News Release

AAAS Annual Meeting speakers report some success stories from marine science

Peer-Reviewed Publication

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Jeremy B. C. Jackson Speaks About Coral Reefs

audio: Professor Jeremy B. C. Jackson discusses research showing that Pacific coral reefs protected from fishing and pollution appear to be most resistant to the effects of climate change. view more 

Credit: AAAS

Doom and gloom has become such a standard refrain when discussing the state of ocean ecosystems that it is easy to forget that some real progress is being made, says Jeremy B. C. Jackson of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.

Marine-science success stories in public policy and species conservation will be highlighted by Jackson and other experts during the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting, 12-16 February 2009 in Chicago, Illinois.

Jackson, a professor of oceanography, will present research showing that Pacific coral reefs protected from fishing and pollution appear to be most resistant to the effects of climate change. This research may not offer a solution to climate change, but making biodiversity protection a management priority could buy time until the climate situation is resolved.

Presenting newly published research, AAAS speaker Joshua Cinner, a senior research fellow with James Cook University, Townsville, Australia, will discuss small-scale success in managing fish stocks in Pacific communities that allow villages to meet the needs of the residents while maintaining biodiversity. Andrew Rosenberg, a professor of natural resources at the University of New Hampshire, Durham, will review the small number of examples where fishing has been halted or sufficiently reduced to allow stocks to recover. Most fisheries could recover within a decade if sufficiently stringent limits were set and enforced, he says Oceans Campaign Director John Hocevar of Greenpeace USA in Austin, Texas, will highlight a bold agreement among eight Pacific nations to close fishing in the open seas, as well as highlight three previous conservation policy success stories on the high seas involving whaling, nets, and garbage dumping.

These speakers will take part in a AAAS Annual Meeting press briefing at 10:00 a.m. CST Friday, 13 February, and Jackson also has offered remarks in a AAAS podcast being made available on EurekAlert!. The press event is related to a symposium, entitled "Beyond the Obituaries: Successful Fish Stories in Ocean Conservation," Friday, 13 February 2009, from 1:30 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. in the Hyatt Regency Chicago, Grand Ballroom B.

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Media Note

Additional information on AAAS Annual Meeting news can be provided in advance to reporters who ensure adherence to the embargo policy. Reporters, please contact Earl Lane or Molly McElroy, (202) 326-6440, elane@aaas.org or mmcelroy@aaas.org; or Ginger Pinholster, (202) 326-6421, gpinhols@aaas.org, before 12 February. After 12 February, call (312) 239-4811 to reach the AAAS Annual Meeting Newsroom on-site in the Hyatt Regency Chicago, Acapulco Room, West Tower. Embargoed news will be available to reporters via the AAAS virtual newsroom online at EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, beginning Monday, 9 February. To register as press, credentialed journalists can log onto http://www.eurekalert.org/aaasnewsroom/2009. Information for general attendees is online at http://www.aaas.org/meetings.

About AAAS

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science (www.sciencemag.org). AAAS was founded in 1848, and serves 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, reaching 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS (www.aaas.org) is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.


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