April 10th, 2009 
I was extremely flattered a year ago to be invited to join the academic editors at PLoS One. In that time I worked diligently to develop a Marine and Aquatic Science hub at the journal. I have accumulated what I consider to be an experienced team of academic editors who are both committed to open access but well respected researchers in their fields. These include Zoe Finkel, Carlos Duarte, Geoffrey Trussell, John Bruno, Stuart Humphries, Stuart Sandin, and Steve Volmer, just to name a few.
Today the Marine and Aquatic Section is live. I am excited to introduce our first paper in the section. Schmidt et al. examine the biogeography and population genetics of whale sharks demonstrating that disparate populations have considerable gene flow between them. Overall the paper cautions that conservation of whale sharks require global initiatives.
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Awesome!! Thank for tall the work on this Dr. M. I’m surprised that the genetic variation is so low, though I am not surprised that there is no real geographic population difference what with some of the earlier tagging studies, and the citizen science photo-ID work showing multi-ocean basin migrations.
Whale sharks? Great start! And great job, McClain. Looks like you’ve put together a smart team. My colleagues and I look forward to submitting to PLoS One’s MASS. PLoS certainly takes a modern approach. Just preparing the manuscript was already a major departure from stuffy old publishing guidelines. The online format certainly opens up doors in terms of what could be done.
Congratulations, and that’s quite a team! Looking forward to following along, and eventually submitting!
[...] Over ten years ago Fred Grassle, a marine biologist with deep-sea tendencies, and Jesse Ausubel, program director for Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, started conversing on an initiative to document the biodiversity of the oceans. That program, the Census of Marine Life, started in 2000 with the goal “to advance a major new international observational program to be completed by 2010 to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life.” That program lead to the support of several field projects and expeditions (currently over 15), the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), several initiatives focused on specific environments (abyssal plains, vents, seeps, seamounts, corals, continental margins, etc.), conferences, taxonomic workshops, and much more. Publications from CoML just from 2005-2008 number over 500. In 2010, a plethora of papers (species descriptions, synthesis papers, reviews, primary research) will hit journals including PLoS One Marine and Aquatic Sciences. [...]
[...] of my career was being invited to serve as editor at PLoS One. This moment was surpassed by the day I launched the Marine and Aquatic Science Section at PLoS One in early 2009. I was glad to serve PLoS One, develop and build the Marine and Aquatic Science [...]