Amazing Oceans of Life

Week of December 9, 2023

Amazing Oceans of Life
Explore the beautiful and bizarre creatures that inhabit our seas, from tropical coral reefs to the deep abyss, with a leading expert. Dr. Mark Hixon uses stunning photographs, vivid video clips, and entertaining dialog to bring the undersea world indoors.

Coral Reefs: Rainforests and Canaries of the Seas
Explore the greatest concentration of life on the Earth including the life of corals, the amazing biodiversity of reefs, how coral reefs benefit humans, and how humans are threatening the very existence of reefs.

Abyss: Bizarre Creatures of the Deep Sea
Explore the dark recesses of the oceans, inhabited by creatures that look like characters from science fiction movies. Much of this presentation will be accompanied by video taken from deep sea submersibles.

Mother Ocean and Humanity: A Fragile Bond
The seas have provided people with numerous goods and services over millennia, yet Mother Ocean is now suffering. Dr. Mark Hixon will discuss how the invisibility of what lies below the sea surface and the myth of ocean inexhaustibility have led to environmental challenges that require each of us to become better ocean stewards.

Mark Hixon, Ph.D., is an endowed professor of marine biology at the University of Hawai‘i. For the past 40 years, he has studied sea life underwater using SCUBA and small research submarines, exploring kelp forests off California, the deep sea off Oregon, and coral reefs from the Caribbean to the Great Barrier Reef. An internationally recognized expert in coral reef ecology and conservation, Mark serves as an associate editor of multiple scientific journals, and is past chair of both the Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee (for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and the Ocean Sciences Advisory Committee (for the National Science Foundation). His on-line TED talks and TV appearances about sea life are both informative and entertaining.