1.
International Union for Conservation of Nature
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The International Union for Conservation of Nature is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It is involved in gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, lobbying. IUCNs mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of resources is equitable. Over the past decades, IUCN has widened its focus beyond conservation ecology and now incorporates issues related to equality, poverty alleviation. Unlike other international NGOs, IUCN does not itself aim to mobilize the public in support of nature conservation and it tries to influence the actions of governments, business and other stakeholders by providing information and advice, and through lobbying and partnerships. The organization is best known to the public for compiling and publishing the IUCN Red List. IUCN has a membership of over 1200 governmental and non-governmental organizations, some 11,000 scientists and experts participate in the work of IUCN commissions on a voluntary basis. It employs approximately 1000 full-time staff in more than 60 countries and its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland. IUCN has observer and consultative status at the United Nations, and plays a role in the implementation of several conventions on nature conservation. It was involved in establishing the World Wide Fund for Nature, in the past, IUCN has been criticized for placing the interests of nature over those of indigenous peoples. In recent years, its relations with the business sector have caused controversy. It was previously called the International Union for Protection of Nature, establishment In 1947, the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature organised an international conference on the protection of nature in Brunnen. It is considered to be the first government-organized non-governmental organization, the initiative to set up the new organisation came from UNESCO and especially from its first Director General, the British biologist Julian Huxley. At the time of its founding IUPN was the international organisation focusing on the entire spectrum of nature conservation Early years. Its secretariat was located in Brussels and its first work program focused on saving species and habitats, increasing and applying knowledge, advancing education, promoting international agreements and promoting conservation. Providing a solid base for conservation action was the heart of all activities. IUPN and UNESCO were closely associated and they jointly organized the 1949 Conference on Protection of Nature. In preparation for this conference a list of endangered species was drawn up for the first time
2.
Miami-Dade County, Florida
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Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U. S. state of Florida. It is the southeasternmost county on the U. S. mainland, according to a 2015 census report, the county had a population of 2,693,117, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in the United States. It is also Floridas third-largest county in terms of land area, Miami-Dade County is included in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county is home to 34 incorporated cities and many unincorporated areas, southern Miami-Dade County includes the Redland and Homestead areas, which make up the agricultural economy of Miami. Agricultural Redland makes up one third of Miami-Dade Countys inhabited land area, and is sparsely populated. The western portion of the county extends into the Everglades National Park and is populated only by a Miccosukee tribal village, East of the mainland in Biscayne Bay is also Biscayne National Park and the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserves. The earliest evidence of Native American settlement in the Miami region came from about 12,000 years ago, the first inhabitants settled on the banks of the Miami River, with the main villages on the northern banks. The Tequesta Indians fished, hunted, and gathered the fruit and roots of plants for food and they buried the small bones of the deceased with the rest of the body, and put the larger bones in a box for the village people to see. The Tequesta are credited with making the Miami Circle, Juan Ponce de León was the first European to visit the area in 1513 by sailing into Biscayne Bay. His journal records that he reached Chequescha, a varianth of Tequesta and it is unknown whether he came ashore or made contact with the natives. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and his men made the first recorded landing when they visited the Tequesta settlement in 1566 while looking for Avilés missing son, shipwrecked a year earlier. Spanish soldiers led by Father Francisco Villarreal built a Jesuit mission at the mouth of the Miami River a year later, after the Spaniards left, the Tequesta Indians were left to fend themselves from European-introduced diseases like smallpox. By 1711, the Tequesta sent a couple of local chiefs to Havana, Cuba, the Cubans sent two ships to help them, but Spanish illnesses struck and most of the Indians died. The first permanent European settlers arrived in the early 19th century, people came from the Bahamas to South Florida and the Keys to hunt for treasure from the ships that ran aground on the treacherous Great Florida Reef. Some accepted Spanish land offers along the Miami River, at about the same time, the Seminole Indians arrived, along with a group of runaway slaves. The area was affected by the Second Seminole War, during which Major William S. Harney led several raids against the Indians, most non-Indian residents were soldiers stationed at Fort Dallas. It was the most devastating Indian war in American history, causing almost a total loss of population in Miami, after the Second Seminole War ended in 1842, William English, re-established a plantation started by his uncle on the Miami River. He charted the “Village of Miami” on the bank of the Miami River
