philosophy – Southern Fried Science

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

This year’s Jairo Mora Sandoval Award for Courage in Conservation goes to Patima Tungpuchayakul! Between August 2014 and October 2016, Patima helped rescue 3,000 trafficked fish workers stranded on remote islands in Indonesian waters by the Thai fishing industry from their slavery. Read more about Patima’s tireless work to liberate enslaved peoples in the fishing industry.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Atlas Obscura is on a roll this week with some seriously fabulous ocean coverage, including my new favs:

The Canoe That Changed Hawai‘i: How Hōkūleʻa and its amazing voyage across the Pacific helped kickstart a Hawaiian cultural renaissance.
Abalonia: The Island Nation That Never Was.

The wreck of the Jalisco. ASSOCIATED PRESS

Whale made from 5 tons of plastic waste breaches Bruges Canal.

The Levee (A featured project that emerged from Oceandotcomm)

Stitching Hope for the Coast – Christmas trees provide coastal optimism by the incredible Dr. Guertin.

Of all the questions I am asked as a deep-sea biologist, the hardest to answer is “why conserve deep-sea hydrothermal vents?” Sure there are the classic canards of economics (vents produce valuable minerals) and biotechnology (vents house unique organisms that may produce useful pharmaceutical or technological products) but these are hollow, belie a conservation ethic driven by human selfishness, and pander to an exploitative system. Beyond those lie a series of high minded, though vague, ethics about preserving biodiversity, protecting unique habitats, and understanding an ecosystem more alien than any science fiction story before destroying it.

Our global society is coming around to the idea that biodiversity is valuable in its own right, that species are precious, and that we have a duty to minimize the damage we inflict upon the world. We still have a long way to go, but the wind is in the sails and the ship is coming about. Despite this growing environmental ethic, the tragic reality is that before 1977 we didn’t even know hydrothermal vents existed and if every vent community was wiped from the face of the seafloor, few outside of a handful of fortunate scientists and deep-sea enthusiasts would notice.

So why conserve deep-sea hydrothermal vents?

Tag: philosophy

Voyaging canoes, failed sea-steading sea states, breaching ocean plastic, deep-sea mining, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: July 2, 2018

Why conserve deep-sea hydrothermal vents?