The International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC) was held on May 19 – 24 at George Mason University in Washington, DC.  The meeting was attended by over 1200 people, and addressed themes such as climate change; the land-sea interface; ecosystem-based management; and poverty and globalization.  Cross-cutting issues included marine protected areas (MPAs); education; outreach and capacity building; governance arrangements; fisheries and aquaculture; and economics.  The conference was devoted to practical conservation, that is, using science to drive marine policy and policy implementation.  The most important section of the conference from the perspective of our organization (the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, or ASOC) was a symposium organized by our colleague Dr. David Ainley titled:  The Ross Sea, Antarctica:  Science, Policy, and the Public in a Pristine Marine Ecosystem.

The symposium in part explained why the Ross Sea constitutes a unique ecosystem on par with such famous sites as the Galapagos Islands and other World Heritage sites, even though the Ross Sea does not yet have the same name recognition as some of those places.   

Map copyright WDCS/ASOC.

As part of Vancouver Aquarium’s celebration for World Oceans Day - June 8th, 2009, Vancouver Aquarium is hosting Oceans Week Trivia online to test your knowledge of our Aquarium animals.  It is your chance to win a family membership to the Vancouver Aquarium and an amazing Sea Turtle encounter.  Visit Vancouver Aquarium site to watch the Oceans Week Trivia videos and answer the questions. Then enter to win the Oceans Week Trivia grand prize.

Image Credit: Vancouver Aquarium/ Matt Simpson

Play Vancouver Aquarium’s Oceans Week Trivia today at the Vancouver Aquarium official website.

The effects of pollution, carbon build up in the ocean, extinction, loss of coral reefs, over-fishing, and global warming is increasingly becoming more detrimental to our marine life and marine world.

Fortunately our marine ecosystems have Corey Bradshaw on their side.   As a conservation ecologist, Corey studies these ecosystems with a passion, trying to understands the interactions between plants and animals that make up these ecosystems as well as what human activity is doing to them. 

He has realized long ago that conservation and awareness is crucial to the survival of these living things and carries on the long tradition of studying and trying to understand these ecosystems at the School of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Adelaide in South Australia. 

The global ocean conservation organization has some major ocean campaigns ready for protecting the world's most vast bodies of water.  With leading marine scientists, economists, activists, lawyers, advocates, and policymakers from all over the world on its side and important projects for conservation like dirty fishing, climate change, and shark and sea turtle conservation, it's taking full charge with its campaign!

We had the amazing opportunity to speak with lead Oceana blogger and Online Editor Fellow Emily Fisher on some of the group's strongest programs and most important contributions to protect the world's oceans.  Read Emily's choice worsds below, then log onto their official site to find out how you can help!

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are not terribly exciting to look at – two-inch, shrimp-like crustaceans – but they are an absolutely critical part of the Antarctic ecosystem.  Without them, many penguin, whale, and seal species would starve.  Krill is thus the base of the Antarctic food web, and of high importance.  Historically, krill have not been as desirable to humans as to marine life, due to their small size, salty taste, and tendency to spoil shortly after harvesting, but that may all be changing.  Antarctic krill harvests are rising due to a growing demand for krill oil, which is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, and for cheap feed for aquaculture.  There are also a number of cosmetics that use substances derived from krill.

Krill are relatively abundant compared to other marine species (estimates range from 50- 500 million metric tones of total biomass).  However, even these large numbers cannot protect them the same problems of overfishing that plague so many other marine species.  Better fishing technologies enable much larger catches of krill at one time.  One recently updated ship is now capable of catching 120,000 tonnes in a single fishing season.  Onboard facilities have also improved, allowing for better and faster processing.  Krill fishing has become an increasingly profitable and attractive business.

“So.  What happened to our fish?” asks The Future.

“Um.  Well.  We ate them,” respond the people who were hired to protect the very marine life that directly or indirectly wound up on their dinner table: wild salmon, tuna, coral reefs.

The culprit of the overfishing crisis is small but insatiable: the human stomach.  But most people working in marine science and marine conservation still consume the animals they work to protect.  Often, this is done under the rationale that there is a way to manage fish sustainably and that if we followed that way, we would actually have more fish for human consumption.  That could be true.  But that is certainly not true today.