The Majestic Right Whale
The news recently broke that the leading cause of death for the critically endangered Right Whale are fishing entanglements.
Fishing entanglements from lobster and snow crab gear are a massive threat to the species' future survival. The ropes get entangled around the whales, causing injuries and depleting their energy by forcing them to carry fishing gear.
Right whales who are severely injured tend to die within three years. The fishing entanglements especially affect the female right whale. Those that survive fishing entanglements have a much lower birth rate. Buz, we have so few right whales left to carry on the species into the future.
While all of this news is grave, there are efforts to address the right whale's plight.
You can do two things to help right now:
Tell your U.S. Senator and U.S. Representative to support the bipartisan SAFE SEAS Act.The Safe Seas Act will offer grants to the lobster and crabbing industry to update their gear and eliminate entanglement threats to the right whale. The SAFE SEAS Act is a win-win for the right whales and the lobster industry.
We must get this bill passed ASAP.
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Urge the Massachusetts Legislature to declare April 24th
Right Whale Day.
We recently presented comments from more than 500 people urging the Massachusetts Legislature to declare April 24th Right Whale Day. If you live in Massachusetts, please tell your state legislator to support this bill today, as the decision to pass or strike down will be made before Saturday, July 2.
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At the Natural Lawn Care for Healthy Soils Challenge at Morses Pond in Wellesley are, from left, Ocean River Institute summer interns Anand Fedele (UMass Amherst), Ken Stephens (Tufts U.) and Sophia DiPietro (Barnard College). Note the clover carpetting much of the lawn. Many species of bees depend on this lawn with its assortment of flouring plants amidst the grass blades.
Natural Lawn Care for Healthy Soils Challenge by Morses Pond in Wellesley
Morses Pond in Wellesley has so many invasive weeds flourishing in the nutrient-rich waters that the town has invested in two harvesters to pull the slime out of the waters. Climate change has warmed the weather so much that May felt like July. With improved growing conditions for pond weeds, the Ocean River Institute arrived to put a stop to nutrient pollution from lawns by inviting residents to pledge not to spread quick-release fertilizer on established lawns.
You can make a difference with residential lawns by pledging not to spread quick-release fertilizer, not to water, leave the grass clippings on the lawn and don't use Roundup as it will kill about one quarter of the mycorrhizal network, the wood wide web, beneath the turf.
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Dire Straits for Cambridge with Sea Level Rise
On CCTV, Sophia DiPietro, Ocean River Institute Summer Intern, talks with Rob Moir about sea level rise for Cambridge, Massachusetts. By stopping the spread of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides (No Roundup) established lawns become natural with a great variety of plants, high diversity of bee species, and stronger symbiotic relationships with fungi and bacteria. A natural lawn draws down more carbon dioxide, photosynthesizes to manufacture carbohydrates (liquid carbon), and pumps more carbon into the ground. In the best of conditions, a natural lawn can build an inch of soil in a year. With four inches of soil, the lawn can hold seven inches of rainwater to better protect homes from extreme weather events and reduce the amounts of runoff water that is rising the seas.
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How to stop lawns from contributing the worst pollutant of oceans, nutrients
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Natural lawns draw in more CO2 out of the air and store more carbohydrates in soils
On CCTV, Ken Stephens, Ocean River Institute Summer Intern, talks with Rob Moir about the remarkable work of grass plants in lawns to reduce the carbon dioxide in the air and store it for thousands of years in humus in the soil. Putting fertilizer on the lawn impedes symbiotic relationships between grass, fungi and bacteria to slow photosynthesis. Left to its own devices, lawn grasses draw in C02, photosynthesize to manufacture carbohydrates, and push liquid carbon into the soil as root exudate. For one ton of new soil, the lawn draws in 8 tons of CO2. Half goes to building biomass and about half goes to build soil. In the best of growing conditions, lawns can build an inch of soil in a year. When organics with minerals in the soil go through a chemical transformation to become humus, the spongy, nutritious stuff will bind carbon for thousands of years.
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Natural lawns provide wildlife habitats, linked into wildlife corridors to be an emerald bracelet
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Here at the Ocean River Institute, we don’t just talk about the need to fight climate change. We’re using all of our knowledge about the threats we face to press others to take bold actions in many different ways.
And bold action is exactly what the world needs in the fight against climate change. Who's in your corner?
Publications:
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We succeed by working together with other organizations and communitity groups. The Ocean River Institute is the only organization that raises a cacophony of diverse voices to decision-makers. When you speak out on any one of our campaigns, you are heard. Thanks to those of you who took the time to make a pledge and write a comment. You are opening the doors of committees and the minds of politicians who are just looking for a way forward to climate justice.
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For healthy oceans, watersheds, and wildlife diversity. |
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