Can Cuba’s Mysteries Help Save the World’s Coral Reefs?

Until that tranquil morning in late June 1974, the sum total of my SCUBA diving experience had been in a landlocked state, in a stifling, moldy indoor YMCA pool in the Philadelphia suburbs and a Pennsylvania quarry, flooded with icy soup-green water. Barely comprehending the new world of pungent humidity, mountainous afternoon cumulus clouds, and lush tangles of flowering succulents I experienced at water’s edge during my first visit to the Florida Keys, I was wholly unprepared later that morning when I found myself seated in sugar-white sand with 40 feet of warm, clear aquamarine water above my head. As impossibly multi-colored fish passed slowly within reach before my wide 15-year-old eyes, my gaze broadened as I marveled at the towering jetties of coral around us, living layer cakes of corals upon corals, brown and mustard rock-like structures, encrusted with brilliant red, violet and orange coralline fans and branches, swaying in the warm, nourishing current and, like eager spring blossoms, reaching toward the dancing sunlight scattered on the surface above. Read the story »

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Oceans Day Message from the Next Generation

If you know the history of my “OceanDoctor” moniker, then you know my daughter, Anna, had everything to do with it. This weekend marks two significant events: World Oceans Day and the one year anniversary of the OceanDoctor blog. These events have given me a moment of reflection. Read the story »

OceanDoctor 2.0

This week marks a year since I began the OceanDoctor blog. I’ve spent the time experimenting with many new and evolving forms of communication — blogging, Podcasts, Twitter, etc. — trying to find better ways to share my watery experiences, and the response has been wonderful and inspiring. I’m hoping to do much more in the year ahead and have decided to move my blog to this, a self-hosted platform at OceanDoctor.org, which provides more flexibility to experiment with new, leading edge tools and better integrates with the 1planet1ocean site, recently relaunched, too. (And yes, it’s an opportunity to nourish my inner nerd.) Read the story »

The Heart of the Bering Sea Beats with Discovery

It’s hard to get a big smile out of Ken Lowyck, Greenpeace’s capable Action Unit Coordinator (and sub pilot) based in Toronto. I snapped the photo to the right and captured Ken’s pre-dive excitement last summer on August 1, just minutes before he was launched on the dive to 700 feet in Pribilof Canyon in the Bering Sea that resulted in one of the expedition’s most important discoveries. I imagine the modest smile that appeared on his face has returned today as Greenpeace has announced that the tiny, unassuming white sponge he retrieved on that dive was never before documented by Homo sapiens, and may well herald future announcements of other new species from the expedition. Read the story »