All that glitters isn't gold. Sometimes it is just a flash of light produced by a living organism in the sea. Vero Beach High School students were treated to an afternoon lecture by Dr. Edith Widder, world renowned in the field of marine organism bioluminescence. Dr. Widder spoke to a group of students at the Freshman Learning Center on Thursday, May 8 th after school about the importance of protecting our marine ecosystems locally as well as globally. Sarah Simon commented " The way that Dr. Widder presented her information brought to our attention the state of our oceans and what is being done to help them. I thought her demonstrations were great. It was a wonderful learning experience." Dr. Widder has been associated with numerous organizations and institutes in her career. Locally, she was affiliated with Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute until 2005 when she left to co-found the Ocean Research and Conservation Association, ORCA, where she currently serves as president and senior scientist. ORCA's mission statement "dedication to protecting marine ecosystems and species they sustain through development of innovative technologies and science based conservation action" was echoed throughout the presentation.

With a power point show that included video of some of her experiences with bioluminescent organisms around the world, Dr. Widder spoke about the importance of being able to monitor our marine ecosystems and being able to determine the health of an area as small as the Indian River Lagoon. Joeline Lussage stated that "Dr. Widder gave us a 360 0 view of what is going on in marine biology. She was amazing!"

Several reasons given for the poor health of some marine ecosystems were the loss of habitat due to coastal development and destruction of mangroves, overharvesting of fish and shrimp, and oddly enough , the use and increase in biofuel production. How does biofuel production add to the fouling of our marine ecosystems? The use and overuse of fertilizers to produce the huge crops needed for the processing and making of ethanol can eventually end up in our water ways. The fertilizer not only fertilizes the crops, but also the algae found in the water. This can lead to huge algae blooms which starve our marine organisms of needed oxygen. Dr. Widder stressed that our ocean represents 99% of our Biosphere.

Jessica Moss was glad that she went to the presentation " I am an avid scuba diver and it was really neat to learn what is swimming around me. I never knew exactly what went on in the ocean after the lights went out! It was definitely an eye-opening experience."