Oceans Devastated by Decades of Abuse

Fishermen use the pole and line fishing method to catch skipjack tuna. Pole and line fishing is selective and therefore a more sustainable way to catch tuna as only fish of a certain size are caught, leaving juveniles to grow to spawning age and replenish the stock in the future. Small baitfish are thrown over the side of the boat to lure the tuna to the water surface. The fishermen use the acceleration of the fish as they race to get their prey, hook them, and fling them onto the ship's flat deck. (Paul Hilton/Greenpeace)

The cradle of all life on Earth—the world’s oceans—are rapidly approaching the point of losing its capacity to regulate the Earth’s climate and provide us with food, oxygen, and habitat.

According to Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), species extinction rates are now as high as a thousand times the natural rate, and the world is nearing a “tipping point” where the loss could be irreversible.

The globe’s oceans, representing 99 percent of the living space on Earth and covering nearly 70 percent of our planet, are increasingly plundered, polluted, and pumped up with carbon dioxide as a result of human activity.

In Nagoya, Japan, 15,000 participants from 193 U.N. member-countries are currently meeting to try to come up with a strategic plan for the next 10 years to preserve the Earth’s ecosystems. The 13-day Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-10) ends on Oct. 30.

Overfishing

Due to overfishing, 19 percent of all fish stocks are now overexploited, 8 percent are depleted, 52 fully exploited, while only 1 percent show signs of recovery, states the (CBD) Technical Report for the Global Biodiversity, Outlook 3. Overexploitation is resulting in substantial economic loss to fishing industries and communities.

“Overfishing would lead to the collapse of fish stocks, which would have two impacts: millions of coastal inhabitants who depend on fisheries for their income would be driven back into poverty. Marine fish and invertebrates are among the last sources of wild food on the planet, providing over 2.6 billion people with at least 10 percent of their average per capita protein intake,” wrote David M. Ainsworth, information officer at the U.N. CBD, in an e-mail from Nagoya.

The CBD report states that due to overfishing, catches are seeing fewer and fewer large-bodied predatory fish, and more species lower on the food chain—a phenomenon, known as “fishing down marine food web”—such as jellyfish. Furthermore, overexploitation has put 20 species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as threatened with extinction.

The report also reveals worrying prospects for fish populations’ recovery even if mankind puts on the breaks: For example, the Canadian cod stocks collapsed in the 1980s because of overexploitation. Although the fisheries have remained closed since 1992, there is little sign of recovery.

“Sharks and bluefin tuna are under global threat. Coral reefs are under dangerous threat from destructive practices and from climate change,” adds Ainsworth.

“Accidental” and wasteful catch of other marine species, such as fish, whales, dolphins, and turtles, is also a waste of the ocean’s precious resources.

According to Dimitar Berov, a Bulgarian marine ecologist, there are methodologies to protect fishing resources used in the United States, Canada, EU, and Iceland. But he says these policies are often used with a double standard.

“The criteria and quotas are applied to territorial waters of the respective country, but not in the world ocean, which is deemed ‘nobody’s land’ and nobody can directly control it,” says Berov.

“Another vicious practice is the exploitation of marine resources of poor countries in Africa and Asia, which have relatively better-preserved fish populations, but are unable to fish them. Rich Western countries buy fish at ridiculously low prices, where there are no clearly defined quotas for ‘sustainable catch,’” adds Berov.

Nathalie Rey, Oceans policy adviser with Greenpeace International, warns that as the fishing business continues as usual, commercial fisheries may collapse by 2050. Ninety percent of big fish such as tuna and swordfish are already gone, says Rey, having been fished out in only 60 years.

“Empty seas mean empty future, for the hundreds of millions who rely on fish for food and the 170 million people whose jobs depend directly or indirectly on the fishing sector,” says Rey.

On the other hand, she says, “Creating a more sustainable fishing industry could raise the total global income of fishing households from $35 billion to $44 billion a year.”

Two weeks before the U.N. summit Greenpeace published, “Emergency Oceans Rescue Plan.” The report suggests that the creation of marine reserves—areas of ocean set aside as off-limits to fishing, fossil fuel extraction, and other industrial activities—can protect and restore ocean ecosystems.

Ocean Pollution

Not only overfishing, but also pollution is a grave threat to our oceans, says Rey.

“Pollution from oil by ships, tanker accidents, or oil rigs threatens our oceans, as we saw with the disaster caused by BP in the Gulf of Mexico. Sewage, run-off, accidents, sea dumping, mining, agricultural waste, and pesticides also make their way into our oceans and harm them.”

Rey explains that when toxic material or other pollutants are consumed by fish, which are then eaten by humans, the results could be food poisoning or longer-term health effects such as developmental problems in babies and heart disease in adults.

Synthetic and organic toxins that reach the ocean may enter the food chain and lead to incurable illnesses in people, wrote Eva Kopataki in an e-mail, expert in environmental pollution from the University of Manchester, UK. She says that according to recent studies, these kinds of chemical pollutants may affect hormone levels, fertility, and brain capacity.

Kopataki adds that dumped plastics disintegrate to molecular monomers, but always remain in the upper layer of the ocean. In her essay “The impacts of plastic pollution in the North Pacific Ocean and possible solutions,” she quotes that an average cruise liner with 3,000 passengers produces more than 8 tons of solid waste per week. Yet only 20 percent of plastic debris comes from ships, while 80 percent comes from land-based operations.

Acidification is Corroding Ocean Fauna

Oceans absorb much more carbon dioxide than land. Globally, every second 1,000 tons of CO2 are emitted, of which 300 tons are absorbed by oceans. With the increasing of the concentration of CO2, the acidification rate of the ocean changes.

“While oceans become more acidic, the ability of the sea water to dissolve calcium carbonate increases—which is the constructive element of all seashell organisms and the skeleton of tropical and coldwater coral reefs. Upon reaching a critical point, these animals will die,” says Berov.

The Ocean Helps Us, Why Won’t We Help It Back?

Violeta Evtimova is a Bulgarian biologist who has worked in a therapy center where dolphins helped children with autism and Down syndrome. She was amazed how the dolphins communicated with the children on an emotional level and made them laugh. Evtimova describes one of the therapy games.

“First children stay on the platform and dolphins bring balls and hoops. Then the kids go into the water, hug them, and play along with them.”

She describes a girl who suffered a heavy psychological trauma and became withdrawn. But with the dolphins, she was laughing loudly. Her mother said she doesn’t recognize her child.

“The bad thing is that while ocean animals help us, we do not return the same,” says Evtimova, reflecting on the plight of global oceans.

But she is optimistic that each one of us can do something to help.

“We have a rule at home: if an electric device is turned on, another must be turned off. We can car pool, use the subway, or bicycle to go to work. We just need to think how to be useful to nature.”

Evtimova reminds us of an ancient Native American proverb: “We do not inherit the Earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children.”