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AIMS 2003 Undergraduate Scholarship Award Recipient |
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Dr. Sylvia Earle, former chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), quotes, "As recently as a half century ago, the sea still seemed to be in excellent health physically, chemically and biologically. When the explorer Thor Heyerdahl sailed in 1947 with a crew of five others across the Pacific Ocean from Peru to Tahiti, weeks passed with no clues to suggest that humankind existed anywhere except on their raft." |
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| Thirteen years later (1970), Heyerdahl and his crew sailed on another raft across the Atlantic and noticed a huge change. "He reported seeing far more oil lumps than fish, and alerted the world about the enormous quantities of trash, oily wastes and plastic debris he observed in the sea." | ||
| Earle said, “Heyerdahl was a harbinger of deepening bad news for the world's oceans. Since the 70s, commercial fisheries have pushed fish stocks to collapse. Pollution has claimed the lives of millions of seabirds, and untold numbers of birds, marine mammals and sea turtles become entangled or ensnared each year in plastic debris that finds it way into the sea. Vital coastal habitats are being buried, damaged, altered or destroyed by construction and development.” | ||
| 1998 was declared as the International Year of the Ocean by the United Nations. All over the world, scientists, environmentalists and organizations focused their attention on how humans are impacting our planet ocean. The American Institute of Marine Studies followed their lead in the best way they could by providing scholarships, that are paid for by yacht and boat donations, to talented young marine science students in an effort to do their part to combat global oceanic change. | ||
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The 2003 AIMS Undergraduate Scholarship Recipient is... Erik Davis. |
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