Gregory Stone, Ph.D., Vice President of Global Marine Programs at the New England Aquarium and Senior Vice President for Marine Conservation and Chief Ocean Scientist at Conservation International, has seen first-hand the surprising amounts of debris littering our ocean floor, even at the most remote and inhospitable depths. Plastics are among the many symptoms of our ailing oceans, which are replete with massive dead zones and dying wildlife.


Gregory Stone, Ph.D.

In a recent opinion piece for CNN.com, Dr. Stone writes, "So the bad news is that the ocean and many of its habitats and populations are approaching a state of crisis. But the good news is that they aren't dead yet...It is also good news that the ocean's problems are entirely extrinsic. They are not caused by weakness, disease or any other fault of the marine system itself, but from the activities of people. Solutions therefore must focus entirely on us and our behavior."

Click here to read more of Dr. Stone's prescription for our oceans' ailing health on CNN.com.

Greg Stone was instrumental in helping to create the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), a vast marine protected area. Read his entries on the Aquarium's PIPA Blog here. Travel to the Sea of Cortez through his archived blog entries here. He also traveled to the Celebes Sea in 2007. Re-live that expedition to the cradle of biodiversity here.