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IOCS scientists Dr. Karine Kleinhaus, Dr. Ellen Pikitch, and Dr. John Bohorquez discuss the importance of Egypt's coral reefs in a letter published in the journal Science this week, at the same time global leaders are meeting in Egypt at COP27 to discuss climate change. These corals are among the most heat tolerant in the world but are threatened by local human impacts. The letter in Science requires a subscription, but all relevant information is also contained in a Stony Brook News article: https://news.stonybrook.edu/newsroom/saving-egypts-coral-reefs-is-necessary-to-preserve-oceans-ecosystems/ Learn more about Red Sea corals at Red Sea Reef Foundation, an organization founded by Dr. Kleinhaus in 2020.

This Thursday, 10/27/22 at 4 pm EST, IOCS's Executive Director Dr. Ellen Pikitch will be participating in a panel discussion on Indigenous Art and Environmental Issues, in person at the Paul Zuccaire Gallery at Stony Brook University and streaming online here: https://youtu.be/lh7qaf0ZYlM. This panel is part of the series Connecting the Drops: The Power of Water. Connecting the Drops artists Courtney M. Leonard (Shinnecock) and Erin Genia (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate) discuss their work as it relates to the environment and indigenous issues, in dialogue with Shavonne F. Smith, Environmental Director Shinnecock Nation and Dr. Ellen Pikitch, Endowed Professor of Ocean Conservation Science and Executive Director, Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University. Moderated by Dr. Abena Ampofoa Asare, Associate Professor of Modern African Affairs & History at Stony Brook University. What are new ways we can connect science and art at Stony Brook University? Whose stories are being left out, and what topics should we be exploring? The Zuccaire Gallery’s upcoming panel focuses on the work of Indigenous Peoples in addressing issues of climate change, pollution, and environmental conservation. The panel will explore the connections between art and science, touching on the Shinnecock Hope Spot, climate activism through art, Indigenous Science, and the environmental work that scientists and activists are doing on Long Island. The panel features artists and environmental activists, Courtney M Leonard and Erin Genia in dialogue with environmental leader Shavonne F. Smith and renowned scientist Dr. Ellen Pikitch. Moderated by Dr. Abena Ampofoa Asare.

IOCS, along with The Explorer's Club, nominated Shinnecock Bay to receive this prestigious designation! Learn more in our new video: Read more in the Stony Brook University press release here: https://news.stonybrook.edu/university/shinnecock-bay-recognized-as-a-new-global-hope-spot/

