Author: Chris Parsons

Dr. Chris Parsons has been involved in whale and dolphin research for over two decades and has been involved in projects on every continent. Dr. Parsons is an Associate Professor at George Mason University as well as the undergraduate coordinator for their environmental science program. He’s a member of the scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), has been involved in organizing four of the International Marine Conservation Congresses (IMCC) (the world’s largest academic marine conservation conference) and two of the International Congresses for Conservation Biology. He was a Governor of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) for nearly a decade and also served two terms as the president of the SCB Marine Section. and he's currently on the Board of Directors of the American Cetacean Society, the Society for Marine Mammalogy and the SCB Conservation Marketing Working Group. In addition, Dr. Parsons has published over 140 scientific papers and book chapters and has written a textbook on marine mammal biology & conservation and co-edited a book on marine wildlife conflict resolution.

Ocean scientists need to learn a lesson from NASA

April 14, 2026April 14, 2026 Chris Parsons No Comments

Exploration, Oceanography for Everyone, Popular Culture, Science

My social media this week was full of space. When Artemis I splashed down, the world watched in awe. When the James Webb Space Telescope unrolled its golden mirrors, it felt like a win for humanity. NASA has mastered the art of making space science matter to the public. Meanwhile, ocean science (the study of … Read More “Ocean scientists need to learn a lesson from NASA” »

How to fix the UN Decade of Ocean Science

April 9, 2026 Chris Parsons No Comments

Exploration, Oceanography for Everyone, Open Science, Policy, Science

In a previous post an uncomfortable reality was highlighted: that the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) has, so far, delivered more branding than transformation. Despite much initial hyping, it has really failed to deliver on its promises so far. That may sound harsh. But halfway through the decade, its biggest outputs … Read More “How to fix the UN Decade of Ocean Science” »

The UN Decade of Ocean Science: A failure to launch

April 1, 2026 Chris Parsons

Uncategorized

Back in 2017, the United Nations announced something that sounded genuinely exciting: a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030). The idea was to have ten years of coordinated global investment in ocean science to help solve the ocean’s biggest problems, such as climate change, marine biodiversity collapse, pollution and fisheries mismanagement. As well … Read More “The UN Decade of Ocean Science: A failure to launch” »

Phantom science – how “AI slop” is making environmental policy

March 30, 2026March 31, 2026 Chris Parsons 1 Comment

Academic life, Policy, Science

There’s a new specter haunting environmental governance, and it doesn’t rattle ghostly chains, it’s its generating phantom science. Recently, I was reading a government report trying to find scientific justifications for environmental actions when I ran into some citations that looked interesting. So, I tried to look them up. Despite a full, official looking citation … Read More “Phantom science – how “AI slop” is making environmental policy” »

We Need a “Starfleet” for the Oceans

March 30, 2026 Chris Parsons

Exploration, Uncategorized

There’s a particular kind of optimism baked into the Star Trek franchise that feels almost alien in 2026. It’s not the warp drives, transporters or other advanced technology. But rather it’s the idea that a uniformed service could exist primarily for exploration, science, diplomacy, and the collective good. “Starfleet” (the organization in the Star Trek … Read More “We Need a “Starfleet” for the Oceans” »

Come to the geek side of #scicomm: Marine science education by Dungeons & Dragons

February 18, 2020February 18, 2020 Chris Parsons

Uncategorized

A couple of years ago, several of the people organizing the International Marine Conservation Congress let slip in their planning discussions that they played Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). There are many of us of a certain age that remember fondly playing in our youth, some of us have kids who are now getting of an age where we can, in turn, teach them how to play, and some were drawn in by the surge in Youtube and podcast shows like the hugely popular “Critical Role” where literally millions of people turn in to watch a bunch of nerds play Dungeons and Dragons … and have fun.

This led to the idea of playing a game at the conference. After more discussion, perhaps helped by a few drinks, the idea was spawned that perhaps we could make this game marine-themed and educational? Maybe even play this game in front of an audience at the conference? Perhaps even record it and share it online…?!

Egosystem management. Or how tantrums and unprofessional behavior are hindering conservation

September 2, 2019September 2, 2019 Chris Parsons

Academic life, Conservation

In helping to organize several meetings and events for conservation groups, I’ve frequently encountered conservation professionals loudly declaiming “Don’t you know who I am!” and expecting special treatment. Recently I got an email from someone whose abstract was rejected by a conference committee I was assisting, in which they had quite a tantrum. There were lots of … Read More “Egosystem management. Or how tantrums and unprofessional behavior are hindering conservation” »

Everything you need to know about conservation you can learn from Alien(s)

August 8, 2018August 10, 2018 Chris Parsons

Conservation, Popular Culture

As a provider of advice on how to do effective conservation, Southern Fried Science has previously looked to such as The Game of Thrones for inspiration. Today we look at another famous source of conservation tips: Alien (and Aliens)…

A single charismatic animal can be a great motivator for action.

Scientists sometimes have self interests that can derail a project.

Just when you think everything is going ok a crisis hits…

Beware the ghost! The problem of conference ‘ghosting’

August 7, 2018August 8, 2018 Chris Parsons

Academic life

Ghosting – the practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication.

Have you ever seen a ghost at a conference? That’s when a presentation is in the program, and the audience is assembled expectantly, and the presenter never turns up. Ghosting is becoming increasingly common at conferences, and as a meeting organizer it’s incredibly frustrating. Conferences only have a limited number of presentation slots. So, if someone says they are going to attend, and then don’t, that’s a slot that could have been taken by someone else. For a student, or someone early in their career, having a conference presentation slot could make a huge difference. So for someone to ‘waste’ a presentation slot by simply not turning up, you are being unthinking towards colleagues as well as the meeting organizers.