No Water No Life invited Dr. Howard S. Schiffman, J.D., LL.M., Ph.D. to speak to the 8th grade at LREI. He is an expert in marine biology and conservation and is a lawyer. He is very well educated, and his expertise showed through his presentation, which was very detailed, informative, and intriguing. He went into great detail and depth, and I learned a lot from it. Two of the members of our group, Kiyomi and I, had met Dr. Schiffman when he spoke at a science class in the Museum of Natural History. We approached him after class, explained our project and our group’s goals, and asked if he would be interested in teaching our grade about the issues he had spoken to us about at the museum. He agreed, and we exchanged emails. Later that night, I followed up our discussion with a more formal invitation via email. Over the course of the next few days, we scheduled a date and time for his visit over email.

On the day that we had decided on, I was entering my homeroom after P.E. to find Dr. Schiffman standing at the front of the room, getting his presentation ready. I shook his hand and thanked him for coming. I was happy to see him again, and could hardly wait for his presentation! The 8th grade took their seats in chairs that faced the board where his powerpoint presentation was projected. Then, No Water No Life quickly introduced Dr. Schiffman, and he began his presentation.

First he spoke about how he became involved in marine biology. He explained that, every since he was a little kid, marine life had always interested him. When he had been asked what he was thinking of writing as his Thesis for his LL.M degree, he had reached back to his childhood passion for the oceans, and he responded, “the protection of whales in international law”. In fact, that was what he ended up using for his Thesis, and it was his first publication.

He also spoke about overfishing. He explained that people are taking more from the oceans than they can provide for many reasons. One reason is that there is a growing population, so there is more consumer demand. Also, mistakes by the fishing industry can contribute to overfishing because error in communication results in fishing boats being uncoordinated and not knowing how many fish the other boats are catching, which can result in catching too many fish. Scientific uncertainty also contributes because if we don’t know how fast a species of fish reproduces, we won’t know how much to take. Also, bycatch (unintended catch like sea turtles, sharks, dolphins, sea birds) is a large issue that majorly contributes to overfishing.

Bycatch is an issue for many reasons. The first is bottom trawling, a destructive method of fishing in which there is a lot of bycatch. A boat drags a large, weighted net along the ocean floor. It picks up everything, including sea stars, coral, and other species of fish. Long-line fishing is another destructive method of fishing, in which a boat casts out miles of fishing line, with many smaller, hook-bearing lines branching out from it, which catch not only the intended fish, but also unintended catch. Most of this bycatch cannot be saved.

He also spoke about what people can do to help to prevent overfishing from progressing. Consumers can make sustainable seafood choices, which gives the feedback to the fishing industries that people care. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a website called “Seafood Watch”, and they have a chart that shows which fish are good options to buy, and which to avoid because they are being overfished. You can visit this website at http://www.seafoodwatch.org. We would be helping the oceans enormously if we did not buy the species of fish that are overfished.

Dr. Schiffman also spoke about water pollution. There are many sources of pollution. One of these is industrial waste and runoff. Waste from farms can also wash into the water supply after it rains. Also, Plastic is one of the main pollutants of water. It is especially bad because it does not decompose quickly, since it is made of oil. Animals eat plastic as well, and it gets caught in their digestive track, killing them. Plastic is especially bad for endangered sea turtles, because plastic bags resemble jellyfish, a delicacy for turtles. Whales eat plastic bags as well, and it clogs their digestive track. The sea captain Charles Moore was the first person to begin awareness about the plastic problem. He documented that he should be seeing water to the right and left of his boat, but instead he was seeing an ocean of plastic. The situation has gotten much worse since he wrote this, and although people try to clean it up, it is very inefficient, and it is a better idea to work more towards stopping the source of pollution. In order to relieve this situation, people can use reduce the amount of plastic created by using reusable water bottles and bags. This is a very effective strategy to reducing the amount of plastic each person produces, and I will make sure to mention it in my social justice teach-in.

He also spoke about coral reefs. They have many benefits. He began by speaking about the biodiversity in coral reefs. The more diversity in fish that there are in the oceans, the better off people are. Everything in nature has a role, and all of these roles help the ocean as a whole. Also, genetic diversity in a species helps to prevent too much damage from diseases. This is because if there was no genetic diversity, the entire species would have the same immunities and the same weaknesses towards disease. Reefs also serve as “data banks” that can help people to find treatments for disease. Coral reefs, like rain forests and wetlands, are great centers of biodiversity, and this is one of the main reasons that we need to protect it. Also, they are nurseries for fisheries, as there are many fish in them. They are beautiful as well, and attract tourists.

Ocean acidification is a problem that greatly affects coral reefs. Corals are living tissue, something that many people don’t understand, and they can’t survive in more acidic water. Corals are a calcium skeleton, and organisms build around it. Oceans become more acidic because the carbon dioxide produced from our cars and factories pollutes the air, and is absorbed into the water, lowering the ocean’s pH and making it more acidic. This causes corals to be bleached. Corals die when they are bleached; it is like a disease. Scientists are documenting the amount of bleached corals. If we reduce and reverse the amount of harm we inflict on the oceans and coral, it can recover by regrowing. One thing that we can do is to stop polluting and reduce plastic pollution, because pollution is toxic for coral reefs. Using less carbon will reduce ocean acidification. Also, while snorkeling, SCUBA diving, and even swimming, people should not disturb the reef by touching or breaking it.

After he had finished his presentation, he answered several questions from the 8th grade.

One thing that I want to make sure to utilize in my teach-in was the way that his presentation was formatted. He used bullet points, and spoke in depth about each one. This was very effective and gave a lot of room to expand and add detail, while also making his slides simple and friendly to look at. Also, I will try to emulate the way that he introduced and described the topic of Coral in my teach-in.

Thank you, Dr. Howard Schiffman, for spending your time and effort, and for the amazing presentation and knowledge you have given us.