Aspen Peak - Niche Media - Aspen living at its peak
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spirit of generosity "We started exposing the ocean through exploration in the '70s and '80s, and are just now realizing our tremendous dependence on it. "—Dr. Greg Stone continued from page 67 limiting Turtle Islands Heritage Protected Area, in the Philippines Underwater photographer Keith Ellenbogen dives in a kelp forest. agricultural eliminating subsidies run-off, for fishing, or putting more money into tourism. Different from most environmental decisions, these choices will be based on hard numbers rather than a knee- jerk emotional reaction. Ocean crusaders: The Wrigleys Peter Seligman has spent nearly four decades working to convince the pri- vate sector to help protect Earth's biodiversity. He indicates the timing of the OHI's release is key, with economic and environmental summits focused on the ocean's health and stories about ocean issues in the daily media increasing each year. As the ocean's aforementioned problems pro- liferate, there seems to be a global interest in trying to address them. "In my 36 years of work in conservation," wrote the CEO and founder of Conservation International recently, "I have never before witnessed as much attention and concern being paid to the deteriorating health of our oceans, and the resulting consequences of that deterioration for people everywhere. Ocean issues have grown from being a concern of environ- mental organizations to an urgent topic in corporate boardrooms and the offices of heads of state—an important shift in attitude that gives me reason for hope." Why has the ocean has become such a hot topic, and why now? Stone cites several critical factors. "Oceanography is a very young science, and 68 aspenpeak-magazine.com there is always a lag between when you start to learn and when the public becomes aware of it," he explains. "We started exposing the ocean through exploration and science in the '70s and '80s, and are just now realizing our tremendous dependence on it as a source of food and new medicines, and as an oxygen cleaner, and its increasing use for transpor- tation and national security." He is hopeful that the OHI numbers will provide that much-needed link between talk and action, though he admits the system has its limits. "To be clear: We are not trying to compare the health of the ocean today to a time when it was pristine, thousands of years ago. That's history. We are in an era where humans dominate the ocean, and we are the first to admit we are measuring a troubled system." Stone traces the origins of the OHI to 2008, during a meeting with Seligman and Beau and Heather Wrigley in which they discussed ocean conservation strategy and realized that a tool like the OHI did not exist. "It was a fascinating marriage of minds," Stone says. "Here's me, who's spent all my life underwater, really understands the ocean in a lot of different ways, and has done a lot of work on marine policy. And then there's Beau, who really loves the ocean and is an extremely successful businessman, but at the time didn't really understand ocean science or ocean policy. "We purposely built the advisory council without any marine scientists on it, hoping to give our ratings an appeal to businesses and governments that continued on page 70 photography by jeff gale (family); keith ellenbogen (ocean)