#ocean conservation

Take the memory, leave the shell! Watch what happens when we return seashells to the beach & marine hermit crabs!

Seashells are so important to beaches for a whole host of reasons.

🐚Over-shelling can affect hermit crabs because it reduces the availability of suitable shells for them to inhabit. Hermit crabs rely on empty shells of other creatures for protection and shelter. When there are too few shells available, hermit crabs may be forced to inhabit inadequate shells & pollution as homes, which can hinder their growth and make them more vulnerable to predators and environmental stressors. This can ultimately impact their survival and reproductive success.

🐚Shells provide homes or attachment surfaces for algae, sea grass, sponges, coral and a host of other microorganisms.

🐚Animals such as decorator crabs and octopus use shells as camouflage and many fish use shells as hiding places to avoid predators.

🐚Shells help to stabilize beaches and anchor seagrass.

🐚Shells are used by shorebirds to build nests.

Sea star wasting disease has been brutally decimating sea star populations up and down the West Coast for about a decade. It's been a frustrating and devastating mystery for a long time.

Sunflower sea stars are one of the hardest hit species, with 87% of the population wiped out in some areas and total extinction in others. Sea star die offs are particularly bad, because they prevent sea urchin populations from getting out of control. Sea urchins feed on the kelp that forms the basis of the whole ecosystem, so without sea stars the kelp forests take a big hit.

Now scientists have identified a bacteria that is very likely causing the disease, which is related to the bacteria that causes cholera in humans.

While this is just a first step for recovery, it means that sea stars and habitats can be tested for this bacteria before reintroducing them to previously diseased habitat. Scientists can also begin to study this bacteria more intensely and potentially find a cure.

Today we released a statement opposing the Trump Administration’s newly proposed leasing plan for offshore oil and gas drilling.

The plan would open up our backyard and the entire California coast for consideration for drilling that we and many communities have long fought. 

Healthy, intact ecosystems support thriving wildlife, clean air, and stable weather—all essential for people and nature to flourish. Our ocean and our communities are better off without the threat of devastating oil spills from drilling activity lurking off of the California coast.

In the face of this challenge, our commitments remain clear:

💡Centering science in the fight against climate change. Preventing opportunities for new oil and gas development will help the U.S. limit greenhouse gas emissions, improving the health and resilience of humans and nature. 

📢 Giving a voice to marine wildlife that depend on a clean, thriving ocean. On behalf of important ocean species—”NO” to offshore drilling! 

🤝 Building on restoration efforts still underway after past oil spill catastrophes and keeping up the critical work to protect all of us and our communities in the future. We all have a right to a healthy ocean, and our ecosystems, coastal economy, and livelihoods depend on it.

The following is literally word for word from their site but it is something you need to know:

"Papahānaumokuākea is one of the largest marine protected areas in the world. The refuge spans over 582,000 square miles of Pacific Ocean waters in Hawaii.

These waters are the cosmogonic home of Native Hawaiians, carrying traditional stories and ancestral wisdom, and remain a vital part of our living heritage.

Papahānaumokuākea has received multiple layers of protection, including as a marine national monument and most recently, a national marine sanctuary. The protections deem the area off-limits to industrial extraction, including commercial fishing. But all of this could be at risk if the Trump administration decides to rollback these protections for short-term gain, releasing commercial interests back into this sacred area.

The refuge is home to more than 7,000 species, including vibrant coral reefs, endangered animals, and creatures found nowhere else on Earth. Protecting Papahānaumokuākea is beyond ocean policy — it’s about the kuleana (responsibility) we carry for future generations.

As an area for replenishment, Papahānaumokuākea supports ecosystems not only within its own boundaries, but across the Hawaiian Islands and the broader Pacific. Strong protections boost ecological resilience, help fish populations thrive, and allow fisheries to benefit from spillover effects.

By standing up for this sanctuary, we protect life above and beneath the waves, honor cultural heritage, and ensure the ocean that connects us all remains healthy and vibrant for future generations."

