Last Call for a Living Ocean

© Edward Dorson, Feb. 2012

The siege upon the ocean is now in its final convulsion. Thousands of aquatic species are being driven closer towards extinction with each passing day, yet the exploiters continue to strip the seas bare. The annihilation of species on land, as bad as it is, pales in comparison.

In 2011, scientists at the International Program on the State of the Ocean examined the ocean's condition regarding the combined impact of global warming, acidification and overfishing. They concluded that the ocean was approaching catastrophic, potentially irreversible change. The consequence was unequivocal: "If the ocean continues to decline it will reach a point where it can no longer function effectively and our planet will be unable to sustain the ecosystems that support humankind."

There's no time for piecemeal solutions. The International Energy Agency provided a firm deadline in their annual World Energy Outlook in late 2011. They found that Earth would reach runaway feedback loops by 2017 if fossil fuel use continues to increase: "The door's closing and soon it will close forever." That leaves 5 crucial years to level out on fossil fuel extraction and emissions while halting the degradation of greenhouse gas sinks; the forests, tundra and ocean.

Without exaggeration, a ruined ocean rivals a massive asteroid strike in orders of magnitude. As the ocean is the primary engine running the planet's life-support systems, this outcome will severely harm life on land as well. Earth's 5th mass extinction event killed off 90% of all life when an asteroid slammed into Mexico's Yucatan 65 million years ago. This time around, we're the asteroid.

Incredibly, despite all the science-based warnings, no significant action is underway. The indoctrination of perpetual growth remains the inane status quo, even though our own species' existence is clearly at risk. The remedy resides in our capacity to foresee and forestall. Unlike an asteroid, we possess a unique gift: the ability to alter course.

Many activities are killing the ocean. Overfishing, poaching, bycatch, pollution, dissolving reefs and shellfish by spewing CO2, subsidizing fisheries into collapse, inadequate marine protected areas...all are huge threats. Unsustainable demand is encouraged by stores and restaurants offering threatened or endangered species to an uninformed public.

Overfishing is a major concern, yet it's also the most readily cured. We must reduce fishing activity while increasing no-take zones. While small artisanal boats can limit their yield, the more mechanized ships such as trawlers, purse seiners and longliners are ultimately designed to produce famine rather than nourishment. These vessels indiscriminately obliterate life and vital habitat. After an area is fished out, they simply move on to plunder the next fishery.

Once you visualize such ships as weapons of mass destruction continuously attacking our planet, you can think in terms of disarmament. The world's navies and coastal patrols must vigorously enforce maritime law with a mission to seize all illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing vessels. The most deadly ("efficient") ships can be refitted for benign use, cut up for scrap, or sunk. Once decontaminated, sunken vessels can provide replenishment as new habitat.

Scattered activists and environmental organizations aren't enough to combat the shear scale of this crisis. Many more people are needed, acting on the fundamentals of will and morality. Most people innately know that they're a part of nature, interwoven into its fabric. Ingrained beliefs need to be challenged, such as the conceit of having dominion over the world and subduing all other life forms.

Once the consequence of our behavior is fully realized, that unsustainable practices will devastate young and future generations, logic and integrity can spur both individual lifestyle change* and collective systemic change. As to the latter, nearly all rapid reform has historically been achieved by 10% of the populace or less, not a vast majority. Governments can be made to act by an unyielding coalition of citizens demanding an end to the destruction of marine species and habitat.
* I list individual actions in "Staring at the Edge of the Abyss" in my "Commentary" category, above.

All the rhetoric about marine preservation is ultimately about one single goal: to halt our economic ruthlessness so as to ensure the ocean's vitality for the sake of its inhabitants and, in turn, a habitable world. When those we love face immanent danger, we defend them with all we've got. By extension, we must also defend the life of the natural world that sustains our beloved. The ocean can still possibly live on, but only if the carnage is rapidly reversed with a surge of action based on precaution, protection and restoration.