Halibut Herald April 23

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APPY EARTH WEEK HALIBUT HERALD! April 23, 2009

Bits and Bites Vancouver Aquarium Obtains Both LEED Gold and ISO 14001 Certifications

Mayor Gregor Robertson joins Aquarium President, John Nightingale this past Tuesday to commemorate our newest Environmental achievements and to unveil the new Aquaquest sign. READ ON: http://www.zandavisitor.com/newsarticle-1297Vancouver_Aquarium_Obtains_Both_LEED_Gold_and_ISO_14001_Certifications

United Nations has officially declared June 8 as World Oceans Day World Ocean Day was created in 1992 at the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, put on by the United Nations. Ever since, thousands have celebrated the oceans' importance and their personal connections with them. But unfortunately, for the past 16 years this honorary day has remained an unofficial celebration because the UN has failed to formally designate June 8 as World Ocean Day every year. Oceans provide us with food, they regulate climate and generate oxygen, so it doesn't matter if you reside on the coast or farther inland; the ocean in some way impacts your everyday life. LEARN MORE: http://www.theoceanproject.org/wod/ LEARN MORE: http://www.worldoceannetwork.org/Act_WOD.asp

10 Things YOU Can Do to Save the Oceans http://community.oceana.org/blog/2008/06/10-things-you-can-do-saveoceans

Get Seafood Watch Recommendations on your iPhone

Features * Free, up-to-date recommendations at your fingertips * Sushi guide lists fish by Japanese name as well as common market name * Regional guides highlight the seafood that’s best in each area of the country * New! Search to find seafood quickly and easily within regions.

Top 10 Green iPhone Apps

GET IT HERE: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/Seafo odWatch/web/sfw_iPhone.aspx http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/top-10-green-iphone-apps/

We as a population in BC face a historic challenge. All through time our rivers have flowed freely. Our provincial government is quietly giving away rights to our public rivers for private power production to some of the world's biggest corporations. Not only is new private river power significantly driving up our power bills already but the policy that has never been debated threatens our environment, economy and society as a whole. LEARN HOW TO HELP: http://www.saveourrivers.ca/home-mainmenu-37

Man (Re)Builds Mexican Island Paradise on 250,000 Recycled Floating Bottles

READ ON: http://ecoble.com/2007/11/18/250000-bottles-amazing-recycled-mexican-island-paradise/

How to Tell If You're Poisoning Yourself With Fish Researchers are creating genetic tests to determine if mercury hiding in that "healthy" dinner could be messing with your brain.

Why We Need to Reset Capitalism to Put the Environment at the Center Most simply, the environmental impact of the goods produced by companies absolutely can no longer be passed off onto society as a whole: Environmental Costs Must Be Shifted to Producers, Not Society

READ ON: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/04/resetcapitalism-put-environment-at-center.php

Reset: Making Sustainability the Centerpiece of Our Recovery We need regulations which ensure that companies cannot structure their operations so that any upside gains accrue to their owners (or worse yet their managers), while risks or costs get shifted onto society as a whole. READ ON: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-c-esty/reset-regulationan-earth_b_189025.html

More On The Ecological Stimulus Package: Lessons From The Ancients Here's a not-so-Trivial Pursuit Question: what ancient society survived dire ecological circumstances for 500 years by reorganizing their production systems, restructuring their economy, reducing consumption levels, and maximizing limited resources? ANSWER? READ ON: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/ecological-stimulus-lessonsancients_.php

READ ON: http://discovermagazine.com/2009/apr/19-how-to-tellif-you.re-poisoning-yourself-with-fish

FACTS FOUND HERE: http://www.mnn.com/family/holiday/stories/love-to-your-mother-earth-day-facts-and-figures

Folia Helps Urban Homesteaders Keep Track of Their Garden Folia provides a dashboard to help users know what plants are being sown and harvested, as well as weather forecasts, seed organizing, and photo organizing so that your garden can grow at its best. Gardening and Urban Homesteading are on the upswing and getting organized is a big part of running an efficient garden, and getting the most out of it. Folia's cool webtool helps get all your seeds in a row from listing chores to tracking frosts, researching sowing and harvesting timing to tracking observations about your garden. READ ON: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/04/foliahelps-urban-homesteaders-keep-track-of-theirgardens.php

