Marine Conservation

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MarineBio is deeply committed to the conservation of the ocean and its marine life. We encourage you to get involved in marine conservation, whether you spend a weekend cleaning up a beach or writing your elected representatives to support environmental legislation. Unfortunately, the health of the ocean and marine life is often taken for granted, perhaps because the vast and powerful ocean seems invincible. But it is as vulnerable to harm by human activities as any other environmental realm.


A Sea Ethic Find out why we believe a sea ethic is the best solution to the problems faced by the ocean and marine life.	Ocean Dumping Waste in the ocean is detrimental to marine and human health.
Marine Conservation Biology Applying science to marine conservation.	Ocean Resources Tourism, mining, climate buffer... the value of the ocean as a resource is immeasurable.
Climate Change/Global Warming The #1 threat to marine life. What caused it and what must we do now?	Sustainable/Eco- Tourism Eco-tourism can be a really good thing. Find out ways to keep it sustainable.
Sustainable Fisheries The world's major fisheries are being fished above their sustainable yield.	Ways You Can Help? Discover 100 simple things we can all do that will make a difference today and tomorrow.
Biodiversity Biodiversity must be protected to help us understand how life evolves and ecosystems work.	Marine Conservation Organizations Organizations involved and making a difference.
Threatened & Endangered Species Species are decreasing at unsustainable rates.	Essays on Wildlife Conservation Essays on wildlife conservation in North America.
Habitat Conservation Increasing human populations have increased land use and exploitation of marine resources.	Marine Science & Conservation Forums Join us in the forums to discuss marine science and conservation.
Alien Species Aka non-indigenous or invasive species, these creatures can disrupt an ecosystem's balance by multiplying rapidly...	The Future We describe what might happen if the ocean is protected and the possible solutions to protect it.

100 Ways to Make a Difference

No matter what your economic standing, you can help save/restore/protect the environment and save money at the same time. You the consumer drive the market; products are made because you buy them. If you buy products that are better for the environment it will become profitable for companies to respond to the demand for environmentally-friendly products. It really is that simple »

Also see What you can do to save wildlife by Dr. Peter Moyle.

A Sea Ethic

Launching a Sea Ethic is Dr. Carl Safina's call for a stronger sense of right and wrong when it comes to the way we treat the ocean and marine life. It is a proposition for all to treat the ocean and its creatures with the same conservation ethic as many have for land and its creatures. It simply means that we should manage the sea's resources sustainably, that we should take strong measures to avoid destruction of habitats, species depletion, pollution, and other threats faced by the ocean that often goes unnoticed because the scars are not as evident as they are on land.

"Truly magnificent—Safina has done as much as anyone save Cousteau to change our relationship with the aquatic world." -Bill McKibben, The Boston Globe

MarineBio also highly recommends Dr. Safina's books, which describe many of our ocean's problems in ways that urges all of us to find equitable solutions. These books read like entertaining travel narratives, yet they powerfully convey important messages in an objective, eloquent, and compelling manner. » more...

Marine Conservation Biology : The Science of Maintaining the Sea's Biodiversity

by Michael E. Soule, Elliott A. Norse, Larry B. Crowder, Marine Conservation Biology Institute, Island Press, 2005
"Humans are terrestrial animals, and our capacity to see and understand the importance and vulnerability of life in the sea has trailed our growing ability to harm it. While conservation biologists are working to address environmental problems humans have created on land, loss of marine biodiversity, including extinctions and habitat degradation, has received much less attention. At the same time, marine sciences such as oceanography and fisheries biology have largely ignored issues of conservation."

Marine Conservation Biology brings together for the first time in a single volume leading experts from around the world to apply the lessons and thinking of conservation biology to marine issues. Contributors including James M. Acheson, Louis W. Botsford, James T. Carlton, Kristina Gjerde, Selina S. Heppell, Ransom A. Myers, Julia K. Parrish, Stephen R. Palumbi, and Daniel Pauly offer penetrating insights on the nature of marine biodiversity, what threatens it, and what humans can and must do to recover the biological integrity of the world's estuaries, coastal seas, and the ocean.

Sections examine: distinctive aspects of marine populations and ecosystems; threats to marine biological diversity, singly and in combination; place-based management of marine ecosystems; the often-neglected human dimensions of marine conservation.

