Mark Powell Quotations

Levels of new business enquiries are encouraging and we look forward with confidence.

Today, fishery managers are continuing to ignore the law and allow unsustainable fishing for too many of our economically and ecologically important fish. It's time to listen to the science and put long-term sustainability ahead of short-term profits.

What would you say if I were to tell you that I believe you're as human as I am?

Go home Jesse, ... We elected our school board, not Jesse Jackson.

Our Overfishing Scorecard shows that when managers prevent overcapitalization of fishing fleets and set and enforce responsible limits based on science, they can make progress in ending overfishing and rebuilding stocks. However, when fishing is allowed to exceed scientific recommendations, fisheries managers are putting our future at risk.

With this level of failure, it makes little sense to weaken protections for fish,

People go through a bad event like that, and they want to feel it was something it couldn't be prevented. In a lot of cases, it can be prevented.

It's important from a public perception standpoint. They won't want to hear it was a Category 3.

I didn't know what to do. This guy was gonna kill me.

He's a human being. It could have been avoided.

We will wait patiently and hope the attorney general doesn't come out with a cease-and-desist order or something like that, ... We'll keep our fingers crossed.

Cordings make the best Covert coats, corduroys, moleskins and all the accoutrements. When I need a covert coat I get it from Cordings rather than make one myself and I'm a tailor so I should know! Cordings is without doubt, the best at what they do; they produce a quality which surpasses any other company of its kind in Britain.

The crazy thing is that practical solutions exist. We don't need to perpetuate these problems. I think our hardest job is to convey a sense of optimism, show how things can get better, and get people to invest in solutions.

We're [Ocean Conservancy group] trying to convince people it's a bad idea to catch fish faster than they can reproduce. That should be a duh, but it's still going on.

We scientists can argue forever about important topics like slightly different flavors of vanilla ice cream. Consider the silliness of this debate: one group of scientists found a 90% decline of big fish and criticized fishery management. Some other scientists found an 80% decline and started a big argument with the 90% people. Who cares if it's 80% or 90%? The real question is whether it's OK to let fishermen take most of the big fish out of our oceans.

The social aspect of blogging is just as important as the content, so to borrow a phrase from the 1960s: the medium is the message. And my personal experience shows me that the potential of this medium is extra large.

Scientists blame the audience for being too stupid, shallow, or lazy to understand. There has been a fascinating debate in the blogosphere lately about communicating science to the public, and it's clear that most scientists just don't get it. They can't be bothered to talk to real people. Nobody will care about your issues if the price they have to pay is listening to a long lecture from Morton the science bug.

Beneath the ocean surface, bad things are happening. Increasing CO2 makes ocean water more acid, and that threatens to dissolve the shells of some ocean animals. Ouch, how'd you like to have your shell dissolve?

Much of the attention on oceans has portrayed oceans as a villain. Warm water strengthened Hurricane Katrina that pounded Louisiana. Rising sea level will flood islands and coastal areas. Or, we're talking about new opportunities like a new shipping lane in the Arctic because of melting sea ice. These may be the obvious problems, but they're probably not the biggest ones.

Oceans need more attention because climate change IS an ocean issue. Our oceans will be the first victim, and sea life will suffer dramatically. Detailed proof is hard in ocean science, but I think we're already seeing big ocean changes caused by climate change, such as starvation of whales, seabirds, and other animals off the coast US west coast.

Unfortunately, there's a big, bad new bully threatening ocean animals, climate change. We might save fish only to have them starve because of climate change. It seems like the problems just won't stop. That's what got me to quit my cushy University job and take a big pay cut to work on conservation.

My constant fear as a writer as that I will fail to convey the gravity of living. I know that to some degree that sets me up as boorish, but I'll have to live with that, and, honestly, I'd rather err on the side of being "unredeemingly dark," as one reviewer said about blood kin, than on keeping to the sunny side.