HELPING THE MUSEUM SPREAD ITS MESSAGE

Teachers or others interested in making their own branch of the Museums of Endangered Ocean Life, get in touch. We can help you find ways of helping kids create their own works of art and science that get posted in the museum, worldwide!

More importantly, we can help kids find ways to truly make a difference, no matter where they live. There is always something to do to make the world a better place, a healthier place, and more fun too. Fred can help put smiles on faces - faces of happier kids with new purpose in a new year!

Become a FRIEND OF FRED and help spread the word about those who help endangered species. Invite Fred to your school. He will bring lots of good information and connect you with others.

More information at whalemail@waypoint.com

Facing Future Explained

EXTINCT means gone, pau, from all places. Example, the O'o is extinct from its former forests in Hawaii. They no longer exist.

EXTIRPATEDmeans gone from a given area. Example, Grizzly Bears were extirpated from California about 1925. They still exist.

ENDANGERED means that a species is nearing extinction unless actions are taken immediately to save them. It is usually a legal term associated with the Endangered Species Act, but because this is a political tool, it does not always reflect accurate science. Example: the Hawaiian Monk Seal is endangered and will likely become extinct.

THREATENED means that a species is likely to near extinction and become endangered unless actions are taken to protect it and its habitat. Example: Bald Eagles were threatened but have been removed from this list due to habitat protection and reductions in use of chemicals such as DDT.

SPECIES OF CONCERN: Many states have lists that include species not covered under federal protection as endangered or threatened. These may be species extirpated from the state, but present in greater numbers in neighboring areas.

Unfortunately, no reasonable approach has been worked out to list endangered habitats, the primary living space for all life forms. To many scientists, the entire Arctic is now endangered. Imagine, as Richard Ellis says, "If Australia were suddenly to disappear, don't you think we would wake up and do something?" Well, we are losing an area about the size and importance of Australia as the Arctic disappears, transforming due to climate change and taking with it the Polar Bears, Bowhead Whales, and Peoples dependent on that vast ecosystem.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

SOME SOAR WITH WISDOM



Albatrosses soar with fixed wings.
They can lock the wings in place and soar..........
covering as many as 3 million or more miles in a lifetime.
They are truly majestic on the air pocket just above waves
as if surfers
catching
wind instead of wave.

Wisdom.
Wisdom is the oldest known albatross.
At 58, she has returned to Pihemanu many times
to lay eggs and reproduce her kind
to soar.

I took this photo outside the atoll
in the open Pacific.
This bird would fly off a thousand miles
before returning to feed her young ones.
She would go up into the Bering sea in search of food.
Soaring.

Watching her reminded me of my first years as a father.
I worked at night at the post office while going to the
University of Washington full time during the day.
While hardly soaring, it was a tough duty
with little sleep.
But somehow we are driven as parents to
provide for our young ones
and in those days, our daughter didn't have
as much of my time as I wish,
but every moment was good time.

When albatrosses return home from those long flights,
they aren't around for long.
But they return with just what the kids need.
That is, they return with nourishment if all is good in the sea.

My father and mother-in-law made sure
we, as young parents, had what we needed in our "sea"
and it is up to all of us to make sure the albatross has
that kind of support too. They can not raise their young
alone.

We need the Wisdom to find a way to help them survive.



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