Marine Conservation Biology breaks new ground by creating the conceptual framework for the new field of marine conservation biology—the science of protecting, recovering, and sustainably using the living sea. It synthesizes the latest knowledge and ideas from leading thinkers in disciplines ranging from larval biology to sociology, making it a must-read for research and teaching faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate and advanced undergraduate students."

"Candor and boldness have power. A vision based on both compassion for all life and solid science evokes respect and wonder and is far more effective than the mincing, qualified, soulless recommendations of committees and expert panels. True, there are times (like these) when it appears that nothing will stop the industrial and population juggernauts that are destroying life on this planet, not to mention the dignity and diversity of human cultures; such times require patience, humor, and solidarity between conservationists and humanitarians. This volume provides the foundation for such a declaration of interdependence of all life, oceanic and terrestrial, nonhuman and human."

"Even as humankind spends billions of dollars in the hope of detecting the faintest echoes of life on Mars, the only place in the universe where we know that life exists has rapidly been losing its distinguishing characteristic, its biological diversity, the diversity of genes, species, and ecosystems (Heywood 1995; Norse and McManus 1980; Norse et al. 1986; Office of Technology assessment 1987; Wilson 1988)."

ELLIOTT A. NORSE is the founder and president of Marine Conservation Biology Institute in Redmond, Washington. LARRY B. CROWDER is Stephen Toth Professor of Marine Biology at Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina. » Order Marine Conservation Biology : The Science of Maintaining the Sea's Biodiversity

Sustainable Fisheries

70% of the earth's commercially targeted fish species have been overfished to the point where their stocks are in grave danger of being depleted. Fish harvests have quadrupled since the 1950s and the competition for marketable catches has increased to the point where competition is driving governments to subsidize fishing vessels. How can this problem be resolved and who is working to resolve it? Can the fishing industry and conservation concerns reach consensus to find a sustainable solution? » more...

» Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood - The Blue Ocean Institute
» Oceans Alive - Eat Smart
» Seafood Watch List - Monterey Bay Aquarium
» The Empty Ocean: Plundering the World's Marine Life

"Pollution is a worldwide problem, and our fish comes from around the world," said Kate Mahaffey, toxins expert at the US Environmental Protection Agency. "No one is immune."

With contaminants in fish, she warned, "there is a very narrow range between levels with no effects, subtle effects and severe effects."

Governments tend to be more preoccupied with protecting national quotas against efforts to curb catches and preserve fish stocks, and are reluctant to spend the large sums necessary to test adequate samples in open waters.

Even when data is convincing, experts say, action falls short. Despite the clear risk from such long-lived large fish as swordfish, shark and types of tuna, public warnings are often not spelled out.

Smaller fish rich in fat can also be hazardous, although they are seldom flagged. Norwegian researchers say Baltic Sea herring carry up to 10 times as much contamination as salmon. A growing trend toward fish-farming adds new dangers, according to the specialists.

Marine Biodiversity

Pulitzer prize winning biologist Dr. E. O. Wilson, widely known as the father of biodiversity, said that the loss of biodiversity is the "folly for which our descendants are least likely to forgive us." What will our children say when they discover that generations before them destroyed what can never be replaced? Biological diversity in the ocean is much greater than biodiversity on land - a staggering concept, considering the abundance and variety of life on land - yet much more is known about terrestrial biodiversity. The ocean is not as accessible which accounts for part of the problem, but in addition, only in recent years has interest in marine biodiversity increased, likely due to the critically low populations of several key marine species. Threats to biological diversity in the ocean abound as commercially targeted species are overfished and fishing methods remain indiscriminate against non-targeted species. The use of cyanide and dynamite to harvest reef fish is threatening those communities at an alarming rate. Find out why preserving biodiversity is important and what is being done about it.

"Today's mass extinctions are unlike mass extinctions in the geologic past, in which tens of thousands of species died out following massive catastrophes such as asteroid collisions with the Earth and dramatic temperature changes—today's extinctions have a human face." - Richard B. Primack, Boston University, Essentials of Conservation Biology, p. 3, 2002

» 15,589 Species at Risk of Extinction
"It is clear that the situation facing our species is serious and getting worse. We must refocus and rethink the way in which society must respond to this global threat," says Achim Steiner, IUCN's Director General. "While most threats to biodiversity are human-driven, human actions alone can prevent many species from becoming extinct."