"Out of a recent UN conference on the protection of the sea comes the news that Portugal has announced the creation of a new 38,000 square-mile marine protected area.

Established around the Gorringe seamount, technically Portugal’s tallest mountain, the decision will take the nation’s total protected territorial waters to 27%, making the small Iberian country the continent's leader in protected ocean waters.

The announcement was made by the nation’s environment minister Maria da Graca Carvalho at the 3rd UN Oceans Conference in Nice. The conference focuses on implementing strategies and methods to achieve the goals set out in the 2023 High Seas Treaty, which has so far been ratified by 51 nations—9 short of entering legal force.

“In terms of marine protection we are the most advanced country in the world with our characteristics combining continental and insular territory. Certainly the leader in Europe,” Carvalho said.

The Gorringe Ridge is located about 130 miles (210 km) west of Portugal, between the Azores and the Strait of Gibraltar. It is notable for an enormous diversity of sea life, particularly “soft corals,” or gorgonians, and deep-sea sponges, which inhabit some 1,100 reefs along the ridge.

850 species have been recorded living a there by the charity Oceana, which has been lobbying for the site’s protection for years.

In a statement following a 2012 dive mission to the seamount, Oceana called the undersea ecosystem “stunning.”

“The seamounts are visited by great pelagic species, such as whales, dolphins, and swordfish,” the statement read.

“The peaks are covered by algae forests, particularly kelp. Large schools of amberjack, horse mackerel, and barracuda concentrate above the highest peaks, and detritic bottoms, covered in the remains of coral, bryozoans, and mollusks, abound in deeper areas, are inhabited by dragon fish, fan corals, pink frogmouths, and bird’s nest sponges.”

Emanuel Gonçalves, chief scientist at Oceano Azul Foundation, a separate nonprofit that mapped the area with the Portuguese navy, told Reuters that the total protected area would be around 100,000 square kilometers, enough to “connect seamounts, abyssal plains, and open ocean, and create a safe haven to highly mobile and migratory species, and deep sea habitats”.

“It will provide a fertile nursery and feeding ground for turtles, sharks, marine mammals, sea birds and tunas, expand or restore kelp and coral forests and create a sanctuary for the unique breeding aggregation of torpedo rays,” he said.

The decision also follows on from an announcement last year that Portugal intended to protect an area of water around the Azores archipelago the size of Virginia and Georgia combined."

All of Cozumel’s reefs are in protected areas except one—the Villa Blanca Reef. Ironically, the this is also probably the healthiest reef there. Why? Because the Cozumel Coral Reef Restoration Program (aka the CCRRP, who I’m partnering with for my research and where I volunteer) is working tirelessly to care for the reefs and propagate and plant coral fragments.

However, all of that is about to be destroyed because of plans to build a fourth cruise ship pier. Directly over the Villa Blanca Reef and the CCRRP’s Coral Restoration Platforms.

MSC Cruises is the main organization backing this project, with further support from the Molina family (essentially oligarchs who have a big stake in the cruise industry) and the Mexican Government.

Recently, they put out a surveying platform to drill holes to survey the soil mechanics for pier construction. Already, they have damaged live rock, coral, and century old sponges—and the construction hasn’t even begun.

More information about this project as well as the protests and legal action taking place in Cozumel can be found here. However, there is a desperate need for international attention, as international tourists are the ones giving these cruise companies money.

Here’s How You Can Help

It's a massive issue that the over-collection of seashells has led to. While efforts are being made to attempt to combat the problem, those of us who live near coasts and hermit crab populated areas can help our crabby friends by keeping our hands off the shells that hermit crabs use as homes!

You may be wondering, "Stag, what does this have to do with Hellenic Polytheism?" Many worshippers and devotees of ocean-related deities like to collect seashells and give them as offerings, so this is somewhat of a PSA to maybe think twice before picking up certain shells.

Hermit crab seashells can look like the following: