Ocean Hoptimism
@oceanhoptimism.org
Uniting ocean enthusiasts over a pint! Ocean Hoptimism is a monthly gathering of ocean conservation, science, exploration, art, recreation, policy, & beer enthusiasts in SF Bay Area. Pint-sized hope for a brighter ocean future!
www.oceanhoptimism.org
www.oceanhoptimism.org
Pinned
Ocean Hoptimism
@oceanhoptimism.org
· May 13
We’re gonna need a bigger… pint. Sea. Stories. Suds. That’s the vibe. Join us every 4th Thursday at Faction Brewing for pints, purpose, and the hope we need for the ocean we love. #OceanHoptimism #SeaStoriesSuds #FactionBrewing #OptimismOnTap
Join this Nat. Marine Sanctuary webinar 🌊 to learn why eelgrass meadows are vital to ocean health — they support fish nurseries, store carbon, protect coasts, and sustain biodiversity. Don’t miss this chance to understand & help protect these coastal habitats.
👉 Register here: bit.ly/4sDoP6A
👉 Register here: bit.ly/4sDoP6A
January 9, 2026 at 8:40 PM
Join this Nat. Marine Sanctuary webinar 🌊 to learn why eelgrass meadows are vital to ocean health — they support fish nurseries, store carbon, protect coasts, and sustain biodiversity. Don’t miss this chance to understand & help protect these coastal habitats.
👉 Register here: bit.ly/4sDoP6A
👉 Register here: bit.ly/4sDoP6A
Really sad news about swimmer Erica Fox, 55, killed off Lovers Point in Monterey Bay in a rare shark attack while doing what she loved with her ocean community. Our heart goes out to her family, friends & the Kelp Krawlers. Ocean risks are real but so is our love for these waters. 🖤🌊
Coroner confirms Calif. woman was killed in shark attack
Erica Fox, 55, went missing during an open-water swim in Monterey Bay in December.
www.sfgate.com
January 9, 2026 at 6:32 PM
Really sad news about swimmer Erica Fox, 55, killed off Lovers Point in Monterey Bay in a rare shark attack while doing what she loved with her ocean community. Our heart goes out to her family, friends & the Kelp Krawlers. Ocean risks are real but so is our love for these waters. 🖤🌊
Reposted by Ocean Hoptimism
🌊🦐🧪🌎 🦑 Join the Point Blue Marine Lab and @exploratorium.bsky.social on Friday, 1/23/26 to explore the world of #krill! They may be small, but these tiny #zooplankton are important prey, vital to the marine ecosystem, and help us understand #oceanhealth. shorturl.at/c4Dsm
January 9, 2026 at 6:02 PM
🌊🦐🧪🌎 🦑 Join the Point Blue Marine Lab and @exploratorium.bsky.social on Friday, 1/23/26 to explore the world of #krill! They may be small, but these tiny #zooplankton are important prey, vital to the marine ecosystem, and help us understand #oceanhealth. shorturl.at/c4Dsm
Always and forever, our first Doctor! 💫 Tom Baker, the Fourth Doctor legend, was astonished to be made an MBE at 90 — a long-overdue honor for the man who made that scarf iconic and the TARDIS feel like home for generations of Whovians. 🧣🚀
Doctor Who icon Tom Baker was "astonished" to receive huge honour at the age of 90
Baker was made an MBE in the 2025 New Year Honours.
www.radiotimes.com
January 9, 2026 at 5:29 PM
Always and forever, our first Doctor! 💫 Tom Baker, the Fourth Doctor legend, was astonished to be made an MBE at 90 — a long-overdue honor for the man who made that scarf iconic and the TARDIS feel like home for generations of Whovians. 🧣🚀
We benched the shark (for the month) and promoted a seal 🦭
For Jan 22, Ocean Hoptimism goes full “Behind the Bark: Saving Seals & Sea Lions” with Adam Ratner of The Marine Mammal Center.
