The Marine Biologist Issue 24

ISSUE 24 OCTOBER 2022 ISSN 2052-5273
THE MAGAZINE OF THE MARINE BIOLOGICAL COMMUNITY
MEETING BIG
CHALLENGES
WITH BIG
SOLUTIONS
IN LARGE-SCALE
MARINE PROTECTED
AREAS
DOES MARINE
BIOLOGY HAVE
AN IMAGE
PROBLEM?
CHANGING THE
NARRATIVE FOR THE
POWERS THAT BE
THE FISH AND FISHERS
OF THE BAY OF BENGAL
september 2022

september 2022
MEETING BIG
CHALLENGES
WITH BIG
SOLUTIONS
IN LARGE-SCALE
MARINE PROTECTED
AREAS
ISSUE 24 OCTOBER 2022 ISSN 2052-5273
THE
Marine
BiologiSt
THE MAGAZINE OF THE MARINE BIOLOGICAL COMMUNITY
DOES MARINE
BIOLOGY HAVE
AN IMAGE
PROBLEM?
CHANGING THE
NARRATIVE FOR THE
POWERS THAT BE
contents
18
UNTOLD
STORIES
THE FISH AND FISHERS
OF THE BAY OF BENGAL
ON THE COVER:
UNTOLD STORIES
The fish and fishers
of the Bay of Bengal
REGULAR
16
03 EDITORIAL
© Juliet Brodie
06
IN BRIEF
04 IN BRIEF
Current ocean issues and
Association news.
AN OCEAN OF
SCIENCE
06 STRUCTURAL
COLOUR IN
SEAWEEDS
Dazzling displays are more
than meets the eye. By
Juliet Brodie.
07 WHITHER
COCCOLITHOPHORES
IN A CHANGING
OCEAN?
Ocean acidification affects
tiny algal cells’ capacity to
calcify. By Colin Brownlee
and Glen Wheeler.
MARINE POLICY
08 UN OCEANS 2022 –
A POST-MEETING
REFLECTION
Matt Frost gives the
insider’s view.
FEATURES
09 HAVE YOU ASKED THE
FISHERS HOW TO
SAFEGUARD THE FISH?
Enchantment and ecosocial
justice in the Bay of
Bengal with Alifa Haque.
14 MARINE BIOLOGY
MATTERS IN THE
CLIMATE AND
BIODIVERSITY CRISIS
Dan Laffoley outlines why
marine biology is a key part of
our global knowledge system.
16 DOES MARINE BIOLOGY
HAVE AN IMAGE
PROBLEM?
Matt Frost argues that
the discipline of marine
biology deserves greater
recognition.
18 MEETING BIG
CHALLENGES WITH
BIG SOLUTIONS
Large-scale marine
protected areas attract
attention but Daniela Sturm
asks what is behind the
headlines?
22 RESEARCH VESSEL
AND INSTRUMENT
MOORING TIPS
Top tips for scientists and
crew from an experienced
sea captain.
The Marine Biologist is the Membership
magazine of the Marine Biological Association
The Marine Biological Association
The Laboratory
Citadel Hill
Plymouth
PL1 2PB
Editor
Guy Baker
editor@mba.ac.uk
+44 (0)1752 426 331
Executive Editor
Matt Frost
matf@mba.ac.uk
+44 (0)1752 426 343
@thembauk
Editorial Board
Guy Baker, Eliane Bastos, Matthew Bunce,
Matt Frost, Kartik Shanker, Sophie Stafford.
Membership
Alex Street
membership@mba.ac.uk
+44 (0)1752 426 347
www.mba.ac.uk/our-membership
ISSN: 2052-5273
www.mba.ac.uk/our-membership/our-magazine
Views expressed in The Marine Biologist are those
of the authors and do not necessarily represent
those of the Marine Biological Association.
Copyright © the Marine Biological
Association 2022.
The Marine Biologist is published by
the Marine Biological Association,
Registered Charity No. 1155893.
We welcome your articles, letters and reviews,
and we can advertise events. Please contact us
for details, or see the magazine website at:
www.mba.ac.uk/our-membership/our-magazine
The Association permits single copying of individual
articles for private study or research, irrespective
of where the copying is done. Multiple copying
of individual articles for teaching purposes is also
permitted without specific permission. For copying
or reproduction for any other purpose, written
permission must be sought from the Association.
Access to the magazine is available online; please
see the Association’s website for further details.
Published on behalf of the Marine Biological Association by:
Century One Publishing
Alban Row, 27–31 Verulam Road,
St Albans,
Herts,
AL3 4DG
T: 01727 893 894
E: enquiries@centuryonepublishing.uk
W: www.centuryonepublishing.uk
Advertising Sales
Jonathan Knight
T 01727 739 182
E jonathan@centuryonepublishing.uk
Creative Director
Peter Davies
printed by
Century One Publishing Ltd.
The Marine Biologist is printed on FSC ® mixed credit - Mixed
source products are a blend of FSC 100%, Recycled and/or
Controlled fibre. Certified by the Forest Stewardship Council ® .

34
26
THE VOICE OF
MARINE BIOLOGY
24 A SPACE TO CONNECT
Amplifying the voice of
marine biology with Head
of MBA Membership
Jo Langston.
26 OPENING THE DOOR
TO MARINE SPACES
AND SCIENCE
Opportunities in rewarding
careers such as marine
science should be a universal
right. By Joanna Harley.
28 A FOUNDATION FOR
SUCCESS
Jason Birt introduces an
alternative path into marine
biology careers.
30 THE YOUNG MARINE
BIOLOGIST SUMMIT
2022
33 ADVANCING CAREERS
MBA bursary winners’ reports.
34 REVIEWS
The best in marine biology
books, movies, podcasts,
and more.
Plankton sampling for first year
students off the north coast of
Cornwall
Protecting
ecosystems is tied
to social justice
ARE YOU BEING
HEARD?
We are delighted to welcome new and regular
readers to The Marine Biologist magazine,
improved and redesigned in the Marine
Biological Association’s new branding.
The changes are just part of the Membership Team’s
commitment to help support members’ careers and
advance the wider profession.
Why does the marine biological community need a
voice? Ocean health is inseparable from human health and
wellbeing but this is not reflected in resources directed to
it (of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, SDG14 ‘Life
Below Water’ received least funding), prompting Matt Frost
to argue that the narrative around marine biology needs to
change. Another reason is that as an authoritative community
of experts, the Association is best placed to translate scientific
knowledge into evidence for effective policy (see Dan
Laffoley's article on page 14). One of the ways we are working
to strengthen our voice is by facilitating communication and
network-building among our community: Head of
Membership Jo Langston sets the scene and introduces new
ways for Association members to connect and be heard.
Many voices simply aren’t heard because of exclusion
or marginalization. In our initial article from the MBA’s EDI
(Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion) Committee, Joanna
Harley explores the barriers to accessing nature and marine
science and how we can break them down.
Large-scale marine protected areas offer hope for troubled
waters in the form of recovery, regeneration, and wins
for conservation and fishers. Or do they? Daniela Sturm
examines this vast and uncertain world.
Subsistence fishers in many parts of the world face
inequitable distribution of shrinking resources as well as
top-down regulation and poor working conditions. In our
superb cover feature, Alifa Haque’s absorbing story reflects her
enchantment with the fish and fishers of coastal Bangladesh,
underlining that protecting ecosystems is tied to social justice.
At the other end of the marine food web are coccolithophores:
tiny algal cells cloaked in chalky plates. In their abundance
they play a major role in cycling nutrients and drawing carbon
out of the atmosphere. Professor Colin Brownlee and Dr Glen
Wheeler are at the cutting-edge of cell biology and we are
proud to present their insights into how these vital organisms
will respond or adapt to an acidifying ocean.
I hope this edition engages, informs, and inspires you. It
is after all your platform and a reflection of our community.
I look forward to views and ideas from you, the voice of
marine biology.
Guy Baker, EDITOR
editor@mba.ac.uk

4
i n b r i e f
mysterious basking shark
circles explained
Rarely observed circling behaviour
of basking sharks is described as
courtship displays in a new study
published in the Journal of Fish Biology.
Circling formations have been
documented on a few occasions over
the past 40 years in the north-western
Atlantic off Canada and the USA but
never in the north-eastern Atlantic; in the
absence of detailed investigation the
purpose of the behaviour was unknown.
Scientists from the UK and Ireland
studied 19 circling groups using
underwater cameras and aerial drones
A basking shark
courtship torus
off County Clare, Ireland, from 2016 off to Ireland
2021. The circling behaviour lasted many
hours and comprised between six and
23 non-feeding sharks swimming slowly
at the surface, with others below them
deeper down, in a three-dimensional ring
structure the researchers termed a ‘torus’.
Within a torus, roughly equal numbers
of mature female and male sharks more
than 7 m in total length interacted
through close-following behaviours,
fin-fin and fin-body contacts, rolling to
expose ventral surfaces to following
sharks, and breaching. Interestingly,
female body colouration was paler
than that of males, similar to colour
changes seen during courtship and
mating in other shark species. Individuals
associated with most other torus
members rapidly (within minutes),
indicating that toroidal behaviours
facilitated multiple interactions, like slowmotion
‘speed dating’. The observations
explain a courtship function for toruses,
A basking shark courtship
torus off Ireland.
the study concludes.
The study highlights north-eastern
Atlantic coastal waters as important
habitat for courtship reproductive
behaviour of endangered basking
sharks, which may require conservation
measures to reduce potential risks from
disturbance by marine traffic.
David W. Sims
©IRISH BASKING SHARK GROUP.
Don’t be shy;
share your
expertise
Would you like to share your
research or professional expertise
with MBA members and the wider
marine biological community?
We run a programme of talks,
courses, and events on hot topics
in marine biology and we are
encouraging applications from
research scientists and other experts
in their field to share their insights
and expertise. If you would like to be
considered to speak or present at an
MBA event, please fill in the form on
our website. You will need to send
a link or upload a video clip of you
speaking for your application to be
considered.
To apply, please visit:
bit.ly/MBAspeakers
A diamond jubilee ‘down-under’
A little after the MBA was
founded in 1884, a group of
43 Australian marine scientists
got together, in August 1962,
to discuss the formation of a
professional association. This meeting
established the Australian Marine Science
Association (AMSA—see https://www.
amsa.asn.au). The fledgling society held
its inaugural meeting in May 1963, by
which time there were 130 members.
Amongst those founding members
were Dr (later Sir) Frederick Russell, then
Director of the MBA Plymouth Laboratory
and Dr John Gulland of the Fisheries
Laboratory, Lowestoft (later of FAO).
As we begin our Diamond Jubilee year,
the membership numbers over 800 and
the 2022 annual conference in Cairns
was attended by over 650 delegates. The
2023 meeting that bookends the Jubilee
year will be in July on the Gold Coast, in
Yugambeh Country, Queensland.
www.amsa2023.amsa.asn.au).
No organization that
survives into a seventh
decade does so by standing
still, and AMSA is continually
reviewing the role of marine science
in the contemporary world and asking
how it can best serve the marine science
community. Joining the professional
and student membership classes is a
new category of Associate Member for
individuals who are not professional
marine scientists but have an interest
in marine science and the ocean realm.
This will allow indigenous sea rangers,
eco-tour guides, and amateur/citizen
scientists to formally engage with
AMSA. Another recent initiative
revitalized our publications and
communications strategies to ensure that
marine science continues to reach the
widest possible audience.
Chris Frid
october 2022
www.mba.ac.uk

