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TODAY Wednesday 5 November 1997 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site.

 

TODAY IN THE WORLD: In Praise of SeaWeb

On Connecticut Avenue in Washington, three blocks north of Dupont Circle, there's a hidden cluster of small, effective enviro shops. At 1718 Connecticut, above the Burrito Brothers, you'll find Island Press, the country's leading publisher on stuff that counts: biodiversity, ecosystem management, agriculture, environmental economics. A couple of floors above is the Environmental Working Group, an unusual combination of policy wonks and computer geeks (we use those terms affectionately) whose stock in trade is the mining and reconfiguring of federal databases so that the grassroots and the media can figure out just how much pesticide is sprayed on the strawberry fields next to the elementary school, how many people in the county receive how much money from the USDA, and what's contained in the local drinking water. Also housed at EWG, and accessible through the EWG website, is CLEAR, the vigilant and sophisticated watcher of the Wise Use movement.

Across the street, at 1731 Connecticut, above the mysterious warrens of the Church of Scientology, you'll find the Center for Environmental Citizenship, a student clearinghouse that morphs into Campus Green Vote during hot election years, and Americans for a Sustainable Economy, the umbrella group for enviros, economists, and business people interested in green fiscal policies.

On the floor below is SeaWeb. SeaWeb was born in 1995, and has been sustained thereafter, with the support of the Pew Charitable Trusts. SeaWeb describes itself as "a non-partisan, multimedia educational initiative on the ocean." Note that it's "ocean," not "oceans." The Executive Director, Vikki Spruill, argues that language should reflect the boundary-less nature of sea water, and the interdependencies that result.

In crass terms, SeaWeb exists to gin up public interest in, and knowledge of, marine issues and to build support for the organizations that deal with them. It does this through classroom materials, radio segments, newsletter, website, etc. SeaWeb takes care to direct readers, listeners, and viewers to the scientists and institutes doing the complex research that it popularizes. The result is that, for a moderately interested person whose marine science background is restricted to examining snails in tidepools forty years ago, SeaWeb serves as an excellent source of information for the big trends that affect the oceans, I mean ocean.

In SeaWeb's current (November) newsletter, for example, you learn that the National Marine Fisheries Service says that nearly one-third of the 270 species of fish counted in federal saltwater are officially "overfished" or on the brink thereof. The population of the beleaguered North Atlantic right whale continues to fall; a new study suggests that inbreeding may now play a significant role in the decline. Researchers in the Pacific have found plastic particles inside the stomachs of eight of eleven seabird species that they studied. A study from New Zealand indicates that loss of coastal biodiversity -- in this case, six species of seaside plants -- can be attributed to declines in populations of seabirds and seals, which, in turn, then suffer from the loss of the plants. As the authors say, "Interconnections that occur within natural ecosystems are often overlooked, yet their maintenance is vital for the conservation of all species."

Plus previews of upcoming legislation and a referral to the EPA website keeping track of watershed health. All in all, four pages of about as much briny information per month as a non-specialist can absorb. Highly recommended.

 

TODAY ON THE SITE

SeaWeb is well represented on this site. Executive Director Vikki Spruill writes about the need for a public personage as conspicuous as the late Jacques Cousteau and newsletter editor Kieran Mulvaney describes how picnic lunches can screw up penguin populations.

 

Recent "Today" columns:

11/04: Reality Check
11/03: Green Loafing
10/31: Guilty Nationalist Pleasures
10/30: Europe Alone
10/29: Duck! (Again)
10/28: Civil Society and Conservation
10/27: Who Owns the National Forests?
10/24: Meanwhile, Back at the Infirmary...
10/23: "Heading Down the Right Path"
10/22: Markets and Medium-Greens

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