Hail to the Whales and Island Fauna Tales - A Webinar with Chuck Graham and Holly Lohuis. Channel Island Restoration - Tuesday, May 28, 2024 5pm to 6pm. Join us for a special webinar with Chuck Graham and Holly Lohuis.
In our upcoming webinar, Holly Lohuis will explore the establishment of the newly recognized Santa Barbara Channel Whale Heritage Area. Additionally, Chuck Graham will share insights on island wildlife, delving into his encounters with creatures like foxes, the island spotted skunk, elephant seal pups, northern fur seal pups, bald eagles, brown pelicans, and more.
Scientists tracked a young #whale's journey before he vanished. What they learned could help save his species.
#Bishop’s story, from birth to presumed death, shows the extreme danger facing right #whales, which could be extinct in 3 decades if they continue to disappear at the present rate. Bishop’s species is not doomed to #extinction …but time is running out.
In most ways #Bishop was a normal #RightWhale. For the first year of his life, his mother nursed & protected him, & he learned to feed by swimming, mouth agape, through patches of plankton floating near the surface.
But on Jan 20, 2015, Bishop became something more: a precious source of data that would help scientists better understand the dangers afflicting his species.
So far this year, a dead female turned up off Virginia w/ a dislocated spine, a calf was discovered in Georgia w/head lacerations, & a young female was found — again in Georgia — w/ a fractured skull. All the injuries are consistent with #vessel strikes.
"Bishop’s story, from birth to presumed death, shows the extreme danger facing right #whales, which could be #extinct in three decades if they continue to disappear at the present rate.
ABOLISH SEISMIC BLASTING SPECIAL PROSPECTING AUTHORITY PERMITS (SPA)
A Special Prospecting Authority (SPA) is a specific type of permit that allows #companies to buy access to large areas of our #oceans to use #SeismicBlasting to search for #oil and #gas, and Carbon Capture and Storage locations below the ocean floor.
Seismic blasts are how the oil and gas industry surveys the ocean floor. Seismic vessels tow an array of airguns and audio receivers (hydrophones) behind them in the water.
Seismic blasting would also occur directly inside crucial feeding areas for endangered #PygmyBlueWhales. 🐋
The government regulator, #NOPSEMA, is assessing whether or not to approve this new project and has opened up a short window for public comment. Now is our chance to tell NOPSEMA that we want CGG’s new seismic blasting proposal rejected to protect Australian #MarineLife like southern right whales.
A Spiny Starfish (Marthasterias glacialis), a Common Starfish (Asterias rubens) and a Broad Clawed Porcelain Crab (Porcellana platycheles) holding hands/legs.
County Clare, Ireland.
A particularly vibrant colored fragment of a Purple sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus) shell. The dots are like small ball joints where it's spines were attached.
County Clare, Ireland.