wildlife

Victoria filmaker Ian Hinkle will shoot undersea footage of Scott Cassell's potentially world-record non-stop dive Saturday, from Catalina Island's avalon Harbor to Los Angeles.

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Going to great depths to save ocean life

Scott Cassell already holds the record for longest non-stop dive but is ready to break it again while trying to preserve ocean life.

On September 17, the explorer and combat/commercial diver will attempt a 30-mile (48-kilometre) non-stop SCUBA dive from Catalina Island to Los Angeles, gathering information about shark population and what the ocean actually holds, a task that only human effort can accurately collect.

“[The ocean] is where monsters dwell,” says Cassell, who has spent more than 13,000 hours under water in his lifetime, “Where man’s imagination can become reality because it truly does have the most magnificent animals to ever have existed.”

From 1,000 ft. to 3,000 ft., he will be diving through two great white shark strike zones, and an area that has been known to contain very large Mako sharks, to calculate how many sharks there are in Southern California.

Aside from sharks, other dangers Cassell is prepared to face include hypothermia, decompression sickness, extraordinary currents, equipment failure, and physical exhaustion.

For this diver, however, his safety, although important, is not top priority. “Every dive is a mission,” says Cassell. “And the mission is always first.”  read more »

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Salute to fearless volunteers - Sea Shepherd sent vessels to the area for the 7th year this season.. its 801-metric-ton Bob Barker vessel had trailed the 8,044-metric ton Nisshin Maru ship for 2,000 miles (3,220 kilometers) near the Southern Ocean, and cut off Supplies to the Japanese Whaling Fleet.. As a result, the whalers caught 170 minke whales out of a planned 850 and 2 fin whales from a planned 50. Japan has no choice but to abandon its whale hunt for the first time in four years. Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd and captain of its fleet, said: “I have a crew of 88 very happy people from 23 different nations including Japan,” he said. “And they are absolutely thrilled that the whalers are heading home and the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is now indeed a real sanctuary.”  read more »

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Science calls these animals Eubalaena glacialis, "good, or true, whale of the ice."
Brian Skerry (photographer): "When I was at the bottom at 70 feet, and here comes this bus swimming down. It came within inches. Here’s this softball-size whale eye looking at me. But then it stops - stops on a dime. It’s just hovering there, and literally one flick of its tail, and it would have crushed me like a bug. But it doesn’t. It was just highly curious."

Brian Skerry Interview  read more »

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For Arkansas Blackbirds, the New Year Never Came

Times Square had the ball drop, and Brasstown, N.C., had its descending possum. But no place had a New Year’s Eve as unusual, or freakishly disturbing, as Beebe, Ark.

A worker with U.S. Environmental Services, a private contractor, picked up a dead bird on Saturday.

Around 11 that night, thousands of red-winged blackbirds began falling out of the sky over this small city about 35 miles northeast of Little Rock. They landed on roofs, roads, front lawns and backyards, turning the ground nearly black and terrifying anyone who happened to be outside.

"One of them almost hit my best friend in the head," said Christy Stephens, who was standing outside among the smoking crowd at a party. "We went inside after that."  read more »

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Fishing industry joins with 39 lawmakers who wrote to the FDA this week asking the agency to stop its approval process for the genetically modified salmon. They cited concerns about "human health and environmental risks" from the AquAdvantage salmon. Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell slammed the idea of allowing genetically engineered salmon to be sold in supermarkets. "We are concerned genetically engineered salmon could jeopardize the health of wild-salmon stocks."

Senator Mark Begich (D-Alaska): Serious health and environmental questions regarding the fish cannot be adequately evaluated by the public, Begich wrote. Led by Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), the senators complained to FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg that the agency is using the wrong process for evaluating the safety of the modified fish and that the public is being left out.  read more »

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Interview: “Blood Dolphins” Star Lincoln O’Barry

Ric O'Barry has been a leader against the cruelty inflicted upon dolphins since his days working with them during the 1960s television series "Flipper." One of the areas of the world that O'Barry, along with his son Lincoln, have targeted over the past few years is Taiji, Japan where a spot called "The Cove" became the basis of an Academy Award-winning 2009 documentary about their efforts to stop the slaughtering of dolphins. With their new three-part Animal Planet mini-series, "Blood Dolphins," the O'Barrys pick up where "The Cove" left off with the team again trying to save the lives of innocent dolphins from senseless slaughter. Besides Taiji, the men travel to the Solomon Islands, which has been labeled one of the worst areas in the world for killing dolphins for profit. Our Jim Halterman talked with Lincoln O'Barry earlier this week about the dangers of bringing cameras to further document the dolphin trade as well as how one part of the dolphin - its teeth - is viewed in some regions as more valuable than actual currency.

Jim Halterman: Your dad has been involved with saving dolphins for decades and now you're involved with his activism. Was this never a question that this was your path in life?  read more »