plastics

OCEAN 62

This issue’s close to home article take a look at NetYourProblem.com a Cape Cod local started, for profit company that reuses and resells plastic from used fishing gear.

OCEAN 62 contains two, very unusual, in my opinion, articles. New England Coastal Fishermen have been plagued by invasive Green Crabs. Now, in an extraordinary development, a Fisherman is using them to create a unique Whiskey! In our "Close to Home" section, a local woman has been part of a for profit business recycling used fishing gear that might normally be abandoned. She is working on an expanding, National scale. OCEAN environmental e-newsletter is the educational publication of Safe Harbor, an interdisciplinary environmental consulting group on Cape Cod. OCEAN and our research team is funded by me, so you will never find advertising or solicitations. This is your newsletter, exploring innovative solutions and unusual problems. OCEAN is intended to be shared. Thank you for your support.

-Gordon Peabody

OCEAN 62 Articles

Florida Sargassum

Artificial Turf: Friend of Foe

The Fruitful Desert

Bother to Bottle

Harnessing Waves

Flesh Eating Bacteria

Gulf of Maine Records Second Hottest Year

Acrylic, Nylon, and Seaweed Plastic…? Oh My!

Close to Home: NetMyProblem.com

OCEAN 60

In Bird Safe Glass, Catie Urquhart, shares the importance of smart bird safe glass.

Editor’s Comments: OCEAN 60 is published for you, our readers, curious about innovative problem solving and interested in the environmental issues we share. Healthy communities need healthy resources, especially coastal towns. Right here on Cape Cod we are about to begin an extraordinary estuary restoration (See Tess Holland’s article on the Herring River). Abigail Eilar writes about a troubling (for me anyway), mysterious and a bit spooky, dolls washing onto Gulf Coast beaches. I am reachable for your comments at gordonpeabody@gmail.com. Advertising-free OCEAN is the environmental education publication of Safe Harbor Environmental, a small inter-disciplinary consulting group in Wellfleet on Cape Cod. Please feel free to share this issue with friends and colleagues. Thank you to our readers for your continuing support.

Innovative Bike Paths

Plant Plankton Changes?

Herring River Estuary

Bird Safe Glass

The Calm Before The Storm

OCEAN 60 Articles

Recycled Sports

Grass Bans

Washed Up Dolls

Foam in Polluted Waters

OCEAN 54

OCEAN is happy to share some good news: Purdue University researchers have invented a white paint with cooling properties.

OCEAN is happy to share some good news: Purdue University researchers have invented a white paint with cooling properties.

Welcome to our 54th issue. OCEAN is your Environmental Newsletter, to be read and shared. Thank you to researcher Rae Taylor-Burns, for her article integrating complex, hemispheric energy systems to provide us with a simple explanation of why we had so many Hurricanes this season. We also have our continuing series of “Safe Suggestions During COVID”. One of the most upsetting articles we debated sharing: an aggressive, water borne amoeba that deteriorates brain tissue. Perhaps this can be balanced by some good news: Purdue University researchers have invented a white paint with cooling properties. Please enjoy this issue, we wrote it for you.

Regards, Gordon Peabody, Editor.

OCEAN 54 ARTICLES

Alternatives to Animal Products 

Getting Paid for Plastic 

Cool Paint Has Even Cooler Purpose 

Kelp Species Surprising Scientists 

Helpful Heat Powered Fans 

Safe Suggestions During COVID (Part 4) 

How Did We Lose 350 Elephants 

Another Broken Record 

Close to Home: Cape Cod 

Unwelcome Amoeba in Our Waters 

OCEAN 53

OCEAN is proud to highlight the work of one of our previous Safe Harbor interns, Charles Post. We share his extraordinary video “Sky Migrations”

OCEAN is proud to highlight the work of one of our previous Safe Harbor interns, Charles Post. We share his extraordinary video “Sky Migrations”

OCEAN 53 introduces some interesting videos we wanted to recommend and share with our readers. OCEAN is a self-funded, environmental education newsletter for Safe Harbor Environmental Services, a multidisciplinary, environmental consulting group on Cape Cod. This issue contains articles by OCEAN Researchers, ranging from “VANISHING BIRDS”; to “INNOVATIVE FLOOD PROTECTION”; to the “NURDLE APOCALYPSE” in New Orleans. We publish this newsletter for people with an interest in the environment and in climate action. Please feel free to share OCEAN with friends who share your interests. It is a Public Domain publication. Thank you.

