Ocean Minds:The Blog

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I can’t believe environmentalists are pushing to free Tilly the now famous/infamous orca from Sea World orlando, who killed his trainer. The Free Willy experiment was to me a costly failed experiment  both in human ressources and money, but we should draw conclusions from it. I consider myself an environmentalist, but  one has to ask the right questions to solve a matter intelligently. Action versus reaction. I understand the beautiful theory behind the reaction of some environmentalist. These park animals are literally put in jail. I always feel terrible seeing sea giants held in goldfish bowls. Wild animals belong in the wild period! Or perhaps can spend short period of times in aquariums like the successful catch and releases of White sharks at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I believe these kinds of displays, are educational. They might inconvenience a shark for a a few weeks but are worth it for the specie on the long haul.

Back to killer whales or Orcas as I’d rather call them.And all marine mammals for that matter…Dolphins,sea lions and orcas belong in the wild so please help non profits that fight to stop capturing these animals in the first place. Start by signing the petition.

As sad and devastating as it sounds the park animals that perform today are colateral damage. Convince your friend to stop taking the kids to Sea World or the Zoo for that matter, rather bring them to more sustainable places. Go see the butterfly garden, watch Nat Geo and PBS to show your kids these beautiful animals in the wild. Go Whale watching! It is a lot more rewarding experience.

Don’t forget the film Oceans coming soon!

Here are some wise words from Jean-Michel Cousteau

Oceanminded yours truly,

nico danan

As I rode my motorcycle back home, in the freezing and rather unusual temps of South Florida, I pondered on what I had seen and listened to, while attending the First Annual South Florida Shark Conservation party. Before I do the usual name drooping and non profit promotion, let’s get to what I thought was the most important message of this evening. In order to fight and win the battle dealing with the politics and economics involved in shark conservation, let’s make sure all of us involved in it, know our data right. Let’s educate ourselves properly. Use online ressources and reach out to shark biologists, professors and non profits to make sure you are not just an idealist shark hugger but, most importantly well educated to fight and win an argument. To start, know the “golden” dramatic and sad number.  Dr. Samuel Gruber and newly professored Neil Hammerschalg from University of Miami confirmed this evening that the number of shark slaughtered every year is close to a 100 millions and that it was a conservative estimate.

We then got a nice treat from the guys at 333 productions and talented film maker Joe Romero as they presented “Lateral Lines” a short film on three pelagic sharks: Mako,Blue and White. Great story telling and photography as usual. Th evening presentation followed with PSA’s from Oceanic Defense and Shark Savers/Wild Aid on campaigns involving  catch and release for shark tournaments and Say No To Shark FIn Soup backed by famous Yao Ming.

As a closing, we had talented guitar player and songwriter singing his shark songs. Fun! wish I had gotten his name, the guy is talented.

Looking forward to see further events and colaborations in between non profits fighting for similar interests. As we say in French “L’union fait la force” (Unity gives power).

For the name dropping part… fun to meet and see again Samantha Whitcraft of Oceanic Defense Brendal Davis and Julie Andersen from Shark Savers and Lawrence Groth and Mary O’Malley (and Lupo)  from Shark Safe Network. Of course let’s not forget the guy who got me into the shark crowd and my brother in the blue, Felix Leander from Oceanic Dreams and his blog .

OM~

photo by Felix Leander

Award-winning journalist and author of Ocean’s End, The Lobster Coast, and The Republic of Pirates, Colin Woodard is a true Ocean Mind. I had several conversations with him regarding his brillant book “The Lobster Coast” during a documentary film shoot in Maine last summer. As we both hold a passion for characters (human beings with character that is) and the Ocean we continued our conversations on   skype  about  other subjects, lately his excellent article on “The Great Pyramids Of Bosnia” in the Smithsonian this month.

I am writing this blog post not only to mention his talent to pinpoint issues and conduct a thorough research but most specifically for his ability  to truly connect with the people he engages with in a conversation.  After having interacted with Maine Fishermen, one knows that when you are “from away” you better walk the way of the peaceful warrior and listen rather than yap away explaining what you want from them. Although not recognized as such, for me Colin is a true Mainer as his passion for this unique State transpires through his writing.

I highly recommend reading “The Lobster Coast” and will write a review of Ocean’s End which I shall read very soon.

