Marine Conservation Organizations
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MarineBio is deeply committed to marine conservation and founded on the concept that, by sharing the wonders of the ocean and marine life, people will be inspired to protect it. We hope you will consider becoming a member to help us bring the ocean and the conservation message to as many people as possible.
The oceans are downstream of everything. And they don't have an endless capacity to absorb waste. In fact, every year people dispose of 161 million gallons of used motor oil improperly—an amount greater than the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Much of this oil ends up in waterways and the oceans, where it takes a tremendous toll on aquatic life. By being careful about oil and other substances, you can help keep ocean waters clean. - Ocean Conservancy
Global Warming (Climate Change)
Climate Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography - Research themes include predicting the natural variability of climate and understanding the consequences of man-made increases in the greenhouse effect. Climate change caused by human actions is the paradigm that illustrates why traditional disciplinary barriers in the earth sciences are rapidly weakening. In the climate system, the atmosphere, the seas, the land surface, and the world of living things are tightly coupled. To understand these interactions, a variety of expertise must be brought to bear through a team approach to research.
Climate Science Watch is a nonprofit public interest education and advocacy project dedicated to holding public officials accountable for the integrity and effectiveness with which they use climate science and related research in government policymaking, toward the goal of enabling society to respond effectively to the challenges posed by global warming and climate change.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): The IPCC has been established by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation.
Ocean and Climate Change Institute : Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution - "We are an Institute without walls or permanent scientific staff. We are using our energies and resources to advance the knowledge of “How the Ocean works in the Earth's Changing Climate System” by acting across WHOI departmental structures, blending education, research, access to the sea, and outreach to achieve our goals."
StopGlobalWarming.org - a non-partisan effort to bring citizens together to declare that global warming is here now and that it is time to demand solutions. Global warming is the most urgent issue of our time, and while the problem is of worldwide significance, we recognize that the United States is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, responsible for 40% of the industrialized world's emissions, and doing the least about it. The necessary first step must be to encourage Americans to take action. This online grassroots movement is about change -- as individuals, as a country, and as a global community. We are all contributors to global warming and must all be part of the solution. With the support of leading scientists, political, religious, cultural and business leaders, the Virtual March is creating one, loud collective voice that will be heard around the world. By spreading the word, we are building a movement to stop global warming.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) - an international treaty to begin to consider what can be done to reduce global warming and to cope with whatever temperature increases are inevitable. Recently, a number of nations have approved an addition to the treaty: the Kyoto Protocol, which has more powerful (and legally binding) measures. The UNFCCC secretariat supports all institutions involved in the climate change process.
Sustainable Fishing (Overfishing)
Blue Ocean Institute: a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring ocean conservation through science, art, and literature. The group is particularly interested in providing information that will help people make choices that help restore living abundance in the oceans such as a seafood consumer education initiative "From Sea to Table".
Marine Fish Conservation Network: a coalition of more than 155 national and regional environmental organizations, commercial and recreational fishing groups, aquariums, and marine science groups dedicated to conserving marine fish and to promoting their long-term sustainability.
National Coalition for Marine Conservation: a public advocacy group dedicated to conserving the world's ocean fish, habitat and environment. Their mission is to build public awareness of the threats to marine fisheries, provide solutions, and convince state, national and international fishery managers to take appropriate action to reverse the overfishing effects on marine fish.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society: an organization focusing on halting illegal fishing activities by providing support and assistance in the upholding and, where possible, enforcing of international treaties, laws and conventions through investigation and documentation of violations.
Biodiversity
The Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) is an international professional organization dedicated to promoting the scientific study of the phenomena that affect the maintenance, loss, and restoration of biological diversity. The Society's membership comprises a wide range of people interested in the conservation and study of biological diversity: resource managers, educators, government and private conservation workers, and students make up the more than 10,000 members world-wide.
The Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation (CMBC) works to assess the state of marine ecosystems now and in the past and develop predictive models for the future; train new marine biodiversity and conservation scientists; develop novel interdisciplinary approaches linking the biological, physical, social and informatic sciences; increase public understanding of scientific issues and provide sound scientific analyses to policy makers; design technically sophisticated, regionally appropriate strategies to prevent and reverse biodiversity collapse.
Earthwatch Institute: an international non-profit that supports scientific field research by offering volunteers the opportunity to join research teams around the world. This unique model is creating a systematic change in how the public views science and its role in environmental sustainability.
Fauna and Flora International (FFI): Fauna & Flora International aims to change the policy and behavior that contribute to biodiversity loss by engaging a wide range of governments and non-governmental organizations, and by raising the profile of biodiversity within the wider global development debate.
IUCN Species Survival Commission: A science-based network of 7,000+ volunteer experts from almost every country of the world working together to achieve the vision of "A world that values and conserves present levels of biodiversity."
TRAFFIC: A wildlife trade monitoring network that works to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature. TRAFFIC is a joint programme of WWF and IUCN - The World Conservation Union.
Wetlands International: A global nonprofit dedicated to the conservation and wise use of wetlands to benefit biodiversity and human well-being.