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
Key Biscayne
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Key Biscayne is an island located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. It is the southernmost of the islands along the Atlantic coast of Florida. The key is connected to Miami via the Rickenbacker Causeway, originally built in 1947, the northern portion of Key Biscayne is home to Crandon Park, a county park. The middle section of the consists of the incorporated Village of Key Biscayne. The southern part of the island is now protected as Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, adjacent to Biscayne National Park, there is no hard bedrock near the surface of the island, only layers of weak shelly sandstone to depths of 100 feet or more. The coastal transport of sand southward ends at Key Biscayne, in the 1850s Louis Agassiz noted that outh of Cape Florida no more silicacious sand is to be seen. Geologists believe that the island emerged around 2000 BCE, soon after the sea level stopped rising, Key Biscayne is elongated in the north-south direction, tapering to a point at each end. It is approximately 5 miles long and 1 to 2 miles wide, the northern end of the island is separated from another barrier island, Virginia Key, by Bear Cut. The southern end of the island is Cape Florida, only Soldier Key, approximately 200 by 100 yards wide, lies between Key Biscayne and the Ragged Keys. The Cape Florida Channel and Bear Cut are the deepest natural channels into Biscayne Bay and they provided the only access for ocean-going vessels to Biscayne Bay until artificial channels were dredged starting early in the 20th century. In 1849 the island had a sandy beach on the east side. The average elevation of the island is less than five feet above sea level, people from Key Biscayne are known as Key Rats. Key Biscayne is located at 25°41′25″N 80°9′54″W, the first known indigenous inhabitants of Key Biscayne were Tequestas. Shells, bones and artifacts found on the island indicate extensive use of it by the Tequesta, a large community appeared to inhabit the island between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago. In 1992 Hurricane Andrew scoured much of the vegetation from the end of Key Biscayne. An archaeological survey of the ground found evidence of extensive habitation. Juan Ponce de León charted Key Biscayne on his first mission to the New World in 1513 and he christened the island Santa Marta and claimed it for the Spanish Crown. He reported that he found a water spring on the island
5.
Underground Railroad
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The term is also applied to the abolitionists, both black and white, free and enslaved, who aided the fugitives. Various other routes led to Mexico or overseas, an earlier escape route running south toward Florida, then a Spanish possession, existed from the late 17th century until shortly after the American Revolution. However, the now generally known as the Underground Railroad was formed in the late 1700s. One estimate suggests that by 1850,100,000 slaves had escaped via the Railroad, British North America, where slavery was prohibited, was a popular destination, as its long border gave many points of access. Most former slaves settled in Ontario, more than 30,000 people were said to have escaped there via the network during its 20-year peak period, although U. S. Census figures account for only 6,000. Numerous fugitives stories are documented in the 1872 book The Underground Railroad Records by William Still, the resulting economic impact was minuscule, but the psychological influence on slaveholders was immense. With heavy lobbying by Southern politicians, the Compromise of 1850 was passed by Congress after the Mexican–American War, because the law required sparse documentation to claim a person was a fugitive, slave catchers also kidnapped free blacks, especially children, and sold them into slavery. Southern politicians often exaggerated the number of escaped slaves and often blamed escapes on Northerners interfering with Southern property rights. The law deprived suspected slaves of the right to themselves in court. In a de facto bribe, judges were paid a fee for a decision that confirmed a suspect as a slave than for one ruling that the suspect was free. Many Northerners who might have ignored slave issues in the South were confronted by local challenges that bound them to support slavery. This was a primary grievance cited by the Union during the American Civil War, the escape network was not literally underground nor a railroad. It was figuratively underground in the sense of being an underground resistance and it was known as a railroad by way of the use of rail terminology in the code. The Underground Railroad consisted of meeting points, secret routes, transportation, and safe houses, escaped slaves would move north along the route from one way station to the next. Conductors on the railroad came from various backgrounds and included blacks, white abolitionists, former slaves. Without the presence and support of black residents, there would have been almost no chance for fugitive slaves to pass into freedom unmolested. To reduce the risk of infiltration, many associated with the Underground Railroad knew only their part of the operation. Conductors led or transported the fugitives from station to station, a conductor sometimes pretended to be a slave in order to enter a plantation
6.
