Marine biologist speaks to Pacificans at the Earth Day Festival, Saturday, April 20, 2013

Bite !

Pacifica Beach Coalition's (PBC) Earth Day Festival, Saturday, April 20, 3013. The Pacifica theme this year is "Sharks of the Sea".
11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. (after the work day activities from 9:00 a.m. until 11:30 a.m.), Festival location:  Sanchez Art Center, 1220 Linda Mar Boulevard.  For more information visit  Pacifica Beach Coalition.

Let's talk...

Pacifica Tribune/Jean Bartlett, correspondent, 4/16/13.  "Shark conservationist David McGuire addresses Earth Day Festival."

David McGuire, MPH, Director and Founder of the ocean health and shark conservation nonprofit Sea Stewards and the Shark Stewards project, is also a published author, journalist, documentarian and underwater cinematographer. He won an Emmy for his film work on "Reefs to Rainforests." He has been a captain, filmmaker and master diver on numerous research voyages. The marine biologist is a Research Associate in the Department of Aquatic Biology at the California Academy of Sciences.

McGuire is the keynote speaker at the Pacifica Beach Coalition's Earth Day Environmental Festival, which begins at 11:30 a.m., in the South Lot at Linda Mar Beach. It follows PBC's Earth Day "action" event which starts at 9 a.m. Other speakers include Sea Shepherd's Lincoln Shaw, and Tom Lantos Tunnels hero Dr. Mike Vasey. This year PBC has dedicated its Earth Day events to the endangered "Sharks of the Sea."

.... "I worked in environmental health and toxic pollution prevention for several years," McGuire said. "Between 2001 and 2005, I joined a sailing expedition across the Pacific and dove healthy coral reefs with tons of sharks, and other islands that had been impacted by humans."

David McGuire keynote speaker

.... "Sharks are iconic," McGuire continued, "they are symbols, symbols of power and beauty but also symbols of what is going wrong in our oceans. One third of shark species are listed as near threatened or threatened with extinction. But it's not just sharks that need our help, its critical wetland habitat, coral reefs, the great whales and countless other impacts humanity is having on what is really our life line. We need to rally around sharks and ocean health. Supporting community groups like the Pacifica Beach Coalition or nonprofits like Sea Stewards helps protect local habitat, reduce marine pollution and save big fish like sharks. Together we can take the pledge to protect the ocean we love. This Earth Day, in Pacifica, we can help sharks and the oceans by taking a bite out of plastic."  Read article.    

Notes photographs:  upper left from White Shark Trust organization, by Thomas P. Peschak; upper right from Life at Sea blog; lower photograph from the article. 

Related - Fix Pacifica 4/2/13 reprint article,  from Pacifica Tribune,3/19/13. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh