Lecture date: July 15, 2020. Charles Colgan introduces the ideas behind the blue economy, assesses current efforts to create it, and explores the problem of how we will know if we have been successful in creating a blue economy.

Colgan is director of research for the Center for the Blue Economy of The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He is also professor emeritus of public policy and planning at the University of Southern Maine.

Lecture date: July 8, 2020. John Sabo discusses food security and dams in the Mekong River.

Sabo is a professor of river ecology and water resources in the School of Life Sciences and founding director of Future H2O in the Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development at Arizona State University.

Lecture date: July 1, 2020. William Cooper discusses his experiences visiting Pierella as a resident scientists and videographer.

Cooper is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine.

Lecture date: June 25, 2020. Luke Fairbanks explores insights from the social and policy sciences to better understand the processes, challenges, and opportunities associated with marine aquaculture.

Fairbanks is an assistant research professor at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Lecture date: June 17, 2020. Julie Lesnik explores the value and potential of insects as food and examine our aversions through various cultural lenses.

Lesnik is an assistant professor of anthropology at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

Lecture date: June 10, 2020. Randi Rotjan discusses her work with temperate and deep-sea corals.

Dr. Rotjan is a research assistant professor at Boston University in the Biology Department and in the Boston University Marine Program. She is also the co-chief scientist of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area Conservation Trust, where she leads the science program for the worlds’ largest and deepest UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Lecture date: June 4, 2020. Douglas Fenner discusses the threats facing coral reefs and what humanity must do to save them.

Fenner works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Protected Resources in a program to teach people around the Pacific how to identify their corals and assist them in coral reef conservation.

Lecture date: May 27, 2020. Lewis Duncan discusses cooperation, competition, and conflict on the world’s oceans.

Duncan serves as provost, dean of faculty, and chief operating officer of the U.S. Naval War College.

Lecture date: May 13, 2020. Richard Somerville presents a lecture to discuss the latest climate science, public perceptions, and how science can guide policymaking.

Somerville is a distinguished professor emeritus at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

Lecture date: May 6, 2020. Historian Sunil Amrith discusses his book, Unruly Waters, in which he reimagines Asia’s history through the stories of its rains, rivers, coasts, and seas—and of the weather-watchers and engineers, mapmakers, and farmers who have sought to control them.

Amrith is the Mehra Family Professor of South Asian Studies at Harvard University.

Lecture date: April 22, 2020. Douglas McCauley shares how we can all be inspired in challenging times from lessons of resiliency in our ocean and what responsibility we have to recommit to protecting ocean health.

McCauley is an associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also a Sloan Research Fellow in the Ocean Sciences and serves as the director of the Benioff Ocean Initiative.

Lecture date: January 13, 2020. Famed ocean explorer Sylvia Earle discussed her perspective on California’s unique relationship with the ocean and what we can do to ensure a healthy ocean in the future, and one that benefits society economically.

This talk kicked of a forum on oil rig decommissioning, which gathered regulators from Federal and state agencies, scientists, representatives of commercial and recreational fishing organizations, divers, and other experts to discuss the possibilities and what sustainable options exist for decommissioned oil rigs off the coast of Southern California.

Lecture date: February 26, 2020. Andrew Reeves discusses share stories and material from his book Overrun: Dispatches from the Asian Carp Crisis.

Reeves is an author and environmental journalist.

Lecture date: February 19, 2020. Aquarium staff members Nate Jaros and Briana Fodor discuss the Aquarium’s involvement in coral reef restoration field work.

Jaros is the Aquarium’s curator of fish and invertebrates, and Fodor is a senior aquarist.

Lecture date: February 6, 2020. Aquarium Director of Education David Bader discusses lessons learned from the story of the vaquita and what it can tell us broadly about what it will take to achieve conservation success.

Bader also serves as a lead coordinator for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Vaquita SAFE (Saving Animals From Extinction) program.