Culture and Coexistence into the Great Unknown
Covering almost three-fourths of the earth’s surface, the oceans are the salt water habitat for 230,000 known species, with the unexplored depths carrying potentially 2 million more marine species. Ocean pollution, acidification, and climate change pose significant dangers in the coming years.
How do we confront the swirling gyres of plastic pollution dumped into our oceans? In this show, we examine the social and environmental implications of wasted resources, and follow two interrelated approaches to solving the problem from an indigenous woman doing exemplary work in New Zealand and an LA-based plastics pollution fighter.
Sick, starving and dying sea lion pups are washing up on the shores of California in record numbers this year. The culprit? An unusual blob of record warm water parked off the North Pacific Coast for a year and a half, affecting circulation and weather patterns with no relief in sight. Hence, sardine fisheries have collapsed with wildlife heading north.
The NOAA is shutting down cod fishing for six months, from Provincetown, Mass., up to the Canadian border, in an effort to reverse plummeting numbers of the iconic fish in the Gulf of Maine. Jeffery Bolster argues humans have depredated the Atlantic’s fish stocks for centuries, and the focus on short-term fixes only compounds the problem.
“Planet Ocean” — explores how the health of the oceans are the pivot for all of Earth’s healthy ecosystems. This international documentary, directed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Michael Pitiot, wonders whether it is possible for Earth’s dominant inhabitants to change the way we view our oceans.
Ocean acidification, the lesser-known twin of climate change, threatens to scramble marine life on a scale almost too big to fathom. Scientists fear changing ocean chemistry will drive the collapse of Alaska’s iconic crab fishery. Watch the video from PBS NewsHour and the Seattle Times.
Humans are consuming the ocean’s resources at an alarming rate. How do we sustain this vital ecosystem for generations to come? National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Sylvia Earle outlines some of the ways to protect the health of the earth’s biggest ecosystem.
Puerto Lempira lies on the shore of the sweetwater Laguna Caratasca, just west of the Caribbean in La Moskitia, Honduras. The largest Miskitu town in the region, with an ailing lobster industry in an atmosphere of post-coup insecurity and governmental corruption, many turn to drug trafficking for income.