Oceans 4Ever

OK, so we’re a little squirrelly and excited today. Can you blame us?

Happy World Oceans Day!

We’re busy baking chocolate cakes with BLUE frosting, wearing blue and calling/emailing/tweeting friends around the world who love the ocean as much as we do – or soon will.

In our first of two WOD posts today, we’d like to announce a very special project cooked up by Little A, herself, along with a wonderful new ocean friend named Melissa.

We’d like to announce the Borsa Bella Oceans 4Ever Wristlet Collection, for Gulf Birds.

This project was tossed around last winter, when the ladies of O4E went on a bit of a buying spree in order to attain the absolute best and most attractive gadget bags for our shiny new Christmas electronics.

We came across Borsa Bella Designs, and after we had Melissa custom-make a few pieces for us, a light bulb went on and we asked her if she’d like to help us raise some money for oceans’ futures. She liked the idea.

But then the bulb dimmed again as we all got busy in the new year.

And then April 20th arrived.

As the impending doom was foretold and then started to unfold in front of the world, we squirmed, cried and paced, like all ocean lovers. Alexa was upset like a child and like a conservationist at the same time; it was tough for a mom to find the right words with which to frame this experience for her.

Then we got back in touch with Melissa. She felt just like we did, so we got to work.

Long story short - hundreds of fabric swatches later, after much back-and-forth about which bag style, what lining, what color, and tons of Alexa’s-fave-fabric-is-discontinued-oh-nos, what was originally one bag is now three, and you ladies (sorry guys, we make NO apologies!) now have that most-important ingredient of every facet of your feminine lives: a choice.

Proceeds from the sales of these bags will go directly to the International Bird Rescue Research Center for the ongoing and future efforts by this organization to support sea birds in the Gulf and around the world, as well as other wildlife that is affected by spills and other environmental concerns.

Gulf birds are obviously devastated and face catastrophic threats to their habitat and their ability to survive into future generations. BP is financially responsible for funding ALL of IBRRC’s current bird rescue, rehabilitation and clean-up efforts from this oil spill. But when clean-up done, the much-in-need birds are the ones who will be left holding the bag.

We hope you’ll hold one, too.

Watch for our dedicated page for this project; more details shortly on the bags, the birds, our wonderful partner, and the IBRRC’s efforts.

In the meantime, subscribe to the IBRRC blog and stay up-to-the-minute on their bird rescue and rehab efforts in the Gulf. While you’re at it, wish executive director Jay Holcomb a congrats for his 2010 Ocean Heroes Award, just announced today by Oceana. 

Now, let us know what YOU”RE doing to celebrate World Oceans Day!

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TGIMonday!

Why on earth are we happy it’s Monday, you ask? Glad you did:

it’s World Oceans Day Week here on O4E, and we have a fantastic celebration planned, which includes a chat with Fabien Cousteau, the 411 on a six year-old ocean-saving tour de force, announcements galore – including Alexa’s new project – and we can’t not hold at least one contest.

We’re excited, and hope you are, too!

While finalizing the revelry, we realized that we could not celebrate WOD without one of our favorite ocean friends, underwater photographer Tony Wu.

Plainly put, Tony is Alexa’s idol, and if you’re unfamiliar with him, you’re missing out on some of the most mesmerizing underwater images (and great tales of their making) - ever. Period.

So, we asked Tony for a favorite image for WOD, and why he chose it, and the story behind it. What we got was the best way we can  think of to kick off the week.

 Immerse yourself in Tony’s ocean.

I took the photo in a remote destination called the Eastern Fields, which is located in the waters of Papua New Guinea. It’s a submerged atoll system about half way between Port Moresby and Cairns, out in the middle of nowhere, subject to strong currents, winds and storm systems.

As a result, not many people have ever visited the area, with probably fewer than 1,000 divers ever having been there. There’s little to no fishing activity there (though levels have increased in recent years) due to the remote location and level of risk associated with traveling there. As a consequence, the reefs and marine life are…pristine. I’ve never seen such beautiful reefs and abundant marine life anywhere, though I’m sure there are other isolated, protected places like this on the planet.
I like the photo not so much because of what you can see (trillions of fish and innumerable coral growths), but for what you can’t see in the image. In the location where I took this photo, the reef stretched as far as I could see in every direction, with trillions of fish and innumerable coral heads everywhere. In other words, if a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s not in the picture is worth a billion.

If there’s a message I’d like people to contemplate on World Oceans Day, it’s that this photo shows what the oceans should look like.

-Tony Wu

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Today’s freakiness brings you closer to one of the past stars of this video, brought to you by a very special guest.

Casey Sokolovic, our friend and singular sea turtle champion (get the scoop on Casey and her efforts here), has the lowdown on this amazing and perplexing creepy fish.

Brrrrrr!!!

image: Wikimedia Commons

Are You Ready to Dive In?

The Icefish can survive sub-zero water temperatures due to a special antifreeze glycoprotein in its blood and body fluids. Can you imagine freezing all the time?

If you’d like to give this fish the cold shoulder, then head to the continental shelf waters surrounding Antarctica.

What baffles the scientists about these “cold-blooded” fish? They can’t figure out how the Icefish can live at both ends of the earth – which are separated by thousands of miles of warm waters.

Icefish have been found in the Arctic as well as the Antartic and new species are still being found.

I’ll never see one of these fish, as their natural habitat is WAY too cold for me!

~Casey

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