Oceans cover more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface and support a web of life so vast and unknown that a 10-year census effort completed in 2010 found 20,000 new species and estimated that at least 750,000 yet undiscovered creatures could dwell in the depths. Interactions with ocean species are fundamental to life on land as well, including human life. While sea creatures have sustained us for millennia, today we are failing dramatically in our responsibility to take care of them. Pollution, overfishing, and human-induced global climate change are destroying habitat, decimating populations, and causing extinctions of entire species.
We invite you to join the Ocean Program of the Center for American Progress to hear the stories and see the breathtaking images of the species that populate our oceans, thrill our souls, and help sustain life on this blue planet. We will hear from a panel of renowned ocean experts, each of whom has a new book about ocean life in various forms.
Copies of Demon Fish, Citizens of the Sea, and For Cod and Country will be available for purchase at the event.
Featured speakers:
Juliet Eilperin, Author, Demon Fish; Reporter, Washington Post
Nancy Knowlton, Author, Citizens of the Sea; Sant Chair for Marine Science, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History
Barton Seaver, Author, For Cod and Country; Chef; National Geographic Fellow
Brian Skerry, Author, Ocean Soul; Photojournalist, National Geographic
Moderated by:
Michael Conathan, Director of Ocean Policy, Center for American Progress