i n b r i e f 5
Mentorship matters
Are you seeking guidance from
a professional to kick-start your
career? Maybe you could offer that
guidance or have the drive to inspire
others. Marine Biological Association
Members* are eligible to join our
mentoring scheme which matches
mentors with mentees.
Discover your inner mentor
The role of a mentor is to share with
their mentee information
about their own career,
motivation, and work/life
balance.
Are you wanting to
develop yourself and
your career?
The mentee articulates
their goals and
objectives through a
Marine sediments and coastal
habitats such as seagrass,
kelp beds, and salt marsh
are acknowledged for their carbon
sequestration properties, although little
is known about the amount of carbon
stored in each of these habitats.
Blue Carbon Mapping is a pioneering
project from the Scottish Association
of Marine Science (SAMS) and funded
by WWF-UK alongside the RSPB and
Wildlife Trusts to map the amount
of blue carbon stored along the UK
coastline. Professor Michael Burrows
of SAMS stated, ‘The project will
provide baseline information for key
policy decisions’. Indeed, quantifying
and mapping blue carbon will inform
marine planning decisions, help us
to understand the impacts of human
activities, and could influence the
government to protect much more of
the UK’s coastal environment towards
its goal of protecting 30 per cent of UK
seas by 2030.
The project builds upon a pilot study
in the North Sea which showed that
the carbon stored in the English sector
of the North Sea amounts to nearly
20 per cent of that in UK forests and
woodlands.
development plan and will need
to be motivated and ready to lead
mentorship sessions.
Sessions take place online within
the MBA Members’ Portal. Together,
mentor and mentee develop an
action plan with goals and objectives.
The scheme provides a space for
discussion and advice and supports
mentor and mentee to establish a
professional relationship.
Scan now to discover
your mentoring
community group.
* Mentoring opportunities
are open to all membership
categories except Young
Marine Biologist.
Map of blue carbon
stores to help achieve 30
by 30 commitment
When the final report is released in
summer 2023, the UK will be the first
country with such a resource, which, it is
hoped, will pave the way in prioritizing
conservation areas based on protecting
blue carbon.
Kyra Walton
Kiribati fisherman.
Small is beautiful
when it comes to
sustainable fisheries
and boosted
economies
Seafood is a staple source of protein in
the diets of billions of people. Fisheries
and aquaculture provide the main
source of animal protein to 17 per cent
of the world’s population, with over 3
billion people, largely in developing
countries, depending on the ocean to
make a living.
Demand for seafood is set to rise
alongside increasing populations and
increasing levels of consumption. Smallscale
fisheries have huge potential to
not only feed populations, but also
provide direct income to many people.
Low levels of bycatch and higher levels
of consumable fish make these fisheries
more efficient and less environmentally
damaging than industrial fleets.
However, some practices may have to
be reformed to strengthen operations.
With the UN General Assembly
declaring 2022 the International Year of
Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture, the
UN is supporting small-scale fisheries
in a bid to improve food security
and eradicate poverty in developing
countries. Measures include local
governments directing more subsidies
and funding to small-scale fisheries
instead of large-scale fleets, avoiding
overfishing and environmentally
destructive techniques. The introduction
of cold storage and processing
equipment—for example, for smoking
or drying—could massively reduce
the number of fish-production losses
experienced by small-scale fisheries.
Capturing and passing on artisanal
fishers’ local knowledge to other smallscale
fisheries in the region could also
make local fleets much more efficient
and environmentally friendly.
Kyra Walton
©DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE, CC BY 2.0 , VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
www.mba.ac.uk
october 2022

6
a n o c e a n o f s c i e n c e
structural colour
in seaweeds: more than
meets the eye
Discovering seaweeds on the shore that
sparkle and twinkle shades of blue, mauve,
turquoise, green, and pink in sunlight is an
awe-inspiring experience. Structural colour,
widespread in the marine environment, has barely
been studied in red, green, and brown seaweeds until
now. Our work indicates that this phenomenon is more
common in seaweeds than previously thought, both
geographically and in evolutionary development.
By removing blue wavelengths of light, we suspect
that structural colour may provide protection from the
harmful effects of UV radiation. However, it could be a
way of moving light to where it is needed, or providing
defence against predators. Colour production includes
multi-layered structures (reds), iridescent bodies (reds
and browns), and microfibril arrays (greens) which
also occur in the charophytes (freshwater green algae)
and land plants. Such observations raise intriguing
evolutionary questions across the tree of life for these
remarkable photosynthesizers. Professor Juliet Brodie
(j.brodie@nhm.ac.uk) Merit Researcher, Department of
Life Sciences at the Natural History Museum.
• Professor Juliet Brodie (j.brodie@nhm.ac.uk)
Merit Researcher, Department of Life Sciences at
the Natural HistoryMuseum.
© Juliet Brodie
This work is part of ‘BEEP’ (Bio-inspired
and Bionic materials for Enhanced
Photosynthesis), an interdisciplinary
research training network funded by
the EU Horizon 2020 programme.
https://www.ch.cam.ac.uk/beep/home
october 2022
www.mba.ac.uk

a n o c e a n o f s c i e n c e 7
whither coccolithophores
in a changing
ocean?
Colin Brownlee and Glen Wheeler look at the
implications of ‘the other CO 2
problem’.
© MBA
Figure 1: Scanning electron micrograph of the coccolithophore
Coccolithus braarudii, showing external calcite coccoliths that are
produced inside the cell and secreted to the cell surface.
Global temperature increases in response to
anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are
predicted to have multiple consequences,
including changes in ocean currents, polar ice
cover, nutrient availability, and surface ocean oxygen levels.
The consequences of such changes are predicted to include
phytoplankton community regime shifts, with consequent
knock-on effects on the overall structure of marine ecosystems.
Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) levels also have
more direct impacts on ocean chemistry. As carbon dioxide
dissolves in the ocean it forms carbonic acid, which itself
2-
dissociates into bicarbonate (HCO 3-
), carbonate (CO 3
) and
protons (H + ):
CO 2
+ H 2
O ↔ H 2
CO 3
↔ HCO 3
-
+ CO 3
2-
+ H +
The concentration of H + (acidity) in the surface ocean
therefore increases as atmospheric CO 2
increases. Put another
way, the pH of the oceans is steadily declining during the
process of ocean acidification. It is important to understand
that the oceans are unlikely to become truly acid (i.e. pH below
7.0). The mean pH of the ocean surface is around 8.2 and it has
fallen by about 0.1 pH unit since the mid-20th century. While
model predictions vary, it is likely to fall further to around 7.8 or
lower by the end of the 21st century. However, since the acidity
of the ocean surface is not uniform, certain regions, such as
coastal and polar seas, are likely to see larger falls in pH over
this timescale.
While elevated carbon dioxide levels may actually help
certain phytoplankton species to photosynthesize better, it
is important to distinguish the effects of increased carbon
dioxide and increased acidity. Greater H + concentrations
are likely to have increasingly negative impacts on marine
organisms, particularly those that produce calcium carbonate,
such as many molluscs, corals, foraminifera and the calcifying
coccolithophore phytoplankton. Indeed, negative impacts of
increased ocean acidity have already been observed in species
such as pteropods that produce a more soluble form of calcium
carbonate (aragonite) in their shells which is more susceptible
to dissolution. Similarly, corals that produce aragonite skeletons
are likely to be more susceptible to increasing acidity.
What about the coccolithophores, which produce much
of the ocean’s calcium carbonate? Unlike other calcifying
organisms, the unicellular coccolithophores produce calcium
carbonate in the form of crystalline calcite plates (coccoliths)
inside their cells, from where the coccoliths are secreted onto
the cells’ surface (see Fig. 1). One might then assume that the
calcification process would be protected from the effects of
external acidification. Moreover, calcite is a less soluble form
of calcium carbonate, so is less likely to dissolve in more acidic
conditions, and protection from dissolution may also be given
by an organic layer. Nevertheless, while experimental results
vary between species, the general consensus is that increased
acidity is likely to have a negative impact on coccolithophore
calcification. In order to understand why this may be, it is
important to better understand the mechanism of calcification.
Coccolithophores take up bicarbonate, where it combines with
calcium ions inside a special vesicle to form calcite. A major
by-product of this reaction is H + , which must be removed to
enable the calcification reaction to proceed. It was recently
shown that coccolithophores utilize a special mechanism to
bring this about, whereby ion channels that selectively allow
H + to diffuse out of the cell can open and close depending on
the cell’s internal pH.
This mechanism works well at normal seawater pH but it is
ineffective and shuts down at lower seawater pH that prevents
diffusion of H + out of the cell, and the ability
www.mba.ac.uk
october 2022

Figure 2. Internal calcification is a pH-dependent
process. Protons produced at the site of calcification
are removed from the cell through H + channels in
the cell membrane. However, this process becomes
compromised as seawater acidity increases.
to calcify becomes compromised (Fig. 2).
Coccolithophores that produce heavily calcified
coccoliths were shown to be more affected by this.
Mechanistic understanding of this kind will
hopefully allow researchers to better understand
the impacts of changing ocean chemistry on
calcification in a wider range of coccolithophores—
essential if we are to predict how this planetaryscale
major biogeochemical process is likely to be
impacted in the future.
• Professor Colin Brownlee (cbr@MBA.ac.uk), Lankester
Research Fellow
• Dr Glen Wheeler (glw@MBA.ac.uk), MBA Senior
Research Fellow
Further reading
Taylor A.R., Brownlee C. and Wheeler G.L. 2017. Coccolithophore cell biology: Chalking up progress. Annual Review of Marine Science
9: 283-310. https://doi/10.1146/annurev-marine-12241403032.
Kottmeier D.M., Chrachri A, Langer G., Helliwell K.E., Wheeler G.L. and Brownlee C. 2022. Reduced H + channel activity disrupts pH
homeostasis and calcification in coccolithophores at low ocean pH. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA:
119, e2118009119 https://doi.org/10/1073/pnas.211809119.
8
m a r i n e p o l i c y
un oceans 2022—
a post-meeting
reflection
The Second UN Ocean Conference,
co-hosted by the Governments of
Kenya and Portugal, was convened in
Lisbon, Portugal, from 27 June to 1 July
with more than 6,000 participants, including
many Heads of State and Government in
attendance. The theme was ‘Scaling up ocean
action based on science and innovation for
the implementation of SDG 14: Stocktaking,
partnerships and solutions’ and there was a
renewed sense of urgency as world leaders
recognized that up to this point there has been
a ‘collective failure to achieve Ocean related
targets’ (7 SDG targets have already been
missed). This fact along with admission that
SDG14 is the least funded of all the SDGs, only accounting for
about 1.6 per cent of the Overseas Development Aid (ODA)
and 1.7 per cent of global research funding was, if anyone
needed one, a sobering reminder of the challenges ahead.
There were, as expected, a raft of pledges, calls to arms,
and proposed actions—particularly as part of the Lisbon
declaration—but were there genuine grounds for optimism
that things can be different in future? One important element
was the focus on the need for innovative financing solutions
including a concerted focus on global philanthropy. Utilising
the private sector will be important but this should not detract
from the need for G7 countries to ‘step up’ when it comes
to action and associated funding. The marine community
must also be better in articulating links between SDG14 and
wider issues in order to encourage investment. Emphasising
the importance of marine science and
environmental action to support solutions for
SDG targets for poverty, hunger, climate, clean
water, and others will be key to unlocking both
private and public funding, but is a message
that the marine community has not always been
good at conveying (See ‘Does Marine Biology
have an image problem?’).
As for the MBA, as an official UN-accredited
participant, we were able to participate firsthand
in meetings, observe and contribute
to discussions, and network with many other
delegates. The MBA’s voluntary commitment:
‘World Association of Marine Stations:
Mobilising global capacity and facilitating
networking and capacity building’, was one of 700 new
commitments made by organizations. These ‘concrete and
realistic’ pledges will be crucial in order to underpin the
broader outcomes agreed at the meeting and ensure the next
one starts on a more positive note.
• Matt Frost (matfr@mba.ac.uk), Head of Policy and
Engagement/MBA Deputy Director
october 2022
www.mba.ac.uk

f e a t u r e 9
have you asked
the fishers how to
safeguard
the fish?
The untold stories of the enchanting fish and fishers of Bangladesh’s Bay of Bengal, by Alifa Haque.
Bangladesh’s Bay of Bengal
In the north of the Bay of Bengal—the biggest bay
in the world, is Bangladesh. It is a coastal nation
with an extremely biodiverse 710-kilometre
coastline and home to the longest (125km)
unbroken sea beach in the world: Cox’s Bazar.
Rivers, floodplains, wetlands, mudflats, rocky
beaches, coral reefs, and seagrass beds make
up the country’s coastal and marine habitats.
In the west lies the Sundarbans Reserve Forest,
further east is the freshwater and nutrient-rich
Meghna deltaic plain, and in the east is the
Chittagong Coastal Plain, with rock and reef and
less freshwater influence. Further offshore are
unexplored deep oceanic waters, and deepwater
continental shelf habitats.
The Sundarbans Reserve Forest is located in
Above: Alifa Haque
awaits the day’s
catch, Bay of Bengal,
Bangladesh.
the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, where the
Ganges, Padma, Brahmaputra, and Meghna
rivers converge. At 10,000 km 2 , it is the
biggest continuous halophytic mangrove
forest in the world, with 62 per cent of its
area located in south-western Bangladesh
and the rest in India. Its intricate ecosystem,
combining freshwater, estuarine, and marine
waters, makes it a unique home for wildlife:
fish, sea snakes, whales, sharks, rays, dolphins,
corals, marine turtles, seagrasses, and a huge
diversity of invertebrates including crabs,
shrimps, worms, and molluscs are
found here.
These coastal ecosystems provide the bread
and butter for the fisherfolk and, in turn, the
economy of Bangladesh.
www.mba.ac.uk
october 2022