For more info on Colin’s work refer to :

http://www.colinwoodard.com/

http://colinwoodard.blogspot.com/

Colin Woodard on Amazon

I recently came back from DEMA and one brillant idea I harvested while in Orlando was the one from Kirk Krack at P.F.I., it is called Formula 3 Freediving. Now let’s take a closer look at each of these words. Formula involves racing of some sort, 3 for the number of pilots per team, Freediving because the race track is underwater and to add maximum fluidity and speed. When one ask a question to Kirk about F3F his eyes light up and an instant fever is communicated to the person interacting with him.  I have to admit I got the fever! Now when you know the first Grand Prix in the Cayman in May next year will be filmed by no other than the great film maker Bob Talbot, you know we are about to witness some much needed new content in the Freediving world!

I could talk a lot longer but a video is worth a million words

F3F PROMO from Performance Freediving on Vimeo.

For more info check out F3F website!

OM~

I am currently working on a short documentary in Maine and was lucky to meet with Diane Cowan,PHD. She was first described to me by Carl Wilson lead lobster biologist at the Maine Dept of Marine Resources as the ” Jane Goodall of Lobsters”. It was a rather foggy and rainy morning in Friendship when I drove into town. “Pick up a pizza at the convenient store it is under my name!” were the last few words I caught before my phone cut off as I lost signal driving on a windy road leading to the end of the peninsula.( Maine is somewhat of  a giant hand with fingers launching towards the ocean.)

Maine did a lot of good for my mental health, cell phone coverage is very frustrating  at first and then you understand quickly that if you (As a person “from away”) wish to stay and enjoy the beauty of such an amazing and unique place, you better play by Maine’s rules. After a few days of acclimatization I eventually fell for the native rhythm, which means accept that  being out of reach is not a bad thing at all.

Huckleberry a gentle young and fun pound puppy was chasing around the dock trying to get a piece of bait that the lobster fishermen were unloading from a truck to plastic containers on the dock. Diane was wearing a navy blue Maine-rainproof outfit, “Pizza delivery!”  I showed up with the steamy pizza and a stupidly light rain jacket.

Diane smiled with a “Hello Nico!”  and whistled for Huckleberry to hop on the boat. The three of us started our short trip to what I now refer to the “Lobster Conservancy Haven”.  Kind of the batcave for batman if Jane Goodal could have a batcave for lobsters not gorillas… makes sense right? In the mind of Frenchman it does!

Diane founded The Lobster Conservancy in 1996 with her vision of building a bridge to join all of those sharing the common goal of maintaining a strong and healthy lobster resource.  She stands out as a research scientist and educator in the academic, government and non-profit sectors. Diane earned her Ph.D. from the Boston University Marine Program as a Presidential University Graduate Fellow in 1992. She taught as Assistant Professor at Bates College from 1992-1994. Diane served the State of Maine’s Department of Marine Resources as chief lobster biologist and leader of the Division of Biological Monitoring for the lobster, shrimp, herring and urchin fisheries during 1998-1999. In 1999-2000, Diane continued her studies as a Marine Policy Fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and in 2005 as a Senior Research Fellow. Diane continues her research as Senior Scientist at The Lobster Conservancy. Diane is the Principal Investigator for the Lobster Sonar Tracking Project and Juvenile Lobster Monitoring Program.

source:http://www.lobsters.org

Diane lives,breathes and thinks lobsters all the time, she is passionate and one of the most dedicated person I have ever met. In her own ways she is really the Jane Goodall of lobsters!

Long story short after a lovely walk around the island (where Diane conducts her research) and long conversations about conservation efforts and the state of our economy, non profits like the Lobster Conservancy are hurting,  Diane needs our help! If you are web designer  or have been involved in non profit work as a project coordinator or just want to help in any way shape or form, now is the time to rise contact Diane and help!

merci!

nico

It took me quite a while to decide to write this post but I feel now is the time. I received a few emails asking for explanations, in the past 6 months after leaving Ciamillo Components Inc. in Georgia, the company and CNC machine shop behind the cycling company Zero Gravity,The Subhuman Project and Lunocet. I was VP of Marketing for Lunocet and involved in the Subhuman project as well. I am sad I had to go because in the beginning, I truly enjoyed working with Ted Ciamillo the brilliant mind behind all these different products. Most importantly, I made two fantastic friends and extremely talented individuals Christian R. Foster (the VP of Zero Gravity at the time) and Matt D. Smith (Web Designer extraordinaire from Studio MDS), we called our brainstorming trio “The Sink Tank” as we where heavily involved in promoting the rather surreal underwater world Ted created.

To give you an idea our office was a huge open area (allowing massive amounts of brainstorming and productivity) atop the rather noisy CNC machine floor all of which in a barn style building (A beautiful combination of wood and Steel) built by Ted and his team. A million gallon pond in the back was there to test any aquatic device (test the Lunocet and Sub but made for a great place to refresh oneself  in the hot and humid Georgian summers) invented by Ted. We had everything to make it big. All passionate, young and visionary nothing seem to be able to stop us. But as the venture grew Matt, Christian and I quickly realized that Ted was the sole king of the castle and we were all getting  micromanaged to the point of limiting our ideas/creativity, most of all we thought it prevented the expansion of the company. I was the first to leave and as the economy turned sour both Christian and Matt left. Needless to say the Sink tank was gone.

