Kelp Loss on the West Coast

Divers and scientists watched a disaster play out along the U.S. West Coast: an almost overnight disappearance of sea stars, especially sunflower sea stars, followed by a population explosion of the purple urchins that sea stars eat, and then loss of entire forests of bull kelp. Read what is behind the disaster and what scientists are doing in response here. 

Bees are vital to wildflowers

 Enjoy the spring wildflowers this year? Thank a bee! Read more about the role of these insects as pollinators, and how you can help them. 

Protecting ocean sediments from trawling

 Marine sediments represent a large and globally important carbon sink, but stored carbon can be released into the water by trawling. Research outlines the problem and offers solutions. Read more here. 

Cut Your Travel-related Food Waste

A third of all food produced in the world gets wasted, creating a yearly global carbon footprint larger than most countries. Some simple ways to reduce food waste on dive trips, cruises, and other travel. 

Paying Texas landowners to protect carbon stored in soil

Natural climate solutions – a variety of conservation, restoration and improved land management actions to increase carbon storage or avoid its emission – could provide more than a third of the cost-effective climate mitigation needed between now and 2030 to stabilize warming to below 2 degrees Celsius. One organization, the Texas Coastal Exchange, pays landowners to increase or protect carbon stored in their lands. Read more here. 

The wild films of Ben Masters

From bighorn sheep to ocelots and the Rio Grande, Austin-based filmmaker Ben Masters uses films to promote conservation. Read my interview with Masters in Texas Highways. 

Fascinating Jellyfish

 From their multiple-stage life cycles to their long history across the breadth and depth of the world’s seas, jellyfish may have something to tell us about the changing health of the oceans. Read more in this piece from the Spring 2018 issue of Alert Diver.