Black Seminoles
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The Black Seminoles are black Indians associated with the Seminole people in Florida and Oklahoma. They are the descendants of free blacks and of escaped slaves who allied with Seminole groups in Spanish Florida, historically, the Black Seminoles lived mostly in distinct bands near the Native American Seminole. Some were held as slaves of particular Seminole leaders, but they had more freedom than did slaves held by whites in the South, today, Black Seminole descendants live primarily in rural communities around the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. Its two Freedmens bands, the Caesar Bruner Band and the Dosar Barkus Band, are represented on the General Council of the Nation, other centers are in Florida, Texas, the Bahamas, and northern Mexico. Since the 1930s, the Seminole Freedmen have struggled with cycles of exclusion from the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma. In 1990, the received the majority of a $46 million judgment trust by the United States, for seizure of lands in Florida in 1823. In 2004 the US Supreme Court ruled the Seminole Freedmen could not bring suit without the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and they argue that the Dawes Rolls were inaccurate and often classified persons with both Seminole and African ancestry as only Freedmen. In all likelihood, the words Maroon and Seminole share the etymology as the Spanish word cimarrón. This word usually referred to runaways or castaways and is derived from the word for thicket in Old Spanish. The Spanish strategy for defending their claim of Florida at first was based on organizing the people into a mission system. The mission Native Americans were to serve as militia to protect the colony from English incursions from the north, but a combination of raids by South Carolina colonists and new European infectious diseases, to which they did not have immunity, decimated Floridas native population. After the local Native Americans had all but died out, Spanish authorities encouraged renegade Native Americans, the Spanish were hoping that these traditional enemies of the English would prove effective in holding off English expansion. As early as 1689, African slaves fled from the South Carolina Lowcountry to Spanish Florida seeking freedom and these were people who gradually formed what has become known as the Gullah culture of the coastal Southeast. Under an edict from King Charles II of Spain in 1693, the Spanish organized the black volunteers into a militia, their settlement at Fort Mose, founded in 1738, was the first legally sanctioned free black town in North America. Not all the slaves escaping south found military service in St. Augustine to their liking, more escaped slaves sought refuge in wilderness areas in Northern Florida, where their knowledge of tropical agriculture—and resistance to tropical diseases—served them well. Most of the blacks who pioneered Florida were Gullah people who escaped from the plantations of South Carolina. As Gullah, they had developed an Afro-English based Creole, along with cultural practices, the Gullah pioneers built their own settlements based on rice and corn agriculture. They became allies of Creek and other Indians escaping into Florida from the Southeast at the same time, in Florida, they developed the Afro-Seminole Creole, which they spoke with the growing Seminole tribe
7.
The Bahamas
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The Bahamas, known officially as the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is an archipelagic state within the Lucayan Archipelago. The capital is Nassau on the island of New Providence, the designation of the Bahamas can refer either to the country or to the larger island chain that it shares with the Turks and Caicos Islands. As stated in the mandate/manifesto of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, the Bahamas is the site of Columbus first landfall in the New World in 1492. At that time, the islands were inhabited by the Lucayan, although the Spanish never colonised the Bahamas, they shipped the native Lucayans to slavery in Hispaniola. The islands were mostly deserted from 1513 until 1648, when English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera, the Bahamas became a British Crown colony in 1718, when the British clamped down on piracy. After the American War of Independence, the Crown resettled thousands of American Loyalists in the Bahamas, they brought their slaves with them, Africans constituted the majority of the population from this period. Slavery in the Bahamas was abolished in 1834, Today the descendants of slaves and free Africans make up nearly 90% of the population, issues related to the slavery years are part of society. The Bahamas became an independent Commonwealth realm in 1973, retaining Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch, in terms of gross domestic product per capita, the Bahamas is one of the richest countries in the Americas, with an economy based on tourism and finance. The name Bahamas is derived from either the Taino ba ha ma, alternatively, it may originate from Guanahani, a local name of unclear meaning. In English, the Bahamas is one of two countries whose self-standing short name begins with the word the, along with The Gambia. Taino people moved into the uninhabited southern Bahamas from Hispaniola and Cuba around the 11th century and they came to be known as the Lucayan people. An estimated 30,000 Lucayan inhabited the Bahamas at the time of Christopher Columbus arrival in 1492, Columbuss first landfall in the New World was on an island he named San Salvador. Some researchers believe this site to be present-day San Salvador Island, an alternative theory holds that Columbus landed to the southeast on Samana Cay, according to calculations made in 1986 by National Geographic writer and editor Joseph Judge, based on Columbuss log. Evidence in support of this remains inconclusive, on the landfall island, Columbus made first contact with the Lucayan and exchanged goods with them. The Spanish forced much of the Lucayan population to Hispaniola for use as forced labour, the slaves suffered from harsh conditions and most died from contracting diseases to which they had no immunity, half of the Taino died from smallpox alone. The population of the Bahamas was severely diminished, in 1648, the Eleutherian Adventurers, led by William Sayle, migrated from Bermuda. These English Puritans established the first permanent European settlement on an island which they named Eleuthera—the name derives from the Greek word for freedom and they later settled New Providence, naming it Sayles Island after one of their leaders. To survive, the settlers salvaged goods from wrecks, in 1670 King Charles II granted the islands to the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas in North America
8.
