Despite today's threats to the oceans, renowned oceanographer and explorer Dr. Sylvia Earle remains hopeful about our ability to ensure healthy seas and lifestyles.

"Ten years ago my outlook would have been much more bleak about our future. But for the first time scientists, politicians, conservationists — everyone is working together and communicating," Earle said in an interview.

"You can now find out what someone is doing on the other side of the world through conferences like this and just learn more through Google Earth and other online sites," she said. "People are more aware today of the problems at hand. We have a tremendous opportunity to make the changes needed now to secure our future."

Earle is among the key speakers at the 2008 Hawai'i Conservation Conference, which concludes today but offers tours and service trips tomorrow and Saturday.

Nearly 1,000 conservationists gathered at the Hawai'i Convention Center for the 16th annual conference, hosted by the Hawai'i Conservation Alliance and the Hawai'i Conservation Alliance Foundation and featuring workshops, field trips, exhibits, lectures — and experts such as Earle. It's a far cry from the first such conference, which drew 75 people.

Much work remains to assure the health of the oceans.

On Tuesday, the opening day of the conference, she said that if no changes are made to how oceans are being fished, there will be no commercial fishing by 2048.

"Our ocean life is rapidly deteriorating," said Earle, also referred as "Her Deepness" because of the body of work she's compiled as an oceanographer and explorer. Earle has logged more than 6,000 hours of undersea research and led more than 60 expeditions.

Todd Russell, a wildlife biologist, said he came to the conference "to see what others are doing and try to find new ideas." "Scientists work in bubbles, so even though this is a small island, you don't get a chance to see and hear what others are doing unless you get a conference like this. It's a good way to share ideas."

Russell moved to O'ahu from South Dakota in February to work with invasive species. He spent extra time at the conference looking at an exhibit by marine biologists on the Big Island. "It's about methodology and new techniques," Russell said.

Valorie Owen of Kaua'i and her daughter, 14-year-old Mikaeala, were guests of the Hawai'i Conservation Alliance, which brought together 25 middle school students whose stories and poems about Hawai'i's environments were made into a book.

More than 400 middle schoolers competed in the My Hawaii Story Project 2008. The winners, including Mikaeala, gathered at the conference on Tuesday and performed a song about conservation that they wrote together on Monday night.

"We need to get more young kids involved in conserving the ocean and land," Valorie Owen said. "They use the ocean and will be protecting it in the future. I had no idea this conference would be so big."

The Hawa'i Conservation Alliance is a cooperative partnership of 16 agencies, educational institutions and nonprofit organizations that promotes effective long-term management of Hawai'i's native ecosystems through research, training and outreach programs.

Hawai'i is home to more than 7,000 reef species, a quarter of which are found nowhere else in the world.