200,000 and Counting....

Thank's primarily to the Cruel Death video and the Russian Wedding at the Grotto my Youtube dive videos have reached well over 200,000 views. The power of this tool to reach potential visitors should not be lost. For a link to all my posted videos including this one of sharks in the Grotto, click here or on the side bar under My Youtube videos.

"Rare’s mission is to conserve imperiled species and ecosystems around the world by inspiring people to care about and protect nature".

Once again this past week Saipan's coalition of conservation minded individuals and organizations came together in an effort to protect our environmental assets for generations to come. Last week DEQ and the Nature Conservancy lead the way with Conservation Action Planning for a specific area of the island, Lau Lau Bay.
This time it was Brooke Nevitt and CRM leading the charge by bringing the Rare Pride campaign to our shores. Basically, in a nut shell, what this program attempts to do is raise awareness of environmental issues while helping to facilitate the behavioral change necessary to address those issues.

From their website....

Rare’s approach has been to develop a suite of social marketing and business development tools that motivate local communities to protect their natural surroundings. Rare’s signature Pride campaign builds grassroots support for environmental protection by training local conservation leaders in the use of commercial marketing tactics to build awareness, influence attitudes, and enable meaningful change. Pride campaigns produce a groundswell of support that leads to tangible conservation successes, such as new national parks, reform legislation, or reduction of threats from forest fires or over-fishing.

This campaign will focus on the CNMI's coral reefs. One aspect of the program is to determine and develop a mascot that will help spread the message of conservation and get people to rally behind the cause. The idea being that a flagship creature people recognize and identify with will inspire them to retain and promote the message and therefore extend the protection to other lesser known creatures and ecosystems.

The idea is that we need to identify and deal with the issues threatening the reefs as well as motivate people to take action. In general however, coral is not so sexy or exciting. It doesn't move, or smile at you like a dolphin. It's there and it's important but it normally does not instill any type of emotion in the casual observer unlike Nemo or some other loveable creature.

So once Brooke and community stake holders have an opportunity to put together the plan we will be asked to identify a creature we think is most appropriate to represent the mascot and motivate others to protect our reefs.

Pictured above is Reina Camacho of DEQ furiously trying to take notes and vote in my online poll all at the same time.

Which marine creature do you think the community will rally behind and therefore most effectively help raise awareness and save our reefs?

In upcoming posts I'll discuss each creature and give you my perspective but first I want to hear from you!

Vote now! Or leave a comment if you think of another one not yet mentioned in the poll!

Opinion Polls & Market Research

What a difference a day makes!

After reviewing my footage of the nudibranchs from Saturday and reading that Harry, Bev and Greg had gotten another day of diving in with these little fellas I decided to head back to the Grotto today. Not that my footage was bad it was just not what I would call National Geographic caliber. Soooooo I crossed my fingers and hoped I'd find one or two late bloomers still trying to get a little action. Could this matting thing be more like a week long get together at the Playboy mansion - after all they probably only get it once a year or less!

During the whole time I was there no one else was diving. A few tourists checked out the top view but none made the decent. Being the only one on the rock it's days like this when the true beauty of the Grotto comes through. Even the water was quiet and still. No monorail running up and down, nothing just plain and simple tranquility. I could have sat there on the rock, taking it all in, but just the walk down had left me sweating and in need of the cool rush that follows the initial leap. (Insert big splash here)

Ahhhhh that's better and weightless too!

Ok you reproducing creepy crawlies here I come.....

Nada, nothing more, not a single one and believe me I covered nearly every inch of the cavern, slowly and surely. I started where they had been the few days before. Nothing! Sure – Larry, Curly and Mo (the white tips) were there but I told myself, no matter how tempting they made it, I was not going to spend precious time and air on them today. I wanted the little white fellas.

I kept searching back and forth but to no avail. What was it about the last few days? Did I just pick the wrong hour to be there today? Was 12 noon the equivalent of a Mexican siesta for these exhausted nudies? I don't know but what a difference a day makes. How do these guys know when to get together, how to find one another and why of all whys did they choose the mooring line of the busiest dive spot on Saipan to do their dirty work!

Answers that may come in time, (or not) but it's safe to say that, in our own small way, those of us diving and recording the events at the Grotto this weekend can say we've played a small role in helping unravel the mystery. Who knows maybe in a few years this event will become a given and attract world-renowned photographers from all over the world! Now that would be marketing based on our single most impressive resource - Nature.

Alas I gave in to the three stooges. It just seemed that the closer I got the more comfortable they became. Maybe they were just lonely. In between little rests it looked like they were practicing take off's and landings. I certainly enjoyed capturing some National Geographic quality footage of them and I hope they appreciated the company cause it sure seemed like a pretty lonely day down there all round.