Tag archives: ocean
In a momentous occasion on Tuesday, November 28, Heal the Ocean (HTO) was presented with a check for $500,000 from Senator Monique Limón representing California Senate District 19 and Assemblymember Gregg Hart representing the 37th California Assembly District, to support HTO’s Summerland Oil Mitigation Study (SOMS). The study was proposed and started by Heal the […]
The Ritz-Carlton brand presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to ocean-diving explorer and environmentalist Jean-Michel Cousteau at a formal affair held on Saturday, November 11, at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara. The brand celebrated all things Cousteau, from his Ocean Futures Society to the Ambassadors of the Environment, along with the brand’s programming in environmental concerns. VIP brand […]
Renowned ocean explorer and diver Jean-Michel Cousteau will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara on November 11 as part of a weekend of festivities that benefit Cousteau’s nonprofit organization Ocean Futures Society (OFS). The event, titled the 78 Years of Diving & Discovery Gala, starts Friday, November 10 and goes through Sunday, […]
“You don’t have to be a scientist to love and protect the ocean,” says marine biologist Scott Simon. Simon is the director at UCSB’s teaching aquarium, the Research Experience and Education Facility (or REEF for short). Although used as a lab facility by the university, the REEF is primarily devoted to public outreach and serves […]
Sea lion population numbers are stable after more than 50 years of federal protection. But with the combination of more frequent and escalating algae blooms, and so many pregnant animals and their newborn pups being affected, it’s up for debate as to whether that will continue. “It’s a big question whether the population numbers will […]
Domoic Acid Crisis Drives Sea Lion and Dolphin Deaths: Local Organization Rescues Record-Breaking 85 Sea Lions in June In the early hours of a Saturday morning on Butterfly Beach, a small crowd gathers. The focus of their attention is brown, unmoving, and looks to be a large rock or piece of driftwood. But closer inspection […]
Kimberly Ray, the founder and CEO of Marine Conservation Network, remembers what it was like to grow up in and on the water. As the daughter of a fisherman, she spent countless hours swimming, diving, snorkeling – “Whatever I could do to get in the water,” she recalled. Wanting to continue that path, Ray earned […]
Coming off another summer of soaring dry heat, California water agencies can no longer rely on snowpack in the High Sierras, delivered through an aging and over-extended State Water System, nor can they rely on an over-drafted Colorado River. So, what’s left beside the pitiful plea of “Pray for more rain”? The Pacific Ocean Reservoir […]
If you live in Montecito or Santa Barbara, you’ve noticed the oil and gas platforms looming on the horizon. Unless you’ve been in the area since the early 1960s, you’ve never known a coastline without their presence. Today, the 27 platforms off the Southern and Central Coast of California are nearing the end of their […]
The Santa Barbara-based Fish Reef Project is establishing a blue carbon bank to draw down carbon through kelp restoration and create carbon offsets in the process. Founded in 2012 by Chris Goldblatt, the Fish Reef Project is a nonprofit working to restore kelp and coral reef ecosystems around the world. Their invention, the Sea Cave, […]
It was a double celebration for the popular nonprofit Heal The Ocean at the popular oceanside eatery, The FisHouse, when Alison Thompson, operations policy coordinator since 2018, was given a “Great Wave” goodbye as she leaves for New Haven, Connecticut, to join graduate school at Yale University. She is working her way towards a master’s […]
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum suffered major social gridlock when the 1917-built vessel Ranger, familiar for leading the annual Christmas Parade of Lights, was officially re-admitted into the Classic Yacht Association’s Southern California Fleet. The 46-foot-long classic wooden fishing boat has been the museum’s flagship since being donated to the harbor-side institution in 1997 by Jack […]
La Paz, Baja California Sur, México. Sometimes, just getting to your travel destination and safely back home is good enough. But when you return and can brag about snorkeling with the biggest fish in the world, which have 300 rows of teeth and don’t eat humans, that’s something. Whale sharks (which are neither whales nor […]
It’s a big honor for Explore Ecology to be receiving Santa Barbara Permaculture Network’s Local Food Hero Award at the 14th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap this weekend. It’s also a well-earned recognition of the nonprofit’s School Gardens Program and its Garden Educators, who teach garden-based lesson plans in upwards of 30 local schools […]
Heal the Ocean, the popular Santa Barbara nonprofit, received a tidal wave of support when it threw its Christmas party at the Carpinteria art gallery, Lobster Town USA, which in the New Year will be turning into the town’s first cannabis dispensary, owners Patrick and Maire Radis tell me. More than 150 guests turned out […]
From wet bags to wetchutes — one mom is on a mission to make it easy to put on a wetsuit. If you have ever tried to slip a slippery and sandy surfer kid into a wetsuit, you know it ain’t easy. The wetsuit has to fit snugly, so it’s a fine dance of pulling, […]
Dear Montecito, People will tell you that Scotland is divided into the highlands and the lowlands. Her capital city, Edinburgh, as well as the town I live in, are part of the lowlands, but when we think of Scotland, we’re apt to think of the highlands. We might conjure a swoosh of plaid or a […]
“Oh man! There are thousands of them.” “What species are they?” “They are Delphinus delphis,” the captain said. Seems like during every Star Trek movie there comes a scene where they hit the dashboard button that says WARP SPEED. Then they can only hope that the coordinates they set don’t deliver them into the middle […]
Heal the Ocean (HTO) has enjoyed a remarkable record of success, particularly for how the nonprofit that was founded barely more than 20 years ago to address contamination of the waters off Summerland from coastal septic system runoff has turned comparatively smaller donations into big projects. HTO smartly and enviably has leveraged modest sums to […]
My great Aunt Betty laughed when I bought my house in Summerland in the early 1980s. She told me that her husband, my great uncle Heywood, used to work on those wells when they lived in Summerland in the 1930s. Little did I know at the time that the very oil wells he worked on […]
