I often got involved in projects that cannot be pinpointed to any specific location on the world map, so the best way to call the space where I describe these works seems to be “global scale”.
One of these concerns the work which I initiated for my PhD thesis at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography back in the early 1980s, when I embarked on the worldwide revision of the taxonomy of devil rays (genus Mobula). I then went on, many years later, with more work on this subject in large part stimulated by the need to conserve these magnificent creatures, which, in the meantime – guess what? – have become subject to significant threats to their survival.
Another project on a global scale involves the identification of Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) across the world’s oceans and seas: a fascinating effort of mapping the habitats that matter most to all the existing species of aquatic mammals.
In this space, however, I also wish to touch on something completely different, although the label “global” doesn’t seem to be too appropriate, as no geographical dimension is involved here. I wish to explain my increasing frustration with the dysfunctional position of humans in the natural world, their arrogance, and their ubiquitous indifference towards a condition of disconnect from their life-support system, which can only end in tragedy unless a radical behavioural change occurs. Something I still see little sign of.