coral reef

Calling all crafty/brainy coral lovers: This Sunday at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History there's a free lecture and workshop about the Crochet Coral Reef project. That's right, these folks are crocheting a coral reef.

The project is led by the The Institute For Figuring, whose website describes the reef eloquently as "a woolly celebration of the intersection of higher geometry and feminine handicraft, and a testimony to the disappearing wonders of the marine world."

Sunday's event features a lecture by Margaret Wertheim, a physicist, journalist and co-founder of the Institute For Figuring, and Nancy Knowlton, the Museum's Sant Chair for Marine Science, who will discuss coral reef conservation. After the lecture, there will be a crochet workshop for all levels.

Next spring, the Supreme Court will weigh in on the U.S. Navy’s use of high-intensity, mid-frequency sonar off the southern California coast. Use of this type of sonar, which the Navy admits may significantly disturb or injure an estimated 170,000 marine mammals, was challenged in court based on protections found in the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970.

Now that oral arguments before the Supreme Court have concluded, we must wait for its decision in 2009.

But when you’re as passionate about the issues as our staff and supporters, waiting can be incredibly difficult, so thanks to a Wavemaker in St. Augustine, FL named Marcella, I have something that you can do to help protect marine mammals and other ocean wildlife from sonar.

A little breather from the Exxon Mobil gloom and doom of my last two posts -- some welcome news today:

1.) The northern section of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) between Iceland and the Azores has been given official protected status as a High Seas Marine Protected Area. The section of the undersea mountain range was given the status by the OSPAR Commission for the protection of the North-East Atlantic.

Continued carbon emissions are increasing the acidity of the oceans; in fact, approximately a third of anthropogenic carbon emissions are absorbed by the oceans each year. Scientists worry that not enough research has been done on the possible effects that ocean acidification will have on marine wildlife, ecosystems and food webs.