Kelp Panel: Discussion with Sequoias of the Sea Filmmaker, Book Author, and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Researchers
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McGowan MG102McGowan Building
411 Pacific St
Monterey, CA 93940 View in Campus Map
Free
Open to the Public
More than 90% of the kelp forests have disappeared along the Northern California Coast.
Kelp Panel: Discussion with Sequoias of the Sea Filmmaker, Book Author, and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Researchers
Speakers:
- Natasha Benjamin: Marine Scientist and Filmmaker; Media Director at Marine Research & Exploration (MARE); Associate Director of Blue Frontier.
- David Helvarg: Executive Director of Blue Frontier, Author and Journalist
- Andrew DeVogelaere, Ph.D., Research Ecologist, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, NOAA
- Libby Mohn, CA Sea Grant Fellow, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, NOAA & Planet Forward Correspondent
Monday, October 28, 2024
6:00pm to 7:30pm
In-person event
McGowan 102
411 Pacific Street, Monterey, CA 93940
About the Topic
Kelp forests cover a quarter of the world’s coastlines, providing food and shelter for thousands of species, while also sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. But over the past decade a third of these forests have been lost across the planet. Along the 350 mile stretch of coastline from San Francisco to the Oregon Border we have lost a striking 95% of kelp forests. While many other important ocean ecosystems are getting attention, such as coral reefs, kelp is the lost forest of the ocean that is disappearing before our eyes.
With a perfect storm of climate change causing warming oceans, sea stars disappearing and urchin populations exploding, we are witnessing an ecological disaster in one of the most highly managed and protected coasts in the world.
Description above taken from the Sequoias of the Sea website, with permission.
About the Speakers
Natasha Benjamin
Natasha is a marine scientist and filmmaker based in Northern California. She has worked in ocean science, conservation and communications for over 20 years. She is a producer for Peabody Award winning Brick City TV. As a diver, surfer and ocean lover who has not only spent her career, but most of her life working and playing in the ocean, she is dedicated to the ocean and working toward a healthy ocean for all.
Natasha is the Media Director at Marine Research & Exploration (MARE) where she works on developing media content on deep-sea research and blue technology. She is also the Associate Director of Blue Frontier, where she works on ocean climate action policy and building a citizen movement toward healthy oceans. Natasha has a B.S. in Marine Biology from Boston University and M.S. in Marine Policy from University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science (RSMAS).
Natasha is co-creator of the film Sequoias of the Sea, which follows divers, fishermen, and communities whose livelihoods have been impacted by the loss of the great kelp forests, and tracks the researchers who are trying to find solutions to bring the kelp back. The film takes the audience on a dive through the cold rough waters of northern California, where most have never set eyes, bringing us beneath the surface of the ocean to highlight the beauty, fragility and resilience of California’s hidden forest.
David Helvarg
David Helvarg is Executive Director of Blue Frontier – an ocean conservation and policy group and the author of six books: Blue Frontier, The War Against the Greens, 50 Ways to Save the Ocean, Rescue Warriors, Saved by the Sea and The Golden Shore. He is now working on his next book on the state of the world’s kelp forests. He is organizer of ‘Blue Vision’ Summits for ocean activists, Peter Benchley Ocean Awards (with Wendy Benchley), chaired the first global March for the Ocean in 2018 and in 2019 launched the Ocean Climate Action Plan coalition that contributed to the first Climate Action law in U.S. history including $6 billion for coastal restoration and greening ports.
Helvarg worked as a war correspondent in Northern Ireland and Central America, covered a range of issues from military science to the AIDS epidemic, and reported from every continent including Antarctica. An award-winning journalist, he produced more than 40 broadcast documentaries for PBS, The Discovery Channel, and others. His print work continues to appear in The New York Times, LA Times, National Geographic, Sierra, etc. He’s done radio work for Marketplace, AP radio, and Pacifica and led workshops for journalists in Poland, Turkey, Tunisia, Slovakia and Washington DC. Today he and Blue Frontier continue to lead media training workshops for ocean scientists and advocates. He is also a licensed Private Investigator, body-surfer and scuba diver.
Andrew DeVogelaere, Ph.D.
Dr. DeVogelaere is a Research Ecologist for NOAA’s Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, responsible for all aspects of the Research Program. This includes facilitating collaboration among more than 20 research groups in the region, providing technical information to decision-makers, and developing research on sanctuary resource management issues. He is also the Director of the Sanctuary Integrated Monitoring Network (SIMoN), a program to assess sanctuary health using collaborative regional monitoring programs. Dr. DeVogelaere is Adjunct Research Faculty at California State University Monterey Bay and on the Governing Council for the Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System. Using science to develop sound resource management decisions is his main interest, and he is actively involved in field research on deep-sea corals, lost shipping containers, sound, and the Davidson Seamount.
Dr. DeVogelaere earned a BA in biology from the University of California at Berkeley, an MS in marine science from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, and a PhD in biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz. He has previous experience as a Research Coordinator for the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, as a lecturer in marine science for Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and Cal State Monterey Bay, and as an elected Commissioner for the Moss Landing Harbor District.
Libby Mohn
Libby is a California Sea Grant Fellow at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. She works with the Research Team and Resource Protection Team on different priority items. The sanctuary’s Iconic Kelp Action Plan has been her main project, during which she has coordinated and facilitated working groups, drafted strategies and activities based on recommendations, and developed a Kelp Action Plan to inform the MBNMS Management Plan. Libby recently graduated with a Masters in International Environmental Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (EPM OCRM May 2024). Her experience includes working with the IUCN WCPA on area-based management tools related to the BBNJ Treaty (United Nations Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty) and conducting research on high seas MPA implementation under this Treaty. Libby also wrote articles on ocean conservation, climate change, and the energy transition as a Planet Forward correspondent.
Event Location: McGowan Building, Room 102
The McGowan Building is located at 411 Pacific Street, Monterey, CA, 93940, on the campus of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Attendees should enter through the glass doors from Pacific Street, and the MG102 is located inside to the right. View the campus map.
No Zoom this fall, but most lectures recorded
This fall, all classes are back 100% in-person, and our lecture series has followed suit. Zoom will not be an option for public participation, but in-person attendees are certainly welcome. Can’t make it in person? No problem! Most lectures will be recorded (as permitted by our speakers) and the videos uploaded to the CBE YouTube, with a link added to each event announcement as it becomes available.
Parking
Parking is available in any Middlebury Institute campus lot after 5 p.m., no parking permit required, no fee. View the campus map. (be sure to not confuse city lots with campus lots—city lots do charge a fee). Free parking is also available on the street (time limits on surrounding streets end at 6 p.m.).
Questions
Contact Rachel Christopherson at the Center for the Blue Economy at cbe@miis.edu or (831) 647-4183.
Gratitude to Our Sponsors
We thank the Loker Hicks Foundation and the Nancy Eccles and Homer M. Hayward Family Foundation our sponsors.
About the Host
The Center for the Blue Economy is a research center at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, that provides economic and policy analysis to support the development of a robust and equitable blue economy for the 21st century. The Center uses the World Bank’s definition of the Blue Economy: the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs, and ocean ecosystem health. We must maintain ocean health to maintain human health, economic health, and the health of the planet. Climate change is linked, inextricably, to a healthy ocean. We are co-leading a movement for Ocean Climate Action Now. Consider joining our Center for the Blue Economy Newsletter List (3-4x per year by email).