Fewer teeth. More bark. Same ocean love.
www.oceanhoptimism.org/save-the-date
For Jan 22, Ocean Hoptimism goes full “Behind the Bark: Saving Seals & Sea Lions” with Adam Ratner of The Marine Mammal Center.
Fewer teeth. More bark. Same ocean love.
www.oceanhoptimism.org/save-the-date
January 9, 2026 at 5:03 PM
We benched the shark (for the month) and promoted a seal 🦭
For Jan 22, Ocean Hoptimism goes full “Behind the Bark: Saving Seals & Sea Lions” with Adam Ratner of The Marine Mammal Center.
Fewer teeth. More bark. Same ocean love.
www.oceanhoptimism.org/save-the-date
For Jan 22, Ocean Hoptimism goes full “Behind the Bark: Saving Seals & Sea Lions” with Adam Ratner of The Marine Mammal Center.
Fewer teeth. More bark. Same ocean love.
www.oceanhoptimism.org/save-the-date
“This is a threshold moment. The kind future generations will study — not because we were certain, but because the uncertainty cornered us into choosing who we were willing to be.”
That tension is at the heart of this piece: to confront despair honestly and refuse to let it decide who we become. ♥️
That tension is at the heart of this piece: to confront despair honestly and refuse to let it decide who we become. ♥️
Hope comes from the stubborn work of refusing to abandon what’s wild. Here’s how to keep moving forward. https://therevelator.org/environmental-despair-possibility/
The Seduction of Despair, the Persistence of Possibility • The Revelator
Hope comes from the stubborn work of refusing to abandon what’s wild. Here’s how to keep moving forward.
therevelator.org
January 9, 2026 at 4:34 PM
“This is a threshold moment. The kind future generations will study — not because we were certain, but because the uncertainty cornered us into choosing who we were willing to be.”
That tension is at the heart of this piece: to confront despair honestly and refuse to let it decide who we become. ♥️
That tension is at the heart of this piece: to confront despair honestly and refuse to let it decide who we become. ♥️
This moment calls all of us to do more than stand witness — it calls us to gather, to sit in pain and anger and build something together, and act from shared strength. We made this new post with that in mind.
#OceanHoptimism #WeThePeople
#OceanHoptimism #WeThePeople
Build the Room
How Gathering, Not Compliance, Keeps Us HumanThere’s an antidote for despair. There’s an antidote for fear. There’s an out for our anger.And compliance is not it.Right now, we are being trained—delibe...
www.oceanhoptimism.org
January 8, 2026 at 11:30 PM
This moment calls all of us to do more than stand witness — it calls us to gather, to sit in pain and anger and build something together, and act from shared strength. We made this new post with that in mind.
#OceanHoptimism #WeThePeople
#OceanHoptimism #WeThePeople
Hope matters—but only when it’s grounded, protected, and carried into action. In moments like this, we all reach for hope. The question is whether we hold it long enough to change what comes next. A timely reminder on why hope needs boundaries.
#Hope #OceanHoptimism
#Hope #OceanHoptimism
Held Long Enough to Change
Why Hope Needs ContainersUp close, the interior surface looks almost geological: a repeating, jagged pattern of ridges and hollows, catching light in unexpected ways. It feels less like cookware than ...
www.oceanhoptimism.org
January 8, 2026 at 8:16 PM
Hope matters—but only when it’s grounded, protected, and carried into action. In moments like this, we all reach for hope. The question is whether we hold it long enough to change what comes next. A timely reminder on why hope needs boundaries.
#Hope #OceanHoptimism
#Hope #OceanHoptimism
Reposted by Ocean Hoptimism
Join us for a webinar on Monday.
us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
We will announce the results of our partners' efforts to gather signatures, letters, petitions, and comments for the RFI, hear from elected leaders, and have a discussion about what just happened, and what comes next.
us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
We will announce the results of our partners' efforts to gather signatures, letters, petitions, and comments for the RFI, hear from elected leaders, and have a discussion about what just happened, and what comes next.
