Marine Lab Uses CSI Practices For Conservation
By Matt J. Weiss, April 7, 2008 @ 02:00 AM (EST)
Source: Dukechronicle.com
Editor's note-
This is one way to get students interested in the fisheries crisis.
They go into restaurants under cover of darkness and take napkins covered in pieces of tuna steak. They examine the samples by microscope to check species. And if they find it is not tuna steak, a crime scene investigation ensues.
Marine biologists are employing methods of forensic science for marine conservation, and some students studying at the Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, N.C. this summer will explore the field in a course titled "Marine CSI: Conservation Forensics in the Marine Environment."
"The idea for the course came out of the idea of conservation genetics," said Jens Carlsson, visiting assistant professor of marine science and conservation and a Mary Derrrickson McCurdy visiting scholar, who will lead the course's instruction. "We have 60 percent of the fishery stocks that are currently over fished, and we wanted to attract student attention to this."
Because fisheries and other marine businesses have damaged ocean ecosystems, marine conservation has become a central issue in national politics. Molecular biology-which will be included in the course's instruction-is one way marine conservationists determine how to protect marine species.
"With climate change and sea levels rising and all the other things we do to our coastal area, there is a new set of ocean research priorities put together by presidential committees," said Cindy Van Dover, director of the Marine Lab. "It is one of the top priorities in the country, and it is something that we are concerned with."
One student who signed up for the class said the exposure to a contentious political issue set the course apart.
"I'm not very interested in studying the biology or physics of sponges and plants-I could do that at Duke-but Marine CSI covers subjects that I have never thought of," freshman Alex Daniels wrote in an e-mail
Marine biologists are employing methods of forensic science for marine conservation, and some students studying at the Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, N.C. this summer will explore the field in a course titled "Marine CSI: Conservation Forensics in the Marine Environment."
"The idea for the course came out of the idea of conservation genetics," said Jens Carlsson, visiting assistant professor of marine science and conservation and a Mary Derrrickson McCurdy visiting scholar, who will lead the course's instruction. "We have 60 percent of the fishery stocks that are currently over fished, and we wanted to attract student attention to this."
Because fisheries and other marine businesses have damaged ocean ecosystems, marine conservation has become a central issue in national politics. Molecular biology-which will be included in the course's instruction-is one way marine conservationists determine how to protect marine species.
"With climate change and sea levels rising and all the other things we do to our coastal area, there is a new set of ocean research priorities put together by presidential committees," said Cindy Van Dover, director of the Marine Lab. "It is one of the top priorities in the country, and it is something that we are concerned with."
One student who signed up for the class said the exposure to a contentious political issue set the course apart.
"I'm not very interested in studying the biology or physics of sponges and plants-I could do that at Duke-but Marine CSI covers subjects that I have never thought of," freshman Alex Daniels wrote in an e-mail
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