The Next Swell

08/25/2026

08/24/2026

We are almost half through our annual TNS online auction and the bidding is going strong 💪! But still, quite a lot of amazing items remain well under value — allowing you to get some great deals 🎉!

…plus did we mention all funds raised go directly to protecting our oceans 🐠, and scholarships and grants for exceptional students 🎓!?

Swipe to see some (not all) of the awesome deals and don’t forget to bid before midnight on 30 August 2026 EST.

08/20/2026

⭐️ The annual The Next Swell Online Auction is LIVE ⭐️

From now through 29 August, bid on some amazing items!

As always, all funds raised will directly benefits students pursuing a degree focused around marine conservation 💙.

So head on over to the link below ⬇️ and get your bid on!

https://new.biddingowl.com/thenextswell2026onlineauction

⚾️ 🏈 🏒 🏀 ⛳️ 📸 🏖️😎🍷🎨📚🧳

Support a great cause and get some amazing swag and trips while you’re at it! 🎉

08/12/2026

The U.S. government is making two separate moves related to seabed mining. One is a lease sale for seabed mining off American Samoa, which is a U.S. territory, so no international sign-off needed and environmental protection compliance is limited only to U.S. laws and regulations. The other is more contentious: an attempt to permit mining exploration in international waters using an old 1980s law that's basically never been used, instead of going through the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the United Nations’ body that's spent over a decade trying to finalize rules and environmental protections for this kind of mining and still hasn't finished.

Notably, the U.S. never ratified the treaty that created the ISA, and argues that it is not bound by its rules. This could set a precedent for other countries to do the same thing. That could unravel a governance system that's supposed to apply to two-thirds of the ocean.

Seabed nodules contain cobalt, nickel, and manganese, the same stuff batteries and electronics need, and there's a real strategic case for the U.S. not depending on other countries for processing critical minerals. The administration just committed close to $3 billion toward mineral projects. But seabed mining has never actually been done at commercial scale anywhere, it's expensive, and a lot of experts think land-based sources and recycling can cover demand without going there.

From an environmental optic, we still don't know much about how deep-sea ecosystems recover from disturbance, if they do at all on any human timescale. Without that research and understanding, it is highly unlikely any deep sea mining environmental safeguards put in place with these initiatives will be effective.

Source: Earthjustice, Aug 6, 2026

📸 IUCN.org

08/07/2026

Scientists out of NOAA's Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary shared this incredible footage of a previously unobserved feeding behavior in humpback whales! This video shows humpback whales doing a coordinated bottom feeding technique in the sandy bottom of Stellwagen Bank. Check out their socials to see a very cool animation of how they think this looks from a fish's eye view!

You can access the paper to learn more here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-026-03770-0

🎥: A trip of humpback whales coordinated bottom feeding. Credit: NOAA/Syracuse/UCSC NMFS NOAA Permit 18059

08/06/2026

It’s almost that time of year: The Next Swell Online Auction 💫!

Kicking off at midnight EST on 20 August, we have over 30 AMAZING items to help with the end-of-summer-woes (😢 🔜🙂). And, the best part? All funds will go straight towards supporting students 📚🎓 and marine conservation 🐙 🦈 🦪. Win-win‼️

Some featured items include:
🐢 A trip of a lifetime to the Galápagos Islands
🏖️ A Fripp Island, SC getaway (Fripp Island Resort)
🎡 Disney park passes (Walt Disney World)
📕 A signed copy of “Why Sharks Matter” (David Shiffman)
⚾️ Boston Red Sox tickets; Philadelphia Phillies tickets; Colorado Rockies tickets
😎 Sustainable bamboo sunglasses (LANI SHADES | Wood Sunglasses)
🏈 New York Giants tickets; Auburn Tigers tickets
📸 Incredible underwater photography (Jason)
⛳️ TPC Jasna Polana golf outing (TPC Jasna Polana)
🏀 Philadelphia 76er (or Flyers 🏒 tickets)
🎨 Beautiful arts and crafts (Shelby Thayne)
🍷 Curated wine and juice packages ()
🍲 In-home chef culinary events

Check out all our items (link above and in our bio) and get ready to get your bid on!

07/21/2026

This Sunday, July 26, Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week returns. To mark the occasion, we’re spotlighting a collaborative study published in PLoS in 2022 that dove into 32 years of Shark Week documentaries.

Shark Week has long drawn criticism for shaky facts, fearmongering, and misrepresenting shark science and the scientists behind it. So researchers analyzed the titles of all 272 episodes — plus the content of 201 of them (73.9%). Below is what they found:

✅ Good news: most episodes aren’t focused on shark bites. But many still lean into fear and the “danger” of sharks.

🦈 A few charismatic species (great whites, tigers, bull sharks) dominate the screen — though 79 different species have appeared at least once.

🔬 The research featured tends to rely on a narrow set of methods.

👥 Featured experts skew heavily white and male — and some aren’t scientists at all.

📉 Sharks are portrayed negatively more often than positively.

🌱 Conservation messaging shows up in just 53% of episodes analyzed.

The takeaway? Shark Week may be quietly reinforcing the idea that sharks are “bad” 🦈 — but small changes to the programming could flip that script.

What are your thoughts on Shark Week?



Whitenack LB, Mickley BL, Saltzman J, Kajiura SM, Macdonald CC, Shiffman DS (2022) A content analysis of 32 years of Shark Week documentaries. PLoS ONE 17(11): e0256842. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256842

📸 https://www.floridaocean.org/blog/how-do-sharks-see-world

07/16/2026

🌟 Round two! Say hello to our second TNS Grant winner of the quarter, Katie!

Katie is a Master’s student at Moss Landing Marine Labs researching the capacity of treatment wetlands to mitigate excess nutrients in agricultural runoff and how sediment microbial community structure impacts nutrient fluxes. She is currently analyzing a data set spanning 2.5 years from an experimental 12-channel bioreactor to compare the nitrate reduction capacity of treatment wetlands, bioreactors, and empty waterways. Her upcoming field work in Sea Mist Treatment Wetland focuses on seeing if there are correlations between sediment microbial community structure, nitrogen and orthophosphate levels in surface water and pore water (water in the mud), and other environmental factors as runoff passes through the wetland and its associated wood chip bioreactor. She’ll be using 18S DNA metabarcoding, flow injection analysis, and measurements taken in the field for her analyses.

The Next Swell Grant directly supports Katie’s acquisition of supplies and equipment for her field sampling.

Amazing work, Katie 😊!