Listen to Mike Elliott at the MEMFIS conference

What does the ocean mean to you?
– The possibility of maintaining a healthy, diverse and productive ecological structure and functioning which, if managed properly, allows society to get sustainable goods and benefits without harming the ecology.

What human-caused effects or changes have you seen in the ocean over the years?
– Decreased fish stocks, increasing sea temperatures, melting ice-caps, increased litter and pollution, a loss of resistance and resilience to climate change, moving species distributions including non-indigenous species, loss of physical and biological resources.

The MEMFIS conference is about marine environmental monitoring – why/how/what is that important from your point of view?
– It is an adage of management, whether of the local supermarket or the ocean, that you cannot manage unless you can measure; monitoring the state of the oceans against well-defined and SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-dependent) objectives using good and fit-for-purpose science is necessary to determine what management is needed, whether it will work or whether it has worked.

How does you/your work contribute to more effective environmental monitoring in the sea?
– By informing all stakeholders, including industries, other users, policy-makers and policy-implementers what science and monitoring is needed, why and how – what do we need to do to reach the desired goal mentioned above.

What will you talk about at the conference?
– My session is called ”Coping with the marine environmental assessment paradox – increasing demands but with decreasing resources!” This would give me the chance to discuss the many types of monitoring, assessment and reporting but with lessons of how this gets paid for!

With the future in focus – how can we give back to nature by sharing and caring?
– If we collectively look after the natural marine environment then it will give us the resources we need.