Marine conservation is essentially the act of saving our seas for future generations. The word conservation is often misunderstood to mean improving the present conditions, but it works only when all threats are taken away, forever. Conservation is thus impossible without knowing what threatens the environment.

Judging by their performance over the past 25 years, DoC may not be the right department for managing marine reserves. It does not have the expertise and presence, like divers and fishermen do. It is condemning that they have been responsible for so many failed marine reserves in the very badlands of our seas, and that they continue to push for more like it.

Hanauma Bay was designated a Marine Life Conservation District (MLCD) in 1967. This is an area that the State of Hawai‘i set aside to protect marine life. It is governed by State statutes, Regulation 32. It states that it is unlawful to fish, possess fishing gear, remove any marine organisms or contaminate the waters within the conservation district. This law is enforced by the Department of Land and Natural Resources. Prior to 1967, most types of fishing was allowed in the bay.

Because the vast majority of our readership wants Cyber Diver to keep them informed and educated about important conservation, safety and consumer issues.

If you are interested in seeing if you've got what it takes to become a U.S. Marine, please contact your nearest Marine Corps recruiter, call 1-800-MARINES (1-800-627-4637) or visit www.marines.com. They can answer all questions regarding enlistment requirements, benefits and procedures.

A marine reserve is an MPA (Marine Protected Area) that enjoys very high levels of protection and continuity (no-taking, forever, without discontinuity). The idea behind such reserves is that they are in principle able to recover to a more natural state, and hopefully even to a pristine state as if human influence had never occurred. It is a very noble and exciting endeavour.

Conservation Councils form at the invitation of the Conservancy to explore solutions to complex conservation issues on the Island. A Council is comprised of members of the resident and visitor communities, Conservancy staff and members of its Board of Directors, and select outside experts. The first Conservation Council was established in 2004 to look at ecological and recreational management issues for the Island’s windward beaches.

According to the conservation of momentum, there is a fixed amount of momentum for the entire universe. Additional momentum cannot be gained or lost in universe, but only transferred from one object to another. For example, if an ice skater with a mass of 50 kg was skating with a velocity of 2 m/s, his momentum would be 100 kg?m/s. If another person were at rest on the ice, that person would have a momentum of 0 kg?m/s. Both the skaters together would have a total momentum of 100 kg?m/s.

You can find more information through the US Green Building Council, an organization dedicated to accelerating the adoption of green building practices, technologies, policies and standards. More information can be found at GreenClips, GreenClips Web site, or write to chrishammer@greenclips.com.

By far most conservation and restoration projects both on land and in the sea have been disappointing or failed altogether. Scientists have begun to recognise the common causes of such failures, and some have had extraordinary courage to speak out [1].

Marine toxins are naturally occurring chemicals that can contaminate certain seafood. The seafood contaminated with these chemicals frequently looks, smells, and tastes normal. When humans eat such seafood, disease can result.

Some do but the only marine part actually needed is a marine air filtration system. Automotive filters do not hold up in a marine environment. American Airboats routinely replaces exposed parts with more corrosion resistant ones but this is more cosmetic than absolutely necessary. Everything else is standard with the automotive industry. This means that if a fuel pump goes out, you can pick one up at the local auto parts store. (Not so easy with an aircraft engine).

A Marine Protected Area is an area in the sea where some protection applies, but usually not complete protection. There can be many reasons for protecting an area in the sea, not just to manage fishing, but to allow activities to proceed without intervention of the public, like bombing practice areas, mining areas, oil exploration areas, navigational wrecks, ammunition dumps, and so on.

De-facto marine reserves are areas in the sea that have enjoyed protection for many years, for reasons other than protection of the environment. These are the cableways, shipping lanes, ammunition dumps, oil drilling platforms and others. New Zealand has about 3000km2 (300,000 ha) of it, roughly half in cableways and the other half in ammunition dumps.

protecting a unique spot: some places in the sea, such as around offshore islands, are hot spots of biodiversity surrounded by a much poorer sea and sea bottom. Islands attract fish towards their shallows. They work like oases, attracting life from far around, including sea birds and sea mammals. protecting scientific experiments: scientists need to be assured that over time, the equipment and cages in the sea remain undisturbed, also the species and individuals that they are studying.

Yes, scientific research has shown in many experiments, that the fish stock inside a closed area recovers (only where these were fished before). Fish become more numerous and bigger. It benefits particularly the large predators. Most studies report an increase of about 2-3 times to what is found outside. However, this affects only the exploited species. The thousands of other species remain unaffected, except that they may be more likely to be eaten by the larger predators.