10
f e a t u r e
The coastal and marine fisheries
of Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s coastal and marine fisheries are
complex and heterogeneous. The artisanal
and industrial sectors are clearly distinguished
from one another. There are currently nearly
68,000 artisanal fishing vessels operating in
Bangladesh; in comparison, there were only
5,783 fishing vessels registered in the UK in
2021. About 3 million hilsa (see below) fishers
depend on these fisheries, and artisanal fisheries
support 12 million people in Bangladesh. Marine
fisheries are one of the most crucial sectors
in ensuring food security and livelihood for
millions of Bangladeshis. Between 2015 and
2016, marine fisheries production was 0.626
million MT contributing 16 per cent of the total
fish production of Bangladesh, with a growth
rate of nearly 4.5 per cent. A significant amount
of unreported catch is made up of subsistence,
discarded bycatch, and underreported
commercial catch.
Artisanal fisheries (using powered or
unpowered fishing vessels) use gears including
gillnets and modified gillnets, set-bag nets,
longlines, hooks, trawl nets, seine nets, bambooset
nets, and trammel nets. The hilsa shad
(a pelagic, clupeid fish, the national fish of
Bangladesh and formerly abundant in the Bay
of Bengal) and Bombay duck are single species
contributors of the artisanal marine capture.
However, there is bycatch of sharks and rays
during the fishing season (Fig.1). When all
artisanal fisheries are combined, they account
for 80 per cent of the shark and ray bycatch in
Bangladesh. However, one traditional practice
of targeting rays still persists within the artisanal
practices. In Bangladesh, the tradition of target
ray fishing dates back decades, and fishing
techniques have been passed down through
generations. During fishing season, 10 to 12
fishers go to sea, for 5 to 7 days. Fish are mostly
caught down to 40 m, although deeper areas are
also frequented by artisanal fishers.
Figure 1 (above).
Bycatch of sharks
and rays.
Figure 2 a (right).
The author holding a
large pectoral fin. The
price of four large dried
fins—two pectorals, a
first dorsal, and a lower
caudal fin—measuring 51
to 66 cm can be as high
as $356 and fin sets sell
for even more on the
international market. Due
to the size of the fins and
commercial demand,
hammerhead sharks,
giant carcharhinids, and
rhino rays are the most
coveted species by
traders.
Figure 2 b (below).
Shark fins and meat
drying on a rack.
© FAYED MASUD KHAN
Species and trade: sharks and rays
Unsustainable fishing, fuelled by a growing
demand for fins and meat (see Fig. 2), has led to
an 80 per cent or more decline of elasmobranchs
in some areas of the world. About 37per cent of
all elasmobranch species are now threatened
with extinction, according to the International
Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red
List of Threatened Species. Only a handful
of nations—including the USA and Australia—
manage elasmobranch fisheries responsibly and
can be considered exceptions to the norm. Little
is known about species-specific management.
Until recently, Bangladesh has had no speciesspecific
data on sharks and rays, and we were
unaware of the historical fishing pressure. Our
study spanning the last 6 years found that more
than 110 shark and ray species were reported
from Bangladesh, and they are all susceptible to
october 2022
www.mba.ac.uk

f e a t u r e 11
excessive fishing pressure (Fig. 3). More than 90
species of sharks and rays are protected under
the newly amended national law, reflecting
an umbrella catch and trade ban on almost all
species that are present and frequently entangled
in fishing gear. An umbrella embargo on trade is
advocated for and implemented in many areas in
the global south, but success is limited.
Although considered non-commercial, on
average, 4,588 MT of sharks and rays were
bycaught and landed between 2005 and 2018.
In 2015–16 alone, a very conservative survey
revealed 622 MT of sharks and rays were caught
by industrial trawlers, 1,920 MT by gill nets, 205
MT by set-bag nets, 1,875 MT by long lines and
4,000 MT by other gears which were not listed.
Figure 3 a (top). The
sharpnose guitarfish is a
protected species under
Bangladesh law.
Figure 3 b (above).
Largetooth sawfish
rostrum.
Fishers
Although millions of fishers depend on marine
fisheries and contribute greatly to the GDP, they
are one of the most marginalized communities,
prone to vulnerabilities such as financial
marginalization, natural calamities, no safeguards
at sea, and lack of education and healthcare. Of
late, they are also blighted by low catches at sea.
‘In the 1990s, we had to come back to shore
daily after a fishing trip as we caught more
than 2,000 rays in less than 7 days and had no
storage capacity. Twenty years ago, a seven-day
fishing trip was enough for an entire month’s
subsistence for fishers on the boat if we were
lucky. Now there are days we don’t even catch a
single individual in a week’, said one fisher.
Another fisher mentioned species being lost
before they could be recorded and researched
by scientists, such as one Critically Endangered
wedgefish. He said, ‘Until the 2000s, a species
of rhino ray with flower-like spots was caught
quite frequently, but we haven’t seen it in the
past decade.’ He was talking about a wedgefish
species we haven’t recorded in the past 7 years,
even after continuous efforts in landing-site
data collection.
Fishers are incredibly trusting and hardworking
people. They are usually ready to
extend help and have been interviewed by many
researchers and NGOs for data collection or
are listed as so-called ‘beneficiaries’, but there
seems to have been some exploitation there
too. Fishers do not know how the data will be
used and what impact the study may have on
their fishing practices. This was apparent in
many conversations that we had over the years.
Awareness-raising is limited to posters, banners,
and top-down meetings, which inherently do not
allow true collaboration with fishers. A sudden
© OLIVER DEPPERT/ SAVE OUR SEAS FOUNDATION
www.mba.ac.uk
october 2022

12
f e a t u r e
amendment of a law protecting new species
without consulting and facilitating the fishers’
adherence to the regulations will only criminalize
them overnight.
Some fishers mentioned, ‘Researchers collect
their information and leave. Nothing changes
for us. Officials come, and sometimes we oblige,
fearing punishment for something we don’t
know what to do about, a regulation we don’t
know how to adhere to or why.’
Some fishers have lost faith in the system and
believe policy-makers do not consider them or
their problems: ‘Nobody cares about us. These
bans only make our lives harder and no one ever
asks what we need to maintain our livelihoods.
The minimal compensations are not enough and
do not even reach every one of us.’
Due to debt-driven fishing tactics, coastal fishers
are very likely to live in poverty all their lives. Most
of them lack boats or nets, alternative sources of
income, access to effective marketplaces, and
tools necessary to follow the rules.
© OLIVER DEPPERT/ SAVE OUR SEAS FOUNDATION
Conservation of fish and fishers
The future of sharks and rays is sandwiched
between two issues: protecting marine species
in their habitats, and safeguarding the wellbeing
of fishers who depend on the same fisheries
that bycatch sharks and rays. The dilemma
is worsened by habitat degradation, climate
change, and pollution in nearshore areas that
these species prefer.
But bycatch and trade mitigation in a developing
country is easier said than done. For starters,
tackling bycatch requires a lot of technical facilities,
gear modification, and research to drive decisions.
Most importantly, a long-term investment towards
fishers is needed so they adhere to regulations;
if their lost catch is compensated, then the whole
process is incentivized. This should also be aided
by social and psychological understanding of
fishing communities regarding their adoption of
these new means.
Moreover, trade is exceptionally complicated,
involving many actors with different motivations
and varied access to benefits. All these play an
important role in the trading process, which is
notoriously diverse in different geographic and
cultural contexts.
This multifaceted issue dooms any ‘one size fits
all’ conservation management measure to failure.
A more nuanced approach is needed, where
management plans are co-designed with fishers.
In trying to determine bycatch mitigation
initiatives, I learned of the fishers’ vulnerabilities,
which hindered them from making informed
conservation decisions. There is limited political
or public interest in establishing better markets
that run sustainably and guarantee an equitable
opportunity for all fishers.
A fair and practical first step towards
sustainable fishing and species protection will
involve distribution of revenues from sustainable
practices to fishers, thus decreasing poverty
Figure 4. Solutions lie in
traditional practices and
creating a market where
fishers have an equal
opportunity to earn from
the sustainable catch.
and ensuring better income. For instance, the
fishery for hilsa is Bangladesh’s most significant
single-species coastal fishery, providing
livelihoods for 500,000 Bangladeshi nationals.
The government has invested highly in the
sustainable extraction of hilsa. The measures aim
to reduce exploitation rates and include limits on
exploitation of juvenile fish through a seasonal
prohibition on fishing in sanctuary regions
and seasonal restrictions elsewhere, fishing
gear limits, and specific controls for fishing
vessels. Fishing for hilsa is also prohibited at
particular times of the year to preserve spawning
individuals. Payments for ecosystem services
were established to enforce such restrictions.
One kilogram of hilsa can be sold for as much
as US$30–35 and upwards for larger sizes in the
cosmopolitan markets. In a good season, one
boat owner can earn up to US$30,000, whereas
the fisher employed by the boat owners, working
relentlessly in dangerous sea conditions, earns
as low as US$30–100 a month. We propose that
the huge revenues earned from the hilsa should
return to the fishers equally, to improve their
livelihoods.
It is crucial to understand how fishers perceive
various species to design targeted conservation
actions. It is also essential to understand the
changing relationship of people, including
fishers, with the fish. The point here is that there
is a connection between fish and fishers. For
instance, fishers identify hilsa as a blessing of the
october 2022
www.mba.ac.uk

f e a t u r e 13
sea and the primary source of their livelihoods.
Then there is the belief that manta rays breach
as a warning of impending bad weather. Some
fishers also believe that the sawfish is vital to the
sea as it maintains ecological balance and also
cures cancer. These beliefs help us get to know
the relationship between the fish and fisher,
understand how they value a particular species,
and plan accordingly. Fishers’ understanding of
the ecosystem services of a species is fascinating
and can be crucial in how they will contribute to
their conservation.
We conducted a study where we interviewed
more than 1,000 fishers and ran over 30
workshops to understand the barriers to
releasing a sawfish alive, or what would be
acceptable bycatch mitigation strategies.
While most would assume loss of income,
we found several other reasons that impact a
fisher’s decision-making process. For instance,
many fishers do not have the authority (in the
organogram of the men occupying the boat)
to release such a catch and feared they would
lose their jobs if they did so. Fishers mentioned
that if they released such a catch, then fishers
from neighbouring countries would catch them
anyway, and why should Bangladeshis suffer
the loss when the government does not stop
foreign fishers from coming into their waters.
When we asked what facilities and incentives
they need to release a sawfish alive, to our
surprise, they spoke about creating equity
It is crucial
to understand
how fishers
perceive
various species
to design
targeted
conservation
actions.
in the decision-making process; they talked
about initiatives that mitigate danger at sea;
for example, communication devices or better
working practices. Fishers further said they need
to be consulted, respected and not marginalized
by regulations. In short, they want to be
empowered.
Many older fishers are as troubled as
conservationists by decreasing catches and the
loss of many charismatic species. It made me
understand that it is not a competition between
policy-makers and fishers to save these species.
Instead, it is a case of striving for a common goal
in collaboration.
A number of fishers considered that individual
action-based monetary incentives could be
unsustainable, as the limited reimbursement
does not meaningfully help the fishers.
Furthermore, when the project ends, the
incentive ends without leaving a legacy for the
sustainable practice to be continued. Instead, a
solution embedded in the traditional practices
and creating a balanced market, where fishers
have an equal opportunity to earn from the
sustainable catch, is far more practical for the
long-term benefit of both the fish and the fisher.
Solutions need to be culturally appropriate and
co-designed. Nevertheless, global and national
strategies to protect small-scale fisheries and
marine conservation vary significantly.
Take-away messages
More investment in research is urgently needed
to design a sustainable management plan for the
elasmobranchs of Bangladesh.
Sustainable conservation must be founded
on sound socio-ecological policies that protect
fish and fishers. A paradigm shift must take
place in marine conservation laws and policies
formulated in powerful institutions far from
shore. Pre-policy consultations with fishers are
crucial to determining the level of acceptability
and viability of laws and policies being drafted.
This may seem challenging, time- and resourceintensive,
but it will be beneficial, as inefficient
policies will have more costly and lasting impacts
and people tend to follow laws they believe in
and have helped create.
The global south needs to lead initiatives that
jointly safeguard the future of fish and fishers,
a scenario that will require a fundamental
‘behavioural transformation’ in the offices of
legislators.
It takes trust, true collaboration, mutual
respect, and equal benefit sharing for longterm
sustainability of natural resources and
conservation of imperilled fauna. I side with both
fish and fishers to conserve our marine fauna.
• Alifa B. Haque (alifa.haque@biology.ox.ac.uk; alifa.
haque@du.ac.bd)
Doctoral Researcher
NBSI, Department of Biology, University of Oxford.
Also affiliated with British Antarctic Survey.
www.mba.ac.uk
october 2022

