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Key Findings Current Coastal Management Challenges Current coastal management challenges are worsening. Top management challenges will be exacerbated by climate change. Current management challenges make adaptation planning and decision-making difficult. Climate Change Concerns, Knowledge, and Actions Attitudes and knowledge about climate change are strongly supportive of adaptation action. Attention to adaptation has increased markedly over the past five years. Adaptation planning and implementation is still in the very early stages. There is limited familiarity with innovative adaptation approaches. Information, Technical Assistance, and Training Needs Organizational missions, job responsibilities, and legal requirements shape common information use. Ease of access to information is the overriding determinant of information use. Specific information needs differ by professional group. Critical opportunities exist to meet coastal professionals' information, technical assistance, and training needs Survey Background Decision-makers in California's (CA) coastal counties recognize that climate change will impact their communities and coastline. Yet, coastal CA communities are at different stages in developing and/or implementing climate change adaptation plans. During the Summer of 2012, USC Sea Grant, in partnership with 14 other CA-based organizations (listed below), launched a survey to understand the needs and barriers coastal communities have in planning for climate change in order to develop appropriate trainings and technical assistance for communities and determine the best way to link communities to resources and tools already available. Survey Partners USC Sea Grant California Sea Grant Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University California Nevada Applications Program (CNAP) at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego through the NOAA Regional Integrat

Endangered Species Bulletin The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offers the quarterly Endangered Species Bulletin, with information on rulemakings, recovery plans and activities, conservation partnerships, research developments, and a variety of other issues. The Summer 2009 issue was focused entirely oceans and includes articles on corals, sea turtles, the Hawaiian Monk Seal, and more.

Disneynature's Oceans Disneynature's big-screen movie, Oceans, will be released on Earth Day, April 22, 2010. Disney is teaming up with The Nature Conservancy for the initiative, See OCEANS, Save Oceans, with a portion of each ticket sold for the film's opening week (April 22-28, 2010) going to help establish new marine protected areas in the Bahamas. An Educational Activity Guide and Educator's Guide are available for downloading from the website.

A Guide to Our Oceans

Scientists have identified the 20 most important regions of the world's oceans and lakes that are key to ensuring the survival of the planet's marine mammals such as seals and porpoises. Their analysis also shows, however, that most of these areas are already under pressure from human impacts such as pollution and shipping.

This Web Seminar took place on April 14, 2011 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Presenting was Dr. Paulo Maurin from the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, Todd Viola former Director of Technology for the JASON Foundation and Caroline Joyce, Project Director at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee School of Continuing Education. The presenters showcased a new tool for teachers to use real-time data in the classroom, and gave a brief overview of the issue to which the data relates.

Polar Bears Rooted in Ireland Polar bears and brown bears were separate species by 110,000 years ago. But new genetic studies of fossils and modern bears have revealed some hanky-panky 45,000 years ago, when polar bears interbred with now-extinct Irish brown bears. Hybridization with brown bears is a concern today because declining sea ice cover is forcing polar bears to extend their range and come into contact with brown bears. To understand the implications of hybridization, Beth Shapiro, an evolutionary biologist at Pennsylvania State University, University Park, and her colleagues compared mitochondrial DNA from 8000-year-old polar bear fossils, modern samples of polar bears, and ancient Irish bear fossils. Figure "CREDIT: FOTOSEARCH (2)" Modern polar bear mitochondrial DNA was most similar to that of the extinct Irish brown bear, whereas extinct polar bears had different mitochondria. Thus modern polar bears come from Europe, not islands between Alaska and Siberia, as had been previously thought, the researchers reported in Current Biology. The finding shows that interbreeding occurred during past episodes of climate change didn't destroy a species. "The big question for conservation of polar bears is if hybridization occurs rapidly and in combination with other stressors, will that hybridization have more of a negative effect now than it did in the past," says Andrew Whiteley, a geneticist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. http://scim.ag/_polarbears