citizen science Archives - 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

2-minute read

There are countless ways our home planet shows us tender loving care. In addition to providing everyday essentials like food, water, and oxygen, exposure to Earth’s natural finery—trees, forests, parks, green spaces, wilderness areas, and wildlife has been scientifically proven to help enhance physical and psychological well-being. Depending on how much time you spend taking in the splendor of the great out there, you may reap health benefits that promote longevity, prevent disease, lower stress, and improve overall mood. That’s a whole lot of love.

Exposure to nature requires access. Now, thanks to two innovative tracking tools created by scientists at NatureQuant™, a new research and technology institution, you’ll be able to monitor the quantity and the quality of the planetary TLC you’re getting from your outdoor environment to help optimize well-being. That’s good news for adults in high-income countries like the United States, who spend 80 to 90% of their lives inactive and indoors.

Wondering how the nature in your neighborhood ranks health-wise? The NatureScore™ tool estimates the amount and quality of nature and environmental conditions across the United States and Canada. The NatureDose™ smartphone app uses GPS coordinates and NatureScore™ datasets to determine your location and how much time you spend in nearby nature to help you progress toward physical and psychological health goals. The NatureQuant™ tools can also be used to guide the allocation and creation of quality green spaces to improve nature equity in deprived neighborhoods.

You can download the NatureDose™ app here to start tracking your daily exposure to Earthly delights. Then, all you have to do to feel the love is step outside.

ICYMI Nature News

An Increased Dose of Nature
If you are lucky enough to live near the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument or the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in California, you will soon have access to an increased dose of nature. Both monuments will be expanded this month to give visitors more roaming room.

Cliff-Diving Emperor Penguin Chicks
Award-winning cinematographer Bertie Gregory has captured amazing, unprecedented footage of emperor penguin chicks launching themselves into the sea by diving from a 50-foot Antarctic cliff. You can watch the never-before-filmed behavior from National Geographic here.

A Trillion Cicadas, Anyone?
Starting in late April, two broods of periodical cicadas will emerge from the ground in an event that only occurs every 221 years. Entomologists are expecting about 1 trillion of the winged creatures across 16 states. If you enjoy the smell of rotting nuts, you will be in bug heaven.

In the Natural World, Nice Guys Finish First
According to a new book by evolutionary biologist Jonathan Silvertown, Selfish Genes to Social Beings: A Cooperative History of Life, in the natural world, cooperation is more common than competition. So, nice guys do finish first… Or, at least, nice humpback whales.

They’re Just Dancing in the Dark
Have you ever wondered what deep sea creatures get up to down there? Apparently, these worms dance like nobody’s watching. Except for you.

Bold, Brilliant, Beautiful, Breathtaking Nature
The 2024 World Nature Photography Awards have been announced, and the winners are all the “B” words. Have a look!

Citizen Scientists are Helping Seahorses
Eagle-eyed citizen scientists around the globe are helping researchers develop conservation strategies to protect seahorses by providing new information on sightings of the charismatic creatures in the wild. Do you have something to contribute to seahorse science? Go to Project Seahorse to add your very valuable two cents.

Animals Reenact the Solar Eclipse
And finally, you’ve probably seen the stunning images and videos of this week’s solar eclipse, but what about footage of the puppy eclipse? No? How about the kitten eclipse? Video of these rare cosmic phenomena is an oldie, but a goody—no special solar specs needed. Watch!

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Lisa S. French April 13, 2024

Humpback Whale Play: Water Toys, and Spa Treatments

2-minute read

Have you ever wondered what baleen whales get up to in their spare time? Do they even have spare time? Sure, whales work from home, make their own schedules, and come and go as they please, but nature can be a harsh taskmaster, and the business of surviving in the wild is a 24/7 endeavor. To fulfill basic physiological needs, the giant marine mammals spend most of their waking hours migrating, foraging for food, caring for young, and, more recently, ship dodging. But according to a new study, humpback whales also make room for fun—engaging in seaweed-centric play known as kelping.

Water Toys and Spa Treatments
Thanks to video and photo contributions from keen-eyed citizen scientists and whale watchers in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and French Polynesia, researchers from Griffin University have reported that humpbacks intentionally seek out and interact with kelp beds and floating seaweed. They swim through it, drag it, and roll in it. They throw it in the air and rub it on their pectoral fins. They kelp alone, and they kelp with other whales.

