Mark J. Spalding
Costa Rica BBNJ Workshop
I spent the 8th and 9th of March in Puntarenas, Costa Rica for a Central American workshop to develop capacity for foreign ministries engaged in responding to the UN General …
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Role in Ocean Issues
On January 28, I arrived in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, one of the 16 cities that make up “Metro Manila,” the most densely populated urban area in the …
Go Big or Go Home
International agreements value efforts to protect the health and wellbeing of all life on earth—from human rights to endangered species—the nations of the world have come together to figure out …
Blue Tech in San Diego
This past week I attended the 8th annual BlueTech & Blue Economy Summit and Tech Expo in San Diego, which is hosted by The Maritime Alliance (TMA). And, on Friday …
Arctic Ocean Acidification Workshop
In September 2016, the biggest cruise ship to ever make the Northwest Passage through the Arctic reached New York safely after 32 days, millions of dollars in preparations, and a …
Stories of the Whale
The ocean is an opaque place in that there is still so much to learn about it. The life patterns of the great whales are also opaque—it is amazing what …
Corals Need Relief
Coral reefs can handle a lot of chronic and acute harms, until they can’t. Once a reef tract crosses the threshold from a coral-dominated system to a micro-algae dominated system …
Creating the Network to Forecast Ocean Acidification
Following the Ocean in a High CO2 World conference in Tasmania at the very beginning of May, we held the third science workshop for the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network …
The Ocean is Suffering from Hypercapnia
I spent the beginning of May in Van Diemen’s Land, a penal colony established by Great Britain in 1803. Today, it is known as Tasmania, one of the six original …
How many records will we break?
“I’ve never seen it like this before.” That is what I have heard over and over as I traveled to different regions in the past couple of weeks—in La Jolla …
Keep Loreto Magical
Greetings from Loreto International Airport where I am waiting to catch my plane back to LAX after a very busy week. It is always nice to be back in …
Save the Vaquita
Efforts taken to date by Mexico, the United States, and the global community have been helpful, but have not been sufficient to save the vaquita from extinction. Conserving the species …