January 8, 2026 at 5:46 PM
Join us for a webinar on Monday.
us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
We will announce the results of our partners' efforts to gather signatures, letters, petitions, and comments for the RFI, hear from elected leaders, and have a discussion about what just happened, and what comes next.
us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
We will announce the results of our partners' efforts to gather signatures, letters, petitions, and comments for the RFI, hear from elected leaders, and have a discussion about what just happened, and what comes next.
Public, shareable toolkit on proposed seabed mining near the Mariana Trench. The U.S. offshore energy agency is taking public input on possible mineral leasing off the Northern Mariana Islands—comments due Jan 12, 2026. Includes where to comment, petitions, shareable posts, and community events.
January 8, 2026 at 5:47 PM
Public, shareable toolkit on proposed seabed mining near the Mariana Trench. The U.S. offshore energy agency is taking public input on possible mineral leasing off the Northern Mariana Islands—comments due Jan 12, 2026. Includes where to comment, petitions, shareable posts, and community events.
Reposted by Ocean Hoptimism
BREAKING NEWS 🚨
Trump just announced that he is withdrawing the United States from the world’s foundational climate treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC.
He also pulled out of dozens of other global environmental agreements and bodies.
bit.ly/4sDG4EP
Trump just announced that he is withdrawing the United States from the world’s foundational climate treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC.
He also pulled out of dozens of other global environmental agreements and bodies.
bit.ly/4sDG4EP
January 8, 2026 at 5:20 PM
BREAKING NEWS 🚨
Trump just announced that he is withdrawing the United States from the world’s foundational climate treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC.
He also pulled out of dozens of other global environmental agreements and bodies.
bit.ly/4sDG4EP
Trump just announced that he is withdrawing the United States from the world’s foundational climate treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC.
He also pulled out of dozens of other global environmental agreements and bodies.
bit.ly/4sDG4EP
The U.S. has ordered withdrawal from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, UN Oceans, and more. This isn’t symbolic—it reshapes science, funding, and influence. We unpack what this means for IUCN.
#OceanHoptimism
#OceanHoptimism
The U.S. has ordered its withdrawal from the Int’l Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)—part of a broader retreat from int’l treaties, conventions, & scientific bodies. This isn’t symbolic. It’s a real shift in how (& whether) the U.S. helps shape global conservation rules.
#OceanHoptimism
#OceanHoptimism
Withdrawing the United States from International Organizations, Conventions, and Treaties that Are Contrary to the Interests of the United States
MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United
www.whitehouse.gov
January 8, 2026 at 5:06 PM
The U.S. has ordered withdrawal from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, UN Oceans, and more. This isn’t symbolic—it reshapes science, funding, and influence. We unpack what this means for IUCN.
#OceanHoptimism
#OceanHoptimism
The U.S. has ordered its withdrawal from the Int’l Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)—part of a broader retreat from int’l treaties, conventions, & scientific bodies. This isn’t symbolic. It’s a real shift in how (& whether) the U.S. helps shape global conservation rules.
#OceanHoptimism
#OceanHoptimism
Withdrawing the United States from International Organizations, Conventions, and Treaties that Are Contrary to the Interests of the United States
MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United
www.whitehouse.gov
January 8, 2026 at 7:22 AM
The U.S. has ordered its withdrawal from the Int’l Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)—part of a broader retreat from int’l treaties, conventions, & scientific bodies. This isn’t symbolic. It’s a real shift in how (& whether) the U.S. helps shape global conservation rules.
#OceanHoptimism
#OceanHoptimism
Before Jan 22’s Ocean Hoptimism with Adam Ratner (The Marine Mammal Center), we whipped up a very serious tutorial: real seals vs… absolutely not seals. 🦭❌
It’s a slideshow to get you in the spirit for Behind the Bark: Saving Seals & Sea Lions. Study hard.
