“This world is a water world, a planet dominated by its covering mantle of ocean,

in which the continents are but transient intrusionsof land above the all-encircling sea.”

- Rachel Carson, the Sea Around Us

Studies in Ocean and Human Health

• From Monsoons to Microbes: Understanding the Ocean’s Role in Human Health (National Academy of Sciences)

• Marine Ecosystems: Emerging Diseases as Indicators of Change - the Health, Ecological and Economic Dimensions (CHGE/Harvard)

Studies in Ocean and Human Health

• NSF/NIEHS• University of Hawaii

• University of Miami

• University of Washington

• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)

• NOAA• The Hollings Laboratory (Charleston, South Carolina)

• NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center in (Seattle, Washington)

• NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

Healthy Oceans, Healthy Humans Exhibit

Oceans Heal

Oceans Nourish

Solutions

Oceans Protect

Oceans Heal

• Over 50% of the most prescribed medicine in U.S. is derived or patterned after compounds from nature Pacific Yew Tree - Taxol

Medicine from the SeaCompound Source Disease Area

Ziconotide Cone Snail Chronic Pain

AM336 Cone Snail Chronic Pain

GTS21 Nemertine Worm Alzheimer’s/ Schizophrenia

LAF389 Sponge Cancer

Bryostatin Bryozoan Cancer

OAS1000 Soft Coral Wound Healing/ Inflammation

Doalastin Sea Slug Cancer

Yondelis Sea Squirt Cancer

IPL512602 Sponge Inflammation/ Asthma

Cone Snails

•500 Species

•Reef dwellers

• 1000 times more potent than morphine• No tolerance• No addiction• Specific

Reefs: Medicine Chest of the Sea

Global Distribution of Reefs

Coral Bleaching

• 26% of all corals are bleached

• 11% destroyed

• 60% at significant risk

Coral Disease

Coral Plague

Black-band disease

Unknown

Oceans Nourish

• 16% of global animal protein

• Asia’s primary source of protein

• Omega-3s help protect against heart disease

US Consumption

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Estimates say per capita consumption of seafood will rise to 16 pounds (from 14.8 pounds in 2001) by 2020, up 4 billion pounds per year.

Seafood Industry

28 million Americans. MA alone: $200 million in 1998

Mercury emissions

2000-4000 metric tons yearly

Geochemical Cycle of MercuryGeochemical Cycle of Mercury

Adapted from US Dept. of Interior’s Report on Hg in the Florida Everglades

Air Emissions are 10- 80% of Water

Burden!

Worldwide mercury emissions

(Data from Pacyna)

Total annual deposition (UNEP, 2002)

Mercury effect as delay in development (months, age 7) for

each doubling of exposure

Motor (Finger tapping, PH) 0.9

Attention (CPT-reaction time) 1.3

Visuospatial (Bender errors) 0.6

Language (Boston Naming) 1.6

Verbal memory (CVLT short delay) 2.0

Prolonged III-V interval onbrainstem auditory evoked potentials at recent exposure(hair-Hg) in 14-yr-old children

Murata et al., Journal of Pediatrics, in press

New WHO exposure limit

U.S.EPA exposure limit

FDAexposurelimit

Recommended Fish Meals per Month Based on Methylmercury Fish Tissue Levels

MeHg (mg/kg fish) Meals per Month (8 oz)

0.1 9

0.2 4.5

0.3 3.0

0.4 2.3

0.5 1.8

0.6 1.5

0.7 1.3

0.8 1.1

0.9 1

One serving per week is safe foran adult woman if below 0.5 ppm

One serving per week is safe for a child ifbelow 0.17 ppm

Overfishing

Of the 157 stock groups in U.S. waters, 56 (36 %) are known to be over-exploited, while 70 (44 %) are fished at the maximum level.

Oceans Protect

Warming: Atmosphere and Oceans

Ocean Warming

Extreme WeatherDroughts and Floods, in US and around the world, increasing (IPCC)

Solutions

Healthy Oceans, Healthy HumansIS A 700 SQUARE FOOT, WALK-THROUGH, TRAVELING EXHIBIT AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

Adaptable: the flexibility to accommodate a number of institutions

Interactive: Engaging the user/inquiry-based

Experiential: Evoking senses and achieving

Narrative: Employing stories to educate

For healthy humans, we need healthy marine ecosystems