World Ocean Day Message 3

Back in September 2009 I started my global travel to find out more about how Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve was connected to the global ocean.

As you know Shoreham Beach has a rare habitat called vegetated shingle, which grown just above the high tide line.

We were concerned about how global threats such as climate change and global warming might damage the shingle beach.

To understand how this might happen we decided we needed to understand more about the global ocean and that's were my journey began.

I visited many scientists and experts to learn about the ocean, including NOAA who built me my amazing underwater dive bubble.

 

 

I learned how Shoreham Beach was threatened by sea level rise which could flood the rare plant habitat or create bigger storms that could wash the beach away.

I also discovered that sea level can cause flooding from rivers too.

The environment agency are currently building a new flood defence wall along the river which should protect the town, the airport and surrounding land for the next 100 years.

I have also encountered amazing wildlife on my travels to, from penguins in Antarctica to coral reefs of Florida and great white sharks off the coast of South Africa

Follow my amazing adventures on this blog. You can also find out more about the One Ocean Project and how we can help the ocean at  http://seawatch17.wixsite.com/one-world-one-ocean

World Ocean Day Message part 2

As mentioned in my last post, oceans are awesome, teaming with amazing biodiversity and providing us with important stuff like oxygen to breathe, water to drink.

But sadly, the ocean system is struggling against human damage and on my travels I have sadly encountered this in many places from Sussex to Antarctica.

The planet is getting warmer which includes the oceans too. Warmer oceans are causing the polar ice to melt causing sea level rise.

However the oceans are getting rising because the oceans are getting warmer, because water expands when it is heated, and takes up more space in the ocean basins.

Warmer oceans are changing where some marine animals live. This is disrupting food chains and some animals are starving.

Sea birds that usually catch sand eels near to sure are having to fly further to catch food for their chicks and many are now not able to catch enough food to feed them.

Warmer seas, pollution ocean acidity are just some of the threats to coral reefs which are dying

Warmer seas mean more tropical storms. More moisture in the air will power stronger more powerful storms that can upset global weather patterns.

Sea level rise and stronger storms means more coastal erosion.

On my travels to the Hawaiian Islands I meet some dedicated people and learned a very important Hawaiian word Kuleana. This means Responsibility, but responsibility at a cultural level.

The bad news is, we are all responsible as we contribute to the damage to the oceans through modern living. The good news is, that we are all responsible, which means we can also do something about it by making small changes to how we live.

Find out more in the final post coming soon

Celebration World Oceans Day

Hi all


I hope you have been out celebrating World Oceans Day. This is an event that not only celebrates the amazing biodiversity of marine life but also the many ways that we benefit from the ocean everyday.


We might think that the seas and oceans divide us, but actually we are all linked by the ocean.

Without the oceans, life on earth would be very different

Plankton is a vital component of marine food webs. Even though we don't eat them directly, (although we have probably eaten fish that have), there are also other reasons why we need plankton.

We also rely on the ocean for freshwater and food.

Oceans are also a lot of fun providing us with essential wellbeing.



But the oceans are endangered through many human activities.

Find out more about how the oceans are threatened in tomorrows post

World Oceans Day

Hi all

Due to important river defences work on the River Adur to avoid future flooding of the town, this year’s Adur World Oceans day did not take place on Coronation Green. This would have been the 18^th year this popular event has taken place at Shoreham. World Oceans Day 8th June, is a global opportunity to raise awareness of the challenges faced by the international community in connection with the oceans. Around the word, a week of events to celebrate the ocean have been taking place.

To help mark World Oceans Day we sent an article to our local paper raising awareness of Ed the Bears global travels as  well as the local consequences to sea level rise.

In fact, the consequences of rising sea levels is the main reason the Adur World Ocean Day event did not take place this year. We often think of melting ice caps as being the only cause of sea level side, but actually half of sea level rise so far has been due to the oceans getting warmer – as water warms it expands and when this happens on an ocean wide scale that’s a lot of extra water”.

