The Atlas of Global Conservation: an in-depth look that is accessible to all

Conservation is a broad, multi-faceted issue and its implementation, or lack of, goes beyond the saving of a particular species or ecosystem. There are social and economic implications that also come into play, making it much more than simply a call to "save the sharks" or "save the rainforest".

I have had the pleasure of being approached by publishers and distributors to do reviews of nature or conservation books and DVDs, but one caught my attention on my own that methodically lays out the varied aspects of conservation in a way that is detailed yet easy for even the most uninitiated on the subject to understand. The Atlas of Global Conservation, prepared by The Nature Conservancy and authored by experts in the field, takes on the expansive topic of conservation by leading the reader through its many components step-by-step, leading towards actions being taken, solutions, and what lies ahead.

First, the book breaks it all down: global eco-regions; habitats like forests, grasslands, coastal and coral reef marine habitats and more; then the whole range of species including plants, mammals, freshwater and marine creatures, reptiles and amphibians, and others. Each are portrayed globally, well-defined on maps that show concentrations and distribution.

Then the book turns to the issues that are at work which brought about the need for conservation in the first place: the human population, consumption, climate change, habitat loss through development, and so on. When individually identified and illustrated globally, it is staggering to see the impact that one species, mankind, is having on the planet.

But this is not a doomsday volume. The Atlas of Global Conservation identifies where and how action is being taken, from land and marine protected areas to economic-based solutions that benefit both developing societies and industrial nations. The book identifies the larger issues of international cooperation while also noting the specific efforts being done by individuals and groups to restore wetlands, forests, and coral reefs.

"In 528 AD, the Roman emperor Justinian declared that his empire's rivers, streams, and surrounding lands should be protected, because, together with the air, running water, the sea and seashore, they were 'common to all mankind.' It was a novel idea at the time: that the state should help protect nature as opposed to private property."

It may have taken fifteen hundred years to bring us to where we are today, but we have always known deep down that conservation needed to be part of our existence, in harmony with our personal aspirations and accomplishments. The Atlas of Global Conservation neatly shows any one, regardless of their current knowledge on the subject, just where we are, what we are faced with, and perhaps most importantly, what we can do about it.Available at Amazon.com.

Citizens of the Sea: making sense of the marine census

The ocean is vast. For people to contemplate its complexity, requires years of study and an open and encyclopedic mind. So, for most of us, we focus our attention on areas of personal interest - a particular species like whales, sharks, or turtles; or ecosystems like coral reefs or saltwater marshlands - something we can wrap our thoughts around more easily. The big picture is often overwhelming and can lead us to believe that the oceans, overall, must be doing fine because there's just so much of it to go around.

With the recent completion of the Census of Marine Life, this 10-year project affords scientists, educators, and policy makers with a wealth of detailed information cataloged in a database of over 22 million entries - a snapshot of the ocean's biodiversity that is comprehensive and yet, by admission of those involved, just scratching the surface. Ian Poiner, chair of the Census Scientific Steering Committee, summed it up this way, "More than 2,000 scientists. 80-plus nations. 400 expeditions. $650 million. 10,000-plus possible new species. 2,500-plus publications."

One of those publications is Citizens of the Sea, written by one of the project's scientific leaders, Nancy Knowlton, Ph.D. (National Geographic Society, 2010). The book combines images and information from the census with a well-structured overview of the "who, why, and how many" of marine biodiversity that is both instructional and accessible. This is not a burdensome volume intended for just a researcher or academic; nor is it a literary softball catering to grade-schoolers. Knowlton's personable writing style affords her the ability to cover a lot of ground and provide the reader with an illuminating window into the aquatic world.