» Center for Applied Biodiversity Science
» Chapter 4: Biodiversity by Dr. Peter Moyle
» Marine Conservation Biology Institute

» Planetary Biodiversity Inventories - Mission to an (almost) unknown planet (NSF Fact Sheet) - What kinds of living things exist? Where do they live? How are they related? These are simple questions, but have few answers. Were life to be discovered today on another planet, resources would quickly be mustered to inventory its diversity. Yet we remain ignorant about most of the diversity of life on Earth. To date, only 5 to 15 percent of all life on our home base has been discovered and described.

» Nova Scotia Grey Seal Hunt, 2004 - How, exactly, to Kill an Ocean, by Debbie MacKenzie

"The sudden decline in the Nova Scotia offshore harbour seal population, and their apparent increasing presence near shore, echoes recent shifts in marine mammal populations that have been observed elsewhere in the world. The Steller sea lion population on Alaska’s offshore Aleutian Islands has fallen away rapidly in recent years, also showing signs of “nutritional stress,” while those living near the mainland still maintain their numbers. South African seals no longer breed at their traditional offshore island rookeries, but are increasingly colonizing the mainland and running into conflict with terrestrial predators. Mass starvation of seal pups in South Africa occurs now on a regular basis. The Hawaiian monk seal, inhabiting waters around the small outer Hawaiian islands, is disappearing due to starvation…and starving sea lions now regularly inundate marinas and estuaries in California..." - Debbie MacKenzie

Global Warming/Climate Change

The debate is finally over. Global warming is happening and is caused by fossil fuel emissions unnaturally increasing greenhouse gases (mainly CO2) in the earth's atmosphere. What impact does global warming have on the ocean? One tangible effect is the melting of ice sheets and glaciers at record levels. If this trend continues, sea levels will rise impacting the densely populated coastal areas of the planet. What are the current theories on global warming and what is being done to reverse the trend? » more...

» An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security - October 2003 (PDF)

» United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

» By 2050 Warming to Doom Million Species, Study Says - By 2050, rising temperatures exacerbated by human-induced belches of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases could send more than a million of Earth's land-dwelling plants and animals down the road to extinction, according to a recent study.

Threatened and Endangered Species

Until recently, humankind seemed to view the ocean as a source of infinite resources. Its vast size and depth and unexplored frontiers made the ocean appear invulnerable to overexploitation. The truth is that the populations of many species are decreasing at an unsustainable rate, and the number of species listed as endangered from marine life families such as whales, dolphins, manatees and dugongs, salmon, seabirds, sea turtles, and sharks to name a few, are on the rise. Although it is difficult to perceive because marine life is not as visible as animals on land, it is equally if not more vulnerable to problems such as habitat destruction and overexploitation. » more...

Habitat Conservation

Everyone knows that the northern spotted owl is threatened because of destruction to the forests of the Pacific Northwest - but what will happen to the Pacific seahorse if its habitat continues to decline? Due to the lack of a strong public sea ethic, marine life doesn't appear on the conservation radar screen as much as its terrestrial counterparts, but ocean habitats are in decline as well, and therefore the creatures they support are too (which in turn support us). Most marine habitat destruction is caused by pollution, commercial fishing equipment, coastal development, and other human activity. Much of it can be avoided with simple measures. Click here to learn more about this problem and what some organizations are doing about it.

» Song for the Blue Ocean: Encounters Along the World's Coasts and Beneath the Seas

Alien Species

The introduction of non-native species to an ecosystem is one of the major causes of decreased biodiversity. Termed alien species, they are also known as exotic, introduced, non-indigenous, or invasive species. As the names imply, these species do not belong to ecosystems in which they are either intentionally or unintentionally placed. They tend to disrupt the ecosystem's balance by multiplying rapidly. These species are often plants, fishes, mollusks, crustaceans, algae, bacteria or viruses. » more...

Ocean Pollution

Although the ocean covers two-thirds of the surface of the Earth, it is surprisingly vulnerable to human influences such as overfishing, pollution from run-off, and dumping of waste from human activity. This kind of pollution can have serious economic and health impacts by killing marine life and damaging habitats and ecosystems. Toxins from pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals used on farms contaminate nearby rivers that flow into the ocean, which can cause extensive loss of marine life in bays and estuaries, leading to the creation of dead zones. The dumping of industrial, nuclear and other waste into oceans was legal until the early 1970s when it became regulated; however dumping still occurs illegally everywhere. » more...

