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Science for a Blue Planet

Featuring cutting-edge work, discoveries, and challenges of our scientists, our partners, and the larger conservation science community.

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Our 2024 Year Highlights

December 20, 2024

It was an incredibly full year. In case you missed it, we wrote about many of our activities in our 2024 Annual Impact Report. Check it out here! Here are some highlights:

  • L to R: Current Board Chair Anne Chadwick, immediate past Chair Geoff Gordon Creed, and Chief Science Officer Grant Ballard on the 2024 Antarctica Trip.

    We started the year off with a once-in-a-lifetime special opportunity for a small group of Point Blue community members–a two week trip to Antarctica in January alongside then CEO, Mani Oliva, and Chief Science Officer, Dr. Grant Ballard.

  • In March, we celebrated the one year anniversary of the statewide block grant programs supported by our partnership with the California Wildlife Conservation Board. You can follow our progress by checking out the Story Maps we produced for our restoration work on farms, ranches, and other working lands here and Sierra meadows here. These efforts have led to 143 new restoration projects across California.
  • In May, we formally launched MSP+ Science to Action, our international grantmaking program to advance shorebird conservation, capacity building, and community engagement in Latin America.
  • In June, our Farallon Islands program made the front pages of the San Francisco Chronicle AND the San Jose Mercury News. Over 57 years of partnership with the Farallon Islands National Wildlife refuge, our science has informed the creation and expansion of National Marine Sanctuaries, the passage of legislation banning gill net fishing and white shark hunting, and has been used to reduce whale deaths from fatal collisions with cargo ships.
  • In August, we were thrilled to get an up close view of a rare encounter when a pod of orca whales (aka killer whales) attacked a pod of humpback whales. Check out the video shared with the SF Chronicle here!
  • In September, our 2nd ever Point Blue science illustration apprentice completed and presented her project: an amazing interpretive panel design that engages beachgoers about coastal dune ecosystems, sensitive species, and actions to take to help.
  • In October, we sent a team to Cali, Colombia for COP16, the United Nations 16th Convention on Biological Diversity. You can read more here about our work helping to organize over 100 members in California’s Extended Delegation including state legislators, leadership from the state’s Natural Resources Agency, city governments from across the US, and NGOs from across the state and country. And post-event reflections from the team are over here.
  • a group of smiling people around a big blue trash can under a tree in El Salvador as part of an effort to keep trash out of the coastal environment.
    Diana Eusse, MSP+ Program Officer (far right) with grantee group in El Salvador working on a community project to manage trash along shorelines. Photo by Matt Reiter, MSP+ Program Officer.

    Also in October, we launched a new website for the Avian Knowledge Network (AKN), a partnership and decision support system that we created with our partners and manage within the Point Blue Science Cloud. Through the AKN, we curate millions of ecological observations for partners including federal, state, and local agencies and other non-profit organizations, advancing data-driven conservation across North America and beyond.

  • Also in November, we released our new Ag-C Monitoring Program, which we developed collaboratively with over 30 external partners from across the United States and Point Blue staff, to help measure and track farm and ranch conservation management impacts on soil carbon nationwide.
  • And finally, in December, we wrote about “putting the meadow restoration season to bed” under a blanket of fluffy white snow after restoration activities at over 50 meadows, covering more than 8,000 acres.

What else? Well, we expanded our Young Friends of Point Blue program for those 21-39 who want to get more involved with Point Blue; released a beautiful 12-minute film called “A Fighting Chance” about the importance of wetlands and the plight of the long-billed dowitcher;  released a report summarizing three years of our work with farmers and ranchers, began an exciting collaboration with Snoopy, Woodstock, and the rest of the Peanuts gang; and helped ACCESS celebrate 20 great years of ocean research!

Looking ahead to 2025, we’re in the middle of planning a whole bunch of fun ways to celebrate Point Blue’s 60th anniversary. Once again, we are so incredibly grateful to you for your support and partnership, and for being a part of the Point Blue community. Stay tuned for more and we hope to see you at some of our exciting upcoming events!

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