Shinnecock Bay is being named a new “Hope Spot” by Mission Blue, an international organization that supports the protection of oceans worldwide. The distinction is the result of a decade of restorative and scientific work co-led by Ellen Pikitch, Christopher Gobler and Bradley Peterson in Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS). Photo credit: Christopher Paparo/Fish Guy Photos SoMAS Fieldwork Leads to Global “Hope Spot” Designation for Shinnecock Bay June 7, 2022. 4 min read Shinnecock Bay has been named a global Hope Spot after successful restoration efforts over the past decade. Shinnecock Bay is being named a new “Hope Spot” by Mission Blue, an international organization that supports the protection of oceans worldwide. The distinction is the result of a decade of restorative and scientific work co-led by Ellen Pikitch, Christopher Gobler and Bradley Peterson in Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS). Hope Spots are iconic ocean regions that stand out as some of the most pristine on the globe. This places Shinnecock Bay, located on the East End of Long Island, in a league with internationally recognized locations such as the Galapagos Islands, the Sargasso Sea and the Ross Sea in Antarctica. The bay is the first Hope Spot in New York State, the only one near a major metropolitan region and one of only three others on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard. Sylvia Earle, founder of Mission Blue, said, “What a concept, in the shadow of one of the most densely populated parts of the planet — New York City! While New York conjures up visions of skyscrapers and crowded streets, it is a great ocean state with a significant coastline, a rich maritime heritage and growing opportunities to view ocean wildlife from the shores and in the water.” Mission Blue and its founder, the internationally renowned marine biologist Sylvia Earle, officially named Shinnecock Bay as a Hope Spot on June 6 in an event at The Explorers Club in New York City. Pikitch, on behalf of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science, nominated the bay for this global recognition, and Ted Janulis, on behalf of The Explorers Club, served as second nominator. The Explorers Club acknowledged the work of Pikitch and her colleagues at SoMAS, where a team of scientists, educators and students have worked together to revive the health, biodiversity and aquaculture potential of Shinnecock Bay. “The Hope Spot distinction for this unique bay on Long Island is the result of meticulous work and proof that the Shinnecock Bay Restoration Program has succeeded in bringing the bay back to the healthier state it was in many decades ago,” said Pikitch, endowed professor of ocean conservation science and director of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science. “Shinnecock Bay is arguably the healthiest bay in New York State, and our work demonstrates that people can reverse the damage done through nature-based, scientifically guided restoration,” Pikitch continued. “We hope and expect that designation of Shinnecock Bay as a Hope Spot will inspire others to take action to restore other places to their original beauty, biodiversity and health.” Shinnecock Bay is a highly productive estuary that is approximately 122 kilometers from New York City. The bay is a hidden gem of biodiversity that covers an area of 40 square kilometers and consists of 9,000 acres of open water, salt marshes, intertidal flats and seagrass beds. These habitats serve as important nursery, feeding and breeding grounds for many species. Additionally, the Shinnecock Bay area and surrounding lands has a long history to the Shinnecock Nation, whose reservation is located on the far eastern part of the bay. Leaders of the Shinnecock Nation have endorsed the designation of Shinnecock Bay as a Hope Spot. The creation of “hard clam sanctuaries” in western Shinnecock Bay is a pivotal part of the restoration effort of the SoMAS Stony Brook University team. As a result of this work, the dangerous brown and red tides that had been occurring annually have not been observed for several years. Landings of hard clams outside the sanctuaries have increased dramatically and are at a level not seen since the mid-1980s. And, numbers of fish in the bay, most notably forage fishes such as bay anchovy and menhaden, have escalated.

https://www.newsday.com/long-island/environment/shinnecock-bay-restoration-hope-spot-ocean-jtkktrjv