Happy World Oceans Day

Hi Everyone

Today is World Oceans Day, a day to celebrate the oceans. I will be at the Adur World Oceans Day event again this year, on Saturday

Happy World Oceans Day

Ed the Bear

A quick detour to the UK for World Oceans Day

Hi all

It’s me Ed and guess what, Im back in the UK for a few days. I had to come back and take part in the Adur World Oceans Day Event which takes place on the edge of the river Adur very close to my local beach.

I arrived in time to help my buddy Steve set up a display about my travels and I brought along some of the things as well. I heard that the event would be guarded all night by a security chap.

As the display included my journal and several other valuable items I volunteered to stay at the marquee over night and give a helping hand to keep everything safe. I did get to have a sleep for part of the night too as I needed to be refreshed for the days event.

I was going to give the Friends of Shoreham Beach (FoSB) a hand on their display. As you know Shoreham Beach is my local beach, which is also a nature reserve because of its rare vegetated shingle habitat. FoSB help to keep the nature reserve safe and also teach people about this rare and important habitat. The FoSB people at the event said that they had lots of helpers this year, so they would be okay without my help, so I could concentrate on telling people about my travels, the amazing wildlife I had seen and the terrible damage too.

As you will know, the fact that this rare habitat at Shoreham is threatened by climate change and other global issues was the reason I started my travels in the first place. I popped over to the beach first to check on the plants as they are at their most spectacular at this time of the year.

This is one of my favourite shingle plants, Sea kale

Here I am taking a close look at the sea kale - this one has started to produce berries

This plant is calledViperes Bugloss

The event officially started at 10.00am but people were already looking around the exhibits at 9.30am. The World Oceans Day Event was housed within a large marquee on coronation green right on the edge of the river. This was a great location.

Next to me my stand was the Shoreham Angling Squad so I made sure I had the chance to swap tips with them. Later in the day, one of the fishermen set up his gear on the river and I was very tempted to join him, you know how much I enjoy fishing.

We spoke to lots of people about the amazing places I had visited and the fascinating wildlife I had encountered such as whales, seals, sea otters, turtles and much more. the local newspaper told everyone I was coming to the event so lots of people turned up to find out what I had been up to.

A lady spoke to me about these amazing leafy sea dragons she had seen in an aquarium in Japan. I told her that I was planning a trip to Australia very soon and I was hoping I would get to see leafy sea dragons while I am there.

People also had the chance to look through my journal, which they said was really fascinating.

It also contained lots of pictures (taken by Ron) from my visit to Ron Hirshi and Fred the Monkey and my trip with them to Hawaii – many of which have not appeared on my weblog. The journal also included my trip to Spokane where I was cared for by Methea Sapp. People could see a selection of some of my own collection of seashells and other objects from my travels.

I told people about the important wortk that Fred the Monkey and Ron Hirshi have been doing to raise awareness of marine litter and the deadication to cleaning plastics from tehi local beaches in Marrowstone Island and Hawaiian Islands. I gave them Fred's weblog address so that they can find out more about the amazing things he has been doing. I told people that they could also see what happened when Fred and I first meet last year. If you haven't aslreay checked out Fred and Ron's site, its here http://soaronhirschi.blogspot.com/

I also had an activity to warn people about acid oceans, caused by the oceans absorbing too much carbon dioxide from the air.

This is making the oceans more acidic – I put an empty seashell into a weak vinegar (acetic acid) solution to demonstrate just how even a weak acid can dissolve the seashells, corals and other animal homes made from calcium. Steve and I also spoke to a lot of children about my adventures and showed them how they could follow my adventures on my blog.

World Oceans Day was a great event. I had a look round to see the other displays.

This is part of my buddy Steve's other display about local dolphin sightings

These tanks with local marine creatures where set up by the British Marine Life Study Society

The local rangers had a facsinating display about the sea strandline - all those fascinating shell, eggcases and other objects washed uop by the tide.

I decided not to get too close to these snappy edible crabs

I popped over to see how the Friends of Shoreham Beach were doing. This is part of their litter display. As you can see they were very busy with vistors so I didn't want to interupt them.

This is the display about the nature reserve, the fascinating plants and wildlife.

 

The event was really busy so I thought I had better get back to my display

It was a brilliant day. I said goodbye to my buddy Steve and headed off to the airport so I could get back to the USA.

Bye for now.Ed