There’s a tight and surprising link between the ocean’s health and ours, says marine biologist Stephen Palumbi. He shows how toxins at the bottom of the ocean food chain find their way into our bodies, with a shocking story of toxic contamination from a Japanese fish market. His work points a way forward for saving the oceans’ health — and humanity’s.
Stephen Palumbi studies the way humanity and ocean life interact and intertwine. His insights into our evolving codependence offer practical solutions for protecting both the ocean and ourselves.
Palumbi has a new book out that points out the power of ordinary citizens in saving their own environments (and thus, their economies and their health).
The Death and Life of Monterey Bay: A Story of Revival, uses Monterey Bay as an example of how environmental devastation really can get better – if ordinary citizens get involved. Among the citizens who made a difference in this case are an unconventional scientist, a handful of students with a vision, and a pioneering, rabble-rousing female mayor, Julia Platt, whose story has never been told, but who established the first marine reserve in the U.S.
Steve’s current work on resilient corals in America Samoa also focuses on this “solution-oriented” science – identifying what has worked and how to do it elsewhere.
See the book’s website at http://deathandlifemontereybay.stanford.edu/index.htm.