Some of the largest baleen whales—such as blue whales, fin whales and humpbacks—fall into a family called rorquals that use an unusual method of feeding. These whales feed on aggregations of zooplankton and fish by lunging with their mouths open wide to tremendous gape angles to force huge volumes of water and prey into their expandable oral cavities. This extreme […]

A major new study of the world’s oceans has reached a shocking conclusion: Thanks to humans, there are now over 5 trillion pieces of plastic, weighing more than 250,000 tons, floating in water around the world. With a global population of about 7.2 billion, that’s nearly 700 pieces per person. The study, published in the journal PLOS One by Marcus Eriksen of theFive […]

With Thanksgiving near, I’m not thinking of turkey breast or sweet potatoes. I’m thinking about the ocean and my own health, because the two are tied intimately together. Besides working to educate and advocate for shark protection with Shark Stewards, I’m also a surfer and ocean swimmer. This week I had an operation to repair a rotator cuff, a tendon […]

Sharp Park Golf Course, one of six courses in the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department’s portfolio, will no longer rely on the Hetch Hetchy reservoir and water system, which is the Bay Area’s main source of drinking water, to irrigate its greens and keep its fairways clean, the San Francisco Examiner reported. City-owned Sharp Park is now on recycled […]

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill on Tuesday imposing the nation’s first statewide ban on single-use plastic bags as a way to address litter, primarily in waterways. Senate Bill 270 was one of the last major bills pending Tuesday, the deadline for the governor to sign or veto the hundreds of bills sent to him during the final weeks […]