The Safina Center

Last updated
Safina Center
Type Nonprofit
61-1406022
Legal status 501(c)(3)
Headquarters Setauket, New York
President
Carl Safina
Website https://www.safinacenter.org/
Formerly called
Blue Ocean Institute

The Safina Center is a 501(c)3 nonprofit nature conservation and environmental organization headquartered in Setauket, New York as part of Stony Brook University. It was founded in 2003 as the Blue Ocean Institute and later renamed in honor of the founder, Carl Safina. [1]

Contents

History

The Safina Center was founded in 2003 by Dr. Carl Safina, (PhD in Ecology from Rutgers University), a MacArthur fellow and inaugural holder of the Endowed Chair for Nature and Humanity at Stony Brook University. [2]    

Its original focus was ocean science and policy, primarily fish and fisheries. Subsequently, their focus widened as climate-related issues such as global warming and ocean acidification made it necessary to address the global influence of energy, food production, material culture and the expanding human footprint on not just the ocean but on the living world generally. [3] [4] The Safina Center began wide exploration and interpretation of how humans are changing the living world, and what those changes mean for life-supporting systems, living nature, and people. [5] [6] [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holocene extinction</span> Ongoing extinction event caused by human activity

The Holocene extinction, also referred to as the Anthropocene extinction, is an ongoing extinction event caused by human activities during the Holocene epoch. This extinction event spans numerous families of plants and animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates, impacting both terrestrial and marine species. Widespread degradation of biodiversity hotspots such as coral reefs and rainforests has exacerbated the crisis. Many of these extinctions are undocumented, as the species are often undiscovered before their extinctions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nature</span> Material world and its phenomena

Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are part of nature, human activity or humans as a whole are often described as at times at odds, or outright separate and even superior to nature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biomass (ecology)</span> Total mass of living organisms in a given area (all species or selected species)

Biomass is the mass of living biological organisms in a given area or ecosystem at a given time. Biomass can refer to species biomass, which is the mass of one or more species, or to community biomass, which is the mass of all species in the community. It can include microorganisms, plants or animals. The mass can be expressed as the average mass per unit area, or as the total mass in the community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nature conservation</span> Movement to protect the biosphere

Nature conservation is the moral philosophy and conservation movement focused on protecting species from extinction, maintaining and restoring habitats, enhancing ecosystem services, and protecting biological diversity. A range of values underlie conservation, which can be guided by biocentrism, anthropocentrism, ecocentrism, and sentientism, environmental ideologies that inform ecocultural practices and identities. There has recently been a movement towards evidence-based conservation which calls for greater use of scientific evidence to improve the effectiveness of conservation efforts. As of 2018 15% of land and 7.3% of the oceans were protected. Many environmentalists set a target of protecting 30% of land and marine territory by 2030. In 2021, 16.64% of land and 7.9% of the oceans were protected. The 2022 IPCC report on climate impacts and adaptation, underlines the need to conserve 30% to 50% of the Earth's land, freshwater and ocean areas – echoing the 30% goal of the U.N.'s Convention on Biodiversity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stony Brook University</span> Public university in Stony Brook, New York

Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in the Stony Brook, New York area, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's two flagship institutions. Its campus consists of 213 buildings on over 1,454 acres of land in Suffolk County and it is the largest public university in the state of New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sylvia Earle</span> American marine biologist and lecturer

Sylvia Alice Earle is an American marine biologist, oceanographer, explorer, author, and lecturer. She has been a National Geographic Explorer at Large since 1998. Earle was the first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and was named by Time Magazine as its first Hero for the Planet in 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainable fishery</span> Sustainable fishing for the long term fishing

A conventional idea of a sustainable fishery is that it is one that is harvested at a sustainable rate, where the fish population does not decline over time because of fishing practices. Sustainability in fisheries combines theoretical disciplines, such as the population dynamics of fisheries, with practical strategies, such as avoiding overfishing through techniques such as individual fishing quotas, curtailing destructive and illegal fishing practices by lobbying for appropriate law and policy, setting up protected areas, restoring collapsed fisheries, incorporating all externalities involved in harvesting marine ecosystems into fishery economics, educating stakeholders and the wider public, and developing independent certification programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natural environment</span> Living and non-living things on Earth

The natural environment or natural world encompasses all biotic and abiotic things occurring naturally, meaning in this case not artificial. The term is most often applied to Earth or some parts of Earth. This environment encompasses the interaction of all living species, climate, weather and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity. The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished as components:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wildlife conservation</span> Practice of protecting wild plant and animal species and their habitats

Wildlife conservation refers to the practice of protecting wild species and their habitats in order to maintain healthy wildlife species or populations and to restore, protect or enhance natural ecosystems. Major threats to wildlife include habitat destruction, degradation, fragmentation, overexploitation, poaching, pollution, climate change, and the illegal wildlife trade. The IUCN estimates that 42,100 species of the ones assessed are at risk for extinction. Expanding to all existing species, a 2019 UN report on biodiversity put this estimate even higher at a million species. It is also being acknowledged that an increasing number of ecosystems on Earth containing endangered species are disappearing. To address these issues, there have been both national and international governmental efforts to preserve Earth's wildlife. Prominent conservation agreements include the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). There are also numerous nongovernmental organizations (NGO's) dedicated to conservation such as the Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, and Conservation International.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Oceans Day</span> Observance day on or around June 8

World Ocean Day (WOD) is an international day that takes place annually on 8 June. The concept was originally proposed in 1992 by Canada's International Centre for Ocean Development (ICOD) and the Ocean Institute of Canada (OIC) at the Earth Summit – UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Ocean Project started global coordination of World Ocean Day starting in 2002. "World Oceans Day" was officially recognised by the United Nations in 2008. The international day supports the implementation of worldwide Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and fosters public interest in the protection of the ocean and the sustainable management of its resources. World Oceans Day is observed by all UN member states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine protected area</span> Protected areas of seas, oceans, estuaries or large lakes

