This article is part of the supplement: Proceedings of the Centers for Oceans and Human Health Investigators Meeting .

Introduction

Centers for Oceans and Human Health: contributions to an emerging discipline

Edward A Laws¹, Lora E Fleming² and John J Stegeman³

¹  School of the Coast and Environment, 1002 K Energy, Coast and Environment Building, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803-4110, USA

²  Departments of Epidemiology & Public Health and Marine Biology & Fisheries, Miller School of Medicine and Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami, Clinical Research Building, 10th Floor (R669), 1120 NW 14th Street, Miami, Florida, USA

³  Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA

author email corresponding author email

from Centers for Oceans and Human Health Investigators Meeting
Woods Hole, MA, USA. 24–27 April 2007

Environmental Health 2008, 7(Suppl 2):S1doi:10.1186/1476-069X-7-S2-S1

Published:	7 November 2008

First paragraph (this article has no abstract)

The oceans are the dominant feature of the planet and are fundamentally linked to human history and to human health. Concerns about the impact of the oceans on human health can be traced to ancient times. Jewish law prohibited the consumption of shellfish, probably reflecting the fact that filter-feeding bivalves can accumulate pathogens and toxins. The Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernandes de Queirós described symptoms associated with ciguatera fish poisoning after eating Caribbean sea bream in 1606, and several of British explorer James Cook's crew experienced similar symptoms after eating fish off the coast of Vanuatu in 1774 [1]. Roughly 1,200 people died from the consumption of fish and shellfish contaminated with methyl mercury in Minamata (Japan) during the 20^th century; an even larger number were affected by chronic long-term neurotoxicological impacts [2]. A tsunami caused by an undersea earthquake on December 26, 2004 killed more than 225,000 people in eleven countries bordering the Indian Ocean; and more than 1,400 people died within a single day when the storm surge generated by Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed the New Orleans levee system on August 29, 2005 [3]. Looking ahead, the International Panel on Climate Change has projected a sea level rise of as much as 88 cm during the 21^st century as a result of global warming [4], with major implications for the welfare and sustainability of coastal communities.