About Us
Since 1998, MarineBio has been a nonprofit volunteer marine conservation and science education group working online together to educate the world about ocean life, marine biology, marine conservation, and to provide a sea ethic that we should all attempt to follow.
We hope you enjoy MarineBio and make it one of your regularly visited web sites. We welcome all questions and comments. We would like to thank all of our supporters and sponsors for their kindness and support of our projects.
Donations and memberships to the MarineBio Conservation Society, a registered U.S. 501(c)3 charitable, nonprofit organization, are tax-deductible. MarineBio's tax identification number/EIN is: 14-1955707. Click here for more information about supporting the MarineBio Conservation Society or contact us at (713) 248-2576 PST or via email at info@marinebio.org
Our Mission
MarineBio has a global mission. That is to share the wonders of the ocean with our millions of readers and to inspire many more. Specifically, we aim to:
- Share the wonders of the ocean and raise awareness of marine conservation issues and their solutions.
- Provide an online library of scientifically accurate information on the most endangered and the most common marine species.
- Provide an online introductory education in marine life science along with extensive information on marine conservation. We believe that science must be linked with conservation to ensure sustainable seas.
- Provide forums for marine scientists, conservation organizations and others with an interest in marine conservation to share information and communicate on issues of importance.
- Provide research tools for marine life scientists to find useful resources with information on current research, news, etc. and to highlight the impact of the work they are doing in the marine life sciences.
Board of Advisors
Erich Hoyt – Director of Marine Mammals
North Berwick, Scotland, Planet Ocean :: erich.hoyt <at> mac.com
Erich has worked for the conservation of whales and dolphins and marine protected areas (MPAs) in more than 40 countries over the past 30 years. Senior Research Fellow with WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, Erich also directs the Far East Russia Orca Project (FEROP), which is doing pioneer research with Killer whales in Kamchatka. In 2001, the project won the prestigious German Klüh Prize for Innovation in Science.
Erich was recently appointed to a second term with the Cetacean Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission. He is also a member of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas. His current work focuses on identifying cetacean critical habitat and establishing effective MPAs in national waters and on the high seas of the world ocean
Erich has written 18 books (14 for adults, 4 for kids) translated into 20 languages. He often presents lectures about marine ecotourism, MPAs and cetaceans, and has written scientific papers for journals, articles for National Geographic and the Sunday Times, and the odd film script. His books have won many awards; he has twice been named a James Thurber Writer-in-Residence, and was Vannevar Bush Fellow at MIT in 1985-86.
A Canadian-American, Erich has lived in North Berwick, outside Edinburgh, since 1990, with his wife and four children. For more information on Erich's work, visit www.erichhoyt.com
Dr. Paul H. Yancey – Director of the Deep Sea
Walla Walla, WA, USA, Planet Ocean :: yancey <at> whitman.edu
Paul is a marine animal physiologist at Whitman College, where he is a Professor of Biology and the Carl E. Peterson Endowed Chair of Sciences. He teaches undergraduate courses in marine biology (for both biology and non-science majors), animal physiology, bioethics (including environmental ethics), and directed research. His students work with him in his marine research projects (including many deep-sea research expeditions, some with the Alvin submersible) and he has won several teaching awards. He has also helped lead eco-trips for Whitman alumni to the Washington and Oregon coasts and Costa Rica. In 1997, he developed the first website on deep-sea biology for the general public, a site which continues to be popular. Paul has been an avid lover of marine life since childhood, inspired by watching Jacques Cousteau on television, by many family beach vacations in California and Baja California, and an undergraduate invertebrate zoology course at Catalina Marine Station. His Ph.D. research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography with Dr. George Somero involved osmotic adaptations of elasmobranchs (sharks, skates and rays) and temperature and pH effects on marine fishes from polar regions to the tropics (well before we knew about ocean warming and acidification). His work on marine osmotic adaptations quickly led to a revolutionary shift in our understanding of mammalian/human kidney function, and later to a major new theory on how animals survive high pressure in the deep sea. After Scripps, Paul then worked at the University of St. Andrews (Scotland) and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (England) before joining Whitman College. Since then, during summers and sabbaticals, he has worked at the Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center; the National Institutes of Health; the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory; Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station; Louisiana State University; the University of Otago (New Zealand), University of Hawai'i (Oceanography Department and Institute of Marine Biology), and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
Paul's research specialty continues to focus on effects on marine animals of environmental stresses, including not only osmotic, temperature, and pH, but also sulfide (at hydrocarbon seeps and hydrothermal vents) and pressure in the deep sea. With corals increasingly under threat from temperature and pH changes, he and his collaborators are now working on coral reef conservation projects in Hawai'i and Yucatan, Mexico. Due to his osmotic discoveries, he also occasionally joins medical research teams studying not only basic kidney processes but also diabetes and cystic fibrosis. He has co-authored numerous scientific papers and a textbook on Animal Physiology. He has given scientific talks throughout the US, and in Canada, the U.K., Belgium, Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, Botswana and Brazil; his students have given research presentations in the U.S., Russia, France, Australia and Iceland.
