Update: Victory on tanker ban motion a victory for the coast

VANCOUVER – Environmental groups are praising the December 7th vote in the House of Commons in support of a legislated tanker ban for Canada’s Pacific North Coast. The motion was put forward by Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen whose riding includes the Great Bear Rainforest and thousands of coastal jobs that depend on a healthy [...]

First Nations and coastal industries join forces to push for Pacific tanker ban

OTTAWA – An unprecedented delegation of First Nations, commercial fishing, tourism representatives and environmental groups from Canada’s Pacific North Coast called on Ottawa Tuesday, calling on the federal government to ban oil tankers from the region. The federal government is currently considering allowing over 200 oil tankers per year to travel through some of the [...]

Plastiki completes Pacific voyage

The Plastiki (see Navigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – Jan 25, 2010) and her crew arrived July 26 in Sydney Harbour, completing their 130 day, 8,394 nautical mile journey of the Pacific Ocean – including the North Pacific Garbage Patch – that began in San Francisco. Her mission to raise awareness of the issue [...]

Ocean “garbage patch” a legacy of throwaway living

A yachting competition across the Pacific led veteran seafarer Charles Moore to discover what some have since deemed the world’s largest “landfill” – actually a huge water-bound swath of floating plastic garbage twice the size of the state of Texas. Trapped in an enormous slow whirlpool called the Pacific Gyre, a mostly stagnant, plankton-rich seascape [...]

Plastiki and Fish Free Friday

While you Track the Voyage of Plastiki – see the d5o story: Navigating The Great Pacific Garbage Patch – check out the Fish Free Friday feature. Some great illustration work, some important information, and a chance to make a small change that could create a big difference. Source: The Plastiki Expedition

Hi’ialakai monitoring Pacific reefs

One of the better online resources for learning about reef conservation efforts is the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program website. This and related NOAA sites are packed with so much info that significant projects – such as the Hi’ialakai reef monitoring project that recently caught our attention – can get lost in the crowd.

Navigating The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a region double the size of Texas in the North Pacific Ocean – is awash with garbage. It’s estimated that the area contains more than three million tons of plastics, and islands in what’s called the “Convergence Zone” (see map) regularly see their coastlines fouled with the waste that [...]