On June 8, we celebrate World Ocean Day, a date designated by the United Nations to recognize our relationship with the ocean through so many different ways of global connection. Around the world, through the World Ocean Network, The Ocean Project, and many other...

A trophic cascade is an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition or removal of top predators and involving reciprocal changes in the relative populations of predator and prey through a food chain, which often results in dramatic changes in ecosystem structure and nutrient cycling. A recent article by...

In all the recent talk about alternative energy, solar and wind initiatives have been advantageous enough for government, venture capitalists, and individuals to pursue with some optimism and substantial investment. The way, however, has been fraught with peril: permitting issues, changing regulatory standards, legal challenges by neighbors and environmental organizations,...

"World fish stocks are being rapidly depleted, and valuable species are nearing extinction. Because fish are a valuable commodity, the last decade has seen an escalation of transnational and organized criminal networks engaged in fisheries crime." So declares the website of a new Environmental Crime Program launched by...

Knowledge is based on information, based on data, collected in never-ending amounts by scientists, research vessels, satellites, and more and more frequently in and under the water devices, fixed and floating, that record and transmit "newbie-bytes" of observations to data banks everywhere. What do we do with it all?

This...

Some years ago, a museum exhibit comparing American and Norwegian maritime culture provided an understanding of how one can respond successfully to the challenges of the ocean with two very different solutions. In this case, it was boat construction, the traditional Norwegian boats made with light ribs and planks that...

The fate of coastal wetlands is another blatant example of hard over soft. Once massive buffers against storm incursion, wetland control disrupted the natural arrangement that increased erosion and drained the buffer zone, followed by hard edges behind which could be deposited dredge spoils, construction debris, and other unnatural material...

The cumulative economic impact of poor ocean management practices is at least $200 billion dollars per year. In the absence of pro-active mitigation measures, climate change will increase the cost of damage to the ocean by an additional $322 billion per year by 2050.
From "Catalyzing Ocean Finance,...

Despite the premise of separation of church and state on which our governance is based, religious principles and beliefs today are frequently mentioned and brought to bear on social issues, legislative initiatives, and other actions of governance that impact us all. We hear analysis of the political influence of the...

An encouraging sign of a new awareness and public awakening about the critical needs of the marine environment has been the recent introduction by Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Me) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) of The National Endowment for the Oceans, Coasts, and Great Lakes Act, designed to enhance America's invaluable coastal...

Remember climate change? Remember Copenhagen, the climate summit, and half a million people in the streets? Remember the scientific reports? Remember the predictions? Remember the headlines? The campaign promises? The strategies to offset and mitigate the impact of CO2 emissions on human health, the atmosphere, and the ocean? How long...

IRS.gov describes Topic 556 -- Alternative Minimum Tax -- as follows: The tax laws provide tax benefits for certain kinds of income and allow special deductions and credits for certain kinds of expenses. The alternative minimum tax (AMT) attempts to ensure that anyone who benefits from these tax advantages pays...

Oil, of course, remains a key element in the fight for control of Libya. Via pipeline and tanker distribution, Libya's oil resources supply a substantial part of the consumption in the United States and the European Union and are the major source of financial support for the Gadhafi...

Japan lies devastated by a giant wave and its geological, nuclear, financial, sociological, and psychological aftershocks.

A natural event, deep underwater, sets in motion circumstances that evince how defenseless we are to the power of the ocean unleashed. What more will it take to demonstrate the stupidity of those...

"Regulation Lax as Gas Wells' Tainted Water Hits Rivers" by Ian Urbina in the February 26, 2011 New York Times is a must read for anyone interested in yet another direct and indirect threat to the ocean. The concentrated presence of highly corrosive salts, benzene, radium, other radioactive...

Just one more look back, please, lest we forget. The Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico provides a telling example of how to calculate the true cost of "progress." As economists join with scientists, we are moving from observation and study to predictable measurement and advance calculation of...