In 2004, scientists completed a study on the permanent de-facto marine reserve around the Cape Canaveral rocket launch site. They tagged fish inside and outside the reserve and followed their movements. To everyone's surprise, fish inside stayed inside but those outside migrated into the reserve, never to leave. Inside the reserve, the tagged fish were lost, presumably due to predation. The scientists concluded that the marine reserve acted as a sink (like a bottomless pit) to fish.

Protagonists of marine reserves, claim that marine reserves do help fisheries in many ways, but this is not so, or at least very much less than is claimed. It is a hotly debated issue that has been dissected in detail in Seafriends/conservation/marine, but some of the main reasons are easily understood: Our main commercial fisheries occur over the continental shelves where the main food source originates from plankton.

Protagonists claim that we need networks of marine reserves. What they don't say is that they want to establish a fisheries management regime which is not controlled by fishermen but by ideologically driven conservationists, often those who do not relate to the sea, and have no practical experience with it. The network idea sounds plausible and feels good, so let's check it out.

This seemingly simple question is surprisingly difficult to answer. In first instance, one would say that it neither harms nor benefits the environment or people. If there exists no threat, it means that few people are fishing it. But more importantly: what is the point? Are we willing to sacrifice freedom that easily? A father can suddenly no longer take his son fishing from the bridge or wharf. Marooned seamen cannot fish for life without trespassing the law.

Right in the middle of the busiest centres, one can find parks with flowers, and nobody picks them. These are a kind of voluntary reserves, appreciated and respected by all. Likewise, marine reserves right on many people's doorstep, would be appreciated by many and used intensively. However, they need to have clear water, and this is usually not the case near big cities. Wellington is an exception, being located along a coast with swift currents of clear water.

Protagonists for marine reserves have influenced the United Nations to accept a biodiversity strategy (to which New Zealand is signatory), which compels countries to implement marine reserve networks of representative areas, and the Labour Government has made it official policy to have 10% of our seas in marine reserves by 2010 (some say this includes MPAs, which include de-facto marine reserves and Mataitai).

One would expect that before rushing into more marine reserves, our existing marine reserves would have been evaluated first regarding their effectiveness in achieving the expectations we have. But this has not been done. The situation is in fact quite disappointing. In order to achieve political objectives (marine reserves work), DoC has funded research into counting migrant species like snapper, blue cod and crayfish with a questionable method (the baited camera).

The word biodiversity is difficult to grasp, because it covers a vast store of thought and knowledge. Should you wish to equip yourself with this knowledge, read Seafriends/conservation/biodiversity. A rough idea of biodiversity is all species, including plants, bacteria, viruses, pests, diseases and so on. Since the only thing a marine reserve does, is to stop fishing, a marine reserve makes a difference only to those species that are fished.

A very important aspect often overlooked by protagonists, is that marine reserves do not fix the causes of the problems in the sea. They change neither our behaviour nor our methods. They act like plasters here and there covering small parts of a large wound.

Most of the marine reserves in the world have indeed failed. 69% do not achieve their objectives (Kelleher et al 1995). The Goat Island marine reserve is hailed internationally as the best success story, mentioned in one breath with the Galapagos Islands. This is only so because ambassadors for marine conservation have travelled the world with good-news propaganda, while hiding the real facts (see below and read Lessons from Leigh).

The problem does not only relate to marine reserves but mainly to the discipline of marine ecology of which marine reserves are a small part. Bluntly put, marine scientists do not have the foggiest idea of what is going on out there. Why? It is a puzzling question. The answer must be found in the complexity of the marine environment and our inability to spend long hours there. But the very nature of the scientific experiment, as laid down by Francis Bacon [1] must also be blamed.

We should not have marine reserves for the sake of having them. It is not about quantity but about quality. Marine reserves are of no use at all, unless they work and achieve their objectives. Such objectives do not necessary need to be environmental. A marine laboratory needs an area to do research. Schools need undisturbed places to do rocky shore and soft shore studies. Migratory sea birds need relays to feed and regain strength.

Fish cannot read maps. They do not know where a safe area begins or ends. The only clue they have is that it is safe where a lot of fish are found (humans do so too). Helping safety in numbers, is one reason why feeding the fish inside a protected area is not a bad idea. There exists a vast difference between migratory and resident species. Migratory species move in and out frequently. Resident species invariably maintain a territory, which they defend against competitors.

Scientists claim that they do. A marine reserve protects their experiments. But they need permission from reserve managers in order to do such experiments, even when no harm is done. Scientists need to be able to harvest organisms to study them in the lab. Thes are killed while being dissected. So scientists are not completely at ease with no-take regulations. They complain about the time it takes to obtain permission. Sometimes a research must be done quickly in response to an external event.