And what is the purpose of kelping? The whales aren’t talking, but marine scientists have proposed several possibilities: it’s fun—the playful interaction stimulates the giant mammals’ senses and enhances their motor abilities; it’s soothing—they enjoy the sensation of seaweed on their head and jaws; it’s medicinal—they use it to remove parasites and dead skin; it’s a communications tool—they use it to signal other whales.

Humpbacks aren’t the only marine animals known to use random floating objects to engage in what could be interpreted as fun-seeking behavior. Innovative object-oriented activity has been documented in a variety of species, including otters, dolphins, orcas, grey whales, and walruses. Some biologists believe that participating in behaviors outside of the essential tasks of daily living may help animals acquire knowledge, adapt to a changing environment, or build life-sustaining relationships.

Continuing to study how various whale species spend their time in the wild can contribute to conservation efforts by increasing our understanding of how to maintain the ecosystems they depend upon for survival. We may come to learn exactly how important a bit of clean, green, exfoliating whale fun is to their existence.

ICYMI Nature News

This She-Bear Chomps Salmon Like a Boss
Well, it’s official. The really big winner of Katmai National Park’s annual Fat Bear Week contest is the formidable female feaster, Grazer. She out-chomped our pick, second runner-up, Chunk, by a salmon-scarfing mile to be crowned Queen of Katmai. And long may she reign.

Humans Make the Scariest Sounds of All
Apparently, human voices are more frightening to South African wildlife than the roar of lions. Now, researchers are conjuring ways to use recordings of human chitter-chatter to deter animals from entering high poaching areas. So, we’re a good kind of scary, then. Sort of.

Kangaroo Moms Form Clubs to Deter Predators
According to a new study in Animal Behavior, kangaroo moms form neighborhood watch networks to keep their joeys safe from foxes and dingoes. Don’t mess with the socially savvy sisterhood of marsupials.

Even More Glow-In-the-Dark Mammals
It seems a whole lot more mammals have fluorescent fur than previously believed. New research found that 107 of 125 species evaluated had fur that glowed under UV light, including bats, zebras, and polar bears. Solar-powered, we presume?

As If You Need an Expert to Tell You, Cats Are Perfect
A biologist from the Natural History Museum in London has determined that felines have achieved evolutionary perfection. Here’s why. Also, a few thoughts on the matter from FWP resident catnip curator Stella: “Who am I to argue with the scientific community? Now, how about a treat?”

And How Does Your Hammer Grow?
If you’ve ever wondered how a hammerhead shark develops its tool-shaped snout, for the first time ever, you can watch it grow.

Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards
Dancing bears, scolding birds, or lazy lions? You have until November 23rd to cast a vote for your favorite Comedy Wildlife Photograph for 2023. Check out the 41 funniest finalists here.

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Lisa S. French October 11, 2023

Murmurations: Starling Sound Shapes

2-minute read

Whirring, thrumming waves and swirls. Pulsing, whooshing twists and twirls.

Murmurations, the mesmerizing sound shapes of hundreds to hundreds of thousands of common starlings, are one of the most spectacular displays of collective animal movement in nature. How and why these feathery shapeshifters gather to perform their synchronized aerial maneuvers has long captured the imagination of both scientists and curious casual observers of evening skies.

From late fall to early spring, these birds of a feather flock together at dusk in continuously morphing configurations before descending in one fell swoop to roost. Are the massive gatherings a safety-in-numbers strategy to confuse predators or a signal to attract more birds to create warmer roosts?

To determine what drives the ebb and flow of these spontaneous avian zoomies, scientists analyzed videos of starlings flying in formation and reconstructed the movements of individual birds, looking for patterns in behavior. The analysis revealed that starlings navigating in a murmuration at up to 20 m.p.h. have an amazing ability to rapidly maneuver in sync with fellow fliers, reacting to changes in direction in under 100 milliseconds. Each bird follows the behavior of the six or seven closest neighbors, and the wave of perpetual movement ripples through the flock forming fluttering sound shapes in the evening sky.