A marine protected area (MPA) is a protected area of the world's seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity for a conservation purpose, typically to protect natural or cultural resources. Such marine resources are protected by local, state, territorial, native, regional, national, or international authorities and differ substantially among and between nations. This variation includes different limitations on development, fishing practices, fishing seasons and catch limits, moorings and bans on removing or disrupting marine life. MPAs can provide economic benefits by supporting the fishing industry through the revival of fish stocks, as well as job creation and other market benefits via ecotourism. The value of MPA to mobile species is unknown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine conservation</span> Protection and preservation of saltwater ecosystems

Marine conservation, also known as ocean conservation, is the protection and preservation of ecosystems in oceans and seas through planned management in order to prevent the over-exploitation of these marine resources. Marine conservation is informed by the study of marine plants and animal resources and ecosystem functions and is driven by response to the manifested negative effects seen in the environment such as species loss, habitat degradation and changes in ecosystem functions and focuses on limiting human-caused damage to marine ecosystems, restoring damaged marine ecosystems, and preserving vulnerable species and ecosystems of the marine life. Marine conservation is a relatively new discipline which has developed as a response to biological issues such as extinction and marine habitats change.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Safina</span> American ecologist and author

Carl Safina is an American ecologist and author of books and other writings about the human relationship with the natural world. His books include Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace; Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel; Song for the Blue Ocean; Eye of the Albatross; The View From Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World; and others. He is the founding president of the Safina Center, and is inaugural holder of the Carl Safina Endowed Chair for Nature and Humanity at Stony Brook University. Safina hosted the PBS series Saving the Ocean with Carl Safina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine ecosystem</span> Ecosystem in saltwater environment

Marine ecosystems are the largest of Earth's aquatic ecosystems and exist in waters that have a high salt content. These systems contrast with freshwater ecosystems, which have a lower salt content. Marine waters cover more than 70% of the surface of the Earth and account for more than 97% of Earth's water supply and 90% of habitable space on Earth. Seawater has an average salinity of 35 parts per thousand of water. Actual salinity varies among different marine ecosystems. Marine ecosystems can be divided into many zones depending upon water depth and shoreline features. The oceanic zone is the vast open part of the ocean where animals such as whales, sharks, and tuna live. The benthic zone consists of substrates below water where many invertebrates live. The intertidal zone is the area between high and low tides. Other near-shore (neritic) zones can include mudflats, seagrass meadows, mangroves, rocky intertidal systems, salt marshes, coral reefs, lagoons. In the deep water, hydrothermal vents may occur where chemosynthetic sulfur bacteria form the base of the food web.

Oceana, inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit ocean conservation organization focused on influencing specific policy decisions on the national level to preserve and restore the world's oceans. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in Juneau, Monterey, Fort Lauderdale, New York, Portland, Toronto, Mexico City, Madrid, Brussels, Copenhagen, Geneva, London, Manila, Belmopan, Brasilia, Santiago, and Lima, and it is the largest international advocacy group dedicated entirely to ocean conservation.

Ocean Conservancy is a nonprofit environmental advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., United States. The organization seeks to promote healthy and diverse ocean ecosystems, prevent marine pollution, climate change and advocates against practices that threaten oceanic and human life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel L. Stanley</span> American physician (born 1954)

Samuel L. Stanley Jr. is an American educator and biomedical researcher. He was president of Michigan State University from 2019 to November 2022, and president of Stony Brook University from 2009 to 2019. Stanley is one of the founding directors of the Midwest Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biodiversity loss</span> Extinction of species or loss of species in a given habitat

Biodiversity loss happens when plant or animal species disappear completely from Earth (extinction) or when there is a decrease or disappearance of species in a specific area. Biodiversity loss means that there is a reduction in biological diversity in a given area. The decrease can be temporary or permanent. It is temporary if the damage that led to the loss is reversible in time, for example through ecological restoration. If this is not possible, then the decrease is permanent. The cause of most of the biodiversity loss is, generally speaking, human activities that push the planetary boundaries too far. These activities include habitat destruction and land use intensification. Further problem areas are air and water pollution, over-exploitation, invasive species and climate change.

The Save Our Seas Foundation is a philanthropic organization founded in Geneva, Switzerland, on 23 September 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campus of Stony Brook University</span> College campus in Stony Brook, New York, US

The campus of Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, consists of 213 buildings over 1,454 acres (588 ha) of land. It is the largest public university in the state of New York in terms of land area. The campus was moved to Stony Brook in 1962 after originating in Oyster Bay, New York.

References

  1. "Blue Ocean Institute Changes Name to Safina Center |". SBU News. 2014-07-08. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  2. "How Stony Brook Is Reshaping Global Conservation and Sustainability |". SBU News. 4 September 2019. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  3. Bowman, Sarah (9 June 2019). "From pigeons to seabirds and sharks, Carl Safina shares the stories of our natural world". The Indianapolis Star. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  4. Rae, Rowena (August 2017). Southern Ocean. Weigl Publishers. p. 26. ISBN   978-1-4896-4742-9 . Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  5. "Being Here Is Enough: Carl Safina on Animal Cognition and a Deserved Existence". Bioneers. 2017-08-23. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  6. Revkin, Andrew C. (2016-07-12). "A Conservationist's Call for Humans to Curb Harms to Our Animal Kin". Dot Earth Blog. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  7. Jacewicz, Natalie (15 March 2017). "I Want To Eat Fish Responsibly. But The Seafood Guides Are So Confusing!". NPR.org. Retrieved 15 March 2021.