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well water COMMISSIONED BY A GROUP OF LEADING CONSERVATIONISTS, THE OCEAN HEALTH INDEX WILL HAVE A POSITIVE IMPACT AROUND THE WORLD— AND ON OUR WATERS HERE IN NEW ENGLAND. BY JON BOWERMASTER N o place in the country has a more intimate relationship with the ocean than the northern tion, the ocean has shaped the lives of coastal dwellers and mariners from Newfoundland to Cape Cod to Point Judith. While today much of the Cape is protected as National Seashore and may look the way it did a cen- tury ago, it should come as no surprise that during the past century humankind has put a severe strain on the ocean. We carelessly overfish it, pollute it, dump car- bon dioxide into it, and heat it up. Perhaps the fact that it covers more than 70 percent of the planet has allowed us to think that the ocean has an infinite abil- ity to absorb toxic runoff, billions of pieces of plastic, 24 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, and still somehow miraculously heal itself—all the while pro- viding us with valuable resources ranging from food to medicines. According to the Pew Environmental Group, 14 of 20 groundfish populations are either overfished or experiencing overfishing of species including cod and flounder, which is hurting our region's marine environment and economy. To try to stem the tide of ocean abuse, some of the brightest minds in the science, conservation, and busi- ness worlds have joined forces encourage cleaning up some of the worst of the ocean's problems. The result is a study of each of the world's 171 nations with a coastline. That data was collected worldwide and analyzed using 10 different criteria, including coastal protection, biodi- versity, and tourism and recreation. Each country was then given an over- all grade between 1 and 100 that rates how it is measuring up. The goal of assigning these grades is to incentiv- ize countries, regions, and industries to clean up existing problems and invest in ocean protection. to The group that dreamed up the OHI hopes it will become the lead indicator used by policy makers and conservationists around the world as they try to assess what's wrong with their marine habitats and how to fix them. Dr. Ben Halpern, a marine biologist at University of California, Santa Barbara, oversaw the project and wrote the peer-reviewed paper introduc- ing it the in Nature. The response to the research has already been "remarkably positive and excited," he says. "You can't manage something like ocean health without actually having a tool to measure it," Halpern states. "The index is not a panacea that's going to solve all problems," he adds, "but it will definitely help in the process of trying to fix things." with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Dr. Scott Doney, senior scientist The initial Ocean Health Index, announced in August, is the creation of Conservation International, National Geographic Society, New the continued on page 66 BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM 65 While admitting he was surprised by the average score of 60, Halpern said the reaction from some cor- ners of the world has been swift: Marine biologists with the Colombian government (ranked 94th) England Aquarium, and the National Center Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. Dr. Scott Doney, a expertise is for Atlantic states. Long before industrializa- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution senior scien- tist whose in ocean chemistry and biogeochemistry, is one of several contributors to the index. "Usually when people think about the state of the ocean, they think about marine life—for example: how whales, fish, and coral reefs are doing," says Doney. "But we can't think of nature and human activ- ity as two separate things." In 2008 more than 60 scientists traveled the globe evaluating ecological, social, economic, and political factors for every coastal country and added up the results. The highest score, 86, was given to isolated Jarvis Island in the South Pacific; the lowest went to the African nation of Sierra Leone, with a score of 36. The US scored 63, tying it for 26th on the list, snuggled between Pitcairn and the Ukraine. The average score was 60, or a "D," as Dr. Greg Stone, Conservation International's executive vice president and chief scien- tist for oceans and one of the originators of the index, put it. Remote islands weren't the only places to score well; Germany ranked fourth, with a score of 73, sug- gesting its marine region is well protected. While the US scored well in coastal protection, it didn't do so well in food supply, clean water, and tourism. PHOTOGRAPHY BY RONALD MORALES (BAY), JOHN BULLISTER/NOAA/PMEL (DONEY)