Professor Loren McClenachan is a marine ecologist who is interested in long term changes to marine animal populations and the overall ecosystem. Her research focuses on historical ecology and the applied use of baselines, fisheries conservation, and marine extinction risk and consequences. Professor McClenachan aims to quantify ecological change and identify conservation success over centuries and across large geographic areas in order to attempt to stop declines and promote recovery of marine animals and ecosystems. This week\u2019s lecture started with a discussion regarding the decline in coral reefs and fishing. I found the fishing aspect to be very interesting because Professor McClenachan was able to essentially quantify the decline in animal life in the ocean. She showed us a series of pictures throughout the years of 1950s and the 2000s with people holding up trophy fish. Immediately I was able to notice the apperant size difference of the fish throughout the years. The fish were getting smaller. Professor McClenachan quantified the value and stated that the biomass of these trophy fishes have been reduced by 90%. I thought this statistic was such a good one because it really allowed each person in the lecture to fully understand what we have done to the waters. These types of trophy fish were finally listed as a \u201cSpecies of Concern\u201d by the government and their size is now on the rise. Again, this is interesting because it can be shown than when we want to help, we can easily make a difference in species decline and the ever so diminishing environment.<\/p>\n
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After seeing statistics that have given me some hope that we can undo the damage we\u2019ve already thrusted upon the environment, I also have thought about the Great Barrier Reef- another topic within Professor McClenachan\u2019s discussion. I had the luxury of going abroad to Australia and actually diving within the Great Barrier Reef and immediately the locals running all the trips spoke about how the reef isn\u2019t nearly as incredible as it used to be. Professor McClenachan stated that almost 1\/3 of the reef has died since 2016- this is an astonishing figure and I have to say it\u2019s correct. As I was in the world\u2019s most diverse marine ecosystems in the world, it almost made me sad. At some points on the reef there were almost no marine life. Although we saw strides in fish size after the government put species on \u201cconcerned\u201d lists. I would like to assume governments are \u201cconcerned\u201d for the Great Barrier Reef as it is dying at a rapid pace but there has been no improvement. Is this a landmark that isn\u2019t able to recover after that type of damage? If there is too much irreversible damage to the environment, then what happens?<\/p>\n
One of the main points in the lecture was the acknowledgment of the rapidly shifting (mostly declining) nature of our environment. Studies like Dr. McClenachan\u2019s are very important to quantify and portray data in a way that actually forces people to acknowledge the damage. We need to stop the shifting baseline syndrome and actually expand on the destruction of the environment done. I think one of the issues we have is the small historical record we have of the environment, thus it seems that we only have data from the ~1950s on. Obviously this is not true as the environment and humans have existed for much longer. Dr. McClenachan is someone that has been helping create this timeline and portray the data in a much more accurate way.<\/p>\n
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Professor Loren McClenachan is a marine ecologist who is interested in long term changes to marine animal populations and the overall ecosystem. Her research focuses on historical ecology and the applied use of baselines, fisheries conservation, and marine extinction risk and consequences. Professor McClenachan aims to quantify ecological change and identify conservation success over centuries … <\/p>\n