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Pew Fellow Awarded to University of Hawaiʻi Oceanographer
Dr. Craig Smith to Use $150,000 Grant to Protect Pacific Ocean Ecosystems from Fishing and Mining
(Honolulu, Hawaiʻi) - The Pew Institute for Ocean Science recently awarded a
$150,000 grant to the University of Hawaiʻi Foundation to be used for a fellowship for University of
Hawaiʻi Oceanographer Craig Randall Smith, Ph.D., for his plan to design marine protected areas in
the Pacific Ocean. Dr. Smith, a professor in UH Mānoa's Department of Oceanography, is one of only five 2003
recipients of Pew Marine Conservation Fellowships - the world's most esteemed awards honoring and investing
in applied ocean conservation science and outreach. Dr. Smith's Pew fellowship will be used to design a system
of Marine Protected Areas (MPA's) off limits to fishing and mining.
"Efforts to create such MPA's have thus far been haphazard," said Dr. Smith. "To preserve biodiversity in
these delicate and important ecosystems it is imperative to create a system of marine protected areas that
will be based on sound science, off limits to fishing and mining, and well integrated into the international
legal framework."
Deep seafloor ecosystems are increasingly impacted by human activities such as bottom fishing,
waste disposal, and seafloor mining. These ecosystems are among the most fragile on Earth because of 1)
very low food availability and consequent slow animal growth and recolonization rates, 2) a predominance
of delicate, biogenic habitat structure, 3) animal populations adapted to extreme physical stability,
and 4) extraordinary levels of biodiversity. Accordingly, deep seafloor communities typically are easily
disrupted by, and very slow to recover from, the physical disturbance of trawling and mining, as well as
from population reductions resulting from fishing.
The Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation annually awards five fellowships of $150,000 each that
contribute to advancing solutions to the oceans' most pressing problems. Each Pew Fellow receives $150,000
over three years to carry out innovative, interdisciplanary projects related to marine conservation.
The program seeks to foster greater public understanding of the direct and crucial relationship between
life in the sea and life on land. By supporting the ingenuity and leadership of its distinguished Fellows,
the program calls awareness to the critical state of our oceans and demonstrates viable solutions to some
of the world's most urgent conservation challenges.
The Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation is a program of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science
in partnership with the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, one of
the world's foremost marine research institutions. The Pew Institute for Ocean Science strives to
undertake, sponsor, and promote world-class scientific activity aimed at protecting the world's oceans
and the species that inhabit them.
About the University of Hawaiʻi Foundation
The University of Hawaiʻi Foundation is an independent, nonprofit
organization whose purpose is to raise private funds according to priorities
determined by the academic leadership of the University of Hawaiʻi.
Founded in 1955, the Foundation provides a full range of fund raising
and alumni relations services for all 10 UH campuses. For more information
on the Foundation, visit www.uhf.hawaii.edu.