Carnival of the Blue #42: Chilean Edition - Oceana USA
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November 2, 2010

Carnival of the Blue #42: Chilean Edition

Step right up to the Carnival of the Blue #42, where you may or may or may not discover the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Come one, come all!

This month’s Carnival of the Blue is brought to you from the ever-so-coastal country of Chile, where I am currently working out of our Santiago office helping with their website redesign. It’s also a fitting theme because this month was a superb one for Chile’s oceans.

On the heels of our recent victory to save Chile’s Punta de Choros from a coal-fired power plant, this month, Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera announced the creation of Sala y Gómez Marine Park, a no-take marine reserve of 150,000 square kilometers around Sala y Gómez island, and the Chilean government announced a drastic reduction in the fishing quota for jack mackerel and other fisheries, starting in 2011. (Oh yeah, and don’t forget those 33 miners…)

Now let’s have a look at what else happened this month around the world wide wet web of ours:

Squid a Day’s Danna Staaf wondered whether squid fisheries are intrinsically sustainable. “It’s true that we haven’t yet driven any cephalopod species to extinction through overfishing,” she says, “But it’s also true that most cephalopod fisheries are quite young, and we really have very little information…”

Wanderin’ Weeta’s Susannah posted a touching video of a mama green shore crab “in berry”, caring for thousands of eggs in her belly.

DeepTypeFlow’s Al Dove interviewed Pete Strutton about carbon sequestration and ocean fertilization.

Blogfish’s Mark Powell worried that Alaska’s salmon economy could be headed towards a crash.

Brave Blue Words’ Danielle reviewed the staggering results (6, 000 new species!) of the Census of Marine Life.

Deep Sea News was buzzing as usual. Dr Bik lamented the lack of communication and progress around oil spill research. Meanwhile, Rick MacPherson fondly remembered an important marine scientist who recently passed away, Dr. Isabella Aiona Abbott, the foremost expert on central-Pacific algae. Dr. M warned against sustainable fisheries/seafood greenwashing.

And finally, Kevin Z recorded a sure-fire smash hit song about the oil spill: “Black tide is rising over our coast/creeping over the marsh and beach like a long forgotten ghost/Suffocating jobs, strangling our hopes/black tide is rising, nowhere to go.”

Thanks for all the submissions, and see you next time!