14
f e a t u r e
marine biology
matters in the climate
and biodiversity
crisis
Dan Laffoley sets out his views on how marine
biology can save our seas.
History shows that knowing about the natural world is
fundamental to understanding and effective action.
I refer to it as ‘knowing is halfway to doing’. Linnaeus
‘named nature’, Darwin gave us the tree of life, and
countless other experts built our body of shared knowledge
of life on Earth. Now, the ways in which we apply all this
knowledge to the climate and biodiversity crisis and how we
relate to the environment is key if we are to take the right steps
to restore our damaged world.
We have understood the intertwined relationship between
climate change, biodiversity loss, and our health and prosperity
for some time on land, but it is only surprisingly recently that
we have accepted that the same is true of the ocean and the
world-dominating role our seas play in regulating conditions
for life on Earth. For it is the ocean that every day absorbs a
quarter of the human-generated carbon dioxide that is driving
global warming, and the same ocean that has absorbed over
90 per cent of the heat it generates in the atmosphere.
Most of our world is ocean, and yet how often we forget that
we owe a pleasant climate to the watery heart of our planet.
Earth’s ancient history shows that if the climate gets too warm
species go extinct, if it becomes too cold species go extinct,
and that it is the ocean over millennia that has regulated things
to be ‘just right’, so we all thrive. Perhaps we have become overabsorbed
in the digital world that has arisen around us, and
thereby more disconnected than ever from nature, for we have
forgotten how fundamentally important simply knowing about
nature has become to all our futures, and all the other species
we coexist with.
Key workers
The COVID pandemic brought a new appreciation for key
workers—those who made our world work while we were
locked away at home: those who created successful vaccines,
kept delivering food, and nursed us better when many became
Figure 1. Continuous plankton recorder ‘cassette’ showing a rich
plankton sample on the silk spool.
so very ill from the virus. Our natural world in crisis also has
key workers: the climatologists, the sociologists, and the other
scientists who, day-in and day-out and behind the scenes, build
the evidence of how the human population is evolving, how
the climate is being changed, and how nature is being rapidly
degraded in responding to such pressures. Their knowledge
informs the many decisions that we need to take to adapt,
mitigate, conserve, and restore to rectify our decades of greed
and overconsumption. It is not an overstatement to say that
this knowledge and its application has a direct bearing on the
wellbeing of us all and, ultimately, our survival as a species.
The ocean is, unsurprisingly, a large part of this story, and
marine biology has many such key workers. At the Marine
Biological Association it was the specialists who designed and
deployed the continuous plankton recorders 1 to study plankton
—the microscopic basis for the ocean food chain—who decades
ago first detected gross changes in plankton composition
1
https://www.cprsurvey.org/
2
https://www.mba.ac.uk/what-we-do/our-science/coastal-ecology/
3
https://www.marlin.ac.uk/
4
https://www.dassh.ac.uk/
october 2022
www.mba.ac.uk

f e a t u r e 15
Figure 2. Stalked or goose barnacles
(Pollicipes sp.). MarLIN hosts
information on over 850 marine
species of the
British Isles.
Over-absorbed in the digital
world, we have forgotten how
fundamentally important
simply knowing about nature
has become.
which was
traced back to our
changing and warming world (Fig. 1).
It was the MarClim team 2 who, with
foresight many years ago, rescued key data on
climate-sensitive intertidal species, creating one of
the largest such databases in the world, which now shows the
true impact of climate change on the biology of our coasts. They
then helped inspire the creation of the marine climate change
impacts initiative (MCCIP) that now enables the UK to lead the
world in understanding how our seas are responding to climate
change impacts. It was at the MBA in 1998 that the Marine Life
Information Network (MarLIN) (Fig. 2) was established, creating
the knowledge system for marine biodiversity for Great Britain
and Ireland that still today informs decisions by governments
on how to best protect and manage marine life. MBA experts
at the Archive for Marine Species and Habitats Data (DASSH) 4
invented and provided the tools and services for the long-term
curation, management, preservation, and publication of marine
species and habitats data within the UK and internationally.
These are just a few examples and there are many more, but
without such key workers and their initiatives, the UK and other
nations would simply not be able to understand, let alone have
the ability to manage, their ocean spaces.
Driving marine biology forward
Thankfully, the world is now coming alive—albeit rather late
in the day—to the growing understanding that ocean health,
climate change, and biodiversity are all fundamentally
intertwined. Given that the heart of our planet is blue, it is
surprising that more attention and money is not invested in
marine biology. It certainly needs to be, but strides continue
to be made to make this happen. The MBA has helped drive
the discipline forwards. It is one of the earliest ‘birthplaces’ of a
concerted effort not only to understand the marine biology of
our seas, but to share the knowledge gained.
Since its formation at a meeting held in the rooms of the
Figure 3. The squid Loligo vulgaris, whose giant axon enabled
Hodgkin and Huxley to measure the action potential in nerves,
opening up a golden era in the field of neurobiology.
Royal Society in London on 31 March 1884 the MBA has
generated many—largely unsung—key discoveries on how
this blue part of the planet works, and indeed in humankind’s
understanding of fundamental biology. It is, after all, associated
with 60 Nobel Laureates through its long and illustrious history,
notably Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Sir Andrew Huxley, who
were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in
1963 (see Fig. 3). That quality of work continues today at the
Association’s laboratory at Plymouth, and modern times reflect
new changes and investment to keep up the pace. Work has
now begun on the first phase of Burwell Architects’ £20m
refurbishment and extension of the MBA’s headquarters in
Plymouth. The development of the Marine Microbiome Centre
of Excellence project aims to create a world-class research
centre focusing on the marine microscopic world.
Alongside this, the MBA has teamed up with the University
of Plymouth and Plymouth Marine Laboratory to create Marine
Research Plymouth. This tripartite cooperative venture will also
help cement Plymouth as the ‘go to’ destination for all things
marine in the UK. As the status of Plymouth as the UK’s Ocean
City continues to go from strength to strength, so too does
marine biology as a key part of the knowledge system that,
increasingly, informs the critical decisions affecting the future of
our world.
© HANS HILLEWAERT
• Dan Laffoley (danlaffoley@btinternet.com), Emeritus Marine Vice
Chair IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, and MBA
Council member.
www.mba.ac.uk
october 2022

16
f e a t u r e
does marine biology
have an image
problem?
MBA Deputy Director and Head of Policy and
Engagement Matt Frost argues for a change in
narrative around marine biology and the importance
of the oceans.
The ‘cool’ subject dilemma
On one of my first days at university (back in the 1990s), a
fellow fresher asked me the question all new arrivals ask
each other: ‘so what are you studying?’ On hearing that my
chosen degree was marine biology, the response was: what
an ‘awesome’ subject, followed by, ‘I almost applied myself, as
it would be such a great subject’. When I asked them why they
hadn’t, they answered, ‘Well, I wanted to do something that
was practical and useful; you know, helping solve the world’s
problems’. This comment has always stuck with me. It has been
formative in my own approach to being a marine biologist but
also left me with the distinct impression that marine biology has
an image problem.
Does image matter?: The importance of
perception
Let’s consider marine biology in terms of education, where
the ‘Blue-Planet effect’ 1 and the perception of the subject as
‘exciting’ or ‘cool’ can have positive outcomes, with universities
attracting top students. For many students, however, the
hoped-for outcome of studying marine biology seems to be
a career in academia and/or conservation, which aligns with
the overwhelming focus on most undergraduate degrees. That
a marine biology degree could also prepare you for a career
in law, publishing, industry, entrepreneurship, policy (national
and international), diplomacy, marine forensics, medicine,
and a host of other areas in addition to the traditional fields
of academia and conservation is not widely-appreciated. The
fact that marine biology is a challenging field to break into, or
sustain a long-term career, can be partly linked to the narrow
focus on what career pathways are available.
The other issue when it comes to career opportunities is that
the lack of jobs also reflects the broader funding landscape.
At the recent UN Oceans Conference in Lisbon, it was noted
that of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the one
with the least funding was SDG14 ‘Life Below Water’, i.e. the
one related directly to the oceans. Only about 1.6 per cent of
overseas aid or Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding
is marine focused 2 and, on average, countries devote only 1.7
per cent of their national research budgets to marine research
(‘funding for ocean science is largely inadequate’) 3 . Funding for
marine science is often compared unfavourably with funding
for space research, but in most countries, it suffers equally in
comparison with funding for medicine, defence, technology,
and other research areas.
The inference from this imbalance is that many governments
worldwide have failed to be convinced of the value of
investment in marine biological research over and against
other areas. Governments are mainly focused on economic
growth and responding to voters’ key concerns, such as the
economy, health, security, and education. Discussions around
marine protected areas or managing biodiversity in large
swathes of the ocean that most people know nothing about
inform all these key concerns, but this link isn’t obvious and
some in power can therefore see marine biology more as a
luxury than a necessity.
october 2022
www.mba.ac.uk

f e a t u r e 17
Marine biologists leading on solutions for key global challenges.
Changing the narrative—marine biology in
the 21st century
At a global level, there was a strong message from Lisbon
that we must be much better in showing how marine science
is linked to a broader range of SDGs than just SDG14. For
example, it was pointed out at the 8th interactive dialogue on
the final day (Leveraging interlinkages between Sustainable
Development Goal 14 and other Goals towards the
implementation of the 2030 Agenda’) that failure to achieve
Goal 14 and its targets related to sustainable fisheries could
seriously undermine achievement of SDG2 (Zero Hunger)
goals on food security, hunger, and nutrition. The same can be
said for many of the other SDGs, with marine biologists today
working on SDGs ranging from health and wellbeing (SDG3
Good Health and Well-being), pollution (SDG6 Clean Water
and Sanitation) blue growth (SDG8 Decent Work and Economic
Growth), capacity building (SDG10 Reduced Inequalities),
climate change (SDG13 Climate Action) to science diplomacy
(SDG16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions). This is not
comprehensive, but whilst SDG links are well-documented
in the literature, the message is not being heard clearly by
governments and funding bodies.
Much of the issue is in our communication rather than in
practice. Marine scientists are at the forefront of solutionoriented
science, addressing key issues of our time such as
climate mitigation (nature-based solutions); sustainable futures
(e.g. renewable energy); food security (fisheries, aquaculture);
and oceans and human health (including microplastics in the
food chain), to name but a few. Unfortunately, marine biologists
leading on solutions for key global challenges is rarely the
image that comes to mind when the subject is mentioned, and
this is where we need to shout louder about this work. Another
image of a beautiful or unusual sea creature may make our
websites look nice or attract attention on social media (and
they do have their place), but we also need people to see that
marine biologists are ‘making a difference’ to society and the
world at large.
This brings the discussion back full circle to the comment I
received as a fresh-faced student and how we promote marine
biology to a new generation. The current negotiations on Areas
of Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) are a prime
example of where marine scientists and environmentalists are
bringing experience and expertise to bear, not just on marine
biodiversity but on issues of global equity, justice and human
rights. The contribution of marine biology to these types of issue
needs to be demonstrated to students, governments, funders
(public and private), and to the wider public if we are going be
persuasive in attracting the required resources. Had I known this
in my university days, then perhaps a better answer would have
been: ‘If you want to help solve some of the major issues faced
by the world today – why not try marine biology’.
• Matt Frost (matfr@mba.ac.uk), Head of Policy and Engagement/
MBA Deputy Director
1
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/12/blue-planet-effectwhy-marine-biology-courses-booming
2
https://oursharedseas.com/funding/
3
Arico et al. (2020). Global ocean science report 2020-charting capacity for
ocean sustainability. UNESCO.
© 2020 MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION
www.mba.ac.uk
october 2022