7-8pm @ Faction Brewing
#OceanHoptimism
It’s a slideshow to get you in the spirit for Behind the Bark: Saving Seals & Sea Lions. Study hard.
7-8pm @ Faction Brewing
#OceanHoptimism
January 7, 2026 at 8:29 PM
Before Jan 22’s Ocean Hoptimism with Adam Ratner (The Marine Mammal Center), we whipped up a very serious tutorial: real seals vs… absolutely not seals. 🦭❌
It’s a slideshow to get you in the spirit for Behind the Bark: Saving Seals & Sea Lions. Study hard.
7-8pm @ Faction Brewing
#OceanHoptimism
It’s a slideshow to get you in the spirit for Behind the Bark: Saving Seals & Sea Lions. Study hard.
7-8pm @ Faction Brewing
#OceanHoptimism
They call it cacophony… we call it music and sound therapy. 🦭🎶
That roar of ~500 sea lions near Oak Bay isn’t noise—it’s nature’s soundtrack and a signal. Numbers like this speak to recovery, protection working, and life reclaiming space. Sometimes the ocean’s healing is loud.
#OceanHoptimism
That roar of ~500 sea lions near Oak Bay isn’t noise—it’s nature’s soundtrack and a signal. Numbers like this speak to recovery, protection working, and life reclaiming space. Sometimes the ocean’s healing is loud.
#OceanHoptimism
A record-breaking number of #sealions gathering off the shores of Oak Bay ensures, “you cannot not hear them,” according to one nearby resident.
oakbaynews.com/2026/01/06/c...
oakbaynews.com/2026/01/06/c...
Cacophony of 500 sea lions ring out 2025 off Trial Islands near Oak Bay - Oak Bay News
Shoreline naturalists see more Stellar and California sea lions than birds
oakbaynews.com
January 7, 2026 at 6:20 PM
They call it cacophony… we call it music and sound therapy. 🦭🎶
That roar of ~500 sea lions near Oak Bay isn’t noise—it’s nature’s soundtrack and a signal. Numbers like this speak to recovery, protection working, and life reclaiming space. Sometimes the ocean’s healing is loud.
#OceanHoptimism
That roar of ~500 sea lions near Oak Bay isn’t noise—it’s nature’s soundtrack and a signal. Numbers like this speak to recovery, protection working, and life reclaiming space. Sometimes the ocean’s healing is loud.
#OceanHoptimism
Last week we asked: how is hope like a Bundt cake? 🍰
Not a joke, just a holiday gift, some spiked eggnog, and a realization about scale, structure, and why hope collapses when it’s uncontained. The full reflection is up now. Allow us to cut you a slice.
#OceanHoptimism
Not a joke, just a holiday gift, some spiked eggnog, and a realization about scale, structure, and why hope collapses when it’s uncontained. The full reflection is up now. Allow us to cut you a slice.
#OceanHoptimism
Held Long Enough to Change
Why Hope Needs ContainersUp close, the interior surface looks almost geological: a repeating, jagged pattern of ridges and hollows, catching light in unexpected ways. It feels less like cookware than ...
www.oceanhoptimism.org
January 7, 2026 at 5:24 PM
Last week we asked: how is hope like a Bundt cake? 🍰
Not a joke, just a holiday gift, some spiked eggnog, and a realization about scale, structure, and why hope collapses when it’s uncontained. The full reflection is up now. Allow us to cut you a slice.
#OceanHoptimism
Not a joke, just a holiday gift, some spiked eggnog, and a realization about scale, structure, and why hope collapses when it’s uncontained. The full reflection is up now. Allow us to cut you a slice.
