World Oceans Day, the international day of ocean conservation, is an occasion that I and the people I work with at Ocean Aid would like to see become as celebrated as Earth Day – a goal that seems perfectly reasonable in light of the fact that approximately 71 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered

The Discovery Channel should be ashamed of itself for turning the deliberate extermination of a majestic species into entertainment. I’m referring to the series, “Swords,” which glorifies the various captains and crews whose pursuit of swordfish  –“hunting for giants,” as the network’s Web site terms it – makes it ever more likely that these remarkable

If you think of the Earth as a gigantic spaceship and think of the oceans as its largest renewable source of oxygen – responsible for generating 70 percent of the amount in our atmosphere – you’ll have an idea of just how much our lives depend on the health of the marine environment. The fact

In the vast undersea ecosystem, little fish, from Antarctic krill and menhaden to sardines and anchovies, are the ones that matter most. You don’t have to be a marine biologist to understand  the fact that larger species depend on the existence of much smaller ones for their survival – and that if you have the

If there’s one thing that the upcoming global observance of  World Oceans Day on June 8 should make us think about, it’s the profound impact that our individual behavior can have on the marine environment. Take cigarette smoking, for example. The fact that it has long been known to be a health hazard, not only

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv0YIupCcmE&feature=player_profilepage] On my visit to Qatar, one of the things that struck me is the fact that the oil floating in the Persian Gulf isn’t just in the fluid form carried by the huge tankers that ply the waters off this small but affluent Middle Eastern Kingdom. Petroleum can also be found in its waters

It’s not often that one gets an opportunity to try to influence those who are engaged in setting a new course for a crucially important part of the world. But it was a privilege that my friend Bill Nicholson and I had this past week at the Middle East Economic Future Conference in Doha, Qatar,

Reprinted from Ode | Spring 2011 issue Jurriaan Kamp Almost two years ago at a natural products conference, I ran into an old friend. I’d known him for some years as a passionate advocate for the natural and organic industries. He’d founded various companies in that space. He was an environmental activist. So it was

Once again, I am being pulled back to the sea and the one cause that is most closely intertwined with my “son-of-a-fisherman” roots. It happened this past week in New York while spending some time with my peers in the sustainability business. Of the various subjects we discussed, the fate of the world’s oceans was

On April 25 I was in Bentonville, Arkansas, just as the region was caught by the full force of Mother Nature’s wrath in the form, of deadly and destructive tornadoes, flooding and the most incredible display of lightning I have ever witnessed. I had never in my entire life experienced a storm quite so intense.