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| Dr. Norse (left) and Jeff Renner (right) |
Today marks the end of my first week as executive assistant
in the Seattle office of the Marine Conservation Institute. I have really been
enjoying my first few days in Seattle. I have begun exploring different
neighborhoods and seeing beautiful landscape—including several mountains, which
was a treat for me as a Chicago native. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity
during my first week to attend the Seattle Aquarium’s lecture series, “Sound
Conversations”, where MCI’s chief scientist Elliott Norse was a featured
speaker. The event was hosted by local weather man Jeff Renner, who was
extremely engaging and offered the audience to take part and ask many
questions.
Dr. Norse began by detailing main highlights of his career,
including coining the term “biodiversity” and serving as a staff ecologist for the
White House. He showed off images several deep sea species rarely ever seen by
humans—an indicator of how much depth (quite literally) there is to the open
oceans that we are just beginning to discover. Dr. Norse pointed out the
importance of designating strong marine protected areas around the world, and
explained his goal of increasing the percentage of marine protected areas to at
least 20% in the near future.
Dr. Norse’s emotional connection with certain species and
habitats in the ocean were very clear and easily related to by the audience. The
Q&A section was quite interesting to hear different people’s perspectives
on topics like deep sea coral health, bottom trawling, and ocean acidification.
It is always rewarding to know that Dr. Norse’s area of study and passions are
so appreciated and shared by many. It was a great evening filled with conservation-minded
people and engaging conversation.
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