~Gordon Peabody, Editor

OCEAN 53 Articles

Keeping Safe (Part III)

Eyes to the Sky

Lost Power?

Coastal Restoration Using Biomimicry

Innovative Flood Protection Product

A New River is on the Way

Tracking Anomalous Weather

Meteotsunamis are Real

“Nurdle” Apocalypse

Mystery Surrounds Loss of Birds

A Different Species and a Deadly Pandemic

Lobster with a Surprising “Extra”

Purses Belonging to Mermaids?

OCEAN 47

Jenifer Wilcox, the author of a new book on capturing carbon from the atmosphere. She also has a 14-min TED talk about the topic.

Jenifer Wilcox, the author of a new book on capturing carbon from the atmosphere. She also has a 14-min TED talk about the topic.

Editor’s Comments:

This 47th issue offers some of our research on close to home and far away issues, including insights into unexpected mysteries and some unique innovations. We have also included a section on “CHASING ZERO”, tracking sometimes mysterious changes in Carbon news. We are also grateful for recent dispatches: from Dr. Robert Mayer Arzuaga, from the University of Puerto Rico, who is restoring Hurricane ravaged beaches in Puerto Rico and had some great news about the Biomimicry sand restoration system they were using, which was developed on Cape Cod; and from Keegan Burke, previous Safe Harbor Intern, who is now waking up at 3:30 AM and carrying Bear Spray, in Legendary Yellowstone National Park.

~Gordon Peabody, Editor

Ocean 47 Articles

Carbon Sequestration

Trash wheel in Baltimore

Human plastic consumption through filter feeders

EU bans single-use plastics

Warming water off Maine

“Avocado plastic” innovation

Hydrogen powered trains

Seabird and dolphin deaths in Peru

Disappearing baby penguins

Hurricanes relocating

OCEAN 46

Magellanic penguins are becoming stuck in their southern feeding grounds, and losing a disproportionate number of females because of it.

Magellanic penguins are becoming stuck in their southern feeding grounds, and losing a disproportionate number of females because of it.

Editor’s Comments:

Though it seems we may not need any more climate records to be broken in the near future, they are appearing nonetheless. Our readers are entitled to the truth about events happening on this tiny planet, yet we still debated sharing the Australia Weather article by OCEAN Researcher Rae Taylor Burns. Another article featured in this issue describes Pacific crab Fishermen asking 30 fossil fuel companies to bear consequences of changes in their fishery. We are also glad to share some good ideas of making plastic bags from sea weed and using nets over outfall culverts to trap plastic before it reaches our Oceans.

~Gordon Peabody, Editor

OCEAN 46 Articles

Sea Level Rise

Flooding and fires in Australia

Kelp Farming

Economic cost of storms

LED low energy boat lights

Fishermen sue over climate change

Changing penguin habitats

Invasive trees in Arizona

Catching plastic in drainage pipes

Plastic bags from seaweed

OCEAN 44

Innovators in Ghana create electricity from root vegetables

Innovators in Ghana create electricity from root vegetables

Editor’s Comments:

Our Ocean-Atmosphere environmental systems are not just linked to each other but connect all the plants and animals together in those systems. Some of our articles in OCEAN 44 confirm these relationships. Many of us in New England consider mussels the “Poor Man’s Oyster” but recent research in the UK is disturbing. Another article I did not want to read is Lauren Goodwin’s “wake up” article on plastics getting trapped in the stomachs of seabirds, contributing to their starvation. We are also sharing an “unable to sleep at night” article about the mysterious proliferation of lizards in Florida.