#OceanHoptimism
Absolutely appalled by footage of manatees drinking contaminated upwellings from shallow sewage wells in their habitat. This isn’t just pollution—it’s cruelty, and a failure to protect fragile Florida Keys waters. Sign the petition and force regulators to act.👇
www.friendsofthelowerkeys.org/petition
www.friendsofthelowerkeys.org/petition
January 7, 2026 at 12:11 AM
Absolutely appalled by footage of manatees drinking contaminated upwellings from shallow sewage wells in their habitat. This isn’t just pollution—it’s cruelty, and a failure to protect fragile Florida Keys waters. Sign the petition and force regulators to act.👇
www.friendsofthelowerkeys.org/petition
www.friendsofthelowerkeys.org/petition
Reposted by Ocean Hoptimism
📢 The U.S. government is looking to allow deep-sea mining in U.S. waters near the Mariana Trench – risking one of the most fragile and least understood ecosystems in the world.
But YOUR VOICE matters in the approval process, so speak up! 👉 https://oceana.ly/4jjFqYw
But YOUR VOICE matters in the approval process, so speak up! 👉 https://oceana.ly/4jjFqYw
January 6, 2026 at 6:06 PM
📢 The U.S. government is looking to allow deep-sea mining in U.S. waters near the Mariana Trench – risking one of the most fragile and least understood ecosystems in the world.
But YOUR VOICE matters in the approval process, so speak up! 👉 https://oceana.ly/4jjFqYw
But YOUR VOICE matters in the approval process, so speak up! 👉 https://oceana.ly/4jjFqYw
Hope can spark the work—but it can’t be the work. Our new post takes up the challenge @ayanaeliza.bsky.social threw down for all of us: move past hope as a feeling and into strategy, leverage, and pressure. Hope lights the match. What we do next decides the future.
#OceanHoptimism
#OceanHoptimism
Hope Lights the Match — What's the Strategy?
Why the Future We Want Will Require More Than Good IntentionsA blunt challenge has been circulating across climate and ocean advocacy spaces. Marine biologist and strategist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson po...
www.oceanhoptimism.org
January 6, 2026 at 8:14 PM
Hope can spark the work—but it can’t be the work. Our new post takes up the challenge @ayanaeliza.bsky.social threw down for all of us: move past hope as a feeling and into strategy, leverage, and pressure. Hope lights the match. What we do next decides the future.
#OceanHoptimism
#OceanHoptimism
Picking out a real seal in a lineup is harder than you think. 🦭
Good thing we’ve hired a professional. Join us Jan 22 with Adam Ratner, Director of Conservation Engagement at The Marine Mammal Center, to learn how experts spot the real thing—and why it matters when seals and sea lions need help.
Good thing we’ve hired a professional. Join us Jan 22 with Adam Ratner, Director of Conservation Engagement at The Marine Mammal Center, to learn how experts spot the real thing—and why it matters when seals and sea lions need help.
January 6, 2026 at 5:11 PM
Picking out a real seal in a lineup is harder than you think. 🦭
Good thing we’ve hired a professional. Join us Jan 22 with Adam Ratner, Director of Conservation Engagement at The Marine Mammal Center, to learn how experts spot the real thing—and why it matters when seals and sea lions need help.
Good thing we’ve hired a professional. Join us Jan 22 with Adam Ratner, Director of Conservation Engagement at The Marine Mammal Center, to learn how experts spot the real thing—and why it matters when seals and sea lions need help.
If seals and sea lions could talk, they’d probably say “see you Jan 22.” 🦭
An evening of wild stories, real science, and the human effort behind marine mammal rescue. Equal parts heart, humor, and hope. Free, open, and very worth your night.
www.oceanhoptimism.org/save-the-date
An evening of wild stories, real science, and the human effort behind marine mammal rescue. Equal parts heart, humor, and hope. Free, open, and very worth your night.
www.oceanhoptimism.org/save-the-date
January 5, 2026 at 7:41 PM
If seals and sea lions could talk, they’d probably say “see you Jan 22.” 🦭
An evening of wild stories, real science, and the human effort behind marine mammal rescue. Equal parts heart, humor, and hope. Free, open, and very worth your night.
www.oceanhoptimism.org/save-the-date
An evening of wild stories, real science, and the human effort behind marine mammal rescue. Equal parts heart, humor, and hope. Free, open, and very worth your night.
www.oceanhoptimism.org/save-the-date
Worth revisiting this uncomfortable thought experiment: Ghost Reefs isn’t about loss someday, it’s about choices now. What we normalize, delay, or call ‘too hard’ is how living reefs quietly become historical artifacts. The future is still being decided.