Researchers studying details of over 3,000 murmurations gathered by citizen scientists across 23 European countries believe that starlings form giant catch me if you can bird clouds and descend en masse to roosting sites to avoid being singled out and picked off by aerial predators.

Interestingly, the dynamic rotating shapes formed by the safer together survival strategy seem to follow patterns of collective motion found in other groups of animals, including wildebeests, fish, and ants.

Whirring, thrumming waves and swirls. Pulsing, whooshing twists and twirls. The hypnotizing movements of a gathering of birds at dusk—a reminder of nature’s eternal rhythms.

ICYMI Nature News

Rare Maui Birds Rescued
Out of the heartbreaking tragedy of the Maui wildfires comes a story of nature-sparing heroism. The staff of the Maui Bird Conservation Center, home to some of the world’s rarest birds, rushed in to save the critically endangered animals from the rapidly advancing flames. You can read about the avian heroes here and help support Maui Forest birds here.

Meet the Antarctic Strawberry Feather Star
The multi-limbed beasty discovered in the depths of the Antarctic’s Southern Ocean might look like it’s straight out of Alien central casting, but it’s a brand-new Earthly species. Hello there!

Fruit Flies Just Want to Have Fun
Apparently, fruit flies like playing as much as any vertebrate. Scientists have discovered that given the opportunity to go round and round on a simulated carousal, the insects jump at the chance. Whee!

The Creatures Below Your Feet
Did you know that more than half of the Earth’s species live in the soil below your feet? That’s right—ninety percent of fungi, 80% of plants, and 50% of bacteria. Tread carefully out there!

This Kākāpō’s a Trier
If you’re in need of a bit of inspiration in the keep-on-keeping-on department, Steve the kākāpō has some thoughts to share on living your dreams. Because for New Zealand’s earthbound owl parrot, flying is believing.

Little Brown Bat: America’s Next Top Model?
Should a furry little night flyer be America’s Next Top Model? We think it’s about time. You can watch the little brown bat’s audition tape here.

And Bless the Rains Down in Africa
Since this week’s climate news has been, yeah, well, not okay—at all, we’re going to leave you with 18,000 strangers singing a Toto song because that might help you feel a little better between headlines. Hear it here.

FWP Carbon Capture Report
As always, thanks to our lovely readers, we’ve planted another batch of carbon-capturing trees with our pals at Tree-Nation to help give people and the planet a little more breathing space. From April 2022 through July 2023, the trees that we’ve planted across 13 projects in 12 countries bring our carbon capture to 3980 tons of CO2. That’s the equivalent of 4,458,726 pounds of coal burned, 10,204,103 miles driven by an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle, and 447,897 gallons of gasoline consumed.

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Lisa S. French August 19, 2023

Making Room for Urban Wildlife

2-minute read

If you took the city… and turned it upside down and shook it, you would be amazed at the animals that would fall out.

Yann Martel, Life of Pi

What kinds of creatures would fall out if you turned your city upside down? Here in NYC, we’d shake out 1.1 million domestic animals of the woofing, meowing variety, and a surprising assortment of wild ones, including coyotes, deer, raccoons, possums, skunks, hawks, and the occasional snowy owl. As habitat loss and climate change continue to take their toll on natural ecosystems, wild animals looking for a home away from home can end up in unexpected places, like a green patch of park in the middle of a 23-square-mile island inhabited by 1.63 million people.

By 2050, it’s estimated that 7 billion people will live in urban areas. Whether it’s coyotes in Manhattan, sea lions in San Francisco, or cougars in Los Angeles, cities will be supporting more diverse animal species in response to the impacts of ongoing environmental change. As wildlife and urban dwellers try to adjust to sharing the same habitat, cities that plan for peaceful co-existence will be critical to the survival of some of our increasingly endangered animals.

Because coyotes are going to coyote, and cougars are going to cougar, managing the ecological challenges of making room for urban wildlife takes innovative thinking so that animals can do what they normally do without stressing out their human neighbors.

So, what would a wildlife-friendly city look like? It could look like Los Angeles, the second most populated city in the U.S., which is in the final stages of planning and fundraising for the world’s largest urban wildlife crossing, a 210-foot span over ten lanes of the 101 Freeway, which will create a vital connection for a population of at-risk cougars and other native wildlife.

