Marine Conservation Crew

Gabrielle Cattan

 The Marine Conservation Crew is a group of students, at Whitney M Young Magnet High School, dedicated to keeping our oceans and planet healthy and beautiful. Many citizens are unaware of the effect they have on the ocean which is why senior Natalia Swack started the Marine Conservation Crew in September of 2016. “Our purpose was to educated people on the harsh and abusive treatment of marine life like whales and dolphins commercially at aquariums and sea parks and also the exploitation of them for their meat in Asia.” says Erin Choi ‘18, member of the Marine Conservation Crew. Numerous people are unaware of the fact that other countries still hunt whales and dolphins illegally. They claim they are performing research on the animals when in reality they kill them and sell their meat. The meat is labeled as various random fish in the stores because if consumers knew they were eating whale or dolphin meat they would not buy it.

Another issue the Marine Conservation Crew studied was the mass amount of fishing that is occurring and how it is killing the natural cycle of the ocean’s ecosystem. According to President Natalia Swack ‘17, “There is an incredible amount of overfishing as well as aquaculture farms. Aquaculture farms are like factory farms but for fish which means all the medicine and waste that the farmed fish have (specifically salmon) can be directly passed to the wild population because  the farms are located in cages in the wide open ocean where the wild fish swim past.” Researchers are trying to reduce the fishing amounts as well as the use of aquaculture farms by reducing the consumption of seafood.

The overall goal of the Marine Conservation Crew is to fundraise in order to “adopt” whales and other aquatic life which means adopters protect them from being captured and used for meat by tracking their movements and keeping up with them. The other overall purpose of the Marine Conservation Crew was to educate citizens that their actions impact the environment despite their physical distance from natural resources. “As Midwesterners, we aren’t often exposed to marine life, let alone the many issues that plague the oceans.” says Vice President of Marine Conservation Crew, Amelia Thyen ‘17. “This club aims to primarily educate Whitney Young students about the harmful effects of farm fisheries, illegal fishing practices, global warming and other problems in marine life, with the hope of creating change in ways decided by the members of the club.” Although we don’t live by an ocean, our actions here in Chicago directly impact it and the oceans are an extremely important part of the earth and overall ecosystem which is something that we as humans cannot afford to lose as a result of pollution and other harmful actions towards marine life.