Final Reflection of BIOL 420

BIOL 420 not only taught me knowledge from the books and papers but also opened my eyes to various experiences within the field of ocean conservation. We had over 20 guest speakers throughout the course and their experiences show that there are endless opportunities in conservation.

The most important message for me after listening to these guest lectures is to start taking initiative and my passion will take me to a path eventually. Before joining this course, like most people, I was aware of environmental issues and sustainability concerns. However, the news articles, media reports and conference videos are mostly delivering the bad news such as species extinction, negative impacts of climate change and rate of deforestation. As someone who’s easily influenced by outside voices, environmental issues impacted my mental wellbeing greatly and made me even more pessimistic and sad. This is due to the negative nature of conservation issues, as well as the lack of information on what each individual can do. Therefore, I felt that my power is too little and cannot contribute to such a grand cause. However, this mindset has changed drastically throughout the course. The experiences of the guest speakers, Amanda and the TAs have helped me realize that each individual’s power might be small, but together, our influence is limitless. For instance, Dr. Megan Bailey talked about her experience after voicing out concerns about indigenous fishing rights. She was contacted by many; thus, her message reached a great number of audiences. This is an example of what an individual’s effort can accomplish.

What we can all do is spread the information, raise awareness and educate people around us, like many of our guest lecturers. This course not only gave me valuable insight into the life of a conservationist but also provided me with the tools that I need. I have gained valuable skills from the course and can’t wait to apply them to accomplish my own goals. The first skill I have gained is information gathering and presenting. Like many other advanced 4th year courses, this course required us to read through research papers and journals. Since this course has a number of smaller assignments, effective and efficient data gathering is extremely important. I found myself improve in finding the right resource quickly to back up my claim. Additionally, I can pick out the most important information in a paper through a quick read. For instance, I was able to identify trends in the summer flounder population from 3 consecutive assessments by the same author quickly. This is a skill that would definitely help me in future academic-related work. The ability to capture the essence of an article will also be useful in a future job, regardless of what field I enter. On top of gathering data, this course also required me to present my work. In my opinion, presentation is a great way to evaluable someone’s ability to express themselves clearly and organize their thoughts on the spot. I watched my presentation skills grow since the beginning of the course through multiple small presentations on topics like current issues, species’ story and successful fisheries stories. I now feel more confident talking to people about my ideas and can explain my argument better during a discussion. Moreover, this class has helped me understand the skill to talk to different groups of audience. Knowing the audience is an important thing to keep in mind as it helps with the clarity of my presentation. Presentation skill is essential for future school and work. For most projects and employment opportunities, good presentation skill is a must, so I am very grateful to have practised my communication skills through this course.

The second skill I developed while taking this class is understanding the responsibility of different collaborators and the complex process behind a conservation project. Before taking this course, I knew about the importance of advocating conservation efforts and totally supported them. However, I didn’t understand the complex process and factors of consideration that go into establishing a conservation project. Just like Tony Long said when he joined our class, ocean conservation is not just about the fish, it is very much about people. When people’s livelihood is at stake, there is a great number of factors that need to be considered in initiating a conservation action. To control IUU fishing across the globe, we must first consider why IUU fishing happens. We now understood that it is a popular practice of fishing in small-scale fisheries because there is no tax and profit is considerably high. Once the reason behind illegal fishing is understood, conservation action and legislation then must balance people’s livelihood and fish stock preservation. It’s always easier said than done. Conservation effort could encounter various obstacles when it is put into action. This is where the skill of understanding the responsibility matrix of different collaborators comes into play. Using IUU fishing prevention as an example, the collaborating parties include global fishing watch, local government, and research facilities. The role and responsibility of each party should be examined and understood in order to produce the best impact in combating IUU fishing. The global fishing watch is advocating for global transparency in fisheries while researchers are studying the trend of local fish stock. The regional government should be consulted to tightly control fisheries leaving the ports. It’s a collaboration effort and every party is important. This skill to successfully identify the best way to work in a team of varying professionals will be important in almost everything I do. If one person’s passion is not enough for significant changes, maybe a team’s effort can. Before we change the world, we must know our role and how we work best together.

Lastly, I want to thank Amanda, Roshni and Tanvi for an amazing semester. I can’t imagine how much effort went into planning all the guest lecturers, tutorials and field trips. This is an experience that I will cherish for a very long time.