Ellen Pikitch is the inaugural Endowed Professor in Ocean Conservation Science in Stony Brook University's School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. Stony Brook University News - December 10, 2018 With more than 100 marine species recorded as extinct — primarily due to overfishing — and more than 100 million tons of fish taken out of the water each year, our oceans and the animals that call them home are badly in need of protection. That's why the Ocean Sanctuary Alliance (OSA) is leading the charge to conserve at least 10 percent of the world's marine and coastal areas by 2020 and to ensure that ocean protection is effective and durable. It's also why the Alliance is investing in the work of Stony Brook University professor Ellen Pikitch — one of the world's leading experts in ocean conservation. In recognition of her proven conservation track record and current portfolio of promising research, they've created the Endowed Professorship in Ocean Conservation Science in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (SoMAS). As the inaugural holder of the position, Pikitch will expand her transformational work while educating the next generation of leaders in ocean conservation. "From the moment I met Dr. Pikitch in 2008, she has approached her role as a change agent with the extraordinary dedication and the highest scientific standards," said Rosalind Walrath, the Alliance's treasurer and a member of the Dean's Council at Stony Brook's School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. "Ellen is a truly powerful asset to the cause of ocean conservation." Pikitch, of course, is no stranger to effective advocacy based on impactful research. By the time she arrived at Stony Brook in 2008, her work had led to the passage of the U.S. Shark Finning Prohibition Act of 2000, the international ban on the trade of wild sturgeon caviar and the listing of beluga sturgeon as threatened with extinction under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The research behind these policies originated from the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science (IOCS), which she established at the University of Miami in 2003 and relocated to Stony Brook when she joined the faculty in 2008. "Ellen Pikitch's track record of achievement in fisheries science and ocean conservation speaks for itself," said Stony Brook University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr. "The Endowed Professorship of Ocean Conservation Science serves to elevate her voice, enhancing the profile of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science, and that of Stony Brook University as a whole." "Endowed professorships help universities attract and retain the best scholars and researchers in their fields," added Paul Shepson, dean of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. "Having Ellen Pikitch as the inaugural Endowed Professor in Ocean Conservation Science makes a powerful statement about the contributions that we aspire to make at Stony Brook, both to science and to the welfare of our planet." For her part, Pikitch recognizes the opportunities created by an endowed professorship — supported by an anonymous donor in addition to OSA — which will empower her to follow her instincts in pursuit of further advances. "I am truly grateful to the donors, including the Ocean Sanctuary Alliance, whose philanthropy has made this endowed professorship possible," Pikitch said. "The funding of an endowed professorship makes it possible to act quickly when inspiration strikes, and pursue novel solutions with potentially far-reaching significance." There's also a certain fulfillment in continuing her work at Stony Brook, where the opportunities created for students resonate with Pikitch's own experiences as a first-generation college student who attended the City College of New York tuition-free. "Stony Brook is a fantastic university for the sciences," Pikitch said, "and it's a public institution. Without public support, I wouldn't have even been able to go to college, and knowing that students at Stony Brook have similar opportunities is one more reason that I am so proud to continue my work here." As she blends her work to protect the world's oceans with the education of future fisheries and conservation scientists at Stony Brook, Pikitch is making an impact that will be felt for generations to come. –Elliot Olshansky Read the article at the Stony Brook Newsroom.

by a Staff Writer at 27East.com, August 2019. Read the article here.

Tim's thesis is entitled, "A Remote Sensing Approach to Assessing Habitat Representation in Marine Protected Areas: A Case Study in China's Coastal Seas."

