By Grace Lawson
A guide outlining the history, location, residency and population trends of over 30 marine species in California since 1999 was launched to the public on Feb. 6 through the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Marine Species Report Card.
The same day, the Aquarium hosted a media day for different publications to cover the Report Cards launch.
Now, a little over one month later, the Aquarium shared the report card’s intentions and highlighted eight of the featured species to the broader public through this month’s First Wednesday lecture on March 5.
Led by the aquarium’s President and CEO, Peter Kareiva, and the Vice President of Education and Conservation, Jennie Dean, the lecture discussed how public access to marine species information promotes civic change and conservation.
“It’s an opportunity for us to sort of share our favorite parts, some of the narratives that exist threading through the different species, and allow our audience to talk about those things too,” Dean said.
While the First Wednesday series allowed the Aquarium to talk face-to-face with visitors about the report card, it also spotlighted the different ways the public can get involved in protecting and conserving these species.
“We really hope it sparks that kind of conversation,” Dean said.
Different from other First Wednesday lectures, Kareiva and Dean used interactive polls and surveys that allowed the audience to scan a QR code projected on the screen to vote, choose and guess species names, population numbers and species they’d like to see highlighted in the future.
“I really liked the interaction. I think that was really interesting because we got to kind of test out knowledge a little bit,” Monica Maynard, an attendee at the event with her colleague Diana Mego, said.
The two said that almost every month, they attend the First Wednesday series lectures together.
The sunflower starfish, one of the species featured in the lecture, is in strong decline, according to the aquarium’s report card.
The sunflower starfish population is threatened by a wasting disease that devastated the sea star population and caused the species to go almost extinct in California between 2013 and 2018.
Their population decline has led to an environmental impact that the report card calls a “tropic cascade.”
“I never knew, or I learned about the sunflower starfish,” Mego said. “I don’t know, it just pains me, learning about the disease.”
Efforts to revive the population are still ongoing, as there has been little to no increase in their numbers despite recovery efforts.
The Aquarium of the Pacific is one of many aquariums working to nurture the efforts of the sunflower starfish living in their care.
Working with outside biologists and government entities to collect data that goes back as far as 1999, Kareiva and Dean discussed how large-scale data collection was the only way that the Aquarium was able to create such a detailed report card.
“Without data, we can’t know how species are doing,” Kareiva said.
Unlike other First Wednesday series Q&As, almost every audience member preceded their question with a “thank you” to the aquarium for creating the report card.
By highlighting species specifically on the report card, Kareiva closed the lecture by stressing the value of conserving biodiversity on California’s coast and how each species represents the entire ecosystem.
Though the subject is not yet announced, the “First Wednesday” series invites the broader public to learn about ecological and animal conservation efforts directly from working professionals in the field each month.
The next one is set to be on April 2, and tickets can be bought here for $5 (preorder) or $10 at the door.