In a recent interview, I asked Dr. Knowlton about her involvement with the census and what the overall results have been:
RTSea: How did you first become involved in the Census of Marine Life?
NK: I was a member of the US National Committee on the Census of Marine Life (most of the world was represented by national or regional groups working on the Census). At one of our meetings we decided you can't have a Census of Marine Life without censusing coral reefs (the rainforests of the sea), which is how the coral reef program was launched and which I helped lead.
RTSea: What do you feel is the main contribution of the Census that sets it apart from other research?
NK: The census was the first of its kind to focus on the overall biodiversity of the entire ocean, and to link its past, present and future. There are many programs that have tackled specific ecological questions related to the sea, but biodiversity is often ignored. The problem is that except for a few groups (like fishes, corals and snails) we know so little that biodiversity is hard to study in its entirety.
RTSea: Will the Census be analyzing and drawing conclusions or basically providing data for others to work with?
NK: The Census has already analyzed and drawn many conclusions since it began ten years ago. But there is also a wealth of information in the giant electronic database that the Census created, which will continue to grow and inform future studies.

In tackling this "wealth of information" provided by the census, Citizens of the Sea focuses the first eleven chapters on the animals themselves then the last few chapters turn to interaction with man and, ultimately, the impact we are having on the oceans today. Each chapter includes topics that are covered with a single page of text and an accompanying page of images from the census catalog. As an example, a chapter on Appearances Are Everything included topics like Blending In, Deception & Distraction, Standing Out, Stranger Than Fiction, and more. This helps to make the information easy to digest. In fact, I often set aside a few minutes, intent on reading a topic or two, and found myself having read twenty pages in no time.

Many of the most striking images included in Citizens of the Sea are those of the ocean's smaller creatures - which actually make up the greatest portion of the ocean's biomass. From bacteria to plankton to tiny pteropods, fish, and crabs; by sheer numbers the oceans truly belong to the smallest of creatures. While this expands our concept of marine diversity, it also highlights its fragility.

RTSea: What did you personally find to be the most remarkable find or findings from the Census?
NK: Well, our project found that there is more marine biodiversity in a couple of square meters (yards) of coral reef than in all of Europe's seas. I knew the biodiversity of reefs was enormous but that still really surprised me.
RTSea: What do you hope that the general public and/or the policy makers will learn from the Census?
NK: I hope they learn that biodiversity is fascinating, inspiring, and valuable, but cannot be taken for granted.

By examining many aspects of marine living with information on a variety of creatures, Citizens of the Sea deftly illustrates both the complexity and the commonality within marine biodiversity. From 200-ton blue whales to the 350,000 bacteria that can be found in a single drop of seawater, it is an astonishing web of life that must also depend on us as much as we depend on it.

RTSea: As a nature filmmaker, I am always concerned with finding the right balance between showing the beauty of nature and making sure that people realize the threats and damage nature is enduring. Are you concerned that the Census, theorizing that there are millions of species in the sea, might make some believe that the oceans are healthy and less threatened than others would have us believe?
NK: This is always a potential problem, but I think the Census did a good job in doing both - celebrating diversity while documenting what we have already lost or could easily lose.
RTSea: What do you hope readers will take away by reading Citizens of the Sea; what do you hope it will motivate them to do?
NK: The sea is a wondrous place but we need to take care of it. There is an almost infinite variety in the way marine creatures make a living, and even though we don't live in the sea, we depend on it. The Citizens of the Sea both amaze and amuse us, in addition to providing much of the oxygen that we breathe and the food that we eat. But they cannot vote and are counting on us to protect them.

With engaging writing, a bevy of sidebar facts, and striking photographs, Citizens of the Sea offers something for everyone - from those studying the oceans to the mildly curious to, well, those who just don't have a clue. It succeeds in framing the big picture of marine biodiversity as a nation of interdependent citizens who can't vote but rely on the roles given to each by nature as a means of survival of the whole.

As outsiders, what kind of diplomacy shall mankind exercise? Are we to be good neighbors or invading plunderers?

Citizens of the Sea is available at National Geographic, Amazon, and other bookstores.