World Resources Institute: An environmental think tank working to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth's environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations. WRI provides objective information and practical proposals for policy and institutional change that will foster environmentally sound, socially equitable development for.
Threatened & Endangered Species
Center for Biological Diversity - Nature's Legal Eagles. Protecting biodiversity through science, policy, education, and environmental law. Combining conservation biology with litigation, policy advocacy, and an innovative strategic vision, the Center for Biological Diversity is working to secure a future for animals and plants hovering on the brink of extinction, for the wilderness they need to survive, and by extension for the spiritual welfare of generations to come.
Habitat Conservation
The IUCN Global Marine Programme provides vital linkages for the Union and its members to all the IUCN activities that deal with marine issues, including projects and initiatives of the Regional offices and the 6 IUCN Commissions. Its co-ordination role is above and beyond the policy development and thematic guidance that it undertakes to provide to assist governments, communities and NGOs alike.
Oceana is a non-profit international advocacy organization dedicated to restoring and protecting the world's oceans through policy advocacy, science, law and public education.
National Coalition for Marine Conservation is a public advocacy group dedicated to conserving the world's ocean fish, habitat and environment. Their mission is to build public awareness of the threats to marine fisheries, provide solutions, and convince state, national and international fishery managers to take appropriate action to reverse the overfishing effects on marine fish.
Conservation International: CI has set a goal for 2005-2010 to establish protective management regimes in five key seascapes covering ocean ecosystems with the most species at risk, and initiate 20 new marine protected areas for marine wildlife and critical habitats.
The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition is calling on the United Nations General Assembly to secure a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling and protect these fragile and unique pockets of life in the deep seas before they are destroyed forever.
Nature Conservancy: Nature Conservancy's Global Marine Initiative links land and sea conservation in an effort to protect the rich array of plant and animal life and safeguard the tremendous benefits the oceans provide. The Conservancy has over 100 marine projects in 21 countries and 22 U.S. states.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society: an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization whos mission is to end the destruction of habitat and the slaughter of wildlife in the world's oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species. Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas.
World Wildlife Fund: WWF's Endangered Seas Program works in more than 40 countries to campaign, lobby, develop and advocate solutions, commission and publish impartial data, advise, and champion the conservation of the marine environment and sustainable livelihoods.
Alien Species
The Marine Invasions Research Lab is a national and international center for research on biological invasions in coastal marine ecosystems.
The National Invasive Species Information Center (NISIC) was established in 2005 to serve as a reference gateway to information, organizations, and services about invasive species.
IUCN Invasive Species Specialist Group: a global group of 146 scientific and policy experts on invasive species from 41 countries. ISSG provides advice on threats from invasives and control or eradication methods to IUCN members, conservation practitioners, and policy-makers. The group's activities focus primarily on invasive species that cause biodiversity loss, with particular attention to those that threaten oceanic islands.
The North European and Baltic Network on Invasive Alien Species (NOBANIS): a network of common databases on alien and invasive species of the region. By establishing a common portal access to IAS-related data, information and knowledge in the region is facilitated.
Ocean Dumping Grounds
International Maritime Organization (IMO) - IMO's Intervention Convention affirms the right of a coastal State to take measures on the high seas to prevent, mitigate or eliminate danger to its coastline from a maritime casualty. The International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation (OPRC), 1990 provides a global framework for international co-operation in combating major incidents or threats of marine pollution. A protocol to this convention (HNS Protocol) covers marine pollution by hazardous and noxious substances.
Global Marine Litter Information Gateway: a co-operative effort of the UNEP GPA Coordination Office, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, and the UN International Maritime Organization. The objective is to provide a clearing-house, a gateway, for supply and exchange of information on the global, regional and local problem of marine litter.
Bluewater Network: promotes policy changes in government and industry to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and eradicate other root causes of air and water pollution, global warming, and habitat destruction. Also leads campaigns to protect National Parks from jetskis, snowmobiles and other recreational vehicles, and to prevent environmental damage from pollution caused by ferries, cruise ships, and other large vessels.
Sustainable Tourism
Sustainable Tourism Home Page - UNEP Tourism Programme: Sustainable tourism development guidelines and management practices are applicable to all forms of tourism in all types of destinations, including mass tourism and the various niche tourism segments. Sustainability principles refer to the environmental, economic, and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development, and a suitable balance must be established between these three dimensions to guarantee its long-term sustainability.
Planeta.com is a pioneering website (debuting in 1994) that provides resources for travelers and locals alike with a common vision of eco-friendly, people-friendly, place-friendly travel.
We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth. - Henry Beston, 1928
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Environmental Issue News :: ScienceDailyUnparalleled views of Earth's coastal zone with HREP-HICO
Scanning the globe from the vantage point of the International Space Station is about more than the fantastic view. While cruising in low Earth orbit, the space station HICO and RAIDS Experiment Payload-Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean, or HREP-HICO, gives researchers a valuable new way to view the coastal zone.
