Halibut Herald June 25

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ALIBUT HERALD June 25, 2009

The Wonders of Whales

This is a zoomed in view of a life-size portrait of a 15-year-old male sperm whale. (Bryant Austin/Contributed photo) An amateur photographer and former Monterey Bay Aquarium volunteer is giving the world a new view of whales. And he's hoping through his photos to make the world safer for these gentle giants. READ ON: http://montereybayaquarium.typepad.com/sea_notes/2009/06/the-wonders-of-whales.html MARINE MAMMAL CONSERVATION THROUGH THE ARTS: http://mmcta.org/index.html

Look Into My Eyes… They say the eyes are the window to the soul, but the ones collected here make you ponder whether they lead straight to the stomach. Still, staring back at you, they also show that bloodthirsty can be beautiful. Clockwise from top left: Crocodile; Hawk, Shark, Cat READ ON: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com /featured/look-into-my-eyes/12793

Recycling Milk Cartons in Vancouver

Turning Tide on Run of River Last night, the Wilderness Committee attended a public meeting on the contentious Glacier Howser private power project in the West Kootenays. The rally before the open house featured local politicians, First Nations, the EcoSociety, the Wilderness Committee, and hundreds of people who wanted to keep BC's rivers wild and our power public. Over 1,100 attended to voice their opinion! READ ON: http://pacificfreepress.com/news/1/4314turning-tide-on-run-of-river.html

Might I just say, how is it that we only organized this in 2009? Milk cartons have always been recyclable, this should be available everywhere, especially at the grocery stores we buy milk at! READ ON: http://www.encorp.ca/cfm/index.cfm?It=940&Id= 3&Se=39

Pricing Nature to Save It Just some of what Canada's Boreal Forest does is said to be worth $77 billion. READ ON: http://thetyee.ca/News/2009/06/18/PricingNatureToSaveIt/?utm_source=mo ndayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=220609

Inspiring Vertical Gardens for Small Spaces

Polar Bear Bookshelf by iBride (as in e-breed or a French play-on-words for “hybrid”)

READ ON: http://www.lowimpactliving.com/blog/2009/06/23/inspiringvertical-gardens-for-small-spaces/

Something for the new Arctic Canada exhibit? Expensive but sooo cool. READ ON: http://www.inhabitots.com/2009/06/24/polar-bearbookshelf-by-ibride/

DIY VERTICAL GARDEN: http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-grow-avertical-garden-166965/view/

3 Strategies to Get More Veggies from a Small Garden 1. Interplanting 2. Vertical gardening 3. Succession planting READ ON: http://life.gaiam.com/gaiam/p/3-Strategies-to-GetMore-Veggies-from-a-Small-Garden.html

DIY Light Tube Lighting Alternative WATCH VIDEO: http://greenupgrader.com/category/diygreen/

The Secret Life of Paper

Informative & short video to help you make an informed opinion of our over consumption of paper. WATCH VIDEO: http://permacul ture.org.au/200 9/06/16/thesecret-life-ofpaper/

Cute Little Stinkers…

Awesome Baby Cradle! Born at Korea’s Everland Zoo. Thought this was a good share since these buggers are found ‘wild’ all over the West End ☺ READ ON: http://www.zooborn s.com/zooborns/200 9/06/funkyskunkies.html

I know we have some new babies and expected babies around here so I thought this would be appropriate to share with you! READ ON: http://blogs.babble.com/droolicious/2009/06/24/baby-tenderrocking-cradle/

Tadpole rain in Japan

Baby Dolphin Frolicks with Mom

Over the past few weeks, people in Japan have been witnessing tadpoles, fish and frogs fall from the sky. Ever since the strange phenomenon was first observed in Ishikawa prefecture on June 4, reports of animal rain have been pouring in from prefectures across the country. READ ON: http://www.pinktentacle.com/2009/06/up date-tadpole-rain-in-japan/

An Atlantic bottlenose dolphin calf, born at SeaWorld San Diego on June 10, 2009, swims alongside her 11-yearold mother, Malibu. READ ON: http://www.zooborns.c om/zooborns/2009/06/b aby-dolphin-frolickswith-mom.html

