World Ocean Radio

There are many organizations, conferences and commissions dedicated to ocean policy, research and education. Yet public perceptions of ocean issues have not changed much in the last ten years, nor has there been encouraging progress on ocean-related issues. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will introduce yet another ocean advocate--the Global Ocean Commission--convened by a panel of figures from around the world intent on finding solutions to the crises facing the world ocean. ________________________________________________________________________ Peter Neill, host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of brief audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide. Contact us for more information.

Advances in technology bring us new, visionary underwater devices to record and transmit observational data. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will discuss two such observatories: Aquarius, operated by Florida International University, and Sea Orbiter, a conceptual vehicle currently in research and development by architect Jacques Rougerie--both technological advances that may have, in the past, existed only in our imaginations. ________________________________________________________________________ Peter Neill, host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of brief audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide. Contact us for more information. Photo: Sea Orbiter, a new adventure to explore the world ocean. http://seaorbiter.com/home/

In a continuation of last week's episode, "Hard Edges," host Peter Neill argues that the hard edge has failed us, evidenced by storms that overwhelm barriers and destroy coastal structures. In this episode he will give examples of some of the slowly emerging examples of soft edge engineering and will ask, "How can we turn the new circumstances brought on by sea level rise to our advantage?" ________________________________________________________________________ Peter Neill, host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of brief audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide. Contact us for more information.

Our traditional approach to protection from sea and surge has been the hard edge, with the mission to shield us from the encroachment of water. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will take us through the history of the industrial management of ports, wetlands and watersheds and will share some modern examples of "hard edge" engineering and the challenges for existing structures in the face of projected sea level rise, extreme weather and coastal flooding. ________________________________________________________________________ Peter Neill, host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of brief audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide. More info at www.WorldOceanObservatory.org/world-ocean-radio

On a recent visit to Kauai, the smallest of the Hawaiian islands, host Peter Neill had chance encounters with breaching whales offshore and a monk seal on the beach. The experiences prompted this reflection of what it means to be connected to real, meaningful, living things in our natural world. ________________________________________________________________________ Peter Neill, host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of brief audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide.

In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill continues a discussion of the Global Environment Facility/ United Nations Development Program "Catalyzing Ocean Finance" report and provides two examples of well-executed sustainability measures: the Black Sea Drainage Basin and the Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem. ________________________________________________________________________ Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory and host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of brief audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide. Contact us for more information. Resources from this Episode: Catalyzing Ocean Finance, Vol. II Global Environment Facility United Nations Development Program

Recently, the Global Environmental Facility and the United Nations Development Program combined their talents and experience to address ocean solutions on the scale required to make a difference. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will begin to outline the findings of their work, which have been published in a two-volume journal entitled "Catalyzing Ocean Finance." ________________________________________________________________________ Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory and host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of brief audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide. Contact us for more information. Image Courtesy of the Global Environmental Facility Resources from this Episode: Citizens of the Ocean Pledge http://worldoceanobservatory.org/content/citizens-ocean Catalyzing Ocean Finance, Vol. I (pdf) https://www.thegef.org/gef/sites/thegef.org/files/publication/Catalysing%20Ocean%20Finance%20Vol%20I%20Final%20Oct1_1.pdf Global Environment Facility http://www.thegef.org/gef/ United Nations Development Program http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home.html

Many of literature's great classics are set on the ocean where Nature's beauty and force are bound to the human experience. In this episode of World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill will suggest that the greatest author of such sea-based literature was Joseph Conrad and will share some observations from one of Conrad's most well-known books on the ocean, "The Mirror of the Sea." _________________________________________________________________________ Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory and host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of brief audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide. Contact us for more information.

Canals bring people together through work, exchange and community. They hold a special place for many as the lifeblood of a city, as historic centers, as sites that provide us with a better understanding of architecture, art, culture, civilization and more. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will take us on a tour of the canals of the world. _________________________________________________________________________ Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory and host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of brief audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide. Contact us for more information.

