Do You Eat Sushi?
If so, please make sure to download the 2009 Sustainable Seafood Guide for Sushi. Just click the link or the image below and print out the PDF which you can then fold into a wallet card. Did you know that our love for sushi is severely depleting many of our oceans' fishes? Bluefin tuna are in particular danger because they have been so drastically overfished. A more responsible alternative to bluefin tuna is albacore tuna (shiro maguro).

In addition to downloading your handy sustainable sushi pocket guide, also be sure to download the 2009 Seafood Watch guide for your local region, as well. We all need to take care of our oceans. Whether dining in or out, be sure to express an interest in sustainable seafood options to your grocer, chef, or restaurant. As long as they know there's consumer demand for sustainable options, they hopefully will make responsible choices about what types of seafood to supply.

And remember . . . never order the Chilean Seabass! This fish has been severly overfished to the point where there is a great deal of illegal fishing taking place. Did you know that the real name of the Chilean Seabass is the "Patagonian Toothfish"? The name was changed for marketing purposes so that it would sound more appetizing to consumers. Let's leave the toothfish alone for a while and try to let them recover. . .

International Coastal Cleanup Day is this Saturday, September 20, 2008
If you have a little time to volunteer this weekend, you may want to consider helping out with the Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup Day efforts. It's a great way to help the environment and to help countless forms of wildlife that depend on coastal or wetland habitats. You don't need to live near the ocean. . . cleanup efforts will be underway in many inland areas as well. You can learn more by clicking the Coastal Cleanup Day image below and remember to help keep your environment clean all year around. If you see trash laying around outside, make an effort to pick it up, especially if it's in a coastal area.

New Whale Videos Posted
This past weekend was yet another amazing one for whale-watching in southern California. Our captain says we spotted 48 Blue Whales on our Saturday outing in the Santa Barbara Channel. Many of these whales were swimming off in the distance, but I'd say we got a close-up view of 20-25 of them. This number is hard to fathom, considering the fact that they are highly endangered animals, as mentioned in an earlier post. Despite the unbearably hot temperatures on land, it was quite chilly out on the water and the water was very rough due to high winds. As a result of the turbulent waters, many of my videos have a dizzying perspective, but there were a few good ones in the bunch and I'll be posting those to the OceanSpot Channel of YouTube. Here's a compilation of the whale videos that are currently posted on the OceanSpot Channel of YouTube. This video loop includes various of species of whales in the wild:

Videos of Blue Whales (near Santa Barbara, CA)
This has been an amazing season for Blue-Whale watching in southern California. Whale-watching tours in the Santa Barbara area have been spotting as many as 10 or 20 Blue Whales per daily outing, which is an amazing number, especially given the fact that these are endangered animals. I've been lucky enough to get out to see them on many a weekend and have had some amazing adventures. Armed with a new video camera, I now have more footage than I know what to do with. As time allows, I'll be posting the best clips to the OceanSpot Channel of YouTube and will post some of my favorites here from time to time. Here are a couple of clips to kick things off. The first clip shows Blue Whale lingering very slowly at the surface taking a series of breaths:




The next clip shows two Blue Whales surfacing, one of which shows a bit of its rostrum (nose) as it surfaces:

To view still photos, click the badge below to see pictures of the Blue Whales I spotted on July 14, July 22, July 28, and August 11, 2007 or click here to go directly to the slideshow.

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