Dinosaurs May Have Been Smaller Than Previously Thought The largest animals ever to have walked the face of the earth may not have been as big as previously thought, reveals a paper published June 21 in the Zoological Society of London’s Journal of Zoology. READ ON: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090621195620.htm

World's First Log Flume Ride Through a Crocodile Enclosure Opens Tuesday at Weymouth Sea Life Aquarium Crocodile-themed boats will ferry passengers through a newly developed sanctuary for rescued caiman crocodiles. READ ON: http://www.zandavisitor.com/new sarticle-1624

International Dark-Sky Association Launches Project to Monitor Night Skies The measurements will enable scientists to create models of unprecedented accuracy that can explore the effects of sky glow on wildlife and ecosystems. The models and measurements also will quantify the amount of energy wasted by inefficient and unneeded lighting and will provide estimates of an area's astronomical health. READ ON: http://www.enn.com/press_releases/3012

HOT DOG! Metro Vancouver Curbside Composting! (Half-Eaten)

Sustainable Transparency Initiative in the Works The Pacific-to-Plate initiative is built on a tagging system that provides information on the fish bought from ocean to plate.

Curbside pickup of food waste is coming to Metro Vancouver neighbourhoods as part of a new organics composting program that aims to help cut the amount of garbage going to landfills. READ ON: http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/49109516.html

Sounds good in theory… but as consumers, do we have the drive or time to track each item? Will other, less conscious consumers turn around and care? Will it even work? And if it does, is it cost effective? READ ON: http://www.fis.com/fis/worldnews/worldnews.asp?l=e&country=&s pecial=&monthyear=&day=&id=32746&ndb=1&df=0

http://www.vanaq ua.org/home/shar kwater-rsvp.html

On Another Note… R.I.P. Michael Jackson (1958-2009)

Kermit the Turtle Had the Plastic Removed From His Stomach and is Being Released By Virginia Aquarium

READ ON: http://www.zandavisitor.com/newsarticle-1663

No matter the drama that encircled his life, no one can deny his musical genius, dance moves & white glove. Thriller was the first album I ever owned. That man taught me how to dance. – Emerald

Daisy (MMR’s Harbour Porpoise) Update Daisy had a visitor a couple weeks from Pacific Biodiversity Institute of Winthrop, Washington. Aileen Jeffries brought a CPOD (a type of passive acoustic monitor) to the Marine Mammal Rescue Center to test its ability to detect harbour porpoise. She used a separate hydrophone that was recording at the same time as the CPOD to learn if the two instruments measured the same thing. Harbour porpoises do not vocalize in the audible range like the beluga. Instead, they use a high frequency echolocation to detect obstacles in their surroundings and to locate fish. Humans hear best in the range of 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, cycles per second, but porpoise echolocation is in the range of 120 to 150 kHz. Aileen is investigating the possibility of using CPODS to determine the presence of harbour porpoise in the wild. Harbour porpoise were once abundant in the Puget Sound, and now they are rarely sighted south of Seattle. While Canada has identified the harbour porpoise a species of concern and Washington has done the same, the U. S. Federal government has not yet made a listing decision. Daisy was most cooperative. The loudest ultrasound came when Lindsaye brought the fish for lunch.

Archival Photo

Beluga Whale Medical, 1970’s

Library News Get your up-to-the minutes news via RSS feed from the library’s What’s new pages. Currently, there are two What’s new pages running a variety of interesting news feeds What’s New – Animals and Nature – for news about birds, reptiles, marine mammals, and places such as the Arctic http://aquanet.vanaqua.org/IS/CRS/Lib/Pages/WhatsNewAnimalsandNature.aspx What’s New – Business and General – for news about business, finance, tourism, visitor experience and marketing http://aquanet.vanaqua.org/IS/CRS/Lib/Pages/What%27sNewBGN.aspx News on Environmental conservation and education will soon be available via the Conservation Current http://aquanet.vanaqua.org/IS/CRS/Lib/ConservationCurrent/Pages/Default.aspx Did you know that the Library has access to over 100 journals and magazines?? At least 80 of these are available full text online. For a complete hyperlinked list, visit the library journals page on Aquanet: http://aquanet.vanaqua.org/IS/CRS/Lib/Pages/Journals.aspx As well, you can find new books and movies listed on this page of Aquanet: http://aquanet.vanaqua.org/IS/CRS/Lib/Pages/LibraryCatalogue.aspx