~Gordon Peabody, Editor

Ocean 44 Articles

Plastics causing starvation in seabirds

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Red tides in Florida

Hot rain

Rising temperatures in the Gulf of Maine

Sunscreen harms coral reefs

Invasive rats infesting reefs

Space debris

Eating invasive Green Crabs

Humans eating plastic from mussels

Electricity from root vegetables

OCEAN 43

Why do marine animals eat plastic? Check out article 11 to find out.

Why do marine animals eat plastic? Check out article 11 to find out.

Editor’s Comments:

In OCEAN 43, we are proud to share a fascinating idea from the Himalayas and another, “Close to Home” innovative idea for long term coastal erosion management, a hybrid system of living shoreline and ballasted coir fiber. We also find it difficult to imagine Northwest Seafood being able to contain everything they are discovering in them (see Opioids in Northwest Mussels, page 6) and from OCEAN 41 “81 types of drugs and chemicals found in Puget Sound Salmon”). OCEAN 44 will link this article with the micro-plastics being found in Mussels. Plastics are not going away and according to OCEAN Researcher Brigid McKenna, (page 6) when consumed by sea birds, they tragically cannot be digested. Oh, and now, micro plastics have been discovered in our drinking water. (page 3).

~Gordon Peabody, Editor

Ocean 43 Articles

Salmon in Washington

Contaminated drinking water

Gulf oil spill cleanup

Opioids in mussels

Hawaii protects coral reefs

Eating packaging

Dangerous VOC’s without airflow

Clean water: manmade glaciers

Herring River Estuary restoration

Seaweed as cow feed

Why marine animals eat plastic

OCEAN 36

U.K. currency has caused a stir, due to the fact that its bank notes include tallow, which is derived from animal fat. One business in Camebridge has refused to accept any currency using this material.

U.K. currency has caused a stir, due to the fact that its bank notes include tallow, which is derived from animal fat. One business in Camebridge has refused to accept any currency using this material.

Editor’s Comments:

OCEAN 36 shares an intriguing collection of environmental topics: A nation's changeover to longer lasting currency hits a speed bump when bills are rejected by a Vegetarian cafe; A good idea for recycling used water from oil companies to farmers has unintended results; We finally have edible bags and in the UK, which we consider the Canary in the Climate Change coal mine, they once again experience flooding of historic proportions. The success of this e newsletter would not be possible without our readers, who share it with their friends.

~ Gordon Peabody, Editor

Ocean 36 Articles

New “attractive” wind turbines

Mass mortality of frogs

Edible plastic bags

100-year flood in UK

Vegetarian-friendly currency

“Wastewater” clementines in California

Curious loss of sea ice

Pumped-storage hydropower using gravity

OCEAN 35

Fisheries in Maine are attempting to create a new fishery out of the invasive Green Crab

Fisheries in Maine are attempting to create a new fishery out of the invasive Green Crab

Editor’s Comments:

OCEAN 35 shares some intriguing environmental concepts: People in Maine are starting to eat invasive crabs; NYC is experimenting with old toilets to grow oysters; someone developed a thermal powered piston for controlling greenhouse ventilation and why has it taken so long to come up with edible six pack rings? You will also find breaking updates on previous articles: Bees; Hand Sanitizers and Plastic Microbeads. And we also took a closer look at the 1,000 year rainfall event in Louisiana.

~Gordon Peabody, Editor of OCEAN

Ocean 35 Articles

Edible six pack rings

Oyster habitat restoration in New York

Greener Greenhouses

Invasive Green Crabs in Maine

CO2 increasing in atmosphere

Triclosan update

France ban on disposable plates

Microbeads

Oklahoma earthquakes

Louisiana 1,000 year flood

Bee-kind update