World Ocean Radio - Marine Species

Marine Species
March 5, 2024

Seafood is a world staple, under siege by increased consumption and over-fishing. Aquaculture is the necessary alternative, yet is a polarizing issue in coastal communities. What are we to do? This week we explore two Maine-based successes in aquaculture that are building local supply chains, increasing resilience in rural communities, promoting environmentally responsible solutions, and integrating indigenous and cultural knowledge and skills for an emerging industry.

January 30, 2024

A November visit to Gloucester Massachusetts for an Ocean Literary Conference (NEOSEC 2023) afforded W2O staff an opportunity to take a field trip to the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute. Founded in 2008, the Institute is on the cutting edge of 21st century science, studying the marine environment for solutions to issues facing the ocean, sustainably fisheries, human health, to better understand ecosystems, and the ocean's medicinal value for today and tomorrow. In addition to their state-of-the-art research laboratories, GMGI is promoting technical training for lab techs through their Biotechnology Academy, a no-cost, year-long certificate training program with astonishing results.

August 15, 2022

This summer we are revisiting some of our favorite World Ocean Radio episodes that highlight optimism for the ocean. In this episode we highlight The Catalogue of Life, an online database of the world's known species of animals, plants, fungi and micro-organisms. It holds the essential information on the names, relationships and distributions of over 1.8 million species worldwide, helping to address the concerns of sustainability and biodiversity on our fast-changing planet.

August 27, 2019

In this episode of World Ocean Radio we call upon the Canadian government to amend and expand their June 2019 legislative action--the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act--to include a global reserve for whales, dolphins, porpoise and other cetaceans in the fertile Hudson Bay near Manitoba where an estimated 60,000 beluga whales migrate each year to feed and mate.

August 6, 2019

This week on World Ocean Radio we're discussing trophic cascade: an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition or removal of top predators, involving changes in populations of both predator and prey through the food chain which often results in dramatic changes in the ecosystem. Shark, manta ray, totoaba, bahaba: all are aggressively harvested from the sea for their supposed medicinal properties and status. In this episode we ask listeners to consider this: if certain endangered species do in fact contain medicinal value, are there not other, more supportive and sustainable ways to meet demand without decimating the supply?

November 26, 2018

The Catalogue of Life is an online database of the world's known species of animals, plants, fungi and micro-organisms. It holds the essential information on the names, relationships and distributions of over 1.8 million species worldwide. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we discuss the importance of such indices to help address the concerns of sustainability and biodiversity on our fast-changing planet. And we argue that, in addition to the collection of data, we must all put this knowledge to use for the future of the ocean and of all living things.

July 9, 2018

In this week's episode of World Ocean Radio we discuss publications, reports, and projects that are integral to the evolution of ocean policy and science, including the Atlas of Ocean Wealth, published in 2016 by the Nature Conservancy.

January 2, 2018

This week on World Ocean Radio we celebrate marine protected areas and discuss their importance to biodiversity, ecosystem resilience, and the mitigation of climate change and other destructive forces at work on the planet.

December 6, 2016

This week we continue the Earth Optimism Series, a 24-episode project in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution's Ocean Portal, to address ocean solutions and innovative projects in the context of the Earth Optimism Summit, April 2017. In this episode, host Peter Neill talks about the revival of a once plummeting population of a spawning fish species on a river in Maine, made possible in part by conservationist action. He argues that victories for change and renewal are achievable when we engage as citizens at the local level.

April 25, 2016

As of late March the Obama Administration is no longer considering Cashes Ledge in the Gulf of Maine for national monument designation. This news, delivered to a room of fishing industry regulators, came as a blow to conservationists who have sought monument status for years. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will offer his thoughts on the rationale which favors preserving this and other essential, bio-diverse seascapes, and that of the fishermen and state regulators who opposed these additional restrictions.

January 5, 2016

There are many whale-related hot button topics being discussed today: hunting (particularly by the Japanese), seismic testing, inexplicable strandings, the ingestion of plastic pollution, and the growing controversy over the morality of their captivity and exploitation. In this week's episode of World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill discusses the practice of keeping cetaceans for their entertainment value and explores new and proposed bills and legislation in both Canada and the United States which will help to protect cetaceans in captivity, further strengthen existing Acts to prohibit their import and export, to phase out Orcas from entertainment parks, and to modify the criminal code to prevent the taking of cetaceans such as whales, dolphins and porpoise from the wild or to breed those in captivity.

May 17, 2013
February 1, 2011
June 17, 2010
June 11, 2010
June 10, 2010
March 23, 2010
March 14, 2010
March 13, 2010
March 12, 2010