As for the Lunocet here are my most objective thoughts:

Does the Lunocet work? YES it does, but still needs a lot of work in R&D collaborating with a team of professional swimmers and freedivers (because of the use of monofin in the sport some became rather expert in the art of dolphin kicking) to provide constant feedback, and for the feedback to be studied. At the time I worked there I had started a collaboration with a few top monofin swimmers worldwide, top freedivers, and triathletes to get this feedback and improve the Lunocet. When I left back in December 2008, the Lunocet was too stiff, generating too much lactic acid to consider any kind of long distance swimming. I would recommend reading the great article “Concerning The Lunocet” by Chris Morey.

The future of hydrofoils? well I have to admit I can’t see the future of open water swimming with a monofin not involving the hydrofoil technology, also having comfortable cycling shoes ( an idea of the Sink Tank) instead of the rubber foot pocket “torture” makes sense, not only for comfort but efficiency in the most crucial point of power transfer.

I am looking forward to the future of open water swimming and freediving, and I am glad I was able to be at one point part of it.

The Sink Tank is dead LONG LIVE THE SINK TANK!

Part of me wanting to create the social network Ocean Minds was to offer a platform for people and organizations to communicate and promote a sustainable and healthy lifestyle around the worlds oceans: our playground. I also had in mind for it to be a place where non profits can coordinate on joint efforts. This past week end, I joined shark minded Brendal Davis of Sharksavers and Felix Leander of Oceanic Dreams to participate in what was suppose to be a protest against the “Are You Man Enough”  Shark fishing tournament to be held in Fort Myers,Florida June 6 &7th. Thanks to several individuals and organizations including the Shark foundation, Shark safe, and Sharksavers  the protest ended up to be a nice meeting. They succeeded by uniting their efforts to get public attention on the matter and have the tournament become a catch and release only before the day of the protest. For a more in depth summary of the day, check out Felix Leander blog entry.

I am now getting into the matter at hand “The Plethora of non profits”. Collaborations of non profits on events like the one I had the chance to partake in this past week end are the living proof that uniting is the way to win. Now that said,  1,020,000 entries (where probably  half of them are referring to individual websites) show up when googling the words “Shark Preservation”. Why on earth (pun intended) do we need that many non profit doing very similar work. I am very much aware that certain organizations have a very clear and very specific mission. But it seems to me that some non profits are doing more or less the same thing . All these non profits are raising their own money, and have overheads and employees. Many of whom  are doing work that has probably been done by others before them, defeating the purpose. This money raised is not used efficiently as it never makes it to the cause and in the current state of our economy we cannot afford this. Why  not regroup and conquer under a single umbrella (hey hey…). I have always thought that effectiveness relies in good  communication and uniting rather than dividing people . I am sure critics will propose the “divide and conquer” approach but I am not convinced it works in the non profit world. Uniting and letting go of the ego is the way to go. I somewhat understand the “me,myself and I” mentality in the for profit world, we are only human one could argue, but in the non profit world really? I always had the candid vision that  non profits were devoted to help others, starving children in Africa or the slaughtering of sharks worldwide. I  understand  that the ego centered humans we are need some time to change, but the way the planet ecosystem is threaten (by our own doings) does not leave us with much time for this process to happen.

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
-A. Einsten

I have met several people who are quite dubious concerning the efficiency of online social media.Well without the help of Facebook and Twitter (and Oceanminds !)  and his blog Oceanic Dreams I would have not met the Ocean minded Felix Leander son of pioneer shark freediver and talented photographer Wolfgang Leander. After a few exchanges over the phone, we managed to meet up for dinner and eventually met for a much necessary touring of the reef in the crystal blue waters of the florida keys. Along came Scott “A guy I met on Facebook” says Felix amused by the rather synchonistic online meeting event. So thanks to “TweetFaceBlogMinds” a rather dull week end of pool training turned into a blue tribe meeting. The three of us  are not only passionate about freediving and the ocean ecosystem, but also are deeply concerned about what the future has in store for our beloved blue planet. By continuing to meet for water sessions, further conversations I am sure will lead to  projects and ideas on how to better protect what we love most.

An experience like this is exactely why I thought about creating a place like Ocean Minds, a platform for the water tribe to connect, exchange ideas , communicate and create new projects to better preserve what we love so deeply.