Welcome to The Ripple!

It is March which means it is dolphin awareness month, and we are diving in with a splash! In this issue we share some big milestones for our community, global ocean news, progress toward climate solutions in 2024, and lots of blue opportunities for you to help, engage, and build a path in the movement 🌊

📣 But first, we added another one…. join us on LinkedIn! 📣

Sustainability & The Sea Roundup🎥

Looking to bring the ocean into your podcast routine? Here’s our episode drop since our last newsletter.

Community events: Ocean Day in Honolulu

As the planning group, FutureSwell led the coordination of Pilina Kanaloa: Ocean Action and Awareness Day at the Hawaiʻi State Capitol for the second year in a row! On March 15th, 25+ organizations across Hawaiʻi joined to demand bold ocean policy action from our elected leaders and honor Maui.

The day included advocacy meetings, educational booths, a speaker rally, and celebration of the new Community-Based Subsistence Fishing Area in Kīpahulu, Maui!

YouTube Videos! 🎥

Weʻre trying to bring the ocean to your Youtube experience, with a new video every week!

• Diving the Coral Triangle in Nusa Penida - Come SCUBA diving at one of the healthiest reefs in the world in the Nusa Pendia Marine Protected Area! Our top recommendation! 🤿

• Connecting to Nature through Sound - a message from Sister Whaia of Aotearoa, presented originally at COP28 and shared at Aspen Ideas: Climate to Future Leaders earlier this month.

• FAQ for Marine Biologists - Media host and creator Joe Giglio sits down to tell all and you may be surprised what you learn about a marine biologist’s day today role.

Learning Resources for our community!

• Intersectional ocean justice roadmap by @worldoceanday 🐬

• Turning the Tides: How Oysters Fight Climate Change - new blog post by guest author Nicole Castilla on the powers of oysters! 🦪

• Conservation of ocean megafauna - science communication series by Futureswell intern Sophie Cadero, with a recent focus on California sea lions! 🦭

FutureSwell Around the World

Our goal is simple: make a splash and be a voice for ocean conservation. From press interviews to conferences and presentations, this is what weʻve been up to.

• Coral Reef Alliance features Futureswellʻs approach to Digital Ocean Advocacy in their spring print issue!

• Green & Beyond, a climate solution & storytelling magazine, features Futureswellʻs mission to bridge ocean conservation and climate action through regeneration + collaboration.

• In partnership with Ocean Culture Life, Futureswell founder Carissa Cabrera is a contributing author to new book The Ocean Speaks, with a published story amplifying the fight to defend the deep ocean from deep sea mining. Pre-order now!

• Futureswell was represented by Aspen Ideas: Climate and our storytelling and community based initiatives were highlighted in a collaborative presentation to the Future Leaders cohort. We produced a series of interviews on ocean solutions being shared on our Instagram this week.

Ocean of Blue News

International Seabed Authority Meets in Jamaica NOW to Discuss Deep Sea Mining

Right now, world leaders are in Kingston, Jamaica discussing deep sea mining from March 18-29, and we are part of a global call to ask the U.S. to #defendthedeep and say NO to DSM.

• Denmark joins countries in calling for precautionary pause to DSM

• 2,000+ Americans ask Congress to Stop Deep Sea Mining - join their voice.

• Donʻt know much about DSM yet? Itʻs the ocean fight of our lifetime. Watch a 1 minute breakdown here.

Extinct Whale Seen in Nantucket! 🐋

The gray whale, previously though extinct in the North Atlantic was just observed in an aerial drone survey off the coast of Nantucket this month exciting researchers around the world! Gray Whales were hunted to extinction in the Atlantic by the 1700s during the height of commercial whaling activities, leaving only populations inhabiting the west coast of North America.

Researchers have had 5 Gray Whale sightings in the Atlantic over the last 15 years, with some repetitive sightings of the same whale(s). Whale migration experts think individuals have been able to swim through the Northwest Passage in the Arctic as it continues to experience increasingly ice free periods during the summer. Read more

Bionic Jellyfish to Explore the Ocean?

Jellyfish are one of the more peculiar ocean species scientists tend to be enthralled by. They are disputedly simple creatures who essentially only swim, eat, sting, and breed yet they are able to traverse massive areas and in habit both tropical and polar regions. Researchers at Caltech are investigating potential for augmenting certain jellyfish with electronics to create a series of ocean-going cyborgs that can collecting vital information with little energy expenditures.

The researchers are working with jellyfish porotypes because humans still know little about the ocean below the surface, and these creatures have developed one of the most efficient methods of locomotion. Their work is just getting started and you need to read more about what they are working on! Read more 

Spain’s MPA Success Story

The Medes Islands located in the Costa Brava became one of Spain’s largest marine protected areas in the 1990s after extensions to previous decrees prohibited fisheries and marine resource extraction. The Marine Partial Nature Reserve additional extension in 2010 continues to function as a major ocean conservation success story and serves as a model for the rest of the world.

With its most recent expansion, Spain enacted certain policies permitting certain types of fishing activities in the buffer zones around the sanctuary as integrated management was a vital part of the established protections to reconstitute community benefits and eco tourism. The lack of protections can be fervently observed in neighboring regions where unregulated overfishing and commercial industries significantly damaged ecosystems. Read more

Ice Free Arctic in 10 years?! ❄️😔

Will the reason Gray Whales are reappearing in the North Atlantic also be the why we see polar bears disappear? The Arctic has consistently been undergoing ice free periods during summers, and researchers are reporting reduction rates faster than previously thought. An ice free day in the Arctic means there would be less than 1 million square kilometers (386k square miles) of ice present, about the size of Egypt. Many models have projected results describing climate changes, and expect ice free days to happen as soon as 2035! Read more

Ocean Careers

Taquile X FutureSwell Job Roundup

As our new partnership with Taquile Media begins, we released an ocean job roundup on our Instagram. We posted 6 job opportunities currently recruiting communication specialists, ocean advocates, and everything in between. Check them out!

• Management and Program Analyst, NOAA Fisheries - Massachusetts, USA

• Sea Turtle Monitor, A.I.S Inc - South Carolina, USA

• Learning and Development Specialist, Pacific Whale Foundation - Hawai’i, USA

• Marine Wildlife Technician, NOAA - Honolulu, HI

• Education Program Assistant, Monterey Bay Aquarium - California

• Research Assistant, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute - Massachusettes, USA

• Reef Restoration Fellow (COAST), Kuleana Coral Restoration - Oʻahu, Hawaii

• Storyteller in Residence Fellowship - Oceanographic Magazine

• Climate Champions Program, City and County of Honolulu - Hawai’i, USA

• Marine Debris Program Internship, Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation - New Hampshire, USA

• Maui Hawaiian Monk Seal Response Internship, The Marine Mammal Center - Hawai’i, USA

• Young Explorers Program - OceanX

Small sustainable haircare brand Dip just announced they are raising $25,000 for Surfrider Foundation this year! That means when we buy their sustainable shampoo + conditioner bars, we are also now supporting Surfrider in passing policy to address plastic pollution! What a dream. ✨