A little goes a long way

Last week I wrote about the challenges of contributing to major ecological problems (like saving the oceans,) as a sometime-insignificant-feeling individual. Since then, ROM curator Mary Burridge - an oceans expert - has assured me that little choices really do make a big difference. She recommended checking out Oceans Wise. The conservation project, run out of the Vancouver Aquarium, has great facts about eco-friendly seafood and the Canadian restaurants that serve it. I'm pleased to report that the Royal Ontario Museum's very own C5 Restaurant is among the list.

Rick Winterbottom, senior curator of Icthyology, also weighed in on the debate. In this months ROM magazine, he writes about the devastating impacts anchors can have on ocean ecosystems, particularly coral reefs. So for all you sea loving pirates reading this, maybe it's time to throw your anchors away.

In other news, today's Globe and Mail reports that a new conservation project will use an army of citizen scientists to monitor global levels of biodiversity through a virtual observatory. The mega project, which will be on the same scale as many of the climate modeling systems currently used to track climate change, aims to advance the field of cyber-taxonomy, where citizen naturalists and scientists contribute to the monitoring and identification of local species. Bird Studies Canada and the Canadian Nature Federation already use volunteers in similar species monitor projects. Yet another way the average-joe can get involved in global conservation efforts.

If you've got any ideas on how little people can solve big problems, I'd love to hear about them. Leave you comments bellow.

-Elaisha Stokes, Producer, Schad Gallery of Biodiversity