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The effects of climate change and environmental degradation tend to be regarded by governments and policymakers as being connected with pollution of the atmosphere and degradation of the land. But as one expert put it to me recently, imagine looking at the earth from space and saying it doesn’t really matter what we do to the blue bit. The world’s oceans—which are regarded by experts as a single, connected entity and are often referred to as a singular ocean—are undergoing profound change and the well-being of the planet and the stability of its climate are intimately bound up with their condition. Any debate over the long-term outlook for the world’s climate must involve an appraisal of the health of the ocean—and even the most cursory appraisal of the condition of the seas gives cause for profound concern.
One of the greatest problems is overfishing, where fishing fleets extract fish from the sea at a faster rate than the species can reproduce. The results of overfishing can be catastrophic. As Matt Rand from the Pew Charitable Trust points out in these pages, since 1990 there has been a 90 per cent decline in the numbers of some of the larger predatory fish, including tuna, sharks and marlins. The removal of top predators of this sort can cause the collapse of entire ecosystems, in some cases so severe that they cannot be reversed.
The idea that areas of the ocean once teeming with life should become dead gives a deep sense of desolation. But there is a practical dimension to the stripping-back of the ocean’s wildlife. Seafood is a crucial part of the diet of millions of people. If fishing continues to denude the sea, a vital part of the world’s food supply will be diminished.
The introduction of Marine Protected Areas, where activity is controlled and in some cases even prohibited, has been encouraging but inadequate. There are not enough of them. Under the Convention on Biological Diversity, an international agreement from 1992, governments agreed that by 2020, 10 per cent of the ocean would be protected. The current amount is 3.4 per cent. Dan Laffoley, Marine Vice Chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s World Commission on Protected Areas, wants to see that number at 30 per cent.
Protected areas alone are not a solution to the problem—illegal and unregulated fishing will simply carry on elsewhere. The crucial combination is to create protected areas on the one hand, and improve the activities of fishing fleets more broadly on the other. This will require large-scale efforts by governments, who will need to monitor closely their own ports and fishing industries. There is also a drive by a British team of scientists to set up a system to allow fishing vessels to be monitored by satellite. Governments are taking an interest in this system, which is called “Catapult.”
Are governments doing enough? “The right things are starting to be discussed,” says Laffoley. “But we need to act.” The scientific analysis of the state of the ocean by Alex Rogers (p4) reinforces this point.
Heraldo Muñoz, the Chilean Foreign Minister looks ahead to the Our Ocean conference, which this year will be hosted by Chile. “We expect to have... announcements and commitments,” he says. It is to be hoped that governments and international agencies can act—and act fast—to halt the decline of the ocean.
Jay Elwes, Deputy Editor, Prospect
Contents
The science of decline How we damage the oceans Alex Rogers Time to close off the high seas? International treaties might do it José María Figueres
Keeping illegal catch out of shops Andrew Opie
Policing the sea Modern enforcement Dan Schaeffer
The effects of climate change and environmental degradation tend to be regarded by governments and policymakers as being connected with pollution of the atmosphere and degradation of the land. But as one expert put it to me recently, imagine looking at the earth from space and saying it doesn’t really matter what we do to the blue bit. The world’s oceans—which are regarded by experts as a single, connected entity and are often referred to as a singular ocean—are undergoing profound change and the well-being of the planet and the stability of its climate are intimately bound up with their condition. Any debate over the long-term outlook for the world’s climate must involve an appraisal of the health of the ocean—and even the most cursory appraisal of the condition of the seas gives cause for profound concern.
One of the greatest problems is overfishing, where fishing fleets extract fish from the sea at a faster rate than the species can reproduce. The results of overfishing can be catastrophic. As Matt Rand from the Pew Charitable Trust points out in these pages, since 1990 there has been a 90 per cent decline in the numbers of some of the larger predatory fish, including tuna, sharks and marlins. The removal of top predators of this sort can cause the collapse of entire ecosystems, in some cases so severe that they cannot be reversed.
The idea that areas of the ocean once teeming with life should become dead gives a deep sense of desolation. But there is a practical dimension to the stripping-back of the ocean’s wildlife. Seafood is a crucial part of the diet of millions of people. If fishing continues to denude the sea, a vital part of the world’s food supply will be diminished.
The introduction of Marine Protected Areas, where activity is controlled and in some cases even prohibited, has been encouraging but inadequate. There are not enough of them. Under the Convention on Biological Diversity, an international agreement from 1992, governments agreed that by 2020, 10 per cent of the ocean would be protected. The current amount is 3.4 per cent. Dan Laffoley, Marine Vice Chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s World Commission on Protected Areas, wants to see that number at 30 per cent.
Protected areas alone are not a solution to the problem—illegal and unregulated fishing will simply carry on elsewhere. The crucial combination is to create protected areas on the one hand, and improve the activities of fishing fleets more broadly on the other. This will require large-scale efforts by governments, who will need to monitor closely their own ports and fishing industries. There is also a drive by a British team of scientists to set up a system to allow fishing vessels to be monitored by satellite. Governments are taking an interest in this system, which is called “Catapult.”
Are governments doing enough? “The right things are starting to be discussed,” says Laffoley. “But we need to act.” The scientific analysis of the state of the ocean by Alex Rogers (p4) reinforces this point.
Heraldo Muñoz, the Chilean Foreign Minister looks ahead to the Our Ocean conference, which this year will be hosted by Chile. “We expect to have... announcements and commitments,” he says. It is to be hoped that governments and international agencies can act—and act fast—to halt the decline of the ocean.
Jay Elwes, Deputy Editor, Prospect
Contents
The science of decline How we damage the oceans Alex Rogers Time to close off the high seas? International treaties might do it José María Figueres
Keeping illegal catch out of shops Andrew Opie
Policing the sea Modern enforcement Dan Schaeffer