Dr. James B. Wood – Director of Cephalopods
West Palm Beach, FL USA, Planet Ocean
James is a marine biologist and the former Director of Education at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California. James has made a career out of his passion for discovery and sharing marine science with the public through teaching, online outreach projects and magazine articles. He is the author of numerous scientific and popular publications and was the first person to observe mating, hatching and to rear any species of deep-sea octopus in the lab.
James is the coauthor of the book Octopus: The Ocean's Intelligent Invertebrate and is also involved in many other marine life/science websites such as: The Cephalopod Page, Census of Marine Life, and OBIS
Some of James' collaborative work on communication in Caribbean Reef Squid could be seen on the HDTV Discovery Channel special “Tentacles.” Dr. Wood's deep-sea octopuses are featured on the Discovery Channel Special “The Amazing Octopus”
James is an avid diver (PADI 1989, AAUS science diver 2003), sailor, and underwater photographer.
Scott Nunez, Ph.D. – Director of Elasmobranchs
Port Aransas, TX USA, Planet Ocean :: nunez@utmsi.utexas.edu
Scott is a marine biologist and an Assistant Professor at the Department of Marine Science and a Research Scientist at the Marine Science Institute (a research unit of the University of Texas at Austin). He currently teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in marine and molecular biology.
His research interests involve elasmobranch (sharks, skates and rays) and teleost (bony or ray-finned fishes) molecular endocrinology (some animals respond to unexpected changes in their environment by altering their physiology and behavior in a manner that increases the probability of their survival).
Board of Directors
David Campbell, P.G. – President/Founder
(713) 248-2576 PST – San Diego, CA USA, Planet Ocean :: David@marinebio.org
David founded MarineBio.org, Inc. in 1998 and is a graduate of Texas A&M ('93) and a licensed Professional Consulting Environmental Geoscientist. David grew up reading and watching Jacques-Yves Cousteau and National Geographic's books/films while traveling to more than 21 countries before he was age 14. He has been studying animals and our planet as long as he can remember. He is a lifelong fan of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Dr. Edward O. Wilson, David Attenborough, Dr. Elliot Norse, Dr. Jeremy Jackson, Carl Safina, Sylvia Earle, Philippe Cousteau, Animal Planet (Jeff Corwin, Steve Irwin [RIP], etc.), Nat Geo Wild and especially the Blue Planet, Planet Earth, and Life series.
An avid scuba diver since 1981 and underwater photographer/videographer, he dives as often as possible and is certified with NASDS/PADI as an Advanced Open Water diver with additional experience/training in Enriched Air (Nitrox), Wrecks, Night Diving, Rescue and Deep Diving. To date, with over 700 logged dives, he has dove off Australia, Bonaire, Fiji, Galapagos, Honduras, Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and of course, the USA (California, Florida, the Gulf of Mexico). See MarineBio Expeditions for more information or contact him at David@marinebio.org or (713) 248-2576 PST if you're interested in joining one in the future.
David handles many of the day-to-day operations of MarineBio, working as the Director and Program Manager working with the various editors, writers, developers, photographers and interns/volunteers. He also plans and leads expeditions and is our forum administrator at the Plankton Forums. David hopes to earn an MS/PhD in Marine Conservation Biology in the near future.
