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- The Ripple - November 2023
Welcome back to The Ripple, a monthly blue newsletter by FutureSwell, specifically made for ocean people. November has brought a wave of updates from our end, and countless opportunities to you. In this edition of the ripple youʻll find details on:
COP28 and our collective ocean climate goals
Coral Bleaching Awareness Month
Incredible jobs, grants, and internships
Our newest short-form series + what our next one will be!
But first - incredible news! Mexico has joined the global coalition calling for a moratorium on deep seabed mining. This marks a continued wave of resistance to exploit the last pristine ecosystem on Earth. Activism works.
What is a pirates favorite letter?
˙(∀ƎS) Ɔ ǝɥʇ ʎllɐnʇɔɐ sᴉ ʇᴉ ʇnq 'ᴚ ǝɥʇ sɐʍ ʇᴉ ʞuᴉɥʇ plnoʍ no⅄
Under the Hood: What's New?
Tsunami on a Remote Hawai’i Research Expedition?!
What would you do if you were stranded on a tiny sand island in the middle of a Pacific, and you get notice that a potential tsunami is heading directly for you?
Well that is exactly what happened to Alex Filardo when he went on a research expedition up to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to study monk seals. You can listen to his entire experience and the crazy tsunami story on the Sustainability & The Sea Podcast here! You can also check out our awesome 360 video experience on YouTube of his time spent studying the Monk Seals!
Community Presentations: Storytelling for Systems Change - join us December 13th!
Co-founder Carissa Cabrera recently spoke to graduate sustainability students at Hawai’i Pacific University to share the impact of storytelling in catalyzing systems change, with a focus on real-world local applications.
On December 13th, she will be presenting again at a public event at Kahala Resort for their Sunset Seminar. If you are based on Oʻahu, youʻre invited to join us and connect in person. The event itself is free and includes drinks + appetizers, but requires RSVP to join. We hope to see you there!
Storytelling Series: Power of the Pacific!
If you have not had a chance to check out some of our recent storytelling projects, head over to our Instagram to watch our new social media series, Power of the Pacific, hosted by ocean climate solutionist and Futureswell youth advisor Bodhi Patil.
The series centers the stewardship practices being utilized by communities in Polynesia and what lessons we can take with us from their solutions - watch Power of the Pacific out everywhere now.
New partnerships!
Recently we have been making valuable connections to continue our ocean conservation journey, and since you are all amazing subscribers you get to hear about them first!
Tequile Media - Our new impact partner based in South America focused on raising awareness around the intersection of ocean and climate. Together, we hope to broaden both of our communities to connect awareness around these topics globally.
Deep Blue Eco Tours - Weʻve partnered with Deep Blue on several projects in the past, but we are so excited to share our next series will be aboard their shark diving experience. Stay tuned! 🐋
SeaLegacy - Carissa has joined Sealegacy as a global ambassador to amplify ocean conservation solutions through storytelling projects at Futureswell. For those who are unfamiliar, SeaLegacy was one of the first ocean storytelling platforms, founded by National Geographic photographers + videographers paving the way for modern storytelling as a tool for conservation. In many ways, SeaLegacy walked so we can all run.
If you are interested, or you know anyone who is interested in partnering with us here at FutureSwell, contact us here!
Blue News
‘Never Before Seen’ Humpback Whale Gives Birth!
Watch the moment scientists captured a humpback whale giving birth for the first time! This incredible video was captured off the coast of Lahaina, Maui from a team of researchers studying the whales. Humpback whales travel more than 3,000 miles to Hawai’i from Alaska to breed and have their offspring. While the whales are generally active around the islands, no-one has ever witnessed a live birth like that captured in the National Geographic video.
Members of our FutureSwell team have contributed to many projects studying the whales in the Pacific, so we were all especially excited when this video was released. Something shocking to researchers was the string of male whales that followed the birthing mother, continuously blowing a string of bubbles beneath her. One theory is that the bubbles are potentially connected with releasing oxytocin as they connect with her body. Read more
Massive Antarctic Cavern Discovered, Teaming With Life
Back in 2021 scientists first discovered a massive cavern hidden beneath a West Antarctic Glacier, incredibly housing a muddy tidal marsh and teeming with life! Scientists had long surmised there could be liquid water trapped under the ice shelf as heat from the Earth’s interior seeps into the ice. Small sections of the ice melt quickly merge to form large subterranean lakes hundreds of meters from the glacier’s surface over time.
Researchers were in shock when they saw many different microbes present after boring down more than 500 meters and dropping a camera. Continued research surveys into the cavern discovered small crustaceans and other amphipods surprising researchers everywhere. The evidence of a well supported ecosystem in these glacial lakes can offer a glimpse into organisms that may be able to survive under ice sheets on other planets. Read more
OECMs to Provide More Inclusive Biodiversity Protections
OECMs, a relatively new term meant to represent “other effective area-based conservation measures”, is being navigated in regions previously considered for Marine Protected Areas (MPA). OECMs are not designed to protect biodiversity they are just established areas of restrictions that happen to do so.
Examples of an OECMs could be an area where fishing is restricted thereby benefiting existing biodiversity as a side effect. MPAs navigate conservation by top down controls over commercial fishing activities, while OECMs utilize bottom up control that supports small-scale fisheries, indigenous communities, and conservation outcomes.
This new conservation practice will be sure to gain traction, we just must be careful about the risk of inappropriately labeling areas with harvesting restrictions as an OECMs, mistakenly contributing an inaccurate representation of the overall protections claimed. Read more
AI, but for the Deep Ocean
New research published in Ocean-Land-Atmosphere-Research utilized a newly developed Intelligent Swift Ocean Observing System (ISOOS) to create a 3D map of targeted ocean regions autonomously. This new method of data collection is safer, more efficient, and can achieve results in a fraction of the time other methods require.
The unmanned intelligent autonomous vehicles used for surveying will play a key role in future ocean research as rapid scans can help scientists understand global ocean dynamics subject to high variability. Without requiring physical presence of humans, ISOOS has the potential to be applied to deep sea discovery, wreckage exploration, and artifact recovery. Read more
Ocean Careers
Blue Advice: Welcome to our new Ripple section featuring curated advice, strategies, and resources specifically designed for those of you interested in becoming marine biologists. We constantly get asked questions about how to enter this career field and we thought what better way to provide answers than with an entire section devoted to advice directly from marine conservationists! Here are some places to start, and keep asking your questions on our other platforms so we can give you all the answers you need.
Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship
The fellowship provides a one-year, paid experience for highly qualified early career professionals to work on science issues related to coastal, marine, Great Lakes, and policy in offices within the executive or legislative branch of government in Washington, D.C. Learn More
Environmental and Social Impact Job Boards List
Check out this job board list for careers that focus on social or environmental impacts. There are jobs related to green industries, funders, non profits, public interest tech, agriculture, parks & recreation, climate, clean energy, and more!
Featured Opportunities!
Our goal is to get as many people as possible involved in marine conservation.
JOBS
INTERNSHIPS
Support Futureswell: MERCH DROP
Congratulations - you made it to the end of this long, ocean packed newsletter. We are stoked to exclusively share with Ripple subscribers that our next collection of small-batch, made-to-order merchandise is officially live on our shop and you can purchase right now.
Our community is amazing, and now you can find eachother in these timeless pieces, made with recycled materials (of course!) This collection also includes our first podcast design for Sustainability & The Sea listeners! We are so happy to finally share this with you. Now we can all wear what we love… the ocean.
