Sociology student speaks out against wildlife crime
April 07, 2022
Sea cucumbers (the earthworms of the sea) have been under threat in Mexico for years due to poaching and illegal activities. Sea cucumbers play an important role in the marine ecosystem, much like an earthworm, they burrow in the sea bed and rework the soil so other species can flourish.
Fourth year sociology student, Felix Morrow, is the second author on a newly published research paper that examined sea cucumber smuggling in Mexico from 2011 – 2021.
Morrow is helping to address the ecological crises faced by the underappreciated sea cucumber through his volunteer work with OceansAsia. Morrow met Director of Research, Teale Phelps Bondaroff, founder of OceansAsia, through a local political party in 2018-2019. He quickly became involved with Bondaroff’s research and has done two years of self-directed research projects for OceansAsia.
“I want to bring the topic of fisheries into sociological research,” says Morrow. “Working with Teale has inspired me to pursue a career in research in the area of environmental sociology,” he adds.
“Through the research process I applied the skills I learned in the classroom to untangle practical issues like marine conservation,” says Morrow.
Morrow also noted that his writing and research skills improved significantly since the experience of hands on research is very different from writing papers for classes.
As second author of the paper, Morrow collaborated with an international team of researchers who identified 97 incidents of poached sea cucumbers between 2011-2021. The estimated value of the 100.6 metric tonnes of sea cucumbers seized is $29.55 million dollars.
“Given the clandestine nature of wildlife crime, we were only to study incidents that were detected by the authorities. Meaning that our data likely represents only a fraction of the sea cucumber wildlife crime taking place,” says Morrow.
Morrow intends to continue his research into marine poaching as he completes his degree at UVic.
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