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concept of protecting the environment for future generations. And this legacy lives on
in the organisation Cousteau – Custodians of the Sea since 1943. The organisation
continues its mission to help protect and manage the world’s natural resources
through the use of technology and public education. Working with UNESCO they
advance an approach to decision making that Jacques Cousteau termed “ecotechnie”,
which integrates the environment with economy, technology, and the natural and
social sciences (Cousteau Society 2016, para. 3).
A prominent figure in ocean conservation over the last twenty years is marine
biologist and conservationist Daniel Pauly, who has become a public figure in the
communication of key scientific concerns and concepts relating to the human impact
upon global oceans and ecosystems. Continuing the legacy of Rachael Carson, he is
the principal investigator of The Sea Around Us project (named after Carson’s book),
a scientific collaboration between the University of British Columbia and the Pew
Environmental Group, initiated in 1999 (The Sea Around Us 2016). The aims of this
project are to provide an analysis of the impact of fisheries on marine ecosystems and
to devise policies in response. The group has compiled information on a range of
topics, from fishery catch to marine protected areas, in a global database. Pauly and
his team have also co-developed software, such as the Fishbase and Ecopath model,
used throughout the world today (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement 2015).
In addition to the some 500 publications to his name, Pauly features in the
documentary The End of the Line (Murray 2009), based on the book by British
journalist Charles Clover. The documentary evocatively exposes the destructive
modern fishing practices. It also draws on Pauly’s work that uncovered a massive
over reporting of catches by China in the 1990s, misleading FAO and the public into
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