News
President Biden Establishes Office of Environmental Justice
President Biden signed an executive order Friday aimed at ensuring federal decisions consider "environmental justice," which addresses higher pollution burdens often faced by communities of color and people living in poverty. The new executive order directs agencies...
Happy Earth Day!
Our world needs transformation. It’s time for the people of the world to hold governments and the private sector accountable for their role in our environmental crisis while also calling for bold, creative, and innovative solutions. This will require action at all...
EPA Awards $177 Million to Environmental Justice Groups
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it’s investing $177 million to create 17 technical assistance centers around the country to help environmental justice organizations successfully apply for federal funds. Better training on how to...
What we need to know to ensure aquaculture in offshore US waters is done right
The Environmental Defense Fund recently posted an Expert Q & A, which is a must-read for anyone interested in ocean sustainability issues. Read answers from: Matthew Thompson, Aquaculture Programs Manager at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life (New England...
Featured Connection: Botany
Plants are essential to our lives. They provide – either directly or indirectly – all of our food and the oxygen we breathe. They are a source of important medicines (aspirin developed due to the study of rotting tree bark, and penicillin came from mold). They are the...
Finding Your Direction
Our mission is to inspire students from underrepresented backgrounds and communities to find their unique way to connect with the ocean and provide them with the resources they need to turn those connections into reality. To support this mission, we have prepared over...
Blue Growth and Blue Justice
I recently found an interesting article called Blue Growth and Blue Justice that examines the social justice implications of the rapid and unchecked development of ocean resources. The article highlights ten injustices that can be produced by blue growth: (1)...
Featured Connection: Creative Writing
The Power of Words Creative writing has been around since the time we could first put a chisel to a stone tablet and carve out glyphs, wedges, and runes and people have been writing about the ocean for probably just as long. And why not? The ocean makes for both a...
Panama Achieves 50% Ocean Protection with Expanded Marine Protected Area
Panama recently expanded the limits of the Banco Volcán Area of Managed Resources (Banco Volcán AMR) to further protect and steward important marine ecosystems, endangered flora and fauna, and important fishing resources found within Panama's territorial waters in the...
UN Agrees on Role for Int’l Court of Justice in Climate Change
Thank you, Vanuatu! The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution proposed by the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu to seek an opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on what legal obligations nations are under to protect climate...
Featured Connection: Marine Archaeology
Shipwrecks, Underwater Cities and Adventure! Marine archaeology just sounds exciting. Spending your life sailing the high seas in search of legendary shipwrecks. Diving among treasure-laden ships in search of sunken riches. If only it were true! Marine archaeologists...
Racial Discrimination in Cancer Alley
The 85-mile stretch of land along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans that contains over 200 oil refineries, plastics plants, chemical plants, and other petrochemical factories that emit significant amounts of harmful air pollution is officially...