18
f e a t u r e
meeting
BIG CHALLENGES
withbig solutions
Daniela Sturm looks at the pros and cons of scaling-up Marine
Protected Areas (MPAs) to address global marine conservation goals.
© Jordan Robins / Ocean Image Bank
Above: Turtle at sunset,
Great Barrier Reef,
Australia.
The world’s ocean is crucial for transport,
trade, as a sink for our waste products,
and as a source of food and materials.
Throughout human history these
resources have been used with little concern
for how the ocean will be impacted over time.
However, overexploitation, especially throughout
the 20th century, has led to sharp declines in
the state of many marine ecosystems and the
services they provide.
Overfishing is a particular cause for concern,
as it may lead to simplified food webs and
functional extinction of certain species. Although
predictions that ‘we will all be eating jellyfish
sandwiches’ have not yet come to pass, the
advice from scientists is clear: declare large areas
of the ocean off-limits to fishing and all other
extractive uses, and reduce fishing capacity.
Consequently, the High Ambition Coalition for
People and Wildlife (an intergovernmental group
of over 90 countries) is championing a deal to
protect 30 per cent of terrestrial and marine
habitats by 2030 (30x30). Over 100 nations have
now committed to this ambitious target, but
it will require a substantial increase in marine
protected areas and in the quality and nature of
management.
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are designed
to restrict human activity for a particular purpose,
usually conservation. The International Union
for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) defines an
MPA as a ‘… clearly defined geographical space,
recognised, dedicated and managed, through
legal or other effective means, to achieve the
long-term conservation of nature with associated
ecosystem services and cultural values’.
The level of protection of an MPA depends on
its management objectives and governance types
(see Box 1). Creating a new MPA is a complex
undertaking in which legal, scientific, and societal
considerations feed into an established process.
Limits on human activities may be regulated by
october 2022
www.mba.ac.uk

f e a t u r e 19
Figure 1 (Left)
Official Map of all
Marine Protected
Areas (MPAs) in 2020.
MPAtlas.org. [29/07/2022]
legal instruments or voluntary arrangements,
depending on scale and local circumstances.
Most MPAs cover small areas under 1 square
kilometre, and account for less than eight per
cent of the ocean (as of 2022). Only 2.7 per cent
of global ocean is covered under the highest
protection category, despite studies showing that
full protection substantially increases conservation
by being the most successful tool to deliver
restoration and recovery (Fig. 2).
Large-scale MPAs
Since 2010, MPA coverage has increased steadily,
mostly due to the designation of large-scale MPAs
(LSMPAs), which span regions over 100,000 km 2 .
Currently more than 50 per cent of the world’s
MPA coverage is accounted for by the 10 largest
LSMPAs. The first area to be designated as such
was a large section of the Australian Great Barrier
Reef in 1975. The largest LSMPA to date is the
Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument,
which surrounds a portion of the Hawaiian Islands
in the Pacific and encompasses 1,508,721 km 2 .
100 per cent of its area is designated as a no take
zone, the strictest of all MPA categories, where all
human activity is strictly limited, and all forms of
exploitation are prohibited.
The remote and highly-protected Pitcairn
Islands Marine Reserve is the UK’s largest LSMPA
and encompasses 834,334 km 2 in the southern
Pacific (Fig. 3). This vast LSMPA aims to protect
the area’s remote and pristine environment, such
as its elevated coral atoll ecosystem, which has
been designated as a World Heritage Site, and
several endangered species listed on the IUCN
Red List, such as the hawksbill turtle and green
turtle. Another key management goal of this
important LSMPA is the preservation of customary
Figure 2 (Below)
A recent study of
Brazilian MPAs shows
that fully protected
MPAs under the highest
protection category
increase biodiversity
by 45% compared to
unprotected areas.
Partial protection under
a lower management
category is more
variable in success and
depends on multiple
factors such as the
species’ exploitation
level and taxonomic
group. Overall, MPAs
in this area increased
species abundance,
length of individuals,
and community
diversity by 17%.
Source: Ferreira et al.
2022.
Highly
protected
MPAs are
successful in
enhancing
fish stocks
outside
as well as
inside MPA
boundaries.
fishing practices of Pitcairn residents to protect
the cultural values of the local community (UK
Government, Pitcairn; 2021).
‘Paper parks’ or true conservation?
Although the recent rise in LSMPA designation is
encouraging, we should ask whether designation
equals effective protection. In general, highly
protected MPAs are successful in enhancing fish
stocks outside as well as inside MPA boundaries
through ‘spillover’ of surplus fish from within
the MPA. Furthermore, many fisheries outside
MPAs would likely be unsustainable without this
spillover. MPAs positively impact biodiversity
within their borders. A more diverse fish
community may be more resilient to temperature
variations, therefore MPAs may indirectly provide
some buffering to future climate change.
Advocates of large-scale MPAs argue that larger
areas are more effective for regeneration of fish
stocks due to increased availability of nursery
habitats and more space for larval dispersal.
Small MPAs struggle with the protection of highly
mobile species such as marine mammals,
www.mba.ac.uk
october 2022

20
f e a t u r e
sharks, and seabirds, for which LSMPAs
can offer improved coverage. Additionally,
LSMPAs protect biologically connected and
varied ecosystems, as well as offshore and deep
ocean habitats such as seamounts, which are
particularly vulnerable to, for example, largescale
fishing, deep-sea mining, climate change,
and bottom trawling. Ascension Island MPA,
in the centre of the Atlantic Ocean, covers an
area of 445,000 km 2 , making it one of the 10
largest protected areas in the world. Aside from
a narrow band of shallow water habitat around
the island and several seamounts, 99.9 per cent of
this MPA is comprised of pelagic habitats: open
ocean waters between 500 and 4,000 m deep.
The Ascension Island MPA offers protection of
breeding areas for seabirds and turtles, and large
fish such as yellowfin tuna and Galapagos sharks
(Ascension Island Government, 2021).
Another important aspect of LSMPAs is that
they enable scientists and policy-makers to
differentiate between global stressors, such
as climate change or ocean acidification, and
local stressors, such as resource extraction and
lowered water quality, as the latter are often
absent in remote LSMPAs.
Many LSMPAs are part of larger collaborative
networks such as the Blue Belt Programme,
which supports UK Overseas territories with the
sustainable management and protection of their
environments, currently covering more than 4.3
million km 2 of ocean (UK Gov, 2022). Another
collaboration is the international Big Ocean
network of LSMPAs, which includes 17 sites and
aims to establish a support and communication
platform for LSMPA managers. Their website
already features recent updates on LSMPA policies
and shares information on how LSMPAs are
achieving their objectives. As the website develops,
they aim to provide regular ocean podcasts and
case studies (Bigoceanmanagers.org, 2022).
Research interest in LSMPAs has increased
substantially over the past decade, with 600
scientific articles published in 2021 (Web of
Figure 3 (Above):
The Pitcairn Islands
Marine Reserve in the
southern Pacific Ocean
is the UK’s largest
LSMPA and one of
the largest MPAs in
the world. The reserve
covers the entirety of
the islands’ exclusive
economic zone (EEZ)
and harbours some of
the world’s most pristine
ocean habitat.
Image and map:
National Geographic.
Figure 4 (Below):
Recent news published
in The Guardian on
a new Pacific Island
LSMPA project. Source:
The Guardian, 2022.
Right: Number of
scientific publications
related to LSMPAs
through the past
decade.
Source: Web of Science.
Science, 2022), and large news agencies are
becoming more and more interested in featuring
news about ambitious LSMPA projects (Fig. 4).
Critics of LSMPAs reason that LSMPA
designation is often motivated by geopolitical
expedience and can be used as a shortcut to
achieve international conservation goals with
minimal cost and minimal political risk. This is
especially true for countries with remote waters,
where conservation targets can be met through
designating LSMPAs while neglecting domestic
conservation. An example of this is the UK, which,
as of 2018, protects around 1.5 million km 2 in
overseas territories at a high protection level,
but only 7.5 km 2 within the national waters of the
British Isles. Another drawback is that despite the
lower protection cost per unit area compared
to smaller MPAs, monitoring and enforcement
of such vast open ocean areas involves costly
investments. Obtaining sustainable funding
remains one of the key challenges facing LSMPAs.
Governments often lack the capacity for
surveillance and enforcement in remote LSMPAs,
the establishment of which may only provide
an illusion of marine conservation: the dreaded
‘paper parks’ that effectively do not exist beyond
the initial government declaration, while at the
same time diverting attention and resources from
october 2022
www.mba.ac.uk

f e a t u r e 21
more threatened, smaller areas near the coast.
A number of LSMPA success stories give hope
that this issue is resolvable in time. At the Parc
Naturel de la Mer de Corail in the Pacific Ocean,
a collaboration with oceanic fisheries has been
established to support research and surveillance.
If funding can be secured, monitoring is likely
to be improved through the use of increasingly
advanced technology such as drones,
autonomous underwater vehicles, remote
sensing using satellites, and sensor buoys for
acoustic monitoring. In the British Indian Ocean
Territory (BIOT) LSMPA, political engagement
with Sri Lanka has deterred some fishers
engaged in illegal, unreported, and unregulated
fishing (IUCN Report, 2017). Nevertheless, illegal
fishing has driven substantial declines in the
shark and reef fish populations, and halting it
remains one of the top challenges in this MPA.
Many LSMPAs surround small oceanic islands
which rely heavily on international tourism and
fisheries. These territories may have to face a
choice between poverty or environmentally
ruinous growth (see ‘Mass tourism and more
fishing. The Blue Belt needs a rethink’, The
Marine Biologist, 21, page 16). Some small island
governments have attempted to bridge the difficult
gap between marine conservation and local
fisheries. The Palau Island LSMPA covers an area of
500,000 km 2 and is fully designated as a no-take
area where no fishing is allowed. While this may
sound disastrous for local fishers, their income
has been largely replaced by high-end tourism.
Income from divers prepared to pay a premium for
experiencing the recovered stocks of pelagic rays,
bigeye tuna, marlin, and swordfish makes up about
40 per cent of Palau’s economy (The Guardian,
2015). Yet, Palau may have jumped out of the frying
pan and into the fire: the introduction of the fishing
ban has resulted in driving up trade in reef fish to
replace tuna fishing. This illustrates that LSMPA
managers face diverse challenges implementing
the correct measures, and more work is needed to
prevent unintended consequences.
Going big
Despite some of the current limitations of
large-scale MPAs, mainly the maintenance
Box 2. Citizen science as an additional tool for
monitoring and community links
Citizen science programmes which encourage the collection of
management-relevant information are a great tool for building
links with local communities, and provide hands-on opportunities
for volunteers to get involved. One of the most successful citizen
science programmes is Eye on the Reef run by the Great Barrier
Reef Marine Park Authority in Australia, which enables reef users
to provide scientific data to researchers and reef managers. If
you are interested in participating, check out their free app by
scanning the QR code below, which allows you to record reef
health, animal sightings, or incidents (GBRMPA.gov, 2022). You
can also follow their work on Twitter #lovethereef
Box 1. MPA management categories
Cat.
Ia
Ib
II
III
IV
V
VI
Divers [are]
prepared to pay
a premium for
experiencing
the recovered
stocks of pelagic
rays, bigeye
tuna, marlin,
and swordfish.
Strict nature reserve (‘no-take zone’)
Wilderness Park
National Park
Natural monument or feature
Habitat/Species Management Area
Protected Seascape
Sustainable use of natural resources
For an interactive map of all MPAs,
scan this QR code:
of sufficient funding and achieving effective
surveillance and enforcement, they constitute an
indispensable tool for healthy oceans. Climate
change, including rising sea temperatures and
ocean acidification, is a growing threat to marine
ecosystems. Direct anthropogenic threats such
as habitat destruction, pollution, and overfishing
are further increasing the pressure on our seas,
urging us to ‘go big’ with marine conservation
efforts and to strengthen existing measures.
LSMPAs have a number of advantages over
small scale MPAs: mainly the coverage of entire
ecosystems and ecological processes including
migratory species, as well as the protection of
cultural spaces and the benefits of international
cooperation. In terms of achieving high-level
marine conservation goals, LSMPAs are the key
players. The sheer size of LSMPAs and their
resulting global significance makes them more
likely to influence international marine policies
compared to small MPAs. Still, it remains the
case that the designation of any kind of MPA,
whether small or large, in itself will not be
enough to ensure true protection and is only
the first step towards effective conservation.
While some examples of LSMPAs show that
management and scientific challenges can be
successfully overcome, efficient implementation
and governance are required to reach each
LSMPA’s full potential and achieve their goal of
conserving vast areas of our oceans.
• Daniela Sturm (danstu@mba.ac.uk), PhD Candidate at
the Marine Biological Association.
Further reading
https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/
documents/PAG-026.pdf
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-blue-belt-programme
https://bigoceanmanagers.org/
www.mba.ac.uk
october 2022

