The living ocean drives planetary chemistry, governs climate and weather, and otherwise provides the cornerstone of the life-support system for all creatures on our planet, from deep-sea starfish to desert sagebrush. That's why the ocean matters. If the sea is sick, we'll feel it. If it dies, we die. Our future and the state of the oceans are one.

'Green' issues at last are attracting serious attention, owing to critically important links between the environment and the economy, health, and our security.

I personally have stopped eating seafood.

There's a vested interest in trying to keep people smoking cigarettes.

Look at the bark of a redwood, and you see moss. If you peer beneath the bits and pieces of the moss, you'll see toads, small insects, a whole host of life that prospers in that miniature environment. A lumberman will look at a forest and see so many board feet of lumber. I see a living city.

We have found ways to capture, kill and market ocean wildlife on an unprecedented scale. It's an absolute catastrophe.

Far and away, the greatest threat to the ocean, and thus to ourselves, is ignorance. But we can do something about that.