|
|
| | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | (2004) | 2003 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | | December 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 10 | | November 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 9 | | October 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 8 | | September 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 7 | | August 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 6 | | June 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 5 | | May 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 4 | | April 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 3 | | March 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 2 | | January 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 1 |
| December 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 10
| December 2004 – Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 10
Major New Report Warns of Drastic Changes in Arctic Regions Due to Climate Change
“Earth’s climate is changing, with the global temperature now changing at a rate unprecedented in the experience of human history … These climate changes are being experienced particularly in the Arctic. Arctic average temperature has risen at almost twice the rate as the rest of the world in the past few decades. Widespread melting of glaciers and sea ice and rising permafrost temperatures present additional evidence of strong arctic warming.” So notes a major new report produced for the Arctic Council.
The report, Impacts of a Warming Arctic, notes that over the past fifty years temperatures have risen by an average of about 1oF over the Bering Sea and most of Chukotka, 1.8°F over East Greenland, Scandinavia, and Northwest Russia, 1.8-3.6°F over most of the Canadian Arctic and Northwest Greenland, about 1.8-5.4°F over Siberia, and approximately 3.6-5.4°F over Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. By the 2090s, models project additional average temperature increases of 3.6°F over Iceland, 5.4-9°F over Greenland, 11°F over the Central Arctic Ocean, and roughly 14.5-18°F over Hudson Bay and the Labrador Sea.
The report notes that observations over the past fifty years show “a decline in arctic sea ice,” including reductions of 5-10% in overall extent and 10-15% in average thickness. Thinner, less extensive sea ice creates more open water, allowing stronger wave generation by winds, thus increasing wave-induced erosion. Rising sea level is also “very likely to inundate marshes and coastal plains, accelerate beach erosion, exacerbate coastal flooding, and force salt water into bays, rivers, and ground water …”
Furthermore, the “vast reduction in multiyear ice in the Arctic Ocean is likely to be immensely disruptive to microscopic life forms associated with the ice, as they will lack a permanent habitat. Research in the Beaufort Sea suggests that ice algae at the base of the marine food web may have already been profoundly affected by warming over the last few decades. Results indicate that most of the larger marine algae under the ice at this site died out between the 1970s and late 1990s, and were replaced by less-productive species of algae usually associated with freshwater.”
Sea ice declines also have direct impact on species further up the food chain. For example, polar bears are dependent on sea ice, where they “hunt ice-living seals and use ice corridors to move from one area to another.” As a consequence, polar bears “are unlikely to survive as a species if there is an almost complete loss of summer sea-ice cover, which is projected to occur before the end of this century by some climate models.”
In conclusion, the assessment argues that “climate change presents a major and growing challenge to the Arctic and the world as a whole. While the concerns this generates are important now, their implications are of even greater importance for the future generations that will inherit the legacy of the current actions or inaction. Strong near-term action is also needed to begin to adapt to the warming that is already occurring and will continue.”
Source: ACIA. 2004. Impacts of a Warming Arctic: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
For Further Information: The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment website is at http://www.acia.uaf.edu.
Back to top
U.S. Initiative to Protect Sharks Succeeds at Atlantic Tuna Commission
Conservationists have applauded the first international ban on shark finning, adopted by consensus in November by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). Finning - the practice of slicing off a shark's fins and discarding the carcass back to the sea - has sparked international outcry by conservationists and governments over the last decade. The finning ban proposal was co-sponsored by the United States, the European Union, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Panama, South Africa, Trinidad & Tobago, and Venezuela. Representatives from Brazil, Namibia, and Uruguay spoke in strong support of the proposal. The U.S. led the way by introducing a comprehensive shark proposal early in the meeting.
Shark fin is the principal ingredient in shark fin soup, an Asian delicacy that can sell for $100 a bowl. Finning has