22
f e a t u r e
research vessel and
instrument mooring tips
Calling all research vessel crews and scientists!
Capt. Marc Deglinnocenti shares hard-won advice
for deploying scientific equipment at sea.
Snap! There goes a small fortune in
scientific data collection instruments and
other expensive parts of your marine
instrument mooring system. There are
some general rules that mariners can follow that
might help whilst handling them. Learning what
they are and what they do is a good first step
towards that end. Mariners don’t need to know
how each instrument specifically works, but a little
bit of knowledge can help the scientists on board
a research vessel meet their goals. Those goals
should be the crew’s goals too.
Types of scientific instrument
moorings
Most of these moorings basically consist of a
weight at the bottom of a long line or cable and
a float at the top. There are three general types
of scientific instrument moorings. The surface
buoy mooring is probably the least expensive
and simplest of the three. It consists of a buoy or
float visibly riding on the water surface. A cable
or line leads from the buoy to a weight or anchor
that rests on the bottom. The data collection
instruments are then attached along that cable at
different depths. It’s a simple mooring, but it can
become a bit more complicated if we submerge
the whole setup including the buoy.
The next type of mooring takes the first type
of mooring and shortens the cable so that the
buoy is now under the water and out of sight (see
Fig. 1). These mid-water column moorings need
radio or sonic receivers and batteries to release
the moorings from their anchors when recovering
them. It can get a bit more expensive and
complicated with the addition of these release
mechanisms, and the third type of mooring needs
them as well. The third type is a benthic or bottom
mooring. It sits on the sea floor in a mount without
any cables attached. These bottom mounts are
usually deployed from ships using a release
trip line when they are just below the surface of
the water. They have to descend in an upright
position all the way down, though. Unfortunately,
that doesn’t always work as planned.
Benthic mounting systems (see Fig. 2 for an
example) rely mostly on their proper placement
on the ocean floor in the first place. Uneven or
sloped bottoms can affect the upward scanning
devices and therefore skew the data. It is
Figure 1.
An elliptical deep-water
buoy for higher current
areas of research.
Figure 2.
Trawl-resistant bottom
mount. These benthic
mounts are designed to
protect instrumentation
in areas where trawling
is a concern.
recommended that weighted gimbal mounts be
used for upward-scanning instrument mounts.
Acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs), which
are sonar scanning sensors, are usually installed
in these benthic mounts. ADCPs are used to
record how fast the current is moving at different
heights up and down the entire water column,
therefore it is important that research vessel crews
have good sonar scans of the bottom first. The
scientists will already have a general location for
these benthic mounts in mind, but the mariners
should recommend a specific deployment
location to help achieve an overall success of
the mission. Mariners can also help scientists
by using their local knowledge of vessel traffic
patterns: knowing where fishing trawlers drag
their nets, which can scoop up benthic moorings,
is important.
Have a care and be prepared
The crew must also have a care whilst deploying
all types of moorings. A good crew will have
safety procedures for that, too. It is essential that
only one person is in charge of the mooring
deployment process. That person must know
the correct sequence of events as well as where
everyone is at all times (see Fig. 3). If you dump
a 1-ton weight overboard first, you immediately
run the risk of it dragging everything along with
it in one fell swoop. This can damage the entire
mooring including the instruments, the buoy,
and the cable, and can cause injuries. The heavy
anchor weight should be released last, after you
can see that the towed mooring looks straight,
untangled, and undamaged. There’s more to
this than meets the eye when it comes to these
mooring weights, too.
Many moorings have been lost because
scientists and crew members alike have failed to
understand the importance of utilizing the correct
ground tackle. There’s a simple formula for most
moorings in areas of slow to medium-speed
currents. Jon Wood of Ocean Data Technologies,
Inc. says that a good rule of thumb is to use twice
the anchor weight as the buoyancy used. So,
if the buoy has a 500 kg rated buoyancy, then
the weight should be 1,000 kg. So, let’s say that
an inexperienced mooring preparer attaches a
1,000 kg block of concrete to a 500 kg float-rated
buoy and you deploy it. Later, upon returning for
the recovery, the scientist finds that the whole
mooring system is gone. What happened? The
weight to buoyancy ratio was calculated on dry
land. That calculation didn’t work at sea in a reallife
situation, because concrete loses one-half of
its weight in salt water. Scrap steel weights are
therefore preferred for most moorings, because
they are inexpensive and don’t gain buoyancy
october 2022
www.mba.ac.uk

f e a t u r e 23
Figure. 3. Deploying an elliptical deep-water buoy for higher current areas of research.
The Nortek ADCP is mounted on top for upward scanning. Only one crew member (far
left) gives the pre-agreed hand signals to the A-Frame operator. This deep-water buoy has
a different foam density than a shallow water elliptical buoy. The stainless steel framework
is specifically designed not to interfere with the ADCP beams.
© Nortek
in salt water. For areas of high-speed currents,
heavy anchors must be used instead in order to
utilize their superior holding shapes in addition to
their dead weight calculations. Mooring materials
matter. Dan Cote of DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc.
tells us that their buoyancy foams are designed
to resist harsh marine environments. They also
have different pressure ratings. A shallow-water
subsurface buoy has a different pressure rating,
and therefore a different depth rating, to a deepwater
buoy. If you get the two mixed up, you
could lose your instruments.
So, if you want to crew on board a research
vessel, it’s a good idea to learn as much as you
can. Follow all of the safety procedures as
best you can whilst watching out for the
unexpected. Respect the scientific personnel on
board and your fellow crew members. Help them
out when they need it while still doing your own
job well. Learn some of the terminology used on
board and how to safely handle the
scientific instruments too. My final tip is to learn
as much as you can when you step on board
a research vessel. And my last word is that if
you take my advice, you’ll have a much better
understanding of our marine environment and
the many ways to study it after you step back
ashore.
• Capt. Marc Deglinnocenti (oldarmada@gmail.com)
Capt. Marc Deglinnocenti has sea time on various
types of vessels dating back to 1974. Those vessels
included conventional and tractor tugs, sailboats,
ferryboats, water taxis, training ships, warships, cargo
barges, containerships, near coastal passenger vessels,
paddlewheels, and research vessels to name a few.
www.mba.ac.uk
october 2022

24
t h e v o i c e o f m a r i n e b i o l o g y
With a clear, strategic direction for
membership, and new tools and
resources to enable members to
connect, this is an exciting time in the
Association’s long history. Jo Langston
sets the scene for this special edition of
the magazine.
By now you may have noticed that we’ve
made some significant changes to your
membership experience. We started in
July with the launch of the new MyMBA
online member area—the foundation for huge
development opportunities—signalling the
beginning of an ongoing commitment and
determination from the MBA to grow, facilitate, and
support marine biologists, students, and marine
enthusiasts on their journeys in the field. The aim of
the Membership Team is that our community truly
becomes the voice of marine biology.
But what does this mean and how are we
going to achieve it? As the only chartered body
exclusively for marine biologists, we represent
the collective voice of the profession, ensuring it
is heard and recognized by key Influencers and
policy makers at a national and international level.
As for the how, the short answer is by working
together: the Association exists to serve you,
the membership. From your perspective as a
member, it’s vital that the benefits and features we
develop are based on what you want and need to
advance through your career.
Back in December, we sent a survey to all
members asking for feedback on the areas of
MBA membership you most value and what you
would like to see more of. Networking, events,
and sharing of knowledge and opportunities
featured highly across all categories. We
therefore set about creating a strategy informed
by these elements, starting with replacing our
existing online members’ area and focusing our
efforts on how we can utilize the new platform to
develop the MBA community.
The new ‘Communities’ feature is a collection of
Figure 1. Journeys in
marine biology: MBA
membership is about
connecting, networking,
and support wherever
we are in our careers.
a space to connect
OUR MARINE
BIOLOGICAL
member forums where members can connect and
network: sharing latest projects, asking for advice,
posting opportunities, and a whole host of other
discussion areas. To further facilitate networking
and community-building, we developed a
directory for the Professional and Fellows
categories, enabling members of these categories
to showcase their areas of expertise and, for the
first time, allowing all members across the globe
to reach out, connect, and collaborate.
Students and early-career members told us they
greatly value guidance and advice as they enter
the profession. In response, we have launched a
new mentoring scheme, allowing more senior and
experienced members the opportunity to share
what they have learnt—from both a research and
life perspective—with those who are just starting
their journey into the world of marine biology.
Some areas will develop continuously in
response to external developments. Marine
policy is a vital area in which the MBA will act
as a facilitator; capturing the expertise and
opinions of the MBA community, and feeding
them into relevant areas of policy, ensuring
that the profession is best placed to positively
COMMUNITY
october 2022
www.mba.ac.uk

t h e v o i c e o f m a r i n e b i o l o g y 25
influence decisions made at government level.
To make contributing to consultations more
straightforward, we have set up pages on the
policy area of MyMBA which pull out the relevant
sections of consultations and provide areas
for your comments—saving you from having to
plough through lengthy documents. We also plan
to host interactive webinars for each consultation,
providing an opportunity for members to ask
questions directly to members of the Policy team.
Another benefit members were keen to see
enhanced was access to the National Marine
Biological Library (we recognize that taking
advantage of in-person access to the library is
not a practical option for everyone!). We are
looking into ways of digitizing elements of the
library’s catalogue; however, this is a long-term
process. In the meantime, we are populating
an online resources area which will contain
a growing selection of searchable content,
including articles, presentations, and member
blogs. Look out as exclusive extra content from
The Marine Biologist magazine appears on the
Figure 2. The hybrid
format of the MBA
Annual General Meeting
means more MBA
members are able
to have their say and
shape the future of the
Association.
© 2022 PLYMOUTH MARINE LABORATORY
© 2022 MBA
Students and early-career
members told us they greatly
value guidance and advice as
they enter the profession.
members’ portal. This will include expanded
articles, podcasts, and blogs.
Enhancing professional development is very
much on our radar and, accordingly, we are
rebooting our training and events offering.
Again, based on feedback from the membership,
this will include a mix of training events for
both field-based and technical skills, as well as
conferences and networking opportunities. A
substantial proportion of these events will be
online or hybrid format, enabling access from all
corners of the world.
Underpinning all of our work is a commitment to
increasing inclusivity across the profession.
The MBA is working on a comprehensive EDI
strategy, which will inform how we develop
member benefits. To start with, we are reviewing
our bursaries, both in terms of what we offer and
the application process. We have increased the
student travel bursary this year to provide more
support for those attending marine-biology related
conferences, meetings and training courses.
This is undoubtedly an exciting time to be
a member of the MBA, as you get to engage
with the developing range of member benefits
and form new relationships as part of a growing
community. However, in order to ensure we
continue to support you and the profession in line
with what is needed, it is vital that we communicate
with each other. We will continue to send out our
annual member survey, but we welcome and rely
on ongoing feedback. You can let us know your
thoughts through a variety of channels, either by
emailing the Membership Team, via the feedback
forms on MyMBA, or through our social media
platforms. We are keen to hear what you think of
the new online members’ area and what you would
like to see us develop, both in terms of how the
MBA supports its members on an individual level,
and how it represents the profession.
We look forward to hearing from you—in the
meantime, enjoy this latest edition of The
Marine Biologist, and why not take a minute or
two to check out the latest discussions in the
MyMBA groups and reach out to your MBA
community?
• Jo Langston (joalan@mba.ac.uk),
Head of Membership
membership@mba.ac.uk
www.mba.ac.uk
october 2022