Earth From the Air: Photos by Yann Arthus-Bertrand

A few months ago this photo series was introduced and some shots were posted in the Halibut Herald. Here are some more selections from the series. ABOVE – Left to right, top to bottom: Heart in Voh, New Caledonia; Center-pivot irrigation, Ma’an, Jordan; Algae cultivation in Bali, Indonesia; Stacks of wood at a wood pulp factory near Mörrum, Blekinge province, Sweden; Resting on bales on of Cotton, Thonakaha, Cote d'Ivoire, Africa; Village on the Banks of an Arm of the Niger River; Islet in the Sulu Archipelago, Philippines; Perito Moreno Glacier, Santa Cruz, Argentina BELOW - Left to right, top to bottom: Trees amid the waters near Taponas, Rhône region, France; Whale off the Valdés peninsula, Argentina; Salt formations on the west coast of the Dead Sea, Israel; The missing snows of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE PHOTOS: http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2009/02/earth-from-the-air-yann-arthusbertrand.php?page=14

With your help, We are Saving the Mermaids! Click here to select our Earth Day Special or Adopt any Ambassador at other levels of support: http://www.sirenian.org/ambassadors.html

Please remember to sign up for Bike to Work Week as soon as possible at www.vacc.bc.ca and then ride your bike to work on May 11-17th. Our team is under ‘Vancouver Aquarium’ and when you register, the site will ask you to create a route and then log each trip you make during that week. Come down to the wrap-up BBQ on Friday, May 15th, for free food, entertainment, some fun in the sun, and the chance to meet and greet thousands of city cyclists. We’ll have pedalpowered amps and music and dancing from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm, under the gazebo at the Telus World of Science. JOIN: www.vacc.bc.ca

How to Create Massive Change When It Comes to Climate Change http://planetgreen.discove ry.com/feature/earthday/bill-mckibben-earthday.html

INSPIRE CHANGE: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=s5kg1oOq9tY

LEARN MORE HERE: http://www.350.org/

Archival Photo

Doug feeding Orca, 1980. Anyone want to identify this beauty?

Marine Mammal Rescue

MMR's Newest Resident A Northern Elephant Seal was brought into MMR on April 6th from Rainbow Beach in Esquimalt on Vancouver Island. In sticking with MMR's 2009 naming theme of Common Mammal Names, "Cow" was brought into MMR because of a skin condition know as "Northern Elephant Seal Skin Disease" that can happen to juvenile elephant seals while they moult. "Cow" is currently under going treatment for the skin disease in her enclosure at MMR that includes a small pool that she regularly bathes in. She has just started eating fish on her own and is hopefully well on her way to recovery! The Marine Mammal Rescue team

Events

LEARN HOW HERE: http://www.a vaaz.org/en/ save_the_cb c/96.php/?C LICK_TF_TR ACK

Happy Earth Week to all of you from the Gift Shop team. In celebration of Earth Week we are proud to offer products that are sustainable, Canadian made as well as locally produced products. Earlier in 2008 we introduced our three symbols to make environmentally friendly products easy to shop for and identify in our store. We’re always working hard to find and offer merchandise that is made, used, transported, stored, packaged and can be disposed of in an environmentally sustainable way. We also strive to increase our use of products and services that are more responsible to the environment.

Revisiting the Labels:

All the items tagged with the Sustainable Choice sticker meet the Vancouver Aquarium’s Environmental Purchasing Policy and Guidelines as well as the Vancouver Aquarium’s Code of Conduct for Business Associates. When you purchase products labeled with the B.C Made or Canada Made sticker you are helping to support local artists and companies, some within your own community! We strive to seek out innovative and exciting new products and we are always hunting down green merchandise to further walk our talk. Take our great otter, frog and beluga reusable bags for example, they have given our visitors a choice of a sustainable bag that is also a souvenir and they have helped us in reducing the use of plastic bags! Take a trip to our Gift Shop this Earth Week and check out our growing assortment of green choices. With every purchase, you're helping to ensure the success of innovative, effective programs like our Marine Mammal Rescue Centre, our mobile AquaVan classroom, and educational experiences for all ages. The gift shop staff is always here to answer your questions, please give us a call if you would like any information about making a good purchasing decision today!

More exciting events here: http://www.vanevo.ca /events01.html Check out videos of past lectures here: http://www.sfu.ca/cst udies/science/darwin. htm

Classified

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