The average home range of a cougar is 240 square miles, but the fragmentation of habitat by roads and ongoing development is a threat to their survival. By reconnecting the Santa Monica Mountain ecosystem over the 101, the Liberty Canyon Wildlife Crossing will give big cats like P-22, aka the Brad Pitt of cougars, the ability to freely move between regions, helping to save the iconic animals from isolation and extinction.

The wildlife crossing will also provide other California creatures—bobcats, grey foxes, coyotes, and mule deer—with a safe passage between patches of critter-friendly habitat. And human inhabitants of the sprawling city will get a nature boost too. The conservation project’s green space will include a multi-use trail and recreation areas for hikers, bikers, and equestrians—all-around good news for nature-loving Angelenos.

Studying how wild animals live, move, and adapt when faced with the accelerating pressures of habitat loss and climate change is helping conservationists, city planners, and concerned citizens to create resilient urban ecosystems that will make cities healthier and more livable for humans and wildlife on a rapidly changing planet.

You can read about the big cats of the Santa Monica Mountains here and learn more about how a short walk over a ten-lane freeway could be vital to helping these endangered cougars to keep on cougaring from the good people at Save LA Cougars Campaign.

ICYMI Nature News

A Purr-fect Ending
Speaking of big cats, we think you might need to take a look at this unbelievably adorable video of chirping cheetahs at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Did your heart swell to ten times its normal size at the end? Yeah, we thought so.

The Beary Chunky Chompion
Did you predict the winner of Fat Bear Week? If you bet on 747, aka Bear Force One, congratulations on your astute sense of future bear fatness. If you’d like to learn why hibernating bears are able to pack on the pounds and stay healthy, The Washington Post has some interesting insights for you here.

A Brand New Whale
The good news: scientists named a new species of baleen whale this week. The bad news: the 60,000-pound marine mammal, dubbed Rice’s whale, is on the verge of extinction. Geez, give us a chance to get to know the finned fellows…

A Pest-Beating Flowering Plant
Scientists have discovered a Costa Rican plant that turns crop-destroying pests into pollinators. Crafty!

Audubon Migratory Bird Explorer
Have you checked out Audubon’s guide to bird migration yet? You can track the annual journeys of over 450 bird species and learn about the challenges they face to surviving along the way with this cool bird tracking tool. Also, we just wanted to mention the fifth and final beautiful installment of the Birdsong Project is now available—from Audubon to your ears.

Underbirds Are Go
Voting for Forest & Bird’s New Zealand Bird of the Year is now open. Exciting! Which finely feathered candidate will earn your nod of approval? We’re going with the Rockhopper penguin again this year. With those outstanding head tufts, it has to win eventually. Choose your five favorites here.

And that’s all for now. Have a super week!

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Lisa S. French October 17, 2022

Healing the Planet: The People Have the Power

1.5-minute read

We hope that you’re thoroughly enjoying the summer roaming season. Being out in the world again and appreciating the astounding beauty of nature serves as a soul-soothing reminder of how critical a hospitable planet is to our well-being. Thanks to a unanimous vote by the United Nations General Assembly as of July 28, your access to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment is no longer just a wishlist item but has now been declared a universal human right.

Did you know that you can play a vital role in maintaining the natural world you love by collaborating with scientists to help address some of our biggest Earthly challenges, like climate change and biodiversity loss?

Now, you may say to yourself, “Self, I am just one person. I can’t make a difference. How can I help with such momentous problems?” Well, you can rev up your big brain and provide your unique and invaluable insights to scientists working to protect and preserve our environment—that’s how. By joining the ranks of millions of citizen scientists around the world, you can participate in advancing the knowledge needed to help maintain the well-being of people, wildlife, and the planet. Does that sound like a plan? Read on…

Every day, new citizen science programs are launched in every corner of the globe, offering opportunities to observe and track species or environmental events that remain invisible to remote monitoring. In many cases, there is no formal training required for participation. All that’s needed is your perceptive peepers and unbridled enthusiasm, and passion for nature. The projects span a vast range of issues, using web platforms and mobile apps to record data.