26
t h e v o i c e o f m a r i n e b i o l o g y
opening the door to
marine spaces and science
Access to nature and opportunities in rewarding careers such as marine science should be a
universal right. Joanna Harley explores the issues around access and the role of organizations
like the Marine Biological Association as agents of change when it comes to building an equal,
diverse, and inclusive community.
© Fotonow
Figure 1. Young boys beach cleaning with the Marine
Biological Association’s Blue Sound Project in 2018. The MBA
has a long history of excellence in public engagement. With the
right partnerships and funding, such organizations can facilitate
access to nature with significant outcomes for health, wellbeing,
and raising aspirations among local people.
october 2022
www.mba.ac.uk

t h e v o i c e o f m a r i n e b i o l o g y 27
We are currently witnessing mass extinction,
climate change, and pollution across the planet.
Managing these crises will require revolutionary
thought and actions from current and future
generations of people from all walks of life. Improving diversity
and inclusion brings opportunities for innovation, cross-cultural
knowledge exchange, and effective implementation of new
ideas and policies.
Within STEM professions in the UK, 65 per cent of the
workforce are white male, while women are underrepresented
at every stage in the workforce. Within environmental science
in the USA, ethnic and racial diversity has seen no progress
in 40 years, whereas merely addressing the issue in the UK
is hindered by data gaps. Networks are developing (such as
Black in Marine Science, Diversity in Polar Science, Women in
Marine Science, Pride in Science), but there is work to be done
to engage diverse groups of people, create opportunities for
those without degrees, and change the work culture to retain
people in minorities. In this initial article from the MBA EDI
Committee, we will explore what barriers of access to nature
and marine science exist and how we could make changes.
Many organizations such as Natural England, NatureScot and
DEFRA have investigated barriers of access to nature and have
found that people from minority ethnic backgrounds spend less
time in the countryside compared to their white counterparts.
CPRE, The Countryside Charity used guided walks for in-depth
survey of the lived experiences of people from minority ethnic
backgrounds to understand how to make the countryside
more accessible. This method of survey could be useful for
organizations such as the MBA to understand the needs of local
potential service users and cater to them directly.
Accessing nature has barriers such as the cost of travel,
equipment, time, and understanding of how to use these
spaces. Perceptions of rural communities as older, more
conservative, and predominantly white spaces create a further
barrier to access, for fear of facing microaggressions or direct
confrontation, hence a preference towards safety in numbers.
There is also a significant cultural barrier for migrants who have
not yet developed a connection to the land, thus finding ways
to make the countryside and coast welcoming to all is key for
developing positive relationships and a sense of stewardship
in our cosmopolitan nation. In recent years, many groups in the
UK have driven a movement of reclaiming space in nature, such
as Mosaic Outdoors, Wild in the City, Backbone CIC, Black Girls
Hike, Muslim Hikers, Steppers UK and Peaks of Colour, some of
whom led the Kinder Trespass in 2021.
Over the last decade the UK education system has
experienced financial cuts and rising standards; this has
produced a fast-paced curriculum with little funding or time
available for field studies. As a result, comprehensive schools
do not have the same access to outdoor sports, activities,
and field trips as public schools. Outreach from organizations
such as the MBA could be vital for injecting knowledge into
a curriculum severely lacking understanding of the coastal
ecosystems that surround and support the nation. A key
consideration when doing this must be making sure that the
messages are culturally relevant, as people from different
backgrounds will have different priorities or interests. The MBA
has a long tradition of communicating science to the public, from
the public aquarium at the Citadel Hill Laboratory, to the MarLIN
programme and the Blue Sound community outreach project
(Fig. 1). The latter included Sound Suppers workshops which
taught refugees and young people how to sustainably fish, and
Beach Rangers, in which MBA scientists introduced their research
Marine Biological Association scientists engaging with local people in
2016 at a Beach Rangers event at Devil’s Point beach, Plymouth, UK.
to diverse audiences on Plymouth beaches (see Fig. 2).
Extracurricular bioblitzes and summer camps which are
subsidized and crafted by and for people from minority
ethnic backgrounds may be an excellent way of broadening
engagement. An example of this is provided by the Black
2 Nature birding retreats, organized by a young British-
Bangladeshi environmentalist Mya-Rose Craig; should
organizations such as the MBA be leading on these efforts?
Consistently engaging with green and blue spaces has mental
and physical health benefits as well as fostering appreciation
and concern for the natural world. Coastal resort towns are
some of the most deprived communities in the UK; however,
children in coastal communities still have better access to blue
spaces than those in cities. Current initiatives for exploring
the shore in the South West are the Rockpool Project and
MBA Bioblitzes, in which members of the public learn about
local biodiversity with guidance from ecological experts. MBA
Bioblitzes have contributed data to the National Biodiversity
Database, and have recently adopted the app iNaturalist to
identify and record organisms. Using species-recording apps
improves our understanding of ecosystems and encourages
environmental responsibility and stewardship. Allocation of
more resources towards interactive online and virtual platforms
could extend engagement to groups with limited access to the
coast, such as urbanites and disabled people.
In the UK we have a complicated history of loss of land rights
leading to estrangement from nature. Today less than 5 per cent
of English land is owned by homeowners, and we only have the
right to roam over 8 per cent; a small portion that is diminishing
and is not equally accessible to all unless we act now. Responsibly
engaging with nature proves that the public cares for and is
deserving of these spaces. The MBA has a duty to ensure that all
people are engaged with their local marine environment and that
everyone has their voices heard. The tools we provide will be vital
to increasing public demand for environmental protection.
• Joanna Harley (joahar@ceh.ac.uk)
Further reading
Johri, S., Carnevale, M., Porter, L., Zivian, A., Kourantidou, M., Meyer,
E.L., Seevers, J. and Skubel, R.A. 2021. Pathways to justice, equity,
diversity, and inclusion in marine science and conservation. Frontiers in
Marine Science, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.696180
CPRE, The Countryside Charity 2021. Access to nature in the English
countryside: A participant led research project exploring inequalities in
access to the countryside for people of colour. August-2021_Access-tonature-in-the-English-countryside_research-overview.pdf
(cpre.org.uk)
Ezeilo, A. and Chiles, N. 2019. Engage, Connect, Protect: Empowering
Diverse Youth as Environmental Leaders. New Society Publishers, 2019.
© MBA
www.mba.ac.uk
october 2022

28
t h e v o i c e o f m a r i n e b i o l o g y
Newquay. Towan Beach is only 15
minutes’ walk from our campus.
All images © J. Birt
a foundation for
success
Jason Birt introduces an alternative path into marine biology careers.
It is a well-worn path for those aspiring to become marine
biologists to head to a large university and read an honours
degree in marine biology. It works. It has been the supply
route of professional marine biologists for decades.
However, there is an alternative. For 20 years, there has been
a small campus in a tourist town (the home of British surfing!)
next to a beautiful stretch of coastline, that has provided an
alternative—and successful—approach to marine studies; one
that involves smaller class sizes and a relaxed, quieter feel.
Cornwall College Newquay, a University Centre from
September 2022, has been offering marine courses using
the Foundation Degree approach. Foundation Degrees were
started in 2001 by the then Education Secretary David Blunkett.
They are work-related and industry-linked. They are taught to
Level 5 and equivalent to the first 2 years of a traditional BSc
(Hons). Students can then progress on to 1 year top-up BSc
(Hons) courses, which we run (and the vast majority do this).
They tend to be more coursework assessed, with more realworld,
employment-focused learning. They are a vehicle for
widening participation, because their UCAS tariff is usually
lower and they accept entry from a broader range of Level 3
subjects; our marine biology foundation degrees follow this
approach and can thus be viewed as a conversion course for
those who have changed their career aspirations.
For 20 years, our foundation degree marine courses have
been validated by the University of Plymouth, but now we
can validate our own foundation degrees. We designed
these new courses from scratch. What skills and attributes
make for a capable marine biologist, for the jobs marine
biology graduates mostly go for? The ability to research
a scientific subject is a given. Problem solving? Lateral
thinking? Independence? Definitely. But what else? We
looked at our graduates from previous courses. Some had
headed down the research path. However, the majority
were employed in education, outreach, guiding, marine
conservation management, and campaigning. We decided
to add in outreach and interpretation design—in the second
year, students will design and produce materials in marine
biological subjects for use in schools and the community.
We added film-making and website curation, adding
data collected in the field to a website called Newquay
Marine Observatory. We added stakeholder negotiation
and diplomacy. We added in equipment maintenance and
improvement, a key technician skillset.
A core requirement was an understanding of ocean literacy,
with the learning outcomes of our centrepiece module, Our
Ocean Planet, based on the seven ocean literacy principles,
with an eighth in science communication. It isn’t just the degree
that gets the job; additional short qualifications and work
experience are key. We will provide some funding each year to
each student to gain additional short course qualifications, tied
to their Personal Development Plan.
All of this takes place in the beautiful, protected habitats here
on the rugged north coast of Cornwall, working with a range of
industry partners.
We hope that these new courses will produce the high
calibre of graduates that we have produced for 20 years:
graduates who are working, or have worked, for marine
october 2022
www.mba.ac.uk

t h e v o i c e o f m a r i n e b i o l o g y 29
Right: Students
plankton sampling
aboard the vessel
Atlantic Diver, a fast
catamaran able to
head to any location
along the north coast of
Cornwall.
conservation, management, and research organizations like
Natural England, Blue Reef Aquariums, Plymouth Marine
Laboratory, National Lobster Hatchery, Cornwall Seal Group
Research Trust, and Cornwall Wildlife Trust, in roles including as
teachers and wildlife tour operators—even for the BBC Natural
History Unit—and many other graduate-level positions. They will
have the skillset to navigate and solve the many unpredictable
challenges we face in the future.
• Jason Birt (jason.birt@cornwall.ac.uk) Mem.MBA, HE Programme
Manager – FdSc Marine Biology with Oceanography, Cornwall College
University Centre, Newquay.
Left: Students on
Porthmellon Beach,
Isles of Scilly, during
a day trip. On route,
we teach distance
sampling protocols,
logging cetacean, seal,
and seabird sightings.
Whilst there, we teach
identification of species
in the under-boulder
communities on the
rocky shore.
Bottom right: Science
communication has
long been a central
thread of our degrees
and this is the case for
our new Marine Biology
Foundation Degrees.
www.mba.ac.uk
october 2022

30
t h e v o i c e o f m a r i n e b i o l o g y
YOUNG MARINE
BIOLOGIST SUMMIT 2022
HIDDEN OCEANS
SATURDAY 26 NOVEMBER
#YMBSUMMIT2022
Join us online for a fantastic day filled to the brim
with talks, fun, and facts all about the tiny wonders
living in our oceans.
BOOK
NOW
Cher Chow
Delve into the secret life
of recovering corals.
Discover how coral bleaching events and
storms can result in reefs looking bare and
desolate and the process by which these reefs
are beginning to recover.
MEET YOUR HOSTS
Dr Russell Arnott
Phytoplankton are just little green balls, right?
WRONG!
Phytoplankton come in a variety of shapes,
sizes and colours. Join Russell to learn what
tricks they have up their sleeves that help them
survive in all kinds of conditions.
Dr Helen Scales
Cordelia Roberts
Poop and death:
where microbes thrive?
Learn just what material sinks from the surface
ocean to the deep abyssal plains, and how
marine microbes not only survive but thrive!
Rory Crawford
Dr Ocean
Can we use the ocean to discover new
medicines?
Many marine organisms produce chemicals
for communication, defence, and so forth.
These chemicals are not only key to survival in
the sea, they can also be a source of medicines
for humans.
For more information
visit www.mba.ac.uk/
our-membership/our-magazine
and follow us on social media
@thembauk across all platforms.
october 2022
www.mba.ac.uk

t h e v o i c e o f m a r i n e b i o l o g y 31
Yasmin Meeda
No brain, no problem:
diatoms and their environment
Tune in to understand how diatoms (plant-like
algae) can sense changes in their environment
and respond to them.
Jeffrey Marlow
Methane-eating microbes
in the deep sea
This talk will take you on a journey to several
deep-sea methane seeps to see how these
microbes work, and investigate the rich
ecosystems they form.
Plus, Colleen M. Cavanaugh, Fabiana Neves,
and many more!
SEALIFE
SHOWDOWN
Featuring Jasmine A. Nirody
Join speakers as they battle to
convince the audience which
organism is the best!
Who will you vote for?
The Young Marine Biologist Club
A brand new programme of monthly, interactive,
online events for 13–18-year-old members.
ADMIT ONE
The club will be a great opportunity to meet and work with
fellow young marine biologists
Book the club online at: https://mymba.mba.ac.uk/
member-homepage/events.html
www.mba.ac.uk
october 2022

JMBA welcomes submissions of
original research and reviews
on all aspects of marine biology.
Members of the Marine Biological
Association are entitled to discounts on
both subscriptions to JMBA and, in 2022:
a 20% discount on the Article Processing
Charge (APC) for gold open access
publication in JMBA.
• Marine Biodiversity Records has
now merged with the Journal
• JMBA is moving to Online Only and
Continuous Publication in 2023
Journal of the Marine Biological
Association of the United Kingdom
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/
journal-of-the-marine-biological-association-of-the-united-kingdom
JMBA is a hybrid journal so authors are
able to choose whether to publish their
article under a subscription-access model
or as gold open access. Taking the gold
open access option in JMBA requires
payment of an APC, and for MBA
members this will be discounted from
£2,045 / $3,255 to £1,636 / $2,604 plus
any applicable taxes (a saving of over
£400/$600).
Please see the website for details.
Submit your article:
mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jmba
The Marine Biological Association Annual General
Meeting and Annual Science Talk 22nd November 2022
11 AM AT THE MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION,
PLYMOUTH AND ONLINE
We are pleased to announce the date of this years’ Annual General
Meeting, the forum at which you, as a member, get to have your
say in the running of the Marine Biological Association. The AGM will
this year be running as a hybrid event and members are invited to join
us at our Plymouth headquarters in person or online via Zoom.
The AGM will be followed by our Annual Science Talk: ‘Viruses to
plankton—a perspective from art and science’ by Christian Sardet.
This will take place at 2 pm in the lecture theatre at Plymouth Marine
Laboratory.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKER
Christian Sardet is presently emeritus research director
at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
(CNRS). Christian is the author of numerous scientific
publications on the cell and molecular biology of
fertilization and development and more recently on
plankton. He is the recipient of the Grand Prix des
Sciences de la Mer from the French Academy of
Sciences.
Creator of award-winning documentaries, animated
films and DVDs, Christian received the European Award
for Communication in Life Sciences from the European
Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and received
the, Légion d’Honneur, for his contributions.