The World Is Blue: review of Dr. Sylvia Earle's new book

THE WORLD IS BLUE

How Our Fate and the Ocean’s Are One

Dr. Sylvia Earle’s new book declares that conservation is promoting the wrong color

In her latest book, The World Is Blue, famed oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle makes a passionate and methodical argument for conserving the world’s oceans – not as one more item to be added to an ecological wish list, but as an issue that needs to be at the top of that list. The oceans need our undivided attention as it is these life-giving bodies of water that impact, regulate, and govern the environmental processes on land and in the air on which we depend.

“Even if you never have a chance to see or touch the ocean, the ocean touches you with every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, every bite you consume. Everyone, everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the existence of the sea.”

At a time when going “green” is both necessary and trendy, Earle takes nothing away from our current terrestrial focus, but makes the strong case that the health of the oceans – the “blue” that makes up over 80% of the earth’s surface – must be of equal, if not primary, concern. Using facts gleamed from recognized scientific research and anecdotes from personal experience and those of other oceanographers, scientists and conservationists, she weaves a complex tapestry of interdependent marine processes that give us the majority of our air, the source of our weather, and the greatest diversity of life on the planet. But it is a fabric that is being torn to shreds through our historically misplaced belief that the ocean is ours for the taking.

Earle takes you through the current state of the ocean step by step. First, she examines the taking of ocean wildlife, from mammals to fish to shellfish, and our belief in the ocean’s limitless bounty as personified in the concept of Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) – which drove much of our fishery management policies since the 1930s by assuming that a sealife population, when heavily fished, will respond with maximum reproductive efficiency, thereby producing a surplus that will sustain the population. Great plan, but no one remembered to tell the fish, and so, by the mid-70’s, MSY was unsustainable as were many commercial fisheries as a result.

From there the book takes the reader through the other major issues threatening the seas today. Plastics and their consequences on sealife and fundamental chemical processes in the ocean; the loss of biodiversity – from minute phytoplankton to some of the ocean’s largest animals; drilling, mining, and shipping; and the controversial topic of today: climate change.

“It has taken about four billion years for living systems, mostly in the sea, to transform the lifeless ingredients of early Earth into the Eden that makes our lives possible, and less than a century for us to destabilize those ancient rhythms. Present climate change policies focus on the atmosphere, largely neglecting the ocean, despite ample evidence that the ocean drives and regulates planetary climate, weather, temperature, and chemistry.”

Policies. This is a key word as the book moves into an overview of the opportunities and solutions that can make a difference. Whether discussing the need for ocean exploration, reviewing the potentials and pitfalls of commercial aquaculture, or promoting the importance of Marine Protected Areas (a proven idea which currently only covers less than one percent of the total area of the sea), Earle’s experience in the federal and international arena comes through.

As a former chief scientist for the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and, currently, explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society, leader of the Sustainable Seas Expeditions, and active participant in a long list of policy-making organizations and marine think tanks, Earle brings a subtle political perspective that you do not find in many other books on the subject. Personal involvement is important and she has plenty of suggestions for each of us to consider. But the book is peppered with indications as to what is being done in the decision-making circles, which kept reminding me of the need for making our elected officials accountable.

“Knowing is the key to caring, and with caring there is hope that people will be motivated to take positive actions. They might not care even if they know, but they can’t care if they are unaware.”

The World Is Blue is an extremely accessible book, one that would provide a conservationist with logical arguments and reassurance while providing enlightenment and a new way of thinking for the yet unconverted. This is not a tome to doom and gloom. Yes, it pulls no punches and lays out the consequences if we choose not to act, but what makes this book an uplifting call to arms rather than a scolding is Earle’s enthusiasm and sense of wonder with the ocean. It’s obvious to the ear at her many speaking engagements and when I have been fortunate to chat with her one-on-one – and it comes through loud and clear in The World Is Blue. This is someone who truly loves the sea and loves life and knows how they are forever intertwined. A must read.

Richard Theiss
RTSea Productions
RTSea Blog: keeping an eye on Nature
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