The maritime industry is a major index of the health of the global economy and is a significant economic contributor to employment the world over. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will outline ways in which the sea serves as a massive system of global activity and will assert that the maritime industry may be a bell-weather of better things to come. _________________________________________________________________________ Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory and host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of brief audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide. Contact us for more information. Resource from this Episode: UN World Economic Situation and Prospects 2012 Report http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/wesp/wesp_archive/2012wesp.pdf Image Credit: World Maritime News http://worldmaritimenews.com/archives/48767

Civilization was built by the sea. The 20th century waterfront was an accumulation of functions that were best placed on or near the coast. As populations grew, demands emerged with greater impactful consequences. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will ask, "What will a 21st century waterfront look like? What will benefit the future welfare and health of urban populations? How will we make it work for us as a necessary and fulfilling reality in the future?" _________________________________________________________________________ Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory and host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide. Image Credit: E&K a Perkins Eastman Company

The Ocean Health Index defines a healthy ocean as one that sustainably delivers a range of benefits to people both now and in the future. World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill recently interviewed OHI's managing project manager Steve Katona and in this episode will share outcomes from that discussion, including the ten areas of the Index's measurement, the challenges of outreach and communication, and the future of the program. _________________________________________________________________________ Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory and host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide.

For as vast and significant as the ocean, there are but a few advocates at the scale required to make a difference in public awareness and action. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will discuss not only of the prominent conservation-based NGOs, governmental organizations and individuals, but also two less well-known advocates--very different in structure and assets yet working with comparable purpose. __________________________________________________________________________ Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory and host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide.

How many of us have had actual experience in and of the sea? What happens at sea is authentic, requiring awareness and response to the demands of the ship, the crew, and the community. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will discuss the Ocean Classroom Foundation and will explain the organization's core belief: that the ocean is a wise teacher and a great axis for learning. __________________________________________________________________________ Peter Neill, Director of the W2O and host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide.

Each year during the holidays, World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill reads "At The Fishhouses" by Elizabeth Bishop. This poem was chosen above all others not only for its relevance for the New Year, but because it distills years of Bishop's seaside meditations and evokes the clarity of meaning contained in personal encounters with the world ocean. A very Merry Christmas—Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to you from all of us here at the World Ocean Observatory. At The Fishhouses by Elizabeth Bishop Excerpt from "At the Fishhouses" from "The Complete Poems 1927-1979" by Elizabeth Bishop. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux: Noonday, 1994. Although it is a cold evening, down by one of the fishhouses an old man sits netting, his net, in the gloaming almost invisible, a dark purple-brown, and his shuttle worn and polished. The air smells so strong of codfish it makes one's nose run and one's eyes water. The five fishhouses have steeply peaked roofs and narrow, cleated gangplanks slant up to storerooms in the gables for the wheelbarrows to be pushed up and down on. All is silver: the heavy surface of the sea, swelling slowly as if considering spilling over, is opaque, but the silver of the benches, the lobster pots, and masts, scattered among the wild jagged rocks, is of an apparent translucence like the small old buildings with an emerald moss growing on their shoreward walls. The big fish tubs are completely lined with layers of beautiful herring scales and the wheelbarrows are similarly plastered with creamy iridescent coats of mail, with small iridescent flies crawling on them. Up on the little slope behind the houses, set in the sparse bright sprinkle of grass, is an ancient wooden capstan, cracked, with two long bleached handles and some melancholy stains, like dried blood, where the ironwork has rusted. The old man accepts a Lucky Strike. He was a friend of my grandfather. We talk of the decline in the population and of codfish and herring while he waits for a herring boat to come in. There are sequins on his vest and on his thumb. He has scraped the scales, the principal beauty, from unnumbered fish with that black old knife, the blade of which is almost worn away. Down at the water's edge, at the place where they haul up the boats, up the long ramp descending into the water, thin silver tree trunks are laid horizontally across the gray stones, down and down at intervals of four or five feet. Cold dark deep and absolutely clear, element bearable to no mortal, to fish and to seals . . . One seal particularly I have seen here evening after evening. He was curious about me. He was interested in music; like me a believer in total immersion, so I used to sing him Baptist hymns. I also sang "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." He stood up in the water and regarded me steadily, moving his head a little. Then he would disappear, then suddenly emerge almost in the same spot, with a sort of shrug as if it were against his better judgment. Cold dark deep and absolutely clear, the clear gray icy water . . . Back, behind us, the dignified tall firs begin. Bluish, associating with their shadows, a million Christmas trees stand waiting for Christmas. The water seems suspended above the rounded gray and blue-gray stones. I have seen it over and over, the same sea, the same, slightly, indifferently swinging above the stones, icily free above the stones, above the stones and then the world. If you should dip your hand in, your wrist would ache immediately, your bones would begin to ache and your hand would burn as if the water were a transmutation of fire that feeds on stones and burns with a dark gray flame. If you tasted it, it would first taste bitter, then briny, then surely burn your tongue. It is like what we imagine knowledge to be: dark, salt, clear, moving, utterly free, drawn from the cold hard mouth of the world, derived from the r(continued)