[kenhikage (OP)]

I just thought everyone should know about the recently finished first census of marine life.

Personally I think the abundant life in the seas will fill any niches left open by man's careless disregard for the planet. We humans, on the other-hand, should be so fortunate.

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[Oceans Helen]

Absolutely!  [] The census was an amazing project - so amazing we decided to record a whole special edition of Naked Oceans all about it!

newbielink:http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/podcasts/oceans/show/2010.10.14/ [nonactive]

We chat with Jesse Ausabel - who co-founded the project - about how it all got started, we get the low down from various folk about what the census found, and Oceans explorer supremo Sylvia Earle gave us a special message about what she hopes will happen next.

[SteveFish]

Check out this presentation by Jeremy Jackson, a scientist at the Scripts Institute of Oceanography in California. This was presented to a meeting of the National Acadamies of Science. That it where the individual National Academy of Science of all the different countries meet. It takes a few minutes to load, but it is a scientist giving an overview of the oceans, and it is chilling.

http://sackler.nasmediaonline.org/2007/ile/jeremy_jackson/jeremy_jackson.html

[yor_on]

Abundant life?

you gotta be joking, the fish we eat is mostly at reefs and around certain strata and depths, what we call food fish in Sweden loosely translated. The abundance sounds really weird considering that they mostly are disappearing?

Maybe you mean that they found 'life'. Well, that's positive of course, but it's life quickly disappearing, especially when considering the ones we, or our pets, eat. There are some type of tuna the Japanese like especially. I saw one exemplar going for like 100000 $ recently. You think they pay those prices for fun. I do not like this 'census', it sounds like something thought to 'inspire'. We need facts, not inspiration now. 'Inspiration time' is long gone, and nobody cared then too.

[yor_on]

A very good link Steve.

[SteveFish]

Life in the ocean is abundant if you favor jellyfish. Extinction and near extinction of many species are greatly simplifying the ecosystem. If you like simple, you are going to love ocean acidification.

[CliffordK]

It looks like a monumental mapping project. 
I'm sure it is difficult to ever calculate exact numbers of species, but it should help track potential declines of some species, or increases in other's numbers.

We need to give up on the CO₂ thing, and start considering the impact of human overpopulation on the planet as a whole. 

[yor_on]

'Consider' is also gone Clifford. It belongs at the same place as 'inspirational censuses' In the mirror of things long gone. Soon the abundance you trust in will only be on your telly, in those 'wild life' programs showing you what once was. And I doubt your sons sons or daughters will think that's enough. Well, maybe if we're getting dumber, which I'm starting to suspect actually

We like to say that our western democracies builds on the peoples 'voice' don't we? Haven't seen it raised yet, not when it comes to exchanging your material abundance for life's abundance. And when it do get raised, it will, I can promise you that at least. Then we will see everybody 'sharing', meaning that those that have nothing is expected to share equally with those that have too much.

I'm not impressed.

[scottwill01]

The Census of Marine Life is a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10-year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Census_of_Marine_Life

[kenhikage (OP)]

@yor_on

Sorry for my previous lack of clarity. What I was implying is that survey gave me the hopeful realization that even after all of the destruction and harm we cause to the world life will once again tenaciously fill any holes we have left. Sure the species will be different, but life is more resilient than we often believe and the web of life will continue.

We might not.