Smart Conservation - Shark People Take Note

How do you get 500K (and counting) people to change perceptions on a Plastic Bag Initiative?

When you're smart, like the folks over at Heal the Bay, you produce something like this highly entertaining Mockumentary. You want to be watching for the "vast cement rivers," segment and the "home to" quote, classic.

Folks on the front lines of shark conservation should take note. For the past four years shark PSA's have focused on the blood and gore of shark fining but it is time for a fresh look at this and another take.

Blood and gore is a one trick pony and we could be mining an audience outside the traditional shark conservation crowd, a broader reach with a viral video like this is always a good thing.

Kudos to the Heal the Bay folks and yes, we signed the petition:

Garbage? What Garbage?

TED - Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- an endless floating waste of plastic trash. Now he's drawing attention to the growing, choking problem of plastic debris in our seas.

The power of images to open minds:

Junk-A Blog To Watch

15,000 plastic bottles and a Cessna 310 are all that hold together Junk
an intrepid duo who are raising awareness of ocean plastics by sailing to Hawaii in this most unlikely of vessels.

Here's a quick post from June:

Guadalupe Island is roughly 15 miles long and 4 miles wide. For the last 200 miles we’ve drifted practically due south toward it. Yesterday we were five miles and bearing down on the north point. “Which way do we go?” we asked each other. Going west meant faster traveling, but the risk of being pushed ashore was greater. Going east meant a safe trip, but unexpected wind and currents. We flipped a coin, “East it is!”

Steep slopes of brown sand and rubble cascade into deep blue water. The island’s tall mountains create an imposing silhouette against the setting sun. We give a 4-mile buffer between Guadalupe and JUNK. The wind shifts to the northwest, giving us the joy of downwind sailing and a record 2.9 knots. We will skirt around this island in no time. At 1:00am Joel wakes me up, “Can you give me a hand with this spinnaker?” There’s no wind. It fell from 2.5 to .3 in the blink of an eye. The mountain, even at 4 miles, blocks the 20 knots of wind we need. It would now be up to the current.