Read the original publication here. A study by researchers in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) revealed that a large portion of important marine areas around the globe remain unprotected. A study published last month and conducted by a team including researchers from Stony Brook University has revealed that a large portion of the world’s most important marine areas remain unprotected. The team included Ellen Pikitch, Endowed Professor of Ocean Conservation Science at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS); Christine Santora, SoMAS Assistant Director for Policy and Outreach; and Natasha Gownaris, a Ph.D. graduate from Stony Brook. The study, published in Frontiers in Marine Science on Oct. 25, is the first of its kind, compiling and examining 10 diverse and internationally recognized maps that outline marine priority areas across the globe. While there are many initiatives to map globally important marine areas by the United Nations (U.N.) and other non-governmental organizations, the team was the first to overlay this wide range of mapping initiatives. “We wanted to see how much these maps agree on specific areas, and what the level of consensus was on certain areas,” Santora said. “And in addition, we wanted not just to look at the areas of the highest importance, but we wanted to see, are these really important areas protected, or not?” The criteria used for different maps vary by initiative. For example, some may identify areas because of their high biodiversity, while others may be based on threatened or vulnerable species, or relatively natural state. This results in differences in areas that are identified as important. But by overlaying the maps, the team was able to measure agreement on areas that are significant and conduct analyses of gaps at the global scale. “It’s already enough that one organization, who has already put a lot of effort and time into identifying areas, says this area is important — we should probably listen,” Gownaris said, who is also an Assistant Professor of Marine Ecology at Gettysburg College. “But especially when you have a consensus among several different organizations, many of which have very different purposes and scope. If they’re agreeing on an area, then we should really pay attention.” The study’s analysis found that 55% of the ocean has been identified as important by at least one mapping initiative. Within that, 58% is within national jurisdiction — in an area under the legal authority of a certain nation — and 42% is in the high seas, meaning open ocean, not within any country’s jurisdiction. More than 14% of the ocean was identified as important by two to four maps, which was considered a “moderate consensus.” However, a gap analysis showed that nearly 90% of this area is currently unprotected. The largest of these important but unprotected areas were located in the Caribbean Sea, Madagascar and the southern tip of Africa, the Mediterranean Sea and the Coral Triangle region. “We have a lot of critical threats to the ocean right now,” Santora said. “Marine protected areas have been shown to be one of the most effective tools we can implement in the ocean. And while in some cases it’s important to study things further, this map is the first step in showing that we don’t need to wait for perfect information. A lot of these maps agree that certain areas of the ocean are very valuable.” The team’s analysis of the maps may help guide policymakers on where to expand and establish new marine protected areas (MPAs), according to Gownaris and Santora. It may also help serve as a roadmap for reaching the U.N.’s goal to create 10% of the ocean as MPAs by 2020. The study showed that this goal could be met solely through the actions of coastal states; if all of the unprotected ocean areas identified as important by two or more initiatives were to be protected by 2020, an additional 9.34% of the ocean would be added to the global MPA network. “This study can help guide placement of future MPAs to meet agreed objectives for the quantity, quality and representativeness of the global network of marine protected areas,” Pikitch said in a press release. “Local studies and expertise will also be necessary to implement this process.” In addition, more than 76 million km² of areas beyond national jurisdictions were identified as important and unprotected, a fact which may be helpful for informing ongoing discussions about the protection of the high seas. “Studies of this type bring together various forms of information and help set realistic, tangible goals for marine conservation,” said Robert DiGiovanni, Jr., founder and chief scientist of the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society. “The importance of our marine environment needs to be at the forefront of our concerns. Our oceans are an integral part of our survival.” The comprehensive mapping effort showed that much of the protection of already established MPAs was not ecologically representative, meaning they do a poor job of matching up with the size and shape of the important marine areas identified by scientists and protect just a portion of a vital ecosystem or range of vulnerable species. This suggests the need for improvement in creating an ecologically representative global MPA network. “We have to move forward on these main protected areas just to ensure that the biodiversity in the world’s oceans is intact and functioning,” said Kevin McAllister, founder and CEO of Defend H2O, a Sag Harbor-based nonprofit dedicated to protecting Long Island’s various bodies of water. “I think that’s going to be critically important as we start to really feel the ramifications of climate change in the next few decades.” “The approach taken in this study is that we all agree we should protect our oceans and that we need to do more,” DiGiovanni said. “It also lays out that if we work with coastal communities, our goals are obtainable.”

