#ThankYouMiami For Our Natural Resources - World Oceans Day

In March we joined forces with Rubio's Coastal Grill to celebrate Biscayne Bay—"one of Miami's most underrated assets"—and their commitment to protecting our community's natural resources. This month we're partnering with them for World Oceans Day (June 8) to share six tips for keeping the Atlantic Ocean that graces our sandy shores clean and healthy year-round. Which one(s) are you most excited to put in motion? What other ocean-friendly tips do you have? Leave a comment below or send us a tweet @ThankYouMiami!

#ThankYouMiami for our Natural Resources - Biscayne Bay

"Biscayne Bay is one of Miami's most underrated assets." That's what we boldly proclaimed during our recent story about exploring Miami's top snorkeling spots, and we're sticking to it. In fact, we're of the opinion that we don't just under appreciate Biscayne Bay, but that we also know very little about its fascinating history. It took a California-based fish taco chain, Rubio's Coastal Grill, to make us realize we don't know what we don't know about the beautiful marine asset in our backyard.

#ThankYouMiami For Our Natural Resources - Sustainable Seafood

Image via Sushi Maki

Happy Monday, Miami! Sorry for the delay in getting you today's post. We had family in town for the weekend so we spent our usual writing time hopping from hotspot eatery to hotspot bar to hotspot eatery, so on and so forth. We rounded up the weekend with a seafood feast from Joe's Take Away (breaking news: stone crab season is back!) over which we discussed some stone crab fun facts. For example, did you know that leaving a crab with one of its claws doubles its chances of survival and regrowing its claw? Following this and other stone crab harvesting best practices like the recreational requirements set forth by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are the key to ensuring that we can feast on stone crab every year until we move on to the great stone crab feast in the sky.

The same goes for our other seafood favorites. Granted we're not perfect—we indulge in bluefin tuna more than we probably should—but we make a conscious effort to eat more sustainable seafood than not. It's one of the reasons we fan girl-ed when we found out our favorite Miami-founded sushi chain, Sushi Maki, is the first and only sushi chain in the U.S. to earn a Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification. To become MSC-certified, businesses and products must prove they meet specific fishery standards and/or they are obtaining their seafood from fishery that is well-managed and sustainable. This means Sushi Maki is placing importance on preserving the natural resources on which their business is based. You can find several MSC-certified seafood options on the Sushi Maki menu, as well as sustainably-raised salmon from the Faroe Islands (which coincidentally is the same source for the salmon Paradise Farms served when we went to Dinner In Paradise.

We summarized three years of marine science undergrad and two years of marine science grad school in only two short paragraphs with muchos, muchos links so we'll leave you here to click around and process. If you have any questions, comments or thoughts, please leave a comment below or send us a tweet @ThankYouMiami. We'd love to hear what you learned, what you found interesting and what else you want to know about sustainable seafood. Let's get a conversation going! (P.S. While we still have your attention, don't forget the South Beach Seafood Festival is this weekend! You can still buy your tickets at 20% off with code THANKYOUMIAMI here.)

#ThankYouMiami For Our Natural Resources - Sea Turtles

Did you know that in addition to being writers we work as environmental scientists? It is the influence behind our in-depth knowledge of local environmental news, our penchant for posting photos of native wildlife, and our occassional use of technical jargon. But, beyond these subtle hints, you probably never noticed because we rarely share our environmental knowledge. As of today, that will no longer be the case. At your request we are launching a new monthly series #ThankYouMiami for Our Natural Resources where we will educate you on the wealth of natural capital we have in Miami and give you easy-to-follow tips for protecting these resources. Think environmental education that is customized for you, that is geared toward your interests, and that answers your questions.

We are kicking off the series by talking sea turtles - the seasonal neighbors that nest and hatch on our beaches from April through October. The inspiration for the topic came to us last week when we joined the Marjory Stoneman Douglas BiscayneNature Center for a Members Only Sea Turtle Watch event. The nature center’s sea turtle program, which is executed in collaboration with Miami-Dade County, is one of their most popular initiatives. On the night we visited, there were 40+ people in attendance including students from UM’s marine science school (Go ‘Canes!) and young professionals like us from the local environmental community.

The program’s success is well deserved. The night’s keynote speaker, a naturalist from Miami-Dade County who runs the sea turtle program at Crandon Park, was a knowledgeable, charismatic, and accomplished presenter. Unlike most PowerPoint presentations, his had the perfect mix of information and captivating images, of basic information and cool factoids. We know others agreed because the students mobbed him and fan girl-ed over him when his presentation was over. Here are 7 key points we picked up during his presentation: