June 13, 2005

UH Oceanographer Calls for Action on Marine Protected Areas

Craig Smith

UH oceanographer Craig Smith joined 38 ocean experts in issuing a joint statement urging “the nations of the world to fulfill their commitment to the future of the oceans” through active support of marine protected areas. Smith, who was named a fellow of the Pew Marine Conservation Program in 2004, signed the statement that calls for local involvement in planning, managing and implementing marine protected areas. Experts agree that the world's oceans are in crisis as studies show extreme depletion of fish and marine life. Scientific evidence continues to accumulate that these protected areas can do much to safeguard ocean life and habitats.

Smith’s conservation efforts focus on the vast and poorly understood deep sea, where high diversity, fragile habitats and slow recovery rates allow human activities to be especially damaging. He is utilizing his Pew Marine Conservation Fellowship to design marine protected areas in the Pacific Ocean, with the goal of conserving the delicate and diverse ecosystems of seamounts and abyssal plains.

Read the press release.

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