August 2021 - Favorite World Press

The FWP weekly digest of wondrous wildlife happenings
and other interesting items from the natural world

Creatures to meet | Things to learn
Things to do

Lisa S. French

1-minute read

We’d like to draw your attention to hope: that feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Hope is a noun and a verb. It’s a motivator and an incubator. Hope makes room for the possibility of positive change. Hope empowers recovery and resilience. It’s also a place where planetary angels dwell—angels like marine biologist, former NOAA chief scientist and IUCN Patron of Nature Dr. Sylvia Earle, who since 2009, has been on a mission to protect and restore the world’s oceans, one Hope Spot at a time. Through the launch of her marine conservation organization Mission Blue, Dr. Earle made a wish big enough to heal the planet by creating a global network of special places critical to the health of oceans.

Right now, less than 6% of the great big, deep blue is protected, but by recognizing and supporting the efforts of individuals and communities around the world to safeguard our oceans, Mission Blue aims to make that percentage a whole lot bigger. The thoroughly exciting news is that anyone can help by nominating and nurturing a Hope Spot. Large or small, a Hope Spot is any marine area that needs new protection or an existing Marine Protected Area that could benefit from more tender loving care.

So what makes a Hope Spot special?

• An abundance or diversity of species
• Rare, threatened, or endemic species
• Potential to reverse damage
• Spectacles of nature
• Significant historical, cultural, or spiritual values
• Economic importance to the community

There are currently 134 unique marine Hope Spots globally, ranging from Monterey Bay and the Maldive Atolls to the Great Barrier Reef and the Gulf of California, including a new 2021 addition of Jangamo Bay in Mozambique.

Do you have an outstanding oceanic area that you would like to add to the network? Mission Blue is calling all angels—individuals, communities, and organizations who would like to provide hope for a healthier planet through ocean conservation. You can nominate a Hope Spot and start making waves today by filling out this form—all it takes is a click!

If you don’t have a special place to nominate, but you’d still like to offer your support by volunteering at an existing location, contact a Hope Spot champion to find out how to pitch in.

You can learn more about Sylvia Earle’s bold endeavor by watching the Emmy® Award-Winning documentary Mission Blue—currently available on Netflix. And you can listen to Dr. Earle’s TED talk here. We think you’ll agree the high priestess of hope is a true force for nature!

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Lisa S. French August 17, 2021

Climate Change: Fighting the Good Fight

“If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow.”
Rachel Carson | Marine Biologist

FYI: Here’s a link to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2021 Sixth Assessment Report on how it’s going: not so good!

You can read five important findings from the report here.

As we’re witnessing on a daily basis, the effects of climate breakdown are absolutely heartrending. Although it’s difficult to remain hopeful given the additional uncertainty related to the pandemic, don’t despair. If we act now, there’s still time to save our beautiful, life-sustaining home from the worst impacts of climate change.

Our immense gratitude to the fact-finding, seed-planting scientists at the IPCC for persevering and fighting the good fight—for people, wildlife, and the planet.

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Lisa S. French August 9, 2021

Here Be Leafy Seadragons

1-minute read

Just when we thought we’d discovered every wild and wondrous creature that occupies Australian waters, another unique specimen drifts out of the seagrass and onto our radar. Despite its moniker, the leafy seadragon (Phycodurus eques) is no moat-dwelling flame thrower. In fact, it’s not a dragon at all, or even a reptile, but a uniquely beautiful species of fish with frond-like appendages that extend from rings of bony armor encircling its body.

The leafy seadragon’s fishy foliage serves as camouflage that helps the marine animal hide from both predators and prey in the reefs of its southwestern coastal habitat. While the seadragon may have a delicate appearance, don’t let those frills fool you. The voracious carnivore is a crustacean ambush artist, using the suction power of its tubular snout to capture vast quantities of tiny mysid shrimp.

The fish species most likely to be mistaken for underwater escarole has another highly distinctive characteristic: male leafy seadragons pitch in with pregnancy in a big way—they carry and brood eggs. Female seadragons transfer up to 250 eggs to their mate for eight weeks of safe-keeping until they hatch. Some scientists believe that females pass off eggs to papa to hide soon-to-be seadragons from predators—crafty!

Until recently, there were only two known species of seadragons, the leafy and the common (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus). In 2015, for the first time in 150 years, a new seadragon was discovered in waters off the coast of Western Australia, Phyllopteryx dewysea, a.k.a. the Ruby Seadragon. The brilliantly colored, crimson fish is not quite as elegant as its leafy cousin, but it’s splendid just the same.

Researchers think that we’ve only identified 1.6 million species out of an estimated 8.7 million globally. Now that we’re plus one fancy red seadragon, there are 7,099,999 species to go, give or take. That’s a lot of living things to factor into the healthy functioning of our planet. We’d better get busy!

If you’d like to read a lyrical ode to one of the world’s most ornate ocean dwellers, you can get free access to Miho Nonaka’s poem The Leafy Seadragon, through JSTOR.

And if you want to learn more about some of Australia’s most extraordinary animals, we invite you to explore WW’s wildlife down under.

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Lisa S. French August 7, 2021