1,000 years of climate data confirms Australia's warming
In the first study of its kind in Australasia, scientists have used 27 natural climate records to create the first large-scale temperature reconstruction for the region over the last 1,000 years.
New advice on medication disposal: Trash beats take-back, new study suggests
Returning extra medicine to the pharmacy for disposal might not be worth the extra time, money or greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study that is the first to look at the net effects of so-called take-back programs.
Humanmade pollutants may be driving Earth's tropical belt expansion: May impact large-scale atmospheric circulation
Black carbon aerosols and tropospheric ozone, both humanmade pollutants emitted predominantly in the Northern Hemisphere's low- to mid-latitudes, are most likely pushing the boundary of the tropics further poleward in that hemisphere, new research shows. While stratospheric ozone depletion has already been shown to be the primary driver of the expansion of the tropics in the Southern Hemisphere, the researchers are the first to report that black carbon and tropospheric ozone are the most likely primary drivers of the tropical expansion observed in the Northern Hemisphere.
Juggling with air pollutant data
Models integrating air quality and climate change data will help reaching compliance with new emission targets.
Arctic seabirds adapt to climate change
The planet is warming up, especially at the poles. How do organisms react to this rise in temperatures? Biologists have now shown that little auks, the most common seabirds in the Arctic, are adapting their fishing behavior to warming surface waters in the Greenland Sea. So far, their reproductive and survival rates have not been affected. However, further warming could threaten the species.
A practical guide to green products and services
A new report provides key information for policy makers and business managers on how to assess the environmental impacts of products and services. It helps to pave the way towards a resource-efficient Europe and aims to help design more sustainable products, which are indispensable in a world of 7 billion people and limited resources.
Measuring CO<sub>2</sub> to fight global warming, enforce future treaty
If the world's nations ever sign a treaty to limit emissions of climate-warming carbon dioxide gas, there may be a way to help verify compliance. Using measurements from only three carbon-dioxide (monitoring stations in the Salt Lake Valley, the method could reliably detect changes in CO2 emissions of 15 percent or more, researchers report.
Time, place and how wood is used are factors in carbon emissions from deforestation
A new study holds implications for the impact of biofuels production on deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions. The volume of greenhouse gas released when a forest is cleared depends on how the trees will be used and in which part of the world the trees are grown.
Wasted milk is a real drain on our resources, study shows
Milk poured down Britain's kitchen sinks each year creates a carbon footprint equivalent to thousands of car exhaust emissions, research shows.
NASA's new carbon-counting instrument leaves the nest
Its construction now complete, the science instrument that is the heart of NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) spacecraft -- NASA's first mission dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide -- has left its nest at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and has arrived at its integration and test site in Gilbert, Ariz.
Push from Mississippi kept Deepwater Horizon oil slick off shore
Geoscientists offer an explanation for why the Deepwater Horizon oil spill didn't have the environmental impact that many had feared. Using publicly available datasets, their study reveals that the force of the Mississippi River emptying into the Gulf of Mexico created mounds of freshwater which pushed the oil slick off shore.
DC3: Chemistry of thunderstorms
NASA researchers are about to fly off on a campaign that will take them into the heart of thunderstorm country. The Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry (DC3) field campaign will use an airport in Salina, Kan., as a base to explore the impact of large thunderstorms on the concentration of ozone and other substances in the upper troposphere.
New weak point discovered in the Antarctic ice sheet
The Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf fringing the Weddell Sea, Antarctica, may start to melt rapidly in this century and no longer act as a barrier for ice streams draining the Antarctic Ice Sheet, new research shows.
Support for climate change action drops, poll finds
Americans' support for government action on global warming remains high but has dropped during the past two years, according to a new survey.
Not always safety in numbers when it comes to extinction risk
A basic tenet underpinning scientists' understanding of extinction is that more abundant species persist longer than their less abundant counterparts. A new study reveals a much more complex relationship. A team of scientists analyzed more than 46,000 fossils from 52 sites and found that greater numbers did indeed help clam-like brachiopods survive the Ordovician extinction. Surprisingly, abundance did not help brachiopod species persist for extended periods outside of the extinction event.
Death risks higher for heart attack survivors living near major roadways
Heart attack survivors who live about 100 meters (328 feet) or less from a major U.S. roadway face increased risk of death from all causes, according to new research.
Adirondack lakes in North Eastern US lose ice cover as climate warms: Most pristine lake marks biggest change
Researchers have found lakes in the undeveloped High Peaks area of the Adirondack Park are covered with ice for significantly shorter periods than they were 32 years ago, providing evidence that climate change is occurring rapidly. Not even the most pristine wilderness areas are immune.
Heart attack survivors living close to highways face higher 10-year death risk
Living close to a major highway poses a significant risk to heart attack survivors, reinforcing the need to isolate housing developments from heavy traffic areas, a Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center study concludes.
New research brings satellite measurements and global climate models closer
One popular climate record that shows a slower atmospheric warming trend than other studies contains a data calibration problem, and when the problem is corrected the results fall in line with other records and climate models, according to a new study.
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