It’s hard not to write about northern red-bellied cooters when an opportunity presents itself. Four decades ago, the population of the second-largest turtle species in Massachusetts had fallen to fewer than 300. Since then, its numbers have swelled by an order of magnitude. How? Year after year, wildlife scientists have partnered with students in middle schools and high schools across the state to give hatchlings a head start through their first winter to improve their prospects for survival into adult turtlehood.

By different orders of magnitude, our stories today about hunger in Gaza and unrestrained abuses in ocean fisheries highlight challenges with elusive solutions. Yet Ian Urbina, a journalist dedicated to reporting on the hidden costs of seafood, knows what those Massachusetts students know. Good starts with not getting “cornered into thinking” that a problem is insuperable. Doing “something is more than nothing,” he says.