Where: Delbrook Community Centre, North Vancouver

Where: Delta Town & Country Inn

Classified

For Sale: Used DVDs and video games DVDs Matrix Revolutions 2-Disc version Superman Doomsday animated movie Ultimate Avengers 2 animated movie The Animatrix Nintendo Gamecube games Crash Bandicoot – The Wrath of Cortex Spyro – Enter the Dragonfly Def Jam Fight for NY True Crime: New York City Medal of Honor: Rising Sun NBA Live 2005 The above are for sale at $7 each, if you buy 3 or more $5/piece

Also available: Super Nintendo games ($4/each or 3 for $10) Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3D SOLD Mario’s Early Years: Fun With Letters SOLD Battle Clash (Requires Superscope to play) Nintendo Wii *Brand New Copy* (Factory sealed): ExciteBots Trick Racing - $40

If interested please contact Esther: [email protected]

http://fishopolis.com

Events We Could Be On This List for 2009! Your help is needed: Employee Survey ☺ Your feedback will help to determine how we compare to other companies, and will provide us with insight into the things that we should celebrate and the things that we need to change in order to compete with the best and have an engaged Aquarium team. All of the responses to the survey will be strictly confidential and your completed surveys will be submitted directly to a third party. This link below is unique to us and no one else will be able to access our survey through this link. This survey is for BC based employees only so anyone outside of BC will not be required to complete the survey. The survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. Your results cannot be saved, therefore please complete the survey in one sitting. Please submit your completed survey as soon as possible but no later than July 10, 2009.

To access the Employee Survey online starting today, please go to https://www.keysurvey.com/survey/258839/ba05/

ENTER CONTEST HERE: http://www.marineph otobank.com/resour ces/OceaninFocusP hotoContestHome20 09.php

Get Some Use from Your Tourism Passport This Weekend ☺

http://www.museumofva ncouver.ca/exhibition.p hp?id=6

2009 Audubon Magazine Photography Awards: Birds in Focus, created to celebrate the beauty and diversity of birdlife through the art of photography, and to honor the exceptional work of talented professional, amateur and youth photographers from all over the U.S.

http://www.granvilleonline.ca/gr/events

Audubon will be accepting submissions online between May 15-July 15 in three categories: Professional, Amateur, and Youth. Photographers are encouraged to reveal a new angle or perspective in their work. “Think creatively,” advises Audubon’s design director Kevin Fisher, one of the judges. “Originality and drama rank high at Audubon. Include tight shots, such as close-ups of eyes, feathers. We welcome uncommon perspectives.” LEARN MORE: www.AudubonMagazinePhot oAwards.com

http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=4311 http://www.focuschallenge.org/focus.html If you or anyone here at the Vancouver Aquarium would be interested in making a donation (tax receipts available, and 100% of your donation goes to those in need!), please please PLEASE do so! So far, I'm at $0 here at the Aquarium :( I've set up a CanadaHelps GivingPage where you can make donations towards the 2009 FOCUS Hike4Life Challenge. The link is above, as well as a few other informative links as well. And please remember that every little bit helps, and 100% of your contribution will go towards FOCUS to help those in need! I will also be doing something special for all of those who have contributed towards this wonderful cause. I'm not sure yet what this will be, but it could be along the lines of a large, high-quality photographic print, taken by yours truly, from the Hike4Life expedition

http://eatsnaprepeat.ca/2009/05/31/chinatown-market/

More exciting events here: http://www.vanevo.ca/event s01.html Check out videos of past lectures here: http://www.sfu.ca/cstudies/ science/darwin.htm