sala y gomez

Video: Underwater Teaser from Chile

Posted Thu, Nov 17, 2011 by Emily Fisher to chile, documentary, enric sala, lobsters, national geographic, sala y gomez, sharks, video

Earlier this year, Oceana and National Geographic completed an expedition to Sala y Gómez Island, an uninhabited Chilean island near Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean.

It was a follow-up to our first journey in October 2010, which was instrumental in the creation of a no-take marine reserve of 150,000 square kilometers around the island. Sala y Gómez is part of a chain of seamounts that are vulnerable to fishing activity.

And after months of patiently waiting, we now get to see some of the biodiversity that our colleagues discovered on their expeditions. NatGeo is releasing a documentary about Sala y Gómez, featuring Oceana campaigners as well as Dr. Enric Sala, marine ecologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, who has called Sala y Gómez “one of the last undisturbed and relatively pristine places left in the ocean.

Check out the trailer:

The dive team glimpses 15 Galapagos sharks and scads of slipper lobsters – and that’s just in this three-minute clip! You can catch the full documentary on January 19th at 8 pm on NatGeo WILD.

Confronting Illegal Fishing in Sala y Gomez

Posted Thu, Mar 3, 2011 by Alex Munoz to expedition, illegal fishing, national geographic, sala y gomez, tuna

The naval team approaches the fishing boat. © Ford Cochran and Alex Munoz Wilson

Oceana and National Geographic are currently aboard a Chilean naval ship, the Comandante Toro, on a scientific expedition in the waters of the newly created marine park around Sala y Gomez island (FYI, an alternate spelling is Salas y Gomez). Author Alex Muñoz Wilson is the Executive Director of Oceana Chile. This blog dispatch was originally posted at National Geographic.

We woke up this morning to a startling sight: Overnight, a small commercial fishing boat from Easter Island entered the protected waters of the marine park and dropped its lines within site of the Comandante Toro.

The fishing boat's captain was either brazen (why make an illegal fishing foray in plain sight of a large naval patrol ship?) or unaware of the existence of the new park (which would also be surprising, given the substantial publicity in Chile--particularly on Easter Island--surrounding the park's creation).

The Navy captain dispatched a team in one of the Toro's fast boats to interdict the fishing vessel, inspect it, and put a stop to the illegal fishing. According to the captain's report, this was a small commercial fishing boat with tuna in the boat's hold.

The fishing boat's owner said he was aware of the existence of the marine park, and that he was still planning to fish in this area. The navy showed him maps which made it clear that he was harvesting marine life inside the park in a no-take zone where all commercial fishing is banned.

This was the first enforcement action inside the new marine park.

Extra, Extra: Oceana’s Winter Magazine

Posted Thu, Feb 10, 2011 by Emily Fisher to chile, gulf of mexico expedition, january jones, jeff bridges, Oceana magazine, punta de choros, sala y gomez

The winter issue of the Oceana magazine is now online for your reading pleasure!

 We have lots of goodies for you in this issue:

* Visit lovely Punta de Choros, Chile, where we recently achieved a dramatic victory in stopping the construction of a coal-fired power plant.

* Sail into the Gulf of Mexico with the Oceana Latitude expedition.

* Explore Chile’s Sala y Gomez Island, whose waters were recently declared a no-take zone after our preliminary expedition there.

* Dive in with actress January Jones in her second trip with Oceana to swim with sharks. This time? The majestic whale shark.

And of course, read about our latest victories and events and find a tasty sustainable seafood recipe.  Enjoy and let us know what you think!

The Greatest Ocean Hits of 2010

Posted Fri, Dec 17, 2010 by Emily Fisher to best of ocean list 2010, eggnog, holidays, iccat, ocean victories 2010, punta de choros, sala y gomez, sea turtles, sharks

Chile's Sala y Gomez Island, a new marine reserve. [Photo illustration by Heather Ryan]

It’s that time of year when “best of” lists abound, so what better reason to sing the ocean’s greatest hits of 2010?

Raise your eggnog glasses high for these ocean victories that we helped accomplish this year, with your generous support and enthusiasm:

  • The Obama Administration reinstated a ban on offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast -- and that was after months of pressure by Oceana and more than 100,000 (!) of you said it was time to Stop the Drill.
  • After pressure from Oceana and our allies, the Chilean government halted the construction of a coal-fired thermoelectric plant near Punta de Choros, a marine reserve home to Humboldt penguins, bottlenose dolphins, and blue whales.
  • Two big bottom trawling victories: the U.S. banned bottom trawling in a 23,000 square mile area off the Southeast Atlantic coast, home to the largest area of pristine area of cold-water corals in the world. And in Belize, we helped pass a ban on all trawling in the country’s waters.