Teaching Ocean Stewardship through Board Games

By Megan Buras, SRC intern When you think about ocean conservation, the last thing that probably comes to mind is board games, but scientists from Northern Germany have found a creative way to link the two (Koenigstein et al. 2020). In order to teach students the cognitive skills required to solve marine sustainability problems, they […]

How Engine Noise Can Protect Marine Protected Area

By Konnor Payne, SRC intern Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are internationally recognized areas of the ocean, with laws in place to protect natural or cultural resources. For instance, the Great Barrier Reef, where goals are to conserve endangered or commercially viable species, promote ecosystem health, and restore species diversity. As of 2018, there were 13,000 […]

The Power of Propagules: Restoring Coastal Marine Ecosystems

By Nina Colagiovanni, SRC intern As the health and extent of coastal marine ecosystems are at risk worldwide, scientists are working diligently to reverse the damage done. Propagules––structures such as fruits, seeds, larvae and more––act to propagate an organism into the next stage of its life-cycle. They can last from days to months or remain […]

The Importance of Connectivity in Marine Reserve Performance

By John Proefrock, SRC intern Marine Reserves are essential parts of ocean conservation across the world. They provide protection for sensitive species and prevent overfishing in areas essential for the recovery of those species. The effects of overfishing include a massive disruption of the marine food web which can cause dangerous rises in primary producers […]

The Great Barrier: The Road to Blue Restoration

By Oliver Topel, SRC intern This blog post covers the scientific paper Blue Restoration–Building Confidence and Overcoming Barriers, written by Phoebe J. Stewart Sinclair et al. The main subject of this paper is a process called “Blue Restoration,” which is the interventions made for the rehabilitation of marine and coastal habitats. Some examples of these […]

Traditional knowledge of Fishers versus an environmental disaster from mining waste in Central Brazil

By Rebecca Varnam, SRC intern In recent years, the depths of human impacts on the environment have become even more clear (Nyssen, 2004). These impacts are not just specific events that occur in single, isolated locations, but rather multiple events that occur around the world, and in multiple different forms (Phillips, 2001). Here, I am […]