Memberships/Affiliations
American Cetacean Society, Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation International, Geological Society of America, Monterey Bay Aquarium, National Geographic Society, Nature Conservancy, Ocean Conservancy, Oceana, Pacific Marine Mammal Center, Professional Geoscientist (TX), SeaWeb, Sierra Club, Society for Conservation Biology, Surfrider, Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society....
Every creature occupying this terrain has earned a place at the great table of life, and each species is unique, with its own story to tell. - Jeff Corwin, Living on the Edge
Joni Lawrence – Vice President/Editor
Atlanta, GA USA, Planet Ocean
Joni is a writer/editor who's had a lifelong passion for the sea and its creatures. She currently spends her days writing about international health, but her experience working at the Carter Center on environmental issues sparked her interest in conservation. After learning to dive and reading Sylvia Earle's "Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans" she developed a serious passion for marine conservation and began working with David to utilize the power of the Web to raise awareness about the beauty of marine life and the urgent need to protect it.
Like David, when she's not working on MarineBio, Joni loves to scuba dive and take underwater photographs for MarineBio. Although she doesn't have as many dives under her weight belt, Joni is also certified with PADI as an Advanced Open Water diver with additional experience/training in Enriched Air (Nitrox), Wrecks and Night Diving. To date she has dived the reefs of southeast Florida, the Keys, Bonaire, Honduras and Indonesia.
There is a window in time, and that is now, when we could forever lose a precious ocean heritage, or, we could develop the foundation for an enduring legacy, an ocean ethic... an inspired gift from the 20th century to all who follow us. - Sylvia Earle
Dr. Martin Griffiths – Board Member
Cambridge, UK, Planet Ocean :: mgriffiths@cambridge.org
Martin is currently a commissioning life sciences editor for the Cambridge University Press (the oldest printing and publishing house in the world, since 1584). His work involves commissioning new titles and managing their publication from initial research to project development and final publication. Martin travels frequently all over the globe to promote, sell and commission new works. He earned his PhD in neurochemistry from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.
When not immersed in academic publishing, Martin enjoys SCUBA diving (PADI Rescue Diver), running, weight training and walking. He has a keen ear for music and likes to dabble in the kitchen. Martin also enjoys fishkeeping and gardening. In 2002 he traveled extensively through southeast Asia including visits to Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Fiji. Naturally, he did a lot of diving on this trip and enjoyed the underwater realms in Thailand, the Great Barrier Reef, and in the seas around Fiji.
Ginelle Smith – Social Media & Volunteer Coordinator
Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, Planet Ocean :: volunteers@marinebio.org
Ginelle currently works as Senior Management in the Restaurant and Hospitality field in British Columbia, Canada. She has been an Animal Rights and Marine Conservation Activist for many years and has been affiliated with various organizations around the globe. Her great love for the Ocean, especially Marine Mammals, began when she was a small child feeding a fish to an orca (killer whale) on a visit to SeaWorld in 
San Diego, California. Her boundless passion towards activism and marine life conservation has continued to be a major focus throughout her life as the issues concerning the health of our seas, effecting the millions of amazing species within them, continue to worsen despite increasing awareness. She currently works with David and MarineBio e-volunteers to help us create the awareness needed and expand our research and conservation efforts using a combination of various Web technologies and her excellent networking skills. Ginelle is learning more about Marine Conservation and its complex issues every day while also educating her children, who already possess the Activist gene. She is looking forward to becoming an integral part in the rise of the international movement that is the MarineBio Conservation Society.
Interests – SCUBA! Ginelle is a certified PADI Rescue Diver and is currently working on earning her Divemaster Certification with a specialty in underwater photography. She dives on a frequent basis and is eager to photograph and meet all the species in our world below on future MarineBio Expeditions. Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, Life Series (Blue Planet), Nat Geo Wild, Marine Biology/Conservation, Kinesiology - Personal Training, and, of course, Planet Ocean.
Why Marine Biology?
Marine Biology is the scientific study of animals, plants and other organisms that live in or near the ocean and other saltwater environments such as estuaries and wetlands. We study marine life to understand and preserve the world we live in.
