Celebrating 50 Years of Internationally Important Wetlands
Celebrating 50 Years of Internationally Important Wetlands
2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, a treaty focused on the conservation and wise use of important wetlands. To receive the honor of being designated a Ramsar wetland, candidate sites must fulfill at least one of nine specific criteria. Of the 2,400 sites around the world, 41 are found in the U.S. and three are within the NOAA family each of which are major stopover points for migratory birds along the Pacific Flyway in California.
1. Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve
The Tijuana River National Estuarine
April 2021
Get to know the beautiful and mysterious Pacific sea nettle found near NOAA s Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in this week s #EarthIsBlue video!
Be sure to subscribe to our channel so you can catch a video every Friday!
Transcript
[Screen fades from black to a clip of a round, orange jellyfish moving slowly through the water. There are around a dozen jellyfish in the distant background, and soothing instrumental music plays softly. In a blue banner in the corner of the screen, white text appears]
Pacific sea nettles are a type of jellyfish that frequent the waters of your West Coast national marine sanctuaries.
Carol J. Miller Share:
The quest to fulfill energy demands places whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals at substantial risk. When seismic surveys are used to explore for oil and gas, shock waves and rapid changes in pressure can cause tissue destruction and deafen marine mammals, who are highly dependent on their key senses for survival.
In the interest of conservation and prudent development of the natural resources, President Truman’s 1945 Proclamation asserted federal jurisdiction over natural resources, the subsoil, and the seabed of offshore resources of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) of the United States. Proclamation 2667, 10 Fed. Reg. 12,305 (Sept. 28, 1945). The goal of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), passed in 1953, is to balance protection for marine animals and restoration of coastal beaches and wetlands, with management of oil and gas exploration. 43 U.S.C. §§ 1331–1356(b) (1953). The 1978 OCSLA amendments addressed increasing demand
A female elephant seal equipped with two data-logging tags. (Photo by Martín Ignacio Brogger)
LOS ANGELES (CN) A California federal judge sentenced a man to three months in prison for fatally shooting a northern elephant seal on a Central Coast beach two years ago.
Authorities discovered the corpse of the northern elephant seal on a beach near San Simeon, California, in 2019.
A joint National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and California Department of Fish and Wildlife investigation determined the animal had been shot in the head.
Federal prosecutors charged Jordan Gerbich, 30, in August 2020 with fatally shooting the marine mammal.
The former Santa Maria, California, resident told prosecutors that on the evening of Sept. 28, 2019, he drove to an elephant seal observation area adjacent to the Piedras Blancas Marine Reserve and Monterey Bay National Marine sanctuary near San Simeon.