He was a dedicated surfer, diver, and adventurer, and looked the part-a bearded, tanned, 1980s surfer dude. In the mid-1980s, Brian Tissot was a graduate student studying black abalone on two islands off the California coast south of San Francisco. Nor did legislators know that new scientific discoveries can improve the management of marine disease.Īlarmed, Harvell decided to write a book about her experiences with four recent and serious disease outbreaks to explain the threat and motivate others to take action. They didn’t know that warmer and more polluted ocean waters are allowing infectious pathogens to thrive while simultaneously weakening marine creatures’ abilities to withstand disease.
But few were aware of the rolling tide of new disease outbreaks affecting marine organisms around the world. Those from ocean states were aware of some problems, such as overfishing, agricultural runoff, and plastic pollution. The questions from lawmakers revealed a serious information gap to the scientists.
Along with three colleagues and Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea, Harvell briefed members of Congress on the growing threats of disease in coastal waters, emphasizing how outbreaks had economic consequences.
In July 2015, the United States government invited Drew Harvell, a marine ecologist at Cornell University in New York, to SeaSick, a congressional briefing organized in the wake of devastating disease outbreaks in sea stars, corals, oysters, and lobsters.
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