The Pacific Aquarium in Long Beach has launched a new project to focus conservation on stars in marine ecosystems (flora and fauna) to create stronger connections with the public.

“People don’t really care about biodiversity,” said Peter Kareiva, president and CEO of the Pacific Aquarium. "They care about the species they know. They care about real animals, real birds, real fish."

To this end, the aquarium released its inaugural Marine Species Report Card Thursday, a collaborative effort to assess the population status of 30 species found on the California coast.

The transcript covers marine mammals, fish, birds, kelp and invertebrates – including marine celebrities such as gray whales and lesser-known actors such as owl lim, sea snail, “Often mistaken for rocks,” according to the National Park Service.

Scientists and researchers from more than 20 institutions and organizations contribute to the report card and are available online. The plan is updated every three to four years.

The alphabetical rating is not assigned to the species, but the label of each letter is marked with an arrow to indicate whether its rating is increasing, decreasing, or staying the same. The accompanying narrative provides a deeper overview.

Kareiva believes that the conservation movement shifted its focus to what he called more abstract concepts, such as biodiversity. But he said it was a mistake to underestimate how many people care about species.

He and other aquarium staff say focusing on species helps build connections with the public and reveals nuances of ecosystems amid climate change, with some animals and plants thriving while others barely hanging.

“When we ask questions about biodiversity or ecosystems, it’s hard to say ‘this is our success is’ or drives people to invest in,” said Brett Long, vice president of animal health at aquarium. He added that building connections through digesting information can be used as a way to conduct a wider dialogue.

The report card covers several painful stories, including the story of white abalone, which were dangerously captured in the 1970s and 1980s. The endangered ocean snails and coveted iridescent shells are still threatened by a disease called wilt syndrome, which may be more susceptible to due to stresses of ocean warming and acidification, according to the report card .

But there are more exciting stories. Huge bass According to Jeremy Claisse, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Cal Poly Pomona, they also started to rebound due to the ban on commercial g-type networks, but they also started to rebound. Report card.

Then, there are some protective narratives that are harder to sum up as good or bad. Once considered extinct, South China Sea otters rebounded, but about 3,000 animals within the existing range are in a steady state, far from their historical range.

“By telling these personal stories, we can learn a lot about the ways in which different management efforts work, or how climate change will affect one species and for another,” Krys said.

More than a dozen species on the transcript can be found in the Long Beach Aquarium. Smooth sea otter dives and then spins on the tank before the awesome tourists. Captive white abalone is another radar star who exhibits its habitat to improve on difficult habitats.

Kareiva describes the project as an evolution of what he says is the primary concern of large conservation nonprofits.

He said these groups once focused on the “organism” aspect of conservation, but there are good reasons to focus on the broader concept of ecology and policy, making zoos and aquariums essentially spokespersons for flora and fauna.

"They are very concerned about being successful on a large scale," he said. The policy is due to the Nature Conservation Society, the World Wildlife Foundation, the International Conservation and Wildlife Conservation Society, he said. Kareiva previously served as Vice President of Science at the Nature Conservancy.

"Political and strategically, if you operate at the national level, it can be a shrewd move," he said of the conservation movement. The result is that when data is collected, there is not enough attention.

The purpose of the transcript is to “revitalize the protected species and the protected parts”, he said.

Joe Walston, global executive vice president of Wildlife Conservation Association, said in a statement that the nonprofit has not changed its “ultimate focus of wildlife and wild places” but explains the advocacy of ecology. The reason behind the system.

He said coping with threats such as overhunting, illegal fishing and deforestation is not enough to protect wildlife.

“With the extreme pressures of climate change, we need to expand our reach and ensure we focus on 'holistic health'; he said: “Keeping these ecosystems resilience not only protects wildlife from local threats , and also ensure that its ecosystem remains strong and resilient under greater pressure. ”

Sophie Parker, interim science director for the California chapter of the Nature Conservancy, said nonprofits have a long history of working with zoos and aquariums, including current collaborations involving Pacific aquariums. “We also need to ensure that the wider habitat and systems are healthy and connected so that when we reintroduce species, they will thrive.”

Many, including Kareiva, believe that ecosystem-centric conservation methods are mutually exclusive but complementary.

Brendan Cummings, director of conservation at the Center for Biodiversity, said the existence of an extinction crisis has caused thousands of species, which is a phenomenon worthy of priority. At the same time, the loss is not just a percentage, but an actual creature.

Cummings said this is different from the question of resonating with the public and how to achieve conservation goals. He has been working on protecting the West Joshua Tree for several years, and he said its iconic, beloved status helped protect it through state laws. But these protections also extend to a wider ecosystem – for example, the yucca moth.

"If we launched a campaign on behalf of the Yucca Moth, I doubt it would pay much attention to it like the Joshua tree. But protect one, protect the other, and act as an umbrella to protect the entire desert ecosystem." He said . “So many ways are to protect biodiversity, prevent extinction and broader, the common goal of protecting nature on a landscape scale.”

In addition to prioritizing flora and fauna, report cards are designed to be a practical resource for public and decision makers. Kareiva said he envisions students attacking papers and using data to support still conceptual efforts to create biodiversity credits.

Others involved in the project said it highlighted the power of long-term monitoring efforts and the need to fund them.

Jennie Dean, vice president of education and conservation at Pacific Aquarium, said the range of species lists in the report card is twice as large as the current 30, and one way to narrow it down is whether data is available.

One species they are interested but falls because of this is the leopard shark, a striking fish decorated with spots and dark ovals with neat back. She said it would be great if future slender sharks were continuously monitored to shed light on their condition.

Not monitoring will have consequences. For example, data points are ten years apart, which can leave a gap in knowledge gaps.

“It’s very likely that something important happened, you’re so late that the party is going to solve the problem too late,” she said.