Photo by G. Maxwell - Flightless Galapagos cormorant captures octopus in front of Mission Blue team!

Where on Earth one can see a flightless cormorant capturing an octopus, and two orcas killing a sea turtle? Where dopes one have to look attentively to the ground for fear of stepping on marine iguanas as black ad the lava rock? Where do baby sea lions bask in the sun oblivious to our presence? Only in Galapagos; and we saw all of this morning. What a privilege! As Sylvia Earle told me while we were watching them, the beauty of this place is intoxicating.

After the morning walk we had two intense talk sessions, where speakers talked about the vulnerability of the ocean, and about protection. Very inspiring messages, and signs of hope amidst the stories of ocean degradation.

Our environmental chef Barton Seaver spoke eloquently about what marine food - fish and shellfish - represents for us. He recommends eating lower in the food chain, and more vegetables. It’s good for us and for the ocean. I couldn’t agree more after he named a series of recipes that included oysters and good wine!

Another key moment was when Daniel Pauly reminded us about our shifting baselines - what you think is natural is not. Because of continuous environmental degradation, successive generations become used to lower standards. We deplete species and they become rare - and over time we believe they were always rare. As he said, “we believe that the species that disappear are always the abundant ones, not the rare.”

How can we capture all these thoughts and the talent on this boat? I hope we can, to help mitigate human impacts in the ocean