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<p>When asked to describe herself, ocean educator Brenda “B.J.” Ramer naturally turns to the sea when looking for the right metaphor.</p><p>”Most people are like plankton; they go with the flow,” Ramer said. “I’m like a humpback whale. I go against the current.” </p><p>Case in point: when she decided to open her Team ECCO Ocean Center and Aquarium in downtown Hendersonville in 2009, Ramer said many people thought she was nuts. “Why do we need to teach about marine life in the mountains?” they sneered.</p><p>Ramer didn’t bother answering the naysayers directly, because she knew the answer was too complex to articulate with a snappy one-line comeback. Instead, she let the results speak for themselves.</p><p>”People might fuss and say, ‘What’s the point of having it here?"” she said. “But I don’t have to justify my purpose, because the kids who spend time here — as volunteers, as interns, as visitors — they define my purpose. The people whose opinion matters most to me are those under 5 feet tall.”</p><p>This year, Team ECCO’s 14th year as a nonprofit, the aquarium hosted more than 10,000 visitors and offered educational programs to 3,200 students from the community on topics such as coral reefs, marine invertebrates, sharks, rays and turtles. </p><p>Along the way, Ramer has nurtured hundreds of local kids as interns and volunteers. Many go on to major in marine biology or other sciences in college. By using students to help run the aquarium, Ramer hopes to inspire them to find their own path in life, whatever it is. </p><p>”For me, it’s about being able to share my passion and maybe not share it verbally, but also instill a spark somewhere in them,” she said. “I don’t look for all these kids to grow up to be Jacques Cousteau. Maybe they will, but even those that don’t will learn accountability, responsibility and that you only get out of your community what you’re willing to give to others.”</p><p>Ramer has given back to her community in many capacities over the years. Her service includes stints on the boards of the Henderson County YMCA, Healing Place and Flat Rock Playhouse, where she and her husband, Tom, co-chaired the YouTheatre building campaign. </p><p>She’s also been a charter member of the Hendersonville Jaycees and long-time participant in Hendersonville’s Business and Professional Women’s Club. Most recently, Ramer was appointed by city council to serve on the Henderson County Tourism Development Authority.</p><p>”My real goal (on TDA’s board) is to be a voice for local tourist attractions there, because it’s so focused on putting heads in beds,” she said. “They sometimes forget that without the attractions, there’d be no means for putting people in accommodations.”</p><p>Fellow TDA member Kathy Kanupp said Ramer “brings a modern, up-to-date perspective to our board. She’s here for the youth of the county, so she stays in touch with Facebook, Twitter and other social media. She brings a real freshness to the board.”</p><p>Working with the children of local families, Ramer agrees one of her goals on TDA’s board is to inject a “younger feel into the county.”</p><p>”When we moved here 30 years ago, it was a retirement place,” she said. “That’s no longer the case. Young families are moving here. Our schools are exploding. So I try to be a fresh voice, a questioning voice that says, ‘Why not try something new?’ Just because we always did it a certain way doesn’t make it the only way.”</p><p>Allison Romstadt, a long-time Team ECCO board member, said Ramer has always been one to think outside the box. </p><p>” ‘No’ is not a word in her vocabulary,” she said. “You can’t tell B.J. no. She was recently turned down for a grant, and her response was, ‘I built this business from the ground up in my kitchen. We’ll figure out another way.’ “</p><p><b>Work ethic</b></p><p>Ramer developed a reputation for tenacity and alternative thinking long before she arrived in Hendersonville. Growing up in Toronto, Ohio, she was the first female in her high school to take drafting class. </p><p>She worked a series of toilsome jobs throughout her youth, including cleaning houses, picking strawberries and sweeping out the local steel mill where her dad worked. </p><p>”That how I paid to finish college,” she said of the steel mill gig. “My parents had a strong work ethic, and they passed that onto me.”</p><p>Originally interested in teaching deaf children, Ramer earned a bachelor’s in special education from the University of Cincinnati in 1981. She earned a full scholarship to Vanderbilt University, where she completed her Masters in Education in 1982 and student-taught at the Tennessee School for the Blind. </p><p>A year after marrying her high-school sweetheart, Tom, Ramer and her husband moved to Hendersonville in 1983 with nothing but their “degrees, two cars and some furnishings.” </p><p>Ramer got her first teaching job at Bruce Drysdale Elementary, but later moved to special ed programs in Etowah Elementary and Hendersonville Middle School.</p><p>In 2001, she was working as a “itinerant teacher” at Hendersonville Middle when she had an epiphany. She’d gotten involved with a program called Oceans for Youth, a nonprofit designed to promote underwater education. Ramer had also recently fallen in love with snorkeling and scuba diving in coral reefs. </p><p>”I thought, ‘How can I tie this new love I’d found into my other love, which is teaching?’ ” Ramer recalled. “When you’re under the water, you really understand who your higher power is. It just moved me very, very deeply, and trying to connect that passion to working with kids became important to me.”</p><p>Team ECCO was thus born in Ramer’s kitchen, with dreams of “taking children to science instead of science to children.” </p><p>In September 2001, Ramer led her first trip of 25 students to Florida to swim with manatees. It was the first of many excursions she would lead to saltwater destinations from the Southeast to the Caribbean. </p><p>Kanupp said the community is blessed to have someone so passionate about oceans in their midst. </p><p>”She has such a great love for these animals that it’s phenomenal, and she’s found a way to pass that passion onto her visitors and volunteers,” she said. “How many people do you know that would stay up all night with a sick stingray? She really has some salt water running through her veins.”</p>
A new pet food company is making it easier for dog owners to make ethical and humane choices when it comes to feeding their four-legged friend.
The Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise program, which gives consumers a way to choose sustainable seafood while limiting our impact on the world’s oceans, has just certified its very first pet food.
It’s an important milestone for the Ocean Wise program, which has added more than 600 restaurants, retailers and suppliers that offer sustainable seafood since launching 10 years ago.
Open Farm will use sustainable Ocean Wise-recommended fish in its “Catch-of-the-Day Whitefish and Green Lentil” recipe. The ocean-caught fish selection will rotate seasonally based on what’s available.
Each bag will be stamped with the local whitefish that’s used, like Pacific Cod, for example.
Image: Open Farm
By sourcing seasonally, the company says it can guarantee the freshest fish while also maintaining its commitment to using sustainable sources.
“We can also give pet parents a high level of comfort in where their pet’s food comes from,” company founder Jacqueline Prehogan tells Vancity Buzz.
At a time where more Canadians are starting to demand more wholesome and ethically sourced food, the sustainable pet food marks a much bigger shift in consumer behaviour – and demands, says Ann-Marie Copping, program manager at Ocean Wise.
“Open Farm pet food has helped to send a message that eating sustainable goes beyond what we order in restaurants or buy at the fish counter. It’s a lifestyle choice. Consumer awareness has noticeably increased in recent years,” she told Vancity Buzz.
It isn’t limited to sustainable fish: Open Farm only uses humanely and sustainably farmed meats and local vegetables, and is the first and only dog food to receive the Humane Farm Animal Care Certified Humane® label. Their standards are extensive, and include how animals are handled, how much space they have and what they’re fed.
“We started this company because we could never understand loving our pets and feeding them factory farm meats that comes from animals that weren’t even treated without even a basic level of respect. We wanted to give people a humane option,” said Prehogan.
“Each purchase improves the lives of farm animals used in food production, rewarding family farmers who are doing things the right way, and incentivizing conventional farmers to adopt humane and sustainable practices,” said Prehogan.
Open Farm pet food products / Instagram
Bowing to huge demand, the company is currently working on wet and dry cat food formulas, and dog treats.
Open Farm’s philosophy is a breath of fresh air in an industry that has a less than pristine reputation. A recent Slate series exposed the darker side of the pet food industry, revealing that things like recalled meat, roadkill, dead zoo animals and even euthanized pets can end up being ground up and processed into pet food.
The food is available in pet specialty store in the Vancouver area as well as in Coquitlam, Kelowna, Port Moody, Langley, Burnaby, Penticton, Abbotsford and Richmond. You can find a complete list and store locator on its website.
Monday, Sep 8, 2014 • Updated at 8:18 PM EDT
Join NBC Connecticut and Mystic Aquarium for the Ocean Commotion Gala.
What is all the commotion about? The Gala is the signature fundraiser event for Sea Research Foundation, Inc., which includes Mystic Aquarium along with the Ocean Exploration Center and JASON Learning.
The Gala will begin with a welcome reception and silent auction, followed by dinner and a performance by the Boogie Wonder Band.
The event will take place Saturday, Sept. 20 from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Mystic Aquarium. Our very own Kerri-Lee Mayland will emcee the event.
By attending the event or making a donation, you are directly supporting the mission to inspire people to care for the planet through education, research and exploration.
Cooking can get pretty stressful when your recipe takes you into uncharted waters. Conversely, an ocean view is widely considered the pinnacle of relaxation.
So why not take the edge off cooking by combining the kitchen with the ocean? That’s what designer Robert Kolenik did, according to Gizmodo.
In a tongue-in-cheek nod to a desert island, Kolenik designed a beautiful saltwater kitchen island aquarium.
That under-counter space is typically useful and necessary for storage, and the aquarium fixture doesn’t utilize it all. It comes in an L-shape that conceals storage and the plumbing for the built-in sink.
The countertop itself rises at the touch of a button to allow for aquarium maintenance as-needed.
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Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
Where: 2300 Expedition Way, La Jolla
Admission: Adults, $17; Teens (13-17), $14; Child (3-12), $12.50; Senior (60+), $13; UCSD student/staff w/ID, $11; College Student w/ID, $12; and Toddlers (2 and under), free. Active-duty U.S. military ID holders receive $2 off each ticket.
Some of the most diverse and magnificent marine life in the world is located in the waters off Mexico, and it’s featured in a photo exhibit that opened Friday at Birch Aquarium. The photography and research merges art and science in an effort to inspire ocean stewardship.
Illegal hunting and habitat destruction have reduced populations of American crocodiles to critical levels in many areas. About 250 of them are now in a protected reserve off the Mexican coast.
Scripps ecologist and resident photographer Octavio Aburto is on a mission to show the public how conservation benefits not only from wildlife, but local communities and economies. He showed us a giant school of bigeye trevally fish swirling in a reproduction ritual. It’s one of four areas he photographed off the waters of Mexico.
Other photos in the exhibit include one of orange cup coral, one of several species adorning the rocky reefs of Cabo Pulmo where fishing has been banned for more than a decade and sea life is thriving. Another photo shows a Munk’s devil ray leaping out of the water during its courtship ritual. The Munk’s devil ray is named after Dr. Walter Munk, a famous Scripps Oceanography researcher.
“With the amount of fish you can see here, it’s that this population hasn’t been over fished,” Aburto said.
Aburto is part of the next generation of scientist trying to educate the public about the problem of exploiting our natural resources.
“It’s very important for people to understand that we need crocodiles for estuaries, sharks for reefs and they are not dangerous,” he said, adding it’s more dangerous not to have them around.
Aburto says it’s not enough to publish research papers, he wants his images to connect with the public. His exhibit “Mexican Seas” takes us on a photographic journey and debuts this weekend at the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla.
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