Seen a conference or training that would advance your career? MBA
Student Members can apply for bursaries to help with the cost of taking
part in events and training. We hear from two 2022 bursary winners.
Yasmin Meeda presenting her research at the Plant Calcium Signalling
Conference 2022 in Milan.
PLANT CALCIUM SIGNALLING CONFERENCE
2022, MILAN
Yasmin Meeda
The field of research represented at this conference
explores how plants and photosynthetic single-celled
organisms, including diatoms and green algae, use calcium
(Ca 2+ ) as a cellular messenger. The Ca 2+ ion is employed by
many eukaryotes as an important intracellular messenger,
to inform the cell of a change in the environment, a bit
like how the nervous system works in animals. The amount
of calcium can be identified in the cell using a calcium
indicator, which can be expressed in plant and algal cells as
a way to study Ca 2+ signalling.
For my PhD research, I am currently exploring how marine
diatoms can sense and rapidly respond to changes in
phosphorus in the ocean. Recent research by Helliwell et
al. (2021), showed that the model diatom Phaeodactylum
tricornutum uses calcium as a cellular messenger to inform
the cell when phosphate is present in the environment after
a period of being limiting— ultimately helping to regulate
the diatoms’ health. My research aims to further explore this
essential mechanism that diatoms rely on to survive.
I was fortunate enough to present my research at the
poster session and I had many engaging discussions with
fellow scientists. As a result, I came away from the conference
with new and innovative ideas to try in my research to further
reveal what mechanisms diatoms use to survive rapidly
changing environments.
Researchers from all over the world joined to discuss their
latest research either through presentations or the poster
session. The conference was a great way to meet leaders in
the field and gain a new perspective on my research. As the
conference was relatively small, with less than 200 attendees, it
was great to see the same faces each day and say hi or have a
catch up over dinner and drinks.
Overall, this was an incredible experience, and I am pleased
to say that I have learned a lot and can’t wait to attend again in
two years’ time. I am grateful for the MBA bursary that I received
that allowed me this opportunity to attend.
Yasmin Meeda (yasmee@mba.ac.uk)
Tristan Wünnemann at the 18th MBA Postgraduate
Conference, Liverpool
THE 18TH MBA POSTGRADUATE CONFERENCE,
LIVERPOOL
Tristan Wünnemann
This was my first time in Liverpool and my first time
presenting at a conference. The conference venue
had everything the participants needed and thanks to the
committee—who did a great job—the event was a complete
success. The committee always made me feel comfortable
and welcome and I really liked the structure of how the
presentations were arranged.
The atmosphere in general was great: the presentations were
of such a high-quality that the audience was excited about every
one. I liked that there were so many young people, which also
helped with people not being too nervous.
The organization around the conference was as great as
the conference itself. Meeting all the participants in different
localities around the city lead to some interesting discussions
and exchange whilst going deeper into the respective topics.
Finally, I would like to say that I really enjoyed the keynote
speakers’ presentations and the topics they covered. The
science communication part especially made me want to learn
and do more with this effective tool.
Thank you for supporting me and giving me the opportunity
to be part of this conference, it was a great event!
Tristan Wünnemann (twunnemann@gmail.com)
www.mba.ac.uk october 2022

34
r e v i e w s
REVIEWS
Marine Biological Association members review
the most recent books, films, and podcasts.
CHALLENGES IN ESTUARINE AND COASTAL
SCIENCE – 50TH ANNIVERSARY VOLUME
This book reflects the Estuarine and Coastal Sciences
Association ethos in the wide range, and interleaving,
of scientific disciplines and management aspects we’ve
come to regard (not least with the help of ECSA itself) as
necessary when thinking about coasts and estuaries.
The authorship is highly expert, and includes both
workers who have become foremost authorities in
their fields and the more recent generation. Chapter
topics range from aspects of physical processes through considerations of plastic
pollution, habitat loss, carbon storage, ecosystem change, and conservation. The
chapters are more akin to essays than scientific papers and all seek to do as the
title suggests in identifying current understandings of the challenges involved.
Some accomplish this by taking a ‘looking back, looking forwards’ approach,
others use a series of case studies to identify the gaps and challenges to come,
others a systems approach to pathways and risks, others a proposed assessment
or monitoring method, or a detailed analysis of policy successes and failures. In all
instances the authors provide an excellent summary of where we currently stand,
and in doing so they also provide a guide to the relevant reference material that
will be of great benefit both to students and practitioners alike. As a celebration of
what ECSA and its members have done and are still doing, and how they see the
world ahead, this is well worth a careful read.
• Colin Taylor Mem.MBA
This book details the impressive achievements of the
EU LIFE RELIONMED project (Preventing a LIONfish
invasion in the MEDiterannean through early response and
targeted REmoval), which took place in Cyprus from 2017
to 2022. Using infographics, images and small sections of
text, the authors cover a broad range of topics, beginning
with a brief introduction to lionfish and then moving on
to project outcomes, including the development of a
lionfish culling programme, the introduction of lionfish to restaurants, and increasing
awareness of the lionfish invasion. In each section, the authors provide the rationale
behind the work and a description of how it was achieved.
The book is presented in a way that would also appeal to non-specialists who
are interested in learning more about lionfish. Bold diagrams, large photos,
and a bright colour scheme make this an enjoyable read. For the interested
reader, several tables have been included in an annex to give more information
on topics included in the book, such as indicators of socioeconomic impacts of
lionfish.
Overall, a very enjoyable read and great for anyone interested in, or working
on, invasive lionfish, whether in the Mediterranean or Western Atlantic.
• Christina Hunt Mem.MBA
Author: Estuarine and Coastal Sciences Association
Editors: John Humphreys and Sally Little
ISBN: 9781784272852
Publisher: Pelagic Publishing
Pages: 288, Paperback
GUIDE TO LIONFISH MANAGEMENT
IN THE MEDITERRANEAN
Author: Jason Hall-Spencer, Periklis Kleitou,
Demetris Kletou and Siân E. Rees
ISBN: 9781841024585
Publisher: University of Plymouth
Pages: 62, Paperback
SEA CHANGE.
A MESSAGE OF THE OCEANS
Author: Sylvia A. Earle
ISBN: 9780094757301
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Pages: 360, Hardback
MBA members will know that Sylvia
Earle is an Honorary Fellow of
the Association, elected as such when
the MBA received its Royal Charter.
Earle has also been Chief Scientist
of the US National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
so she has been at the forefront of the
management of, and investigations into,
the world’s oceans. This book, which is
a new version of one published in 1995,
describes Earle’s activities over her
career. In effect, this handsome volume
is an autobiography with many colour
illustrations, all covering Earle’s oceangoing
activities.
Sylvia Earle started her career in
marine science as a phycologist and
used SCUBA diving as a main tool in
her research. Despite this academic
start, Earle’s main activity has been
focused on developing the technology
for deep diving and then taking part
in resulting dives. Later in her career,
and particularly over the past 20 years,
Earle has been acting as an advocate for
ocean conservation. Whilst highlighting
human impacts on the ocean is
essential, the harder problem is to find
ways to reduce or mitigate the effects of
these impacts. It is relatively easy, in my
estimation, to point to a problem, but
much harder to find ways to solve it.
The book will appeal mostly to the
general reader; in other words, it is
not a high-level scientific book, but
one to engage people in the science
of the oceans and perhaps to spur
young people to get involved in marine
research. The book is very readable and
written in a personal style with some
re-creations of conversations with family
and colleagues. As such, the reader is
easily engaged in the narrative and will
hopefully be inspired to take up the
challenges posed by Earle.
• Paul J.B. Hart FMBA
october 2022

e v i e w s 35
WHAT IS REGENERATION?
RED LEVIATHAN: THE SECRET
HISTORY OF SOVIET WHALING
Writer: Ryan Tucker Jones
ISBN: 9780226628851
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Pages: 269, Hardback
This is a political, social, and
scientific history of Russian
whaling, culminating in the Soviet role
in the near-exterminations of the 20th
century.
Despite Peter the Great’s attempts to
diversify the economy, Russia played a
minor part in ‘old time‘ whaling under
sail in the north Atlantic. Then, in the
19th century, underinvestment and
lack of expertise ensured Russia never
enjoyed the success of Yankee whalers
in the Pacific. Tucker Jones goes on to
detail how Russian whaling developed
following the upheavals of the Bolshevik
revolution in 1917. At the end of the
Second World War, Russia expanded
whaling and focused on the Antarctic, as
did some western nations. Together, they
brought stocks to near extinction but it
was only later, after the collapse of the
Soviet Union, that the full extent of Soviet
depredation was revealed to the IWC
by Russian scientists who had kept their
own records.
While sympathetic towards whalers
themselves and recognizing that
Soviet planners realized the need for
conservation, Tucker Jones is critical of
the system that drove overexploitation.
He praises the work of Russian
scientists who exposed the secretive
overexploitation of stocks after most
other whaling nations had ceased
operations. The text needed a little
scientific advice at proof stage and I
am doubtful about the term ‘genocide’
applied to whaling; nevertheless, this
is a very well-researched, readable,
and well-illustrated book that provides
a fascinating new insight into what
was effectively the end of the ‘modern
whaling’ era.
• Paul G.K. Rodhouse FMBA
www.mba.ac.uk
Writer: Jane Maienschein and Kate MacCord
ISBN: 9780226816562
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Pages: 154, Paperback
love big questions. They sound so simple. Particularly when
I you say them out loud. And yet the excitement of wrestling
with the biggest questions in biology outweighs the obstacles
standing in the way of an answer. So imagine my delight on
being asked to review What is Regeneration?, written by a
biologist and a historian/philosopher of science. Their aim?
To give ‘a new perspective on regeneration as a process of all
living things’—in four chapters; 154 pages!
The first chapter sets the scene. It spells out the challenge
of asking: why doesn’t everything regenerate, what is regeneration, and how can we
apply our answers across biology... and beyond?
The next two chapters take a historical approach to how you do biology, and looks at
regeneration through the lens of three US developmental biologists associated with the
famous Woods Hole marine lab, Massachusetts, at the turn of the 20th century. These
chapters are well-crafted and enjoyable in their own right. The fourth and final chapter
is a whirlwind, a revelation, attempting to take the lessons from the previous chapters
and apply them to medicine, ecology, and even our present ecological crisis. For me,
I’d have liked to have seen this final chapter expanded, with even more explanation
and discussion, and perhaps the previous two shortened, as I felt two books fighting to
emerge. That said, the authors, attempting the impossible, have produced something,
that while challenging to follow, is by far the most thought-provoking and enjoyable
book I’ve read in years. I thoroughly recommend it to all who want to exercise their
grey matter, to think differently and without horizons.
• John Spicer Mem.MBA
On seeing this title among the books to be reviewed
in The Marine Biologist, I was intrigued to discover
why it might be of interest to readers. Only two pages
refer to anything ‘marine’. Both relate to J. Craig Venter’s
sequencing of ‘ocean water’ DNA and the discovery
of a million previously unknown genes in marine
microbes. The account is offered as a cautionary tale
of a hypercompetitive scientist’s obsession to pursue
recognition through DNA research. Although fascinating, it does not justify
including a review of The Dharma in DNA in our Association’s magazine. However,
as the book’s subtitle ‘Insights at the intersection of Biology and Buddhism’
indicates, the content is highly relevant to anyone interested in promoting
inclusivity among the scientific research community.
Dee Denver is a much-published Professor at Oregon State University. He heads
a research team which studies evolutionary biology and population genomics using
Caenorhabditis elegans and other nematode worms. In The Dharma in DNA, he tells
the story of his spiritual journey from agnostic to believer, and his compulsion to
reconcile his adopted faith with the science he performs.
For those who wish to be better informed about Buddhism, Dee Denver provides
very useful introductions to the main tenets of the faith. He also offers a new
approach to science through Buddhist teachings. But, for me, the most interesting
sections are in the central narrative: it’s a highly personal, very honest, and insightful
account of Dee Denver’s search for truth through his life, science, and faith.
• Michael Kent Mem.MBA
THE DHARMA IN DNA
Writer: Dee Denver
ISBN: 9780197604588
Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2022
Pages: 224, Hardback
october 2022

THE MAGAZINE OF THE MARINE BIOLOGICAL COMMUNITY
Join the Marine Biological Association
and receive four editions of The Marine Biologist a year
www.mba.ac.uk/our-membership