Revealing the Secrets of the Sea
Unnamed. Unseen. Unknown. Unexplained. The sea that covers most of our planet has been mapped, studied, exploited and — some might even think — conquered.
Yet long after America’s fledgling attempts at understanding the oceans began in 1807, when President Thomas Jefferson authorized the nation’s first survey of coastal waters, secrets remain.
Charles H. Darwin predicted in his groundbreaking The Origin of Species that the deep ocean was a sanctuary for living fossils. Experts today still say there are thousands of creatures within the world’s seas that we haven’t yet discovered.
“Less than 5 percent of the ocean has been seen at all, let alone explored,” says famed oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle. Earle, who still does her part to help reveal the sea’s secrets through continued ocean exploration, is a vocal ocean advocate for conservation organizations and marine research institutions like Mote Marine Laboratory, where she serves as a trustee.
Over the past 50 years, thanks to better awareness of the importance of the world’s oceans and the continued evolution of new technologies for exploring it, much has been learned of the sea and the vast mysteries it holds. Still, more secrets are awaiting discovery by the men and women whose passion lies in naming, in seeing, in knowing and in explaining the sea.
Coastal Connections
Live. Work. Play. Our connection to the sea is entwined with who we are, where we live and the places we choose to explore.
The numbers tell the story of our human connection to the sea. More than half of us live within 50 miles of a coast; by 2025 more than 75 percent of us will live there. Our coastal and marine waters support 28 million jobs and draw 189 million American tourists each year.
But the connection is deeper than just location. Whether we live and work and play in Ohio or Iowa or Indiana, the world’s waters are vital to our lives.
Ocean evaporation provides rain for crops and drinking water. Oceans help control global climate and can absorb a thousand times more heat than landmasses do. And phytoplankton — those tiny plant-like organisms that help form the basis of the ocean’s food web — help reduce excess human-produced carbon and, in return, give us the oxygen we need to breathe.
“The ocean is the cornerstone to what makes the world work,” says Earle.
Drawn as we are to these life-sustaining places that renourish and relax us, questions about our coastal connections remain unanswered. How do we impact the shorelines that draw us? How do we keep the places that we cherish healthy? What scientific discovery will sustain our estuaries and oceans?
Food for Thought
In 1969, the U.S. Stratton Commission — in the nation’s first key report on ocean health and viability — declared that there was plenty of fish in the sea. The report even encouraged new programs designed to help us catch more and more fish faster and faster.
Today we know better.
New reports to the President and to Congress point to an assault on ocean resources. New studies show coastal development and other human factors are harming the nurseries where the fish we eat are born and raised.
Health-conscious Americans are eating more fish and shellfish, leading to increased fishing pressures and leading us to import more seafood from other countries than ever before. We’ve gotten technologically better at catching fish in more places, often catching them faster than species can reproduce. About a quarter of the nation’s major fish stocks are now overexploited.
But keeping fish populations healthy depends on more than just bag limits or smaller fishing fleets. Answers may lie in a multi-pronged approach that’s designed to answer questions about restocking methods, about the health of ecosystems, about economically and environmentally friendly ways to grow fish for food.
Good Medicine
To divers, it’s balm indeed: Spending hours underwater at a coral reef; water so clear, so calm, you can see miles of funky, funny-looking fish so foreign, so cool. Time on top of the sea comes in second to spending time below it.
Reefs may offer medicinal properties beyond just a chance to shut the outside world off for a few hours. Fluorescent properties of proteins found in corals are helping researchers study cancer and AIDS and new types of bacteria found on reefs may someday help create new antibiotics to treat diseases.
In fact, researchers have only just begun to understand the potential the sea holds for curing disease.
“Oceans harbor a diverse array of organisms that show great promise for providing new drugs to combat cancer and fight infectious diseases,” declared Kenneth Olden, former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, in 2004. “In order to guard against health threats, and to take advantage of medicinal benefits that oceans might provide, the impact of oceans on human health must be more fully explored.”
Animal Magnetism
Some biologists call them “charismatic megafauna,” those large animals that capture our human fascination. Certainly the sea has many animal varieties: Sharks, dolphins, sea turtles and manatees among them.
Our fascination, whether borne out of an impression that they have human-like intelligence — dolphins — or have the potential to do us great harm — sharks — borders on obsession. Just tune into any news program after a swimmer is bitten or a group of dolphins strands on a beach.
The interest is nothing new. Ancient Egyptians extolled the virtues of dolphins; Greeks, great seafarers that they were, were equally fascinated by sharks and dolphins. Shakespeare speaks of both in many of his works.
Certainly we’ve always been fascinated, but what do we really know of the lives of these sea animals? About where dolphins are born and live and die? About unlocking the mysteries of a predator designed for speed and stealth? About tracking sea turtles traveling great distances beyond any human-imposed nautical borders?
Learn more about: Mote Aquarium Exhibits
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Mote Marine Laboratory has been a leader in marine research since it was founded in 1955. Today, we incorporate public outreach as a key part of our mission. Mote is an independent nonprofit organization and has seven centers for marine research, the public Mote Aquarium and an Education Division specializing in public programs for all ages.
