inimitable iconic Mona Lisa of the ocean – to continue the mission of Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s life, fostering appreciation for both the beauty and fragility of the seas.”

Links :

• BBC : Jacques Cousteau'ship Calypso is to be relaunched
• Wired : A Cousteau centennial
• WashingtonPost : Cousteau's spirit to live on in centennial events
• National Geographic : Jacques Cousteau Centennial: what he did, why he matters
• LiveScience : Jacques Cousteau legacy still making a splash
  
• The Silent World Revisited (full movie)
• The explorer