Ocean Resources

The ocean is one of Earth's most valuable natural resources. It provides food in the form of fish and shellfish—about 200 billion pounds are caught each year. It's used for transportation—both travel and shipping. It provides a treasured source of recreation for humans. It is mined for minerals (salt, sand, gravel, and some manganese, copper, nickel, iron and cobalt can be found in the deep sea) and drilled for crude oil. The ocean plays a critical role in removing carbon from the atmosphere and providing oxygen. It regulates Earth's climate. The ocean is an increasingly important source of biomedical organisms with enormous potential for fighting disease. These are just a few examples of the importance of the ocean to life on land. Explore them in greater detail to understand why we must keep the ocean healthy for future generations.... » more...

Sustainable Eco-Tourism

Sustainable tourism, also known as eco-tourism, is defined as leisure travel that provides tourists with an educational and adventurous experience visiting complex and fascinating ecosystems and their associated cultures and traditions. The concept of eco-tourism began in the late 1980s and increased in popularity in 2002 during the United Nations "International Year of Ecotourism." According to environmental and other organizations, eco-tourism should have a minimal impact on both the environment and the culture. Eco-tourism should inform tourists about what's needed to sustain the environment they're visiting, and should also help local populations understand the importance and value of their home. » more...

Marine Conservation Organizations

MarineBio has compiled the following list of conservation organizations working on a variety of issues related to marine conservation. We encourage you to read through them and support the organizations doing work in areas that you feel strongly about. In our increasingly conservative economic climate, funding by private foundations and institutions is scarce. Making a donation is one of the best things you can do to help make sure these organizations are able to accomplish their goals. You can also write to your elected representatives to encourage them to support legislation that will protect marine life and the ocean. Many of the organizations listed will help you compose a letter, and can even tell you who your representatives are! » more...

The Future

From our beaches and coastlines to the remotest reaches of the open oceans, human actions are despoiling the sea no less than the land. Scientists have documented the disappearance of species from whale-sized Steller's sea cows (Hydrodamalis gigas) to fingernail-sized eelgrass limpets (Lottia alveus), but this is just the tip of the iceberg. » more...

Brave New Ocean: World's Oceans & Coral Reef webcast

50 Ways to Save the Ocean

by Philippe Cousteau (Foreword), David Helvarg, Jim Toomey

The oceans, and the challenges they face, are so vast that it’s easy to feel powerless to protect them. 50 Ways to Save the Ocean, written by veteran environmental journalist David Helvarg, focuses on practical, easily-implemented actions everyone can take to protect and conserve this vital resource. Well-researched, personal, and sometimes whimsical, the book addresses daily choices that affect the ocean's health: what fish should and should not be eaten; how and where to vacation; storm drains and driveway run-off; protecting local water tables; proper diving, surfing, and tide pool etiquette; and supporting local marine education. Helvarg also looks at what can be done to stir the waters of seemingly daunting issues such as toxic pollutant runoff; protecting wetlands and sanctuaries; keeping oil rigs off shore; saving reef environments; and replenishing fish reserves.

» Get a copy at Amazon today

Essays on Wildlife Conservation

MarineBio is proud to present Essays on Wildlife Conservation written and edited by Dr. Peter Moyle, et al. for an introductory course on wildlife conservation taught at the University of California, Davis. The essays were written for students who are not only biology majors and are broad in scope. These chapters provide an introduction to the history of wildlife in North America, biodiversity, natural selection, conservation biology, ecology, conservation legislation, alien species, wildlife and pollution, and things we can all do to save wildlife. We think you will find that they are not only fascinating to read but also very useful toward understanding the myriad of issues concerning conservation efforts today. » more...

Please feel free to contact us if you have any comments or suggestions.

» The Plankton Forums: Marine Conservation Forum
» The Father of All Mass Extinctions - Peter Ward
» Is The World Ready To Accept Responsibility And Take The Action Needed To Protect Our Marine Resources?

"Man has become by far the greatest predator of all time. As populations mount and land-grown food supplies are unable to feed the growing numbers of the hungry, man is turning more and more to the sea for his food. On land man has slowly learned to conserve the soil lest it stop producing crops. But on the ocean, man is a hunter only. He takes but returns little. If the bounty of the sea is not to be exhausted, man must learn to farm it as he farms the land, by sowing as well as reaping." -The Ocean World of Jacques Cousteau, 1975

"The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction." Rachel Carson

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." -Immanuel Kant

"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth." -Henry Beston, 1928

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