Atlantic Ocean
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The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other
9.
Snorkeling
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Snorkeling is the practice of swimming on or through a body of water while equipped with a diving mask, a shaped breathing tube called a snorkel, and usually swimfins. In cooler waters, a wetsuit may also be worn, use of this equipment allows the snorkeler to observe underwater attractions for extended periods with relatively little effort and to breathe while face-down at the surface. Snorkeling is a recreational activity, particularly at tropical resort locations. The primary appeal is the opportunity to observe life in a natural setting without the complicated equipment. It appeals to all ages because of how little there is. It is the basis of the two disciplines of the underwater sport of finswimming. Snorkeling is mentioned by Aristotle in his Parts of Animals and he refers to divers using instruments for respiration resembling the elephants trunk. The snorkel may be an item or may be integrated with a full-face snorkelling mask. The integrated system is suitable for surface snorkelling, but the separate snorkel may also be used for free-diving. It is used for breathing air from above the surface when the wearers mouth and nose are submerged. The snorkel may have a piece of rubber or a clip that attaches the snorkel to the outside of the strap of the diving mask. An alternative technique is fitting the snorkel between the mask-strap and the head, but this practice may increase the chance that the mask leaks, the optimum design length of the snorkel tube is at most 40 centimeters. A longer tube would not allow breathing when snorkelling deeper, since it would place the lungs in deeper water where the water pressure is higher. The lungs would then be unable to inflate when the snorkeler inhales, the pressure difference across the tissues in the lungs, between the blood capillaries and air spaces would increase the risk of pulmonary edema. The greater the volume of the tube, and the smaller the tidal volume of breathing, a smaller diameter tube reduces the dead volume, but also increases resistance to airflow and so increases the work of breathing. Occasional exhalation through the nose while snorkeling will slightly reduce the buildup of carbon dioxide, the simplest type of snorkel is a plain tube that is allowed to flood when underwater. The displacement method expels water by filling the snorkel with air, it is a technique that takes practice but clears the snorkel with less effort, clearing splash water while at the surface requires blast clearing. Some snorkels have a sump at the lowest point to allow a volume of water to remain in the snorkel without being inhaled when the snorkeler breathes
10.
Swimming
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Human swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water or another liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs, the body, humans can hold their breath underwater and undertake rudimentary locomotive swimming within weeks of birth, as an evolutionary response. Swimming is consistently among top public recreational activities, and in some countries, as a formalized sport, swimming features in a range of local, national, and international competitions, including every modern summer Olympics, which takes place every four years. Swimming relies on the buoyancy of the human body. On average, the body has a density of 0.98 compared to water. However, buoyancy varies on the basis of body composition and the salinity of the water. Higher levels of fat and saltier water both lower the relative density of the body and increase its buoyancy. Since the human body is slightly less dense than water, water supports the weight of the body during swimming. As a result, swimming is “low-impact” compared to land such as running. The density and viscosity of water also create resistance for objects moving through the water, Swimming strokes use this resistance to create propulsion, but this same resistance also generates drag on the body. Hydrodynamics is important to stroke technique for swimming faster, and swimmers who want to swim faster or tire less try to reduce the drag of the motion through the water. Just before plunging into the pool, swimmers may perform such as squatting. Squatting helps in enhancing a swimmer’s start by warming up the thigh muscles, human babies demonstrate an innate swimming or diving reflex from newborn until the age of approximately 6 months. Other mammals also demonstrate this phenomenon, Swimming can be undertaken using a wide range of styles, known as strokes, and these strokes are used for different purposes, or to distinguish between classes in competitive swimming. It is not necessary to use a stroke for propulsion through the water. There are four main strokes used in competition and recreation swimming, the front crawl, also known as freestyle, the breaststroke, the backstroke, competitive swimming in Europe started around 1800, mostly using the breaststroke. In 1873, John Arthur Trudgen introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, Swimming has been recorded since prehistoric times, and the earliest records of swimming date back to Stone Age paintings from around 7,000 years ago. Written references date from 2000 BC, some of the earliest references include the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible, Beowulf, and other sagas