by Daniel Dunaief, November 23, 2019. It’s one thing to make a commitment to a good idea; it’s another to follow through. Ellen Pikitch, endowed professor of ocean conservation science in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, is making sure countries around the world know where and how they can honor their commitment to protect the ocean. In 2015, the United Nations had agreed to designate at least 10 percent of the oceans as Marine Protected Areas, which would restrict fishing and foster conservation. The goal of the proposal is to reach that figure by next year. Three years ago, with the support of the Italian Ministry of Environment and private donations, Pikitch started the labor-intensive process of finding ocean regions that countries could protect. She published the results of her analysis in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. Her research could help countries move from the current 7.8 percent of oceans protected to the 10 percent target, and beyond that figure in the ensuing years. The United States has met its target, although most of its marine protected ares are far from human population centers, so the coverage is uneven, Pikitch explained. The rest of the world has some gaps in high priority areas. “I’m hoping that the study will light a fire under the policymakers so that they do meet their commitment,” said Pikitch. “It’s quite feasible for them to meet the goal. We’ve given [policymakers] advice in this paper about how exactly it could be done.” The maps in the paper show areas that are within the current jurisdiction that are priority areas and are unprotected. “There is quite a bit of area that meets this description — more than 9 percent — so there is flexibility in how countries can use the results and reach or exceed” the 10 percent target by next year, Pikitch explained in an email. To determine where nations can enhance their ocean protection, Pikitch, Assistant Professor Christina Santora at the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University and Stony Brook graduate Natasha Gownaris, who is now an assistant professor in environmental studies at Gettysburg College, pulled together information from 10 internationally recognized maps indicating the location of global marine priority areas. “We are standing on the shoulders of giants, capitalizing or leveraging all the hard work that has gone into other maps,” said Gownaris. One of the most unexpected findings from the study for Pikitch is that 14 percent of the ocean was considered important by two to seven maps, but over 90 percent of those areas remained unprotected. A relatively small part of this area is on the high seas, while most is within exclusive economic zones, which nations can control. To preserve this resource that continues to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while serving a critical role in the world’s food chain, conservationists have focused on marine protected areas because they provide the “one thing we felt was going to be the most effective single step,” said Mark Newhouse, the executive vice president for newspapers at Advance Publications and president of the Ocean Sanctuary Alliance. “It could happen overnight. A country could say, ‘This area is off limits to fishing,’ and it is.” Countries can protect areas within their exclusive economic zones “more quickly than figuring out a way to solve global warming,” Newhouse added. Santora explained the urgency to take action. “The situation in the ocean is worsening and we can’t wait to have perfect information to act,” Santora wrote in an email. “What we can do is put strong, effectively managed MPAs in the right places, with a high level of protection, that are well managed and enforced.” Members of the Ocean Sanctuary Alliance, which counts Pikitch as its scientific officer, recognize that the 7.8 percent figure includes areas where countries have announced their intention to protect a region, but that doesn’t necessarily include any enforcement or protection. “Intentions don’t protect the environment,” Newhouse said. Ambassadors from several nations have reached out to OSA to discuss the findings. These diplomats are “exactly the people we want paying attention” to the research Pikitch and her team put together, Newhouse said. Pikitch also plans to reach out proactively. According to Pikitch’s recent analysis, the largest gaps in policy coverage occurred in the Caribbean Sea, Madagascar and the southern tip of Africa, the Mediterranean Sea and the Coral Triangle area, although they found additional widespread opportunities as well. Pikitch calculated that an additional 9.34 percent of areas within exclusive economic zones would join the global marine protected area network if all the unprotected area identified as important by two or more initiatives joined the MPA network. “When effectively managed, when strong protections are put in place, they work,” Pikitch said. Indeed, one such example is in Cabo Pulmo, Mexico, where establishing a marine protected area resulted in an 11-fold increase in the biomass of top predators within a decade. Many MPAs become sites for ecotourism, which can bring in hefty sums as people are eager to see the endemic beauty in their travels. Pikitch hopes this kind of study spreads the word about the benefit of protecting the ocean and that policymakers and private citizens recognize that protecting sensitive regions also benefits fisheries, refuting the notion that environmentally driven policy conflicts with the goal of economic growth. The groups involved in this study are already discussing the new goal for the ocean. Several diplomats and scientists would like to see the bar raised to 30 percent by 2030, although the United Nations hasn’t committed to this new target yet. “Studies show that 10 percent is insufficient — it is a starting point,” Santora wrote. “I do think that targets beyond 2020 will increase.” Pikitch said the ocean has always been one of her passions. Her goal is to “leave the world in better shape than I found it” for her children and six grandchildren. Read the original article here.

The webinar, based on the recently published paper, drew about 270 participants from around the globe, including diplomats, academics, and individuals working for foundations, NGOs, and government agencies. Moderated by Dr. Lauren Wenzel, Director, NOAA National Marine Protected Areas Center, and co-sponsored by NOAA and OCTO, the webinar highlighted the main methods and findings of the project and discussed how the results could be used. Since then, several requests for data use and collaborations have been received by the co-authors. View a recording of the webinar here. The Gownaris et al. paper is also featured in the latest issue of MPA News here.