#OceanHoptimism
#OceanHoptimism
Ghost Reefs of 2083: The Paleontology of Color (A Speculative ‘Fiction’) • The Revelator
What will the loss of coral reefs cost the planet — and humanity?
therevelator.org
January 5, 2026 at 6:53 PM
Worth revisiting this uncomfortable thought experiment: Ghost Reefs isn’t about loss someday, it’s about choices now. What we normalize, delay, or call ‘too hard’ is how living reefs quietly become historical artifacts. The future is still being decided.
#OceanHoptimism
#OceanHoptimism
Reposted by Ocean Hoptimism
This is one of the wildest deep-sea mining stories to me.
Paleodictyon is a 500-million-year-old trace fossil from an unknown organism. In the last 50 years, we've found their honeycomb traces on the seafloor. There is a living organism that has been doing its thing for half a billion years.
Paleodictyon is a 500-million-year-old trace fossil from an unknown organism. In the last 50 years, we've found their honeycomb traces on the seafloor. There is a living organism that has been doing its thing for half a billion years.
Recovery of Paleodictyon patterns after simulated mining activity on Pacific nodule fields - Marine Biodiversity
Since the late 1980s, various experiments have been conducted in polymetallic nodule fields of the Pacific Ocean to assess the potential environmental impacts of future mining, specifically in two are...
link.springer.com
January 5, 2026 at 5:21 PM
This is one of the wildest deep-sea mining stories to me.
Paleodictyon is a 500-million-year-old trace fossil from an unknown organism. In the last 50 years, we've found their honeycomb traces on the seafloor. There is a living organism that has been doing its thing for half a billion years.
Paleodictyon is a 500-million-year-old trace fossil from an unknown organism. In the last 50 years, we've found their honeycomb traces on the seafloor. There is a living organism that has been doing its thing for half a billion years.
Once again, for the people in the back: this isn’t a one-off. It’s a preview. King tides plus heavier rain mean routine flooding where dry streets used to be. And no—more Venezuelan oil won’t help this situation. This is the future we’re rehearsing.
#OceanHoptimism #ClimateRealityHits #FutureIsNow
#OceanHoptimism #ClimateRealityHits #FutureIsNow
Multiple records shattered across Bay Area as extreme flooding hits region
"We want people to exercise caution."
www.sfgate.com
January 4, 2026 at 10:35 PM
Once again, for the people in the back: this isn’t a one-off. It’s a preview. King tides plus heavier rain mean routine flooding where dry streets used to be. And no—more Venezuelan oil won’t help this situation. This is the future we’re rehearsing.
#OceanHoptimism #ClimateRealityHits #FutureIsNow
#OceanHoptimism #ClimateRealityHits #FutureIsNow
So much history just vanished. Mare Island was the first U.S. Pacific naval base, building and repairing ships for 140+ years and shaping our Bay Area maritime identity. Now its dry dock closes, laying off decades of skilled workers and shelving a living piece of our heritage.
#OceanHoptimism
#OceanHoptimism
Major Bay Area shipyard dating back over a century closes, lays off all staff
"I don't know why they did this, but I am going to find out."
www.sfgate.com
January 4, 2026 at 10:29 PM
So much history just vanished. Mare Island was the first U.S. Pacific naval base, building and repairing ships for 140+ years and shaping our Bay Area maritime identity. Now its dry dock closes, laying off decades of skilled workers and shelving a living piece of our heritage.
#OceanHoptimism
#OceanHoptimism