There’s still a lot of summer left and a lot of options to explore to make an important contribution to healing the Earth. By helping scientists make better and more comprehensive analyses of the state of our home planet, you’ll also improve environmental decision-making that affects the health of local and global communities. Every solution to even seemingly insurmountable problems starts with someone saying, “What is happening here? We should fix this.” So how can we help fix the urgent, closely linked problems of climate change and biodiversity loss? By supporting scientists and working together with people from different backgrounds and abilities to advance the knowledge needed to create a sustainable future for everyone.

Are you in? Great! We’ve pulled together some resources to get you started on your citizen science journey. Pick a project and share what you see:

Scistarter: Find a project by topic or keyword.
Citisci: Create projects, build datasheets, and track your results.
iNaturalist: Explore and share your observations from the natural world.
iSpot: Identify wildlife and share nature with a global community.
GLOBE: Join a global learning and research community to benefit the environment.
Earthwatch: Help tackle urgent environmental challenges through research.
Zooniverse: Contribute to people-powered research.
eMammal: Track wildlife in 110 wildlife projects in 22 countries.
Forestwatcher: Keep tabs on the trees.
Edge of Existence: Help protect some of the most unique and endangered species on the planet.

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Lisa S. French August 1, 2022

Blue Jays on snow in the winter wilderness

Heads Up, Bird People

1.5-minute read

It’s almost here—the 25th annual Great Backyard Bird Count! Wherever you are on the planet, from February 18th through the 21st, the GBBC is your chance to get out and about and let the world know how many of our feathered friends can be found on your patch.

If you’ve got 15 minutes to spare this weekend, you’ll find everything you need to add to the global critter count, courtesy of Audubon, The Cornell Ornithology Lab, Birds Canada, and eBird:

Free Webinar: On Wednesday 16th at 2 pm EST, avian aficionados of all ages and experience levels can get pro tips on identifying creature features and how to do an official count, bird by bird.

How to Participate: You can download a printable checklist to find out who’s who in your area, access the Merlin ID app that covers bird species on seven continents in 12 languages, and find tools to upload your tally to eBird via your mobile or desktop.

Global Live Map: You’ll be able to keep tabs on sightings around the world as birdwatchers upload their observation lists. If you get bird envy when the Southern Hemisphere goes online, we can relate. It’s a bird-a-palooza down there.

In case you need more of an incentive to bird watch your way out of the winter gloom, according to a new study, in addition to being important pollinators, the winged songsters improve our well-being—and the more birds in our environment, the better we feel. So, grab your field glasses, head on out, and give birds and your mood a boost! In anticipation of endorphin elevation, let’s do a practice count together—bird, bird—bird, bird, bird. Don’t you feel better already!

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Lisa S. French February 15, 2022

Where, Oh Where Are The Walruses?

1-minute read

The monitoring of wildlife, habitats, and ecosystems is critical to conservation. But keeping tabs on what’s happening in the natural world—changes in the number of different species and populations of specific species, and how they move and interact with the environment across millions of square miles of land and sea—is no simple task. Now, thanks to advances in conservation technology, tracking endangered, elusive, and widely dispersed animals is getting a whole lot easier. Scientists are employing a diverse range of tech tools, including radar, sonar, motion sensors, camera traps, drones, smartphones, and satellites, to gather information that will aid in the development of nature-saving strategies. One of the greatest remaining challenges is deciphering all of that captured data. That’s where citizen scientists come in.

Walrus Headcount
To amplify global conservation efforts, researchers are asking all of you wildlife watchers out there to pitch in with planetary health checks by keeping a lookout and sharing what you see. One of the crowdsourced projects taking place right now is Walrus from Space, the Atlantic and Laptev walrus census. The World Wildlife Fund and the British Antarctic Survey hope to enlist half a million people over the next four years to contribute to the counting of walruses by searching for the tusked creatures in satellite images. This sea mammal census aims to determine how environmental changes, like global heating, impact the walrus populations of Canada, Norway, Greenland, and Russia.

Do you have an eagle eye—or two? Do you know a walrus when you see one? Although an adult walrus can weigh as much as a Mazda Miata—about 2,200 pounds—pinpointing the massive sea creatures in the vast expanse of Arctic waters is trickier than you might imagine. Are you up for the challenge? Become a walrus detective and put your keen sight to the test. Register with the WWF here to see what you can see—in the sea—and help to secure the future of these iconic marine animals.

