Underwater photos by David Obura; Greg Stone photo by Mary Jane Adams
In the year 2000, Dr. Greg Stone ’82, the New England Aquarium’s vice president for global marine programs, visited the Phoenix Islands, eight coral atolls that belong to the Republic of Kiribati, an island nation in the south Pacific northeast of Fiji. Stone could not believe their pristine beauty. “Nobody had ever looked under the water,” he said. If they had, they might have noticed, as he did, several new species of fish and one new coral species. Stone went to work. Six years, uncountable meetings and 1,500 dives later, on March 28, 2006, Kiribati (pronounced kee-ree-bas) created the Phoenix Islands Protected Area. At 73,800 square miles, it’s the world's third largest marine wildlife sanctuary, as big as Huron, Michigan and Superior lakes combined. On November 14, 2006, National Geographic Adventure recognized Stone at its first-ever Adventurers of the Year celebration, honoring “twelve people who dared to dream big.” Q. Why a marine sanctuary in the South Pacific? A. Globally, the most systemic diversity is in the ocean, and the Phoenix Islands are near the oldest part of the ocean, where we have some of the highest biodiversity anywhere. This area is about ten times the size of the Serengeti, only instead of elephants, lions and wildebeests, we have whales, sharks and huge schools of tuna. But ocean conservation is about one 64 | COA
hundred years behind land conservation. Oceans are opaque. If people could see the bleached reefs, the clear cutting that comes from fishing, they’d be appalled. Q. Do you think you go about things differently because of your degree in human ecology?
greg
A. Oh, yes. The negotiations to protect the Phoenix Islands were very complex and COA prepared me well for it. I worked closely with the president of the country, a great, brilliant man. We had to keep the economic engines spinning and understand the culture and the politics. COA also gave me what I consider a graduate school atmosphere as an undergraduate, working closely with faculty, which for me was principally Steve Katona. Q. What are you working on now? A. I am planning an expedition to study sea mountains. There are more mountains in the ocean than on land and they are essential areas of biodiversity. Off Lord Howe Island in Australia, there’s a mountain that’s the size of Mount Rainier. It’s 15,000 feet from the sea floor with peaks three hundred feet below the surface. Underwater mountains are steep and big and full of life—and you don’t have to hike them, you can drift around on them with submarines.