The world’s oceans are in big trouble and declining fish stocks everywhere are part of the mounting evidence supporting this view. Part of the problem in the attempt to figure out what is going wrong is the difficulty to gather scientific information on what’s happening in the ocean depths. Unlike most environmental questions where field studies can supply if not the answer, at least some concrete information for a reasonable hypothesis, marine biology is more dependent on scientific models and theories. It’s extremely difficult to do field studies and to get hard numbers in such an alien and hostile environment. So it’s not unreasonable that mistakes have been made in the past and that questions arise today on some of the assumptions made from models and theories.

Debbie MacKenzie is someone who is questioning those assumptions. She is not a marine biologist, she has no formal credentials in marine science, yet she has captured the attention of some scientists. Debbie grew up on an inlet along the eastern Scotian shelf of the Atlantic Ocean. For over forty years she noted the changes her shoreline was going through. Debbie also learned a lot from her father who is now retired from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans who believed the ocean was not getting enough food. She thought this was such an incredible statement that Debbie started taking a close at the figures DFO had gathered, as well as the results of her own observations. She also had the cooperation of local fishermen who gave her lots of actual and anecdotal evidence of the changes they were seeing.

With all of this taken together, Debbie became convinced her father was right and advanced a theory of why the ocean was starving. This is what captured the interest of other scientists. However, it did not capture enough interest from those scientists with DFO who have the resources to further explore Debbie’s theory. Her supporters believe her theory at least deserves some consideration and that’s it’s irresponsible to ignore it. In the meantime, Debbie continues to do her field research and to talk about and explore the theory with anyone who will listen.