More People-Powered Projects
If you’d like to explore more ways to connect with the conservation community to share your observations of our planet’s flora and fauna, check out these “I spy” projects:

Bird Alert
Before we go, a quick heads up that polling is now open for New Zealand’s Bird of the Year. Exciting! Get to know the 2021 contestants and cast your votes! We think all of the birds are winners, but we’re going to go out on a limb and predict that the rockhopper penguin will be this year’s it bird. The endangered little rock climber most definitely looks like a champion.

Turtle Tsunami
Oh, and one more helping nature heal, turtle-y amazing conservation item: news of an extraordinary mass hatching event. Thanks to the successful monitoring and management of giant South American river turtles by the World Conservation Society Brasil, tens of thousands of the little shelled critters made their way to the water world they’ll call home. Behold the turtle tsunami!

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Lisa S. French October 17, 2021

Be the Sea Change

1.5-minute read

If you need another great reason to head to the beach in September, the annual International Coastal Cleanup, the world’s largest volunteer effort to clean our waterways, kicks off this weekend.

From rivers to shorelines, from the surface to the depths of the oceans, at the North and South Poles, and throughout every body of water in between, discarded and abandoned trash and debris are diminishing the health of Earth’s waters and wildlife. Every species of marine turtle and more than half of all mammals and sea birds are affected by accumulating trash through entanglement or ingestion. The long list of impacted wildlife includes green sea and hawksbill turtles, North Atlantic right whales, California sea lions, and Atlantic puffins.

Because of its sheer volume and durability, ocean trash—metal, glass, rubber, paper, cloth, and plastic—is one of the biggest threats to marine biodiversity. According to the Marine Biology & Ecology Research Center at Plymouth University, plastic is the biggest water polluter by far. Global plastic production increased from 1.5 million metric tons in 1950 to 368 million in 2019. There are currently an estimated five trillion pieces of plastic littering our oceans.

The Plymouth University study determined that 92% of marine species and as many as one-fifth of animals at risk of extinction had harmful encounters with plastic—netting and rope that cause entanglements and fragments or microplastics that can block digestive systems and lead to reproductive problems and starvation. Microplastics, small bits and pieces, and beads from health and personal care products, also leach toxic chemicals into the water that can wind up in the food chain and potentially on our dinner plates.

While it’s easy to feel overwhelmed in the face of big, here, there, and everywhere environmental challenges like the massive amounts of plastic soup polluting our oceans, participating in the coastal cleanup has an immediate impact. Plus, the Ocean Conservancy has everything you need to be the sea change and connect and collect, including an interactive map to find a local community coordinator and info on how to organize your own cleanup crew and locate a spot in need of tidying.

Rolling up our sleeves and taking the trash out is an easy-to-achieve way to convert hope for a healthy planet into action. So please join us for the sake of oceans, coastal communities, and wildlife—like these baby turtles, one of the marine animals most at risk of consuming plastic.

If you’d like to see more magnificent creatures that will benefit from trash-free seas, check out the work of Conservation Photographer of the Year 2021 Kerim Sabuncuoğlu.

And if you’re keen to help shrink the plastics-sphere and keep the indestructible stuff out of our waterways, the World Wildlife Fund has ten tips to reduce your plastic footprint.

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Lisa S. French September 18, 2021

Do You Have a Hope Spot?

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

The Countdown’s on for the Birdathon

It’s almost here! The New York State 24-hour Audubon Birdathon begins Thursday, May, 20th. That’s the day to get out and about, enjoy the lovely spring weather, and count as many different bird species as you can to support the environmental organization’s conservation work—from cities to suburbs and from Long Island Sound to the Great Lakes.

If you would like to help create healthy coasts, wetlands, and woodlands for our feathered friends, you can find out how to participate at Audubon New York. Just grab your binoculars and keep your eyes peeled. Here are 12 award-winning photos of fascinating bird behaviors for inspiration. You just never know what you’ll see out there.

Happy counting! Bird, bird—bird, bird, bird…

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Lisa S. French May 15, 2021