Wonders of the Oceans

'Wonders of the Oceans' is a learning module aimed to teach 8-12 year olds the importance of conserving aquatic resources through responsible fisheries and aquaculture. It includes 8 major themes and a total of 17 lessons. The website is provided by the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - http://www.feedingminds.org/fmfh/fisheries-aquaculture/wonders-of-the-oceans/en.

Check it out.

Brian Skerry - National Geographic Photographer

Brian Skerry made a TED address in May. He has photographed many marine species and has gained an insight into the marine environment. Certainly worth listening to:
http://www.ted.com/talks/brian_skerry_reveals_ocean_s_glory_and_horror.html

Earth Day

April 22 is Earth Day, begun in the United States in 1970, it is often heralded as the beginning of the environmental movement. The first International Earth Day was celebrated in 1990.

The http://www.earthday.ca/ website has a resource section with everything you need to plan, organize and participate in an Earth Day, Earth Week or Earth Month event, in a series of downloadable PDFs from their Earth Day Project Planner. But don't think of it as one day a year but the start of a new outlook on the Earth. These resources are also wonderful if you are planning an activity or project to use for the Right Whale Steward program.

Here is a great list of Top 10 Actions from the www.earthday.ca website:

1 Smart Shopping
• “Buy what you need, not what you want”
• Consider renting and borrowing things that are seldom needed
• Buy used items from garage sales and second-hand stores

2 Simple Savers
• Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs
• Use aerators on faucets and shower heads
• Weatherstrip windows and doors

3 Transportation Alternatives
• Walk, cycle, car pool and use public transportation
• When driving, reduce idling and maintain correct tire pressure
• Consider car sharing programs or renting

4 Food Choices
• Choose local and organic foods that are in season, and support local food producers
• Eat less meat

5 Washing and Drying
• Wash full loads of clothes in cold water and hang to air dry

6 Heating and cooling
• For summer air conditioning, set your thermostat to 24°C or 25°C
• For winter heating, set your thermostat to 19°C or 20°C
• Install ceiling fans and programmable thermostats

7 Close to Home
• Vacation, travel and work as close to home as possible

8 Bathroom Basics
• Take short showers instead of baths
• Close water taps while brushing your teeth

9 Careful Cleaning
• Choose natural, non-toxic cleaning products
• Make simple, natural cleaners with ingredients like vinegar, baking soda and water

10 Don’t Discard
• Donate, reuse and recycle items before throwing them into the trash
• Harmful materials like chemicals, batteries, electronics, etc. should be taken to local hazardous waste depots or recyclers

Lights Out Canada, Schools - April 22

Lights Out Canada is a national event during which schools across the country turn off their lights and spend the day learning about climate change and what youth can do to take action. Materials provided include comprehensive lesson plans, step-by-step participation guides, and visual aids. The Lights Out Canada Challenge is set for April 22, 2010, Earth Day. The Challenge is twofold:

• to reduce measurably and significantly school electricity use during the 2010-11 academic year without compromising either educational or extracurricular activities, and
• to help schools shift to more environmentally friendly "green" electricity which has virtually no carbon footprint.

Almost 150 schools have registered for this year's event already! For more information, visit http://www.lightsoutcanada.tpweb.ca/

From Canadian Environmental Network e-Bulletin, March 31, 2010.

Learn About Sounds and Right Whales

The Discovery of Sound in the Sea website http://www.dosits.org/ has been redesigned to provide an interactive experience. They have sound clips from North Atlantic right whales www.dosits.org/audio/interactive/#/52 and a very detailed section on sounds and marine animals including mammals:

• How they hear sounds


• How they use sound when they are feeding


• How they use sound to communicate


• How they use sound to navigate


• What are the effects of anthropogenic (human produced) sound on marine mammals


• How can one measure the reaction of marine mammals to sound

There are also more advanced discussions of scientific methods.

Sound and hearing are very important to marine mammals and a recent study has shown that right whales compared to the 1970s are shouting (frequency shift) because of the increased level of noise in their environment from human sources. The paper was in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Volume 122, Issue 6, pp. 3725-3731 and is entitled "Short- and long-term changes in right whale calling behavior".

Reducing the amount of anthropogenic noise in the marine environment is a bit of a Catch 22. Given that fast moving vessels are problems for right whales, completely silent fast vessels may pose a greater risk than one making low noise. Moreover, most noise from a vessel comes from the propellers and the bow is a relatively quiet zone which may confuse right whales and other marine mammals into thinking they are safe at the bow of large vessels. Using sound deterrents on the bow are unproven. Experiments playing sounds to right whales produced inconsistent results and when the whales did respond to a particular sound, the whale stopped what it was doing and came to just below the surface to listen to the sound. This, of course, would bring the whale into a greater danger zone than if the whale had not responded to the sound. Scaring whales away from vessels is a complicated problem. It is, however, very important to reduce any masking effects of marine mammals communications so they are able to hear each other over broad expanses of ocean.

National Wildlife Week Walk for Wildlife

National Wildlife Week begins April 4. A national campaign to Walk for Wildlife runs from April 4 to May 22 which is International Day of Biodiversity. The goal is to accumulate enough kilometres from participants to stretch across Canada and create national awareness about wildlife conservation and biodiversity. Check out all the details at www.nationalwildlifeweek.com

A school challenge might be to have students, families, etc. accumulate the number of kilometres that a right whale female swims from the Bay of Fundy to calving area off Florida (~2200 kilometres or ~1360 miles) by swimming, paddling, walking, cycling or running (any non-motorized method could be acceptable). Or perhaps a shorter distance for example from Cape Cod spring feeding area to the Bay of Fundy (~470 kilometres or 290 miles), or between the two critical habitats in Canada, the Bay of Fundy and Roseway Basin (~280 kilometres or ~175 miles). Or pick your own important locations for right whales during their yearly movements and calculate that distance. The distances here were calculated using the daftlogic.com google map calculator www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm

Green Teacher Magazine

The Green Teacher magazine, North American edition, has been published since 1991 by Gail Littlejohn and Tim Grant, high school teachers from Ontario. The magazine has an strong environmental focus. As described on their website www.greenteacher.com, "each issue of Green Teacher offers perspectives on the role of education in creating a sustainable future, practical cross-curricular activities for various grade levels, and reviews of the latest teaching resources."

The subscription fee is modest for four issues a year and to further decrease your environmental footprint, an electronic subscription is available or you can opt for a paper version, or both. Back issues are available to order or ask at your local library to see if they carry Green Teacher. A sample of the magazine can be viewed on their website, as well as some of the activities that have appeared in the magazine www.greenteacher.com/articles.html.

Check it out.