International Basking Shark Day Recognizes the Second Largest Fish, and Works to Protect Them
The basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) is the second-largest living shark. It is one of three plankton-eating shark species, along with the whale shark and megamouth shark.
Read MoreOctober 29 is National Nudibranch Day or Sea Slug Day. A day to celebrate nudibranchs, it honors marine biologist Dr. Terry Gosliner, whose birthday is today. Dr. Gosliner, the Senior Curator of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology at the California Academy of Sciences (who literally wrote the book on Nudibranchs), has discovered over 1,000 new species of sea slugs.
Read MoreNational Marine Sanctuary Day is celebrated annually on October 23 to honor the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972. This Act established the National Marine Sanctuary System to protect marine waters and wildlife, heritage, and the economy, and to promote stewardship and engagement. As Congress dithers, there are forces at work to weaken the National Marine Sanctuaries Act, allowing industry to bypass permitting and environmental assessment. At the same time, proposals to weaken the Endangered Species Act and The Marine Mammal Protection Act would allow taking and harming protected marine wildlife. Additionally, the Trump administration intends to open up the East and West coast to oil drilling in the upcoming 5-year Offshore Leasing Program.
We must act now to defend almost 50 years of habitat and wildlife protection in our ocean!
By the 1900s, the southern sea otter almost completely vanished along the west coast of North America. By the mid‑20th century, counts indicated numbers as low as fifty, to a mere few hundred individuals. Two major laws: the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act helped provide an umbrella of protection against extinction. Today, under the Trump Administration, these important keystone predators that shape and conserve marine ecosystems like the giant kelp beds, are at risk of extinction.
Read MoreMarch 25, 2025 The Trump Administration and Congress are Weakening a 52 Year Law That has Pushed Back Extinction The Endangered Species Act (ESA), passed in 1973, has long been […]
Read MoreIn the Northeast Pacific, adult white sharks annually migrate far from USA and Mexican protection and are vulnerable to being killed as bycatch on international longliners or shark finning on the high seas. This is one of the reasons we celebrate their return to Sanctuary during Sharktober each year!
Read MoreScientists and shark conservation organizations like Shark Stewards call this period “Sharktober” to describe the period of heightened great white shark (hereafter called white sharks) activity and human encounters along the California coast. As the fall season arrives along California’s coastline, a compelling and cautionary period for ocean-goers occurs when adult great white sharks return to California waters. These fall months coincide with an increase in human -shark interactions and a few, but rare, high profile human shark interactions, (aka shark attacks.) Here we discuss the incidence of great white shark human interactions* along the West Coast of North America, the relative risk and how to avoid becoming the next statistic.
Read MoreReintroduced into the House in spring 2024, the Supporting the Health of Aquatic systems through Research Knowledge and Enhanced Dialogue Act of 2025 is supported by the recreational fishing industry and lobby bemoaning shark depredation on their catch. The bill could could have serious impacts on shark populations in all US waters. While ostensibly having Congress create a task force to examine shark depredation and human interactions, it has the potential to open protected areas or fishing for sharks. Without little scientific merit or credible support, the SHARKED Act language is a thinly veiled approach to open fishing on protected species and greenlight shark culls, tournaments and sportfishing for sharks in US waters.
Read MoreToday Catherine Breed—UC Berkeley alum, Bay Area marathon-swimming force, and connoisseur of extreme swims, has completed the SE Farallones to the Golden Gate swim under classic marathon swimming rules (no contact, no suit aids, no music). In calm conditions Breed Catherine Breed became the 7th swimmer and the 4th to swim from SE Farallon Island to the Golden Gate Bridge in 13 hours, 54 minutes- shaving almost 4 minutes off the previous record held by Joseph Locke in 2015.
Read MoreWhile the California MPAs remain protected in state waters, the federal marine protection in the Pacific is now at risk under the Trump Administration. A painful irony in the filmʻs conclusion is Hawaiian cultural practitioner and champion for the Papahānaumokuākea MNM Pelika Andrade overlooking the remote islands, the same waters proposed for commercial fishing by Executive Order.
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