Global study finds severe declines from overfishing, but also points to conservation successes By Erik Stokstad Dr. Pikitch quoted in Science article published on July 22, 2020 Sharks are missing from 19% of the world's coral reefs, the greatest decline of reef sharks ever recorded, according to a new analysis. The study suggests overfishing, driven largely by dense human populations and poor governance, has made the ocean's top predators "functionally extinct" in the waters of eight countries. But some reefs elsewhere had abundant sharks, suggesting conservation measures can work. "This study is a tour de force," says Nick Dulvy, a conservation biologist at Simon Fraser University. "It's the most comprehensive study that's ever been done to look at shark abundance," adds Ellen Pikitch, a marine biologist at Stony Brook University. Both say the findings bolster the conclusion that fishing has profoundly depleted reef shark populations in many places. (Neither was involved in the project.) Like other large animals, sharks are vulnerable to overfishing because they grow slowly and don't have many offspring. Demand for shark fins has grown, along with consumption, by a burgeoning Asian middle class. In other places, fishing communities are eating more shark meat as other species have declined. Researchers know shark populations have dropped in many places, but these studies are difficult to compare. So about 5 years ago, marine biologists Mike Heithaus and Demian Chapman of Florida International University began a large collaboration called Global FinPrint. The project's aim was to survey, in a standardized way, all the world's reef shark species, such as tiger sharks and hammerheads. The group focused on reef sharks because they are easier to spot than those—such as blue sharks and whale sharks—that roam the high seas. Six researchers coordinated surveys of coral reefs in various parts of the world by more than 120 scientists. At dozens of places on each reef, researchers lowered video cameras attached to 1.5-meter-long poles with shark bait at the far end (see video). After 3 years, the team reviewed about 18,000 hours of video from 371 tropical reefs. More than 700 volunteers, many of them university students studying marine science, helped. Heithaus's mother reviewed the most footage—1721 hours. At 69 reefs—or about 19% of the reefs sampled—no sharks were caught on video, the team reports today in Nature. "It's pretty grim, but not completely unexpected," says Sonja Fordham, president of Shark Advocates International, who was not involved in the project. There may have been a few sharks that didn't take the bait, but the overall low numbers suggest sharks no longer perform an ecological role in these reefs, says Aaron MacNeil, a reef ecologist at Dalhousie University who led the design of the sampling. Not all reefs were in dire straits. Sharks were plentiful in remote French Polynesia, for example. "It's just this gorgeous utopia, especially if you're into reef sharks," MacNeil says. Worldwide, the Bahamas came out on top for shark abundance, whereas Guam ranked last. To find out what kinds of conservation actions might be helping sharks, MacNeil created a computer model that compared the relative abundance of reef sharks and factored in potential threats, such as the number of people living nearby and the distance to markets where shark fins might be sold. The countries with the most abundant sharks tended to have declared protected areas. The Bahamas has banned shark fisheries for 30 years, MacNeil says, and it has done extremely well in maintaining a reef shark population. Another effective measure, the team found, is to regulate fishing so sharks are caught less often, whether intentionally or by accident. The places that are doing the worst have few or poorly enforced fishing regulations and higher levels of poverty, which can force fishing communities to exploit declining populations. Shark conservation is not one-size-fits-all, the researchers say, and their analysis suggests some management measures have more potential in certain places. In the British West Indies, for example, sharks would especially benefit from replacing long-line fishing gear, in which many hooks are left in the water for a day or so, with gear that is better at targeting particular fish. Large nets that catch fish by their gills are also especially dangerous, because they are nearly invisible to marine life and catch almost everything, including sharks. Although the Global FinPrint project is over, the researchers plan to use their data to study the ecological role of sharks and examine what happens to the reef ecosystem when they are extirpated. The data are already being used to review the conservation status of various shark species. "We really need to substantively move toward conservation and recovery in the next decade," Dulvy says, "or else we're going to be in real trouble." Read the original article here.