An internationally respected oceanographer, Dr. Tim Parsons, lives just a stone's throw from the beautiful and majestic waves of the Pacific Ocean. He knows that the effect of climate change on species is being felt just outside his own doorstep. At sea for many creatures the change will be too rapid. On land, others will find their escape corridors fragmented by a human web of farmlands and highways. The result may be the greatest wave of mass extinctions in 65 million years.

"Already off the coasts of the world, fish are disappearing at an alarming rate. There's two major trends. The first, is that there's been overfishing, which has combined with pollution and other harmful practices in a synergistic way to produce a devastating multiplier effect. The second major trend is that there's been a change in climate, which has probably induced the large populations of jellyfish that we find in some parts of the world today," says Dr. Parsons.

Some 500 million years ago, Earth's oceans teemed with jellyfish, creatures that thrived in the much warmer waters of the Cambrian era. Today, off Vancouver Island, in the Bering Sea and the Mediterranean, fisheries are declining and jellyfish are moving in. As coastal waters warm, the cold water microorganisms on which bigger fish feed are dying, leaving behind a warm watery desert, fit only for jellyfish. Dr. Parsons calls this the "de-evolution" of the seas.

"El Nino is affected by global warming, and has an impact on the amount of nitrates which are available to phytoplankton, which are the basic food for many species of marine life. Fish feed in the upwelling areas, and El Nino suppresses upwelling," he explains. The warming effect of El Nino also affects the migration and breeding patterns of salmon which marine mammals, like orcas, feed upon. The governments of Canada and the United States have both designated orca populations off the west coast as being at risk from a number of environmental factors.

Dr. Parsons says in no uncertain terms that what we do to the oceans, we do to ourselves: "The world depends for about 20% of its high quality protein on the oceans. Now, if you're going to decrease the fish and replace them by jellyfish, we're going to be even shorter of food than we were before. Millions of years ago you did not have to sustain this enormous human population. If you're not concerned with preserving the human race, well, let's go ahead and warm the planet any way you damn well please."

From the moment of his birth, Dr. Tim Parsons, was surrounded by the sparkling azure waters of the life giving ocean. Spending the first 8 years of his life growing up in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), he and his mother traveled to England, where young Tim managed to survive the strict boarding school years. His love of the ocean was rekindled in the seaside village of Bude in Cornwall: "I used spend hours on the beach by myself, collecting rocks and gazing out into the ocean. I had a childhood fascination with rock pools in particular."

At 16 years of age, his mother made a tremendous sacrifice when she gave him the freedom to travel to Canada on a scholarship and attend Macdonald College and placement in a farm school. A farming environment was all that he had known, and at that time there was no formal training in marine science, his first great love. His next logical course of action was therefore to direct his energies and talent into obtaining a BSc in Agriculture and eventually a PhD at McGill University.

And then: "like a gust of wind out of the blue" his career in oceanography began when he read an advertisement in the scientific journal, Nature, for a position to carry out biochemical studies on phytoplankton (the primary food source for marine life) with scientists at the Pacific Oceanographic Group in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

For the next four decades, Dr. Parsons was caught up in a world in which he passionately believed. A world of ocean voyages and research into marine life which has brought him such distinctions as winning the prestigious Japan Prize for his work in developing methods to establish a new holistic ecosystem approach for understanding fisheries and nurturing fish habitat.

He believes that while Canada's role in the Kyoto Climate Accord is important, that without the active participation of the United States, China, Russia and Europe, that our effectiveness will be limited in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that drive global warming. Parsons is convinced that two of the major solutions to the problems facing the world's oceans are to set aside more protected marine areas where fishing is banned and the areas are the subject of intensive ecological studies; and to pursue all alternative forms of energy to harness the power of waves, wind and sun.

He also believes that developing an understanding and respect for marine life in children at an early age is critical for future generations, and he recommends that budding oceanographers gain practical experience and apply to institutions like the University of British Columbia and Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.

His years on long sea voyages also gave him a great deal of time to think about the problems facing people and the environment, and he finally put down his thoughts in his autobiography, The Sea's Enthrall: Memoirs of an Oceanographer. His life's work and his underlying philosophy are perhaps best expressed in the passage where he writes: "In conclusion, but certainly not least, it seems to me that the world is short on affection for life, and long on dissatisfaction with living. There is only so much time in life and we never know how much that is, only that it ends. It would seem that cultivating one's affections for all aspects of life is a healthy enterprise."