Five experts on oceanic affairs addressed issues ranging from the anarchy of the shipping industry to the potential marine microorganisms have as new energy sources in the panel, "The Blue Frontier: Oceans and Economic Security" on Saturday.
The panel was part of the Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship's (EPIIC) 20th anniversary symposium.
Oceanographer and marine biologist Sylvia Earle was presented with the Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award on behalf of EPIIC.
"Water is a driving force [for life on earth]," Earle said. She said that in the past 50 years, humans have depleted 90 percent of the big fish in our seas, including tuna, swordfish, grouper and cod stocks.
"If we continue as we have been doing for the past 50 years, we will find ourselves in ever more serious danger," Earle said.
She said that there are possible solutions to Earth's growing environmental problems, including an investment in communication, extended protection of marine natural systems and increased governance over unregulated ocean territories.
Now, only one percent of the ocean enjoys the same protections that 12 percent of terrestrial environments do, Earle said.
William Langewiesche, correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, also spoke about the lack of regulation on the high seas. His lecture, however, focused on the political, rather than environmental, ramifications of such an unfettered setting.
"The ocean is the perfect environment [for terrorists] to operate in," Langewiesche said in a discussion focused on the transnational shipping industry.
He said there is a "disconnect between regulation and operational reality" on the seas.
"I don't know if this is good or bad," Langewiesche said. "What counts is to face it honestly and not to fool ourselves with false constructs of order that are so easily ignored."
Dr. Juan Enriquez, senior research fellow and director of the Life Sciences Project at the Harvard Business School, said that after sampling water from across the Pacific Ocean, Enriquez discovered thousands of new species and genes.
"Five water samples led to a 100 fold increase in the ways to take sunlight and convert it to energy," Enriquez said in reference to the discovery of new microorganisms. He urged the audience to "start getting literate in this stuff" because "this is going to change the world in a fundamental way."
Earle said she hoped that that people would be willing to "see fish swimming in something other than lemon sauce and butter."
