Coyotes are good for Delmarva
Ocean City, Maryland. The following opinion was published on 21 April 2013 as “Arlo Hemphill: In Reality, Coyotes are Good for Delmarva” in The Daily Times and its online companion, DelmarvaNow.com – a newspaper of Salisbury, Maryland. Living on the Eastern Shore, The Daily Times is one of my favorite sources for unbiased and insightful [...]
Maryland bites into shark fin trade
Ocean City, Maryland. An edited version of the following opinion was published on 6 March 2013 in DelmarvaNow.com – the online version of The Daily Times – a newspaper of Salisbury, Maryland. It also appeared in the 7 March print version. Maryland is currently considering a bill to prohibit the trade and distribution of shark [...]
A Rising Maryland: Our Coastal Bays and the Dawn of a New Legislative Season
Ocean City, Maryland. The following article was published on 28 January 2013 in DelmarvaNow.com – the online version of The Daily Times – a newspaper of Salisbury, Maryland and in print form in The Ocean Pines Independent. It’s still the dawn of a new year and Maryland, in particular, has a lot to be excited [...]
Planning for our common future
Ocean City, Maryland. The following article was published on 30 December 2012 in DelmarvaNow.com – the online version of The Daily Times – a newspaper of Salisbury, Maryland and The Worcester County Times. When the government talks about taking action on climate change, we tend to think in terms of reducing greenhouse gases and investing [...]
Explore Europe this Christmas
Ocean City, Maryland. This week I published a new travel blog post with gogobot, the social networking travel site. The post covers some of the top Christmas destinations in Europe. Ever thought of a European Christmas vacation? Then check out my post – Three Spectacular Christmas Destinations. I focus on Copenhagen, Denmark; London, UK; and [...]
Maryland’s Coral Gardens
Ocean City, Maryland. Maryland is not known for its coral reefs. In fact, many people would quite logically assume that no such thing exists. However, such an assumption would be wrong. In recent decades, an increasing number of coral “gardens” have been discovered just off Maryland’s coast. These hard bottom areas are scattered around at [...]
Sandy – a freak of nature or a sign of more to come?
Ocean City, Maryland. The following article was published on 13 November 2012 in DelmarvaNow.com – the online version of The Daily Times – a newspaper of Salisbury, Maryland. “Anyone who says there is not a change in weather patterns is denying reality”. These were the bold and perhaps somewhat controversial words of New York [...]
Leatherbacks of Nantucket Sound
South Yarmouth, Massachusetts. It is jellyfish season, and for Nantucket Sound this means the arrival of the giant leatherback sea turtle – Dermochelys coriacea. Each July, as coastal waters warm up, various species of jellies show en masse to feed on the rich soup of planktonic life that thrives offshore of New England. And once [...]
Matt is at it again!
South Yarmouth, Massachusetts. Although this blog is intended to be about wilderness issues and exploration, along with updates on my work, I sometimes just like to share things that inspire me. Where the Hell is Matt? is one such inspiration. And Matt is at it again. The kid from Connecticut who has danced his way around the [...]
New Book – Oceans: Heart of Our Blue Planet
Melbourne, Florida. Photographer and conservationist Cristina Mittermeier has outdone herself again with the release of Oceans: Heart of Our Blue Planet. The book is the latest in the CEMEX Conservation Book Series, for which Mittermeier serves as series editor and includes some 19 titles such as Megadiversity and Hotspots Revisited. The book is a stunningly [...]
Did You Enjoy Your Story?
Baltimore, Maryland. Is it possible to be happy with this life? If Gnarly Bay Productions has anything to say about it, true happiness can be found in the wilds of Chile, from the great Atacama to the Pacific coast and remotest Patagonia. In their short film A Story for Tomorrow, we join an adventurous young [...]
Our Blue
Baltimore, Maryland. “I wake up every morning thinking of my blue. No matter where I’m going, I’m headed straight to you.” So begins the tribute to Our Blue – our watery mother ocean. Created by a team of Red Sea divers known as Tank Bangers, the melodic compilation is the latest in a series of [...]
Big America: White Sands at Sunset
White Sands National Monument, New Mexico. Desert terrains often have an other-worldly character to them, but White Sands in southern New Mexico is in a class of it’s own. Ever-moving dunes of pure gypsum sand cover an ancient lake bed for some 275 square miles of desert basin. And these dunes are white as snow. [...]
Big America: Bighorn Sheep of the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. Sure-footed, graceful and family-oriented, the bighorn mountain sheep (Ovis canadensisis) is an iconic image of the American west. Associated with durability and ruggedness, the sheep are nonetheless not always easy to observe in the wild. Regular residents of the Grand Canyon, the sheep are only infrequently seen by park staff [...]
Big America: Crossing Deserts
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. Today was a day of crossing deserts and state lines. Parched, dry landscapes and obscure Americana dominated our voyage east on this leg of our cross-country journey. Escaping California offered little relief in terms of change of barren landscapes, although the appearance of giant solar farms was a welcome first. [...]
Big America: Monterey to Barstow
Barstow, California. Today’s theme was energy. The first day of our cross-country road trip started with high hopes and enthusiasm along Monterey’s verdant Pacific coast. It ended in fatigue in the Mojave’s brown and bone-dry desert expanses. Boca, who’s doing all the driving on the trip, didn’t make it onto the Monterey Peninsula until around [...]
Meet Boca
Del Rey Oaks, California. Boca lives in Melbourne, Florida. He surfs, rides motorcycles and has a semi-professional career of bailing his friend Arlo out of tight spots. His first Twitter bio read “I don’t like to talk about myself, I’ll let my actions and friends do that for me.”. But don’t let that fool you, [...]
Big America with Boca & Arlo
Welcome to the Tweet-pedition! On October 14, 2011, two life-long friends – Boca and Arlo – are going to set out on a one-week, cross-country road trip from Monterey, California to Melbourne, Florida, taking in and reporting on America along the way. It’s a journey that’s been made many times before, perhaps even by you. [...]
Pursuing Happiness. With Less
Marina, California. Everyone hates moving, right? I sure do. So, getting prepared for my upcoming cross-country move, I found this TED talk from Graham Hill absolutely inspiring. Hill, founder of Treehugger.com, reminds us that sometimes the more we have, the less happy we are. Less can be more, and de-cluttering goes a long way towards [...]
Leaving California Behind
Marina, California. It’s official. I’m leaving California. In two weeks time, I’ll be relocating back to Florida. For much of my life, people told me that I belonged in California. They told me I had that California laid-back vibe and attitude, and that I’d find it a land of kindred spirits. And as my environmental [...]
Bugling in the Wilderness: The Elk Rut
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. The sights and sounds of autumn – changing leaves, cooling weather, pumpkins and Indian corn. And… the bugling of elk. Each year around the autumnal equinox, elk (Cervus canadensis) of the Rockies come down from their high altitude summer feeding grounds and swarm into the low elevation areas of Rocky [...]
My Friends, the Sea Lions
Moss Landing, California. With the impending prospect of my leaving the Monterey Peninsula, and perhaps California altogether, I think what I might miss most of all are my lively Pinniped friends, the sea lions. California sea lions Zalophus californianus are a nearly ubiquitous part of day-to-day life along the coast of Monterey. They occupy vacant wharfs, [...]
Deep Ocean Base Jumping
Marina, California. Check out this beautiful video of world champion freediver Guillaume Nery plunging into Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas, the deepest blue hole in the world. It was filmed entirely on breath hold by the French champion Julie Gautier. It’s a great example of art, human athletics and the ocean’s natural beauty coming [...]