Approximately 72% of the surface of our ocean planet is covered by salt water. The average ocean depth is 3.8 km with a volume equal to a mile square column of ocean water over 300 million miles high. That's equivalent to 1,376 times the distance to the Moon, 3.5 times the distance to the Sun, and 2.3 times the distance to Mars. And life exists throughout this immense volume. The ocean constitutes the single largest (>90%) repository of organisms on the planet consisting of members from virtually all phyla—a tremendous diversity of life—life that is critical to the well-being of humankind.
Why MarineBio?
The ocean gives us life. It gives us oxygen, rain, food, excitement, wonder and mystery. The ocean can be simultaneously peaceful, beautiful, calm or incredibly powerful and violent. The ocean buffers our weather and helps regulate global temperature. It manages vast amounts of our pollutants. The biodiversity of the ocean supports all life on our planet. Humans and the ocean are inextricably linked. Yet the ocean is just beginning to be understood. As our understanding of this vast and powerful force of nature increases we realize that in spite of its seeming invulnerability—the ocean and marine life are in real trouble. Marine conservation efforts are vastly outnumbered by the problems facing the ocean. Government policies worldwide to protect our marine resources are severely lacking.
Our lack of knowledge about the ocean leads to apathy. So MarineBio is here to show you the wonders of the ocean and to also show you the problems so that you have a better understanding of what's at stake and what needs to be done. If you're inspired by what you see here, then please take action today and become a member.
We are creating an educational and research home page for every marine species (e.g., sharks & rays, fishes, squid & octopuses, reptiles, marine birds, seals & sea lions+, whales & dolphins, etc.), starting initially with the about 3,000 or so most common and endangered species. MarineBio also supports the study and protection of marine life. We hope to see humankind embrace the concept of a Sea Ethic to increase the sense of urgency and commitment to protecting the oceans. Together we really CAN make a difference.
What we must do is encourage a sea change in attitude, one that acknowledges we are a part of the living world, not apart from it. - Sylvia Earle, Marine Biologist
Our Philosophy
MarineBio believes there are solutions to every problem and that most problems can be solved by understanding, cooperation, and compromise. We believe that smart management and moderation are the keys to long-term success for any industry—be it fishing, waste management, or the aquarium trade.
We strive to be non-political and unbiased and to let science dictate both the problems and the solutions. If MarineBio is biased in any way it is a pro-environment/species bias, and we plan to keep it that way as we work to uncover the truths and myths surrounding the protection of marine life on this planet.
MarineBio.org, Inc.
1995 Fairlee Drive,
Encinitas, CA 92024 USA
Our Network
Our sites are designed to work for the majority of our visitors, utilizing as few as necessary of the modern browser technologies (Javascript, Adobe Flash, Acrobat Reader, etc.), and should not cause errors or problems in older browsers.
Every page is built and tested on Windows (XP/7/8: Chrome, Firefox, MSIE, Opera, Safari and SeaMonkey), Linux (Ubuntu Fedora: Arora, Chromium, Chrome, Firefox, Konqueror, Opera and SeaMonkey) and Mac (OS X: Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari and SeaMonkey) using the latest standard-install desktop browsers (screen resolutions at 1024x768 pixels and above):
We highly recommend setting your monitor to its highest possible screen resolution and color depth, email us if you need any help.
We also test the standard and mobile versions for acceptable use/speed in the latest mobile Chrome, Firefox, Dolphin, Opera and Skyfire browsers.
If you are using another browser or operating system not mentioned above and/or are experiencing problems with this site please contact us. Also, though most production is conducted via Intranet, DSL and cable Internet connections, the pages are also periodically tested for acceptable download speeds on dial-up/wireless modems. All 80,000+ links are checked and fixed about every quarter.
We hope you enjoy the site and look forward to hearing from you! Contact us anytime or become a member and help us do even more!
Feedback & Citation
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Comments
Help us continue to share the wonders of the ocean with the world, raise awareness of marine conservation issues and their solutions, and support marine conservation scientists and students involved in the marine life sciences. Join the MarineBio Conservation Society or make a donation today. We would like to sincerely thank all of our members, donors, and sponsors, we simply could not have achieved what we have without you and we look forward to doing even more.
