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Student Ocean Conferences

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Mystic Aquarium Student Ocean Conference

Photo of Mystic AquariumIntroduction

Connecticut's Mystic Aquarium hosted the fifth Student Ocean Conference on December 11, 2001. Students discussed and debated issues relating to coastal health in their region. The issues were divided into three focus areas:

  • Habitat restoration
  • Restoration of wild populations and
  • The use of technology to monitor and assess coastal and oceanic systems.

Discussions

Photo of Aquarium After listening to the experts, the students divided into five groups for roundtable discussions. Each discussion group was assigned a particular scenario pertaining to one of the five topics addressed by the speakers. Each of the scenarios dealt with a particular marine sanctuary or marine protected area. There were about 12 students in each group, as well as one or two teachers and an expert to facilitate the discussion.

Dr. Earle

Dr. Sylvia Earle, Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, gave an inspiring keynote presentation to the students. Her speech stressed the importance of marine conservation and education, and its impact on the marine environment. She also spoke about the importance of marine sanctuaries.

Other Activities

After the conference, students were given the opportunity to take a behind the scenes tour of the Mystic Aquarium, as well as to connect to a live link with a remotely operated vehicle run by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California.

Photo of ConferenceGuest from the US Commission on Ocean Policy

Dr. Robert Ballard, who is a National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence and the President of the aquarium's Institute for Exploration, attended the conference as a representative of the US Commission on Ocean Policy and was part of the panel of experts receiving the students' recommendations.

Student Comments

  • "The best part of the conference was the group presentations because, because they really allowed people to get in depth in their discussions and allowed for debating as well."
  • It was great to see a female, like Dr. Earle do so much in the field of marine science."
  • "Live link to Monterey Bay was excellent!"
  • "The ocean is a whole world in itself and needs to be preserved."
  • "I enjoyed the intensive debate on dam removal and alternative energy sources."
  • "The environment is very fragile, and everyone needs to do his or her part to protect it."

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This page was updated
Thursday, 26-Oct-2006 15:17:12 EDT