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the abundance, diversity and resilience of the sea. With this message he
conveys an appropriate measure of alarm, for the marine habitat is on
the brink of destruction.
In a recent TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) talk, Skerry
references the diaries of the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620
about a time when it might have been possible to walk across Cape Cod
Bay on the backs of right whales. Even allowing for a bit of embellishment,
this describes an age we’ll never again see on this planet, at least not
during the reign of Homo sapiens. Skerry also speaks of a global fish crisis
in which 90 percent of the big fish in the ocean have disappeared in just 50
years and where bottom trawling for shrimp can create incidental bycatch
with a volume 100 times that of the shrimp harvested. These are huge
issues, and those who do not understand the ocean by means of their own
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