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“The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.” – Jacques Yves Cousteau

“There are many ways to make positive impacts. No single individual is going to be able to reverse the whole decline, but to use an old expression: keep thinking globally and acting locally. The point is to never give up hope.” – Todd Barber, Reef Ball Foundation

“Use your own unique talents as a guiding force to act upon the knowledge you acquire. To effect change, we all must share what we know and discover.” – Slyvia Earle, “Her Deepness”

“Doing what you can do, making a small effort that you know is right because you can make a difference [is what I] suggest is the seed of hope for all of us. Find what you can do and do it.” – Stephen Palumbi, Stanford University

A spattering of wise words from some of the leading experts in the marine sciences – with one clear message: There is hope; for our seas and us.

This blue planet is composed of around 75% water, so why do we so often view the seas as what divides the 25% of the planet’s land we inhabit? In truth, the ocean connects us; one body of water that links us through a circulating dance of protein, goods, people and ideas.

While it is clear we face an oceanic tipping point, the resulting threats of marine biodiversity loss, including global food security, water quality and economic crises, can still be eliminated with the implementation of sustainable fisheries, pollution control and protection of key habitats (Worm et al. 2006). And as ocean advocate Ted Danson has said, “There are ways we can actually save the oceans with our ocean individual actions (Danson 2011).”

To improve the quality of our lives, our children’s lives and generations to come, we need a larger vision of hope that sees a society living in harmony with the oceans and nature. At RSMAS, we have a convergence of leading marine scientists, students and concerned individuals that form a community fundamentally connected to the ocean. And collaborating with similar communities, if we are able to convey and share that connection to a wider audience, then there certainly is cause to hope.

There are many questions to address though. How do we empower others to take action? What are the ocean solutions we want to convey? And which tools are the most effective for communicating them?

As a RSMAS graduate student, I aim to seek answers to some of these questions through a marine conservation media and outreach website I operate, ProjectBlueHope.com. The site’s goal is to highlight ocean successes, marine conservation solutions and the stories of positive ocean action.

If we can really understand why individuals and groups taking ocean conservation actions care, then there is the possibility of gleaning a blueprint for encouraging wider positive changes. In particular, to understand how to educate youth, the next generation, about ocean conservation, it seems we need to understand how, why, when and where we have currently been successful doing so. What is it that makes the younger generation care to the point of taking action? And does that give us hope for the overall future of our seas?

Maybe I’ll never meet the children of tomorrow that our marine conservation work will benefit. Maybe I will. Either way, I want them to know that I did everything I could to give them a life on a blue planet as wonderful as we’ve had the good fortune to have.

References
Danson, Ted. Oceana: Our Endangered Oceans and What We Can Do to Save Them. New York: Rodale, 2011.
Worm, A. R. et al. 2006. Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services. Science 314:787-790

- Christine Beggs
MPS Student – Marine Conservation
Founder, Project Blue Hope
www.ProjectBlueHope.com