MarineBio Projects

MarineBio is an advocacy and educational conservation organization for marine life. We provide information to people from all walks of life - students, journalists, policymakers, scientists.... You protect what you love. The ocean is an amazing place, but it's in deep trouble (pardon the pun). Our goal is to teach people about marine life and ocean conservation so that they will love the ocean too and help protect it.

Become a MarineBio Conservation Society member to help support these projects and our mission to share the wonders of the ocean to inspire conservation, education, research, and a sea ethic. Join today and become part of the solution to help protect marine life and restore our ocean. The following MarineBio projects are currently underway:

Project 1
Marine Species Database: an online database for the most common and endangered ~3,000 marine species to include referenced taxonomic, morphological, behavioral, dietary, habitat, reproductive, and conservation status information. To also include high quality photographs, video or access to video, as well as a variety of online resources for deeper species research. Species will include marine alga and plants, marine worms, hard and soft corals (and other cnidarians such as jellyfish, etc.), plankton, echinoderms, crustaceans, cephalopods, commercial, reef, and deep-sea fishes, sharks, marine birds, sea turtles (and other marine reptiles), and marine mammals.

Status: UNDERWAY: Species Launched | Species in Review

Importance: marine species data exists online but it is usually scattered with bits of data about different aspects at different locations, photos of species and behaviors at others, and video and other important information at yet other locations or missing altogether. By tying the existing data together and filling in the remaining gaps, we hope to provide the most complete picture possible of each species online. Then, using various Web technologies, we will connect that data together in various ways to show, for example, relationships between species in terms of taxonomy, habitats, predators and prey, reproduction details, and conservation threats and status. Once we complete the most common and endangered ~3,000 marine species homepages (each takes about 2 hrs to launch), we plan to offer that data in multiple ways for multiple uses to students, the general public, and researchers alike to help promote marine conservation and marine conservation research.

Required: to achieve the above we need time and staff. At this point (July '09), we are a small group of volunteers. If we could hire 4 people full time, we could have the 3,000 species completed in just about 6 months. The main server, databases, data sources, photo sources, and coding are complete and ready.

We are also currently in need of Directors for the following marine groups:

Cnidarians
Corals
Crustaceans
Deep-sea life (including hydrothermal vents and cold seeps)
Echinoderms
Marine Birds
Marine Fishes
Marine Reptiles
Plankton (zooplankton and phytoplankton)

Project 2
Marine Conservation Information: interesting and in-depth information covering the main issues concerning ocean life: global warming, the lack of a Sea Ethic, overfishing and the solution of sustainable fishing, threats to and an understanding of the importance of biodiversity, habitat conservation, ocean pollution, alien species, and sustainable or eco-tourism. Expert-reviewed complete sections on each topic with a focus on solutions while highlighting current efforts and the obstacles involved.

Status: UNDERWAY: Marine Conservation section home page

Importance: marine conservation essentially began with the save the whales campaign in the '70s and the dolphin-safe tuna boycott in 1986. Since those times, we have learned much more about what lives in the ocean and subsequently that much of it is struggling, if not disappearing, due mainly to our presence. Like marine species data, marine conservation data exists online but it is usually also scattered with bits of data about different aspects at different locations, hidden in various books and journals, or written about for various reasons for a wide number of audiences. By researching and tying the existing data together and filling in the remaining gaps, we hope to provide the most complete picture possible of each marine conservation issue online. Then, using various Web technologies, we will connect that data together in various ways with the above species to show, for example, relationships between species and the various conservation threats and their status. We should also be able to show and share various data on conservation issue solutions to the widest possible number of people, groups, agencies, and governments (knowledge is power and time is wasting). In doing so, these efforts should help to further promote marine conservation and marine conservation research.

Required: to achieve the above we also need time and staff. At this point (July '09), we are a small group of volunteers. If we could hire 4 additional people full time (a global warming expert, a sustainable fishing expert, an ocean pollution/habitat loss expert, and an alien species/eco-tourism expert), we could have the above sections completed in about 3-6 months. Each issue will then require periodic updating and expansion as it evolves indefinitely or until it is no longer an issue (ideally).

An ultimate goal of MarineBio is to bring in adequate funding to hire full time Marine Conservation Researchers to work on the very latest issues in the places where they are needed most. Of all research, and especially conservation research, marine conservation research is severely lacking (~30:1 according to Dr. Norse/MCBI) and ocean life, which so many of us seriously depend on, is quickly paying the ultimate price, extinction. And now with global warming as the number one marine conservation issue, there has never been a time when marine conservation research has been more needed.

Project 3
Marine Life Science (Marine Biology) Fundamentals: exploring and describing the often alien world that marine life inhabits to assist with the understanding of marine conservation issues and efforts. This effort is also our attempt to interest and assist students around the world in studying Marine Biology, Biology, Zoology, Marine Conservation, Biological Oceanography, etc. By offering at least a Marine Biology 101 course's worth of information online to helping students with career and job advice and strategies, etc. we hope to increase the global awareness of marine life and its conservation by helping to ultimately produce teachers of the marine life sciences and the vital researchers that ocean life needs at this crucial time in history.

Status: UNDERWAY

Project 4
Marine Conservation and Research Support - MarineBio provides substantial exposure for effective marine conservation and research groups such as the Marine Conservation Biology Institute (MCBI), Blue Ocean Institute and others.

Status: UNDERWAY (ongoing)

MarineBio also supports the Save Our Leatherbacks Operation (SOLO) to conduct research expeditions to Irian Jaya, Indonesia where the critically endangered Pacific leatherback sea turtles go to nest and lay eggs. Find our more >>

Find out more about MarineBio's Frontline Marine Conservation Support Program »

Project 5
The Plankton Forums are a dynamic community of worldwide members involved and interested in marine life, marine conservation and marine biology. Members include high school and college students, marine biologists, marine conservationists, ocean sports professionals, marine science professionals and academia, etc.

Status: UNDERWAY (ongoing)

Project 6
Marine Mammal Stranding Database Project - the Marine Mammal Protection Act falls short of requiring a central database to store and search for data concerning worldwide reports of marine mammal strandings and necropsies. We plan to rectify that to find out what trends may be hiding in the data to assist conservation efforts and whether further work is needed involving investigations as to the causes of strandings.

Status: PLANNING

Project 7
Marine Conservation Organizations Research Project - via surveys and interviews we hope to determine the current status of marine conservation efforts, specifically, to find out which marine species of the endangered and threatened are on the radar, the success of the efforts underway, which efforts are the most successful and why, which species are in dire need, and which species and areas need the most help.

Status: PLANNING

Project 8
Marine Conservation Laws Report - research will be conducted to determine the extent of marine conservation laws worldwide. We will look at the details, species and areas protected and compare this to the above project. This should help define which laws are working, why, which are not and what needs to be changed.

Status: PLANNING

Project 9
Marine Conservation Technology: Status Report - we plan to identify the most useful and cost effective online and offline technologies being used to assist with marine conservation efforts. Posted online and updated frequently, this should provide a central place for marine conservation groups to most effectively take care of business.

Status: CONCEPT

If you would like more information or have any questions about the above projects, please email David Campbell at David@marinebio.org or call him at +1 (713) 248-2576 PST.