World Oceans Day 2014

Happy Memorial Day!

Sunday, June 8th, is World Oceans Day 2014! Like last year, my family will be hosting a table in Boston’s New England Aquarium for their World Oceans Day celebration! Please join us between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm for a day of fun, learning, and conservation!

World Oceans Day Vaquita

The New England Aquarium is big on ocean conservation, and has created the live blue™ Initiative, a project that protects endangered marine species and their habitats. I look forward to educating the public on one of the planet’s rarest and least-known species, the Vaquita, at this wonderful aquarium.

Please check out this really neat website about bycatch, with great statistics and graphics: http://www.bijvangst.org/en/home

Elaborating on my last post, Project #ChangeOurPerception, here is Anthony Bourdain’s blog, which talks a lot about the evolving food culture of Mexico, and The Truth About Mexico, a great Facebook page showing the positive truth about this extremely misunderstood and under-visited country.

Below are some photos of the Vaquita-related things that I have gotten in the past few months:

My dad’s Vaquita calf carving, to go with the mother he made earlier:

Calf Carving

Stephen and Anthony Palumbi’s book, The Extreme Life of the Sea, which contains a few pages about the Vaquita:

The Extreme Life of the Sea cover

The Extreme Life of the Sea interior

Jean-Pierre Sylvestre’s Dolphins & Porpoises: A Worldwide Guide, which we found in an old book shop:

Dolphins and Porpoises

Dolphins and Porpoises interior

Beach Bar Radio and Save the Whales/VIVA Vaquita’s awesome shirt from their Booster campaign:

Save the Whales back

And this cool t-shirt from Vince Radice’s Vaquita documentary Indiegogo campaign:

Vince Radice Shirt Front

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Vaquita Expedition 2013 Campaign

There are a lot of things going on right now in the Vaquita world. Topher Jones of Bisbee, Arizona has created an Indiegogo campaign for a Vaquita Expedition 2013 to get good photographs and video of the Vaquita. I believe this expedition has nothing to do with ¡Viva Vaquita! or their possible 2013 Expedition. Either way, it sounds very neat and worth donating to: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/vaquita-expedition?c=home.

A National Geographic article about un-damming the Colorado River seems very positive at first, but it may lead to an increase of illegal fishing in the Vaquita’s range. Read it here: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/04/12/colorado-river-meet-the-sea/.

The Muskwa Club has contacted many nationwide aquariums and has begun to form a successful Vaquita Day 2013. The day is planned to be July 6th, and we are trying to get as many aquariums to celebrate the Vaquita on that day as possible. I might even have a table at Adventure Aquarium in Camden, New Jersey! They have already arranged nationwide media coverage! This will really be a huge event! The Muskwa Club has really helped me achieve my dreams of saving the Vaquita, and they have many more crazy ideas in the works! 🙂

Being a Vaquita conservationist is one busy job!