Nature Author Carl Safina to give Public Lecture in Woods Hole September 21
September 13, 2004
Noted nature author Carl Safina will present a lecture titled “Eye of the Albatross” at 4:00 p.m. Tuesday, September 21, in Redfield Auditorium of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), 45 Water Street, Woods Hole. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Safina is co-founder and president of the Blue Ocean Institute, a non-profit organization with the goal of inspiring a conservation ethic for the oceans through science, art and literature. His lecture in Woods Hole is sponsored by the WHOI Ocean Life Institute as part of a scientific workshop on albatross demographics. The lecture will be followed by a reception in Redfield Lobby. Carl Safina will have his books available for purchase and signing at the reception.
Safina grew up near the shore, and his early love of the oceans led him to a doctoral degree in ecology from Rutgers University. During his research and while fishing, he noticed declines in sea turtles, white marlin, sharks, tunas, and other fishes. He became a voice for the conservation and restoration of life in the oceans and has worked to put ocean fish conservation issues into the wildlife conservation mainstream, He has worked on campaigns to ban high seas drift nets, overhaul federal fisheries law in the U. S., use international agreements toward restoring depleted populations of tunas, sharks, and other fishes, and achieve passage of a United Nations global fisheries treaty.
He is the author of more than a hundred scientific and popular publications on ecology and marine conservation. His first book, Song for the Blue Ocean, was chosen a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction selection, and a Library Journal Best Science Book selection, and won the Lannan Literary Award for nonfiction. He is also author of Eye of the Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival, which won the John Burroughs Medal, and co-author of the Seafood Lover’s Almanac. Safina is a visiting fellow at Yale, an elected member of The Explorers Club, a recipient of the Pew Scholar’s Award in Conservation and the Environment, a World Wildlife Fund Senior Fellow, and winner of a MacArthur Fellowship.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is a private, independent marine research and engineering and higher education organization located in Falmouth, MA. Its primary mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the ocean’s role in the changing global environment. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, the Institution operates the US National Deep Submergence Facility that includes the deep-diving submersible Alvin, a fleet of global ranging ships and smaller coastal vessels, and a variety of other tethered and autonomous underwater vehicles. WHOI is organized into five departments, interdisciplinary institutes and a marine policy center, and conducts a joint graduate education program with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Carl Safina.