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This project represents a fusion of scientists
with filmmakers. There have been several dozen key participants from
a wide range of organizations, but at the core, from the beginning,
have been these five individuals. Each of them has their own personal
experience with shifting baseline syndrome within their lifetime.

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Dr. Randy Olson
Prairie Starfish Productions and University of Southern California
Filmmaker, former marine biologist
Director of the Shifting Baselines Campaign
"I enjoyed being a marine biologist
so much in the 1980's that I began making silly short films
about how to eat a "lobstah," the sex life of barnacles,
and fish mating. I went to film school at U.S.C. to make more
silly films. But then a sad thing happened. I began hearing
from my old marine biology colleagues about the declining
state of the oceans." |
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Dr. Jeremy Jackson
Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Smithsonian Tropical
Research Institute
Coral Reef Ecologist
"Every ecosystem I studied is unrecognizably
different from when I started. I have a son who is 30, and
I used to take him snorkeling on the reefs in Jamaica to show
him all the beautiful corals there. I have a daughter who
is 17 -- I can't show her anything but heaps of seaweed." |
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° Gale Anne Hurd
Valhalla Motion Pictures
Producer of Hollywood Movies ("Terminator," "Aliens,"
"The Abyss," "The Hulk")
"After producing THE ABYSS, I became
an avid scuba diver. I spent several years diving the initially
pristine reefs of Micronesia, some of the most diverse marine
ecosystems on the planet. With the promise of a fast profit,
subsistence fishing in many areas has given way to more destructive
practices, such as dynamiting reefs. The consequences? Destroyed
reefs resulting in complete and sometimes permanent habitat
loss. This is a serious problem throughout Micronesia, Indonesia
and the Philippines. It's truly heartbreaking." |
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Dr. Paul Dayton
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Kelp Forest Ecologist
"I've studied the kelp beds around
San Diego all my professional career. At first, the changes
happened rather slowly as the big fish that escaped gill nets
disappeared. I began to make dives and think to myself, "What's
different here, this place seems less crowded." Then
the invertebrates like abalone and scallops went. Then the
live fishery took the smaller fish like sheephead, cabezon,
and even moray eels and horn sharks. Now it's like a ghost
town -- lots of structure, but nobody home." |
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Dr. Steven Miller
University of North Carolina, Wilmington and Aquarius Undersea
Habitat
Coral Reef Ecologist
"Caribbean coral reefs of
the 1970s changed my life. But the reefs I first knew and
loved are gone, casualties of disease, coral bleaching, and
overfishing. The reefs I study now in Florida are only a shadow
of their former glory. My tourist friends go snorkeling and
marvel at the colors and structure, but little do they know
they're looking at the ghost of a coral reef. While I can
tell my friends about all that we have lost, I am saddened
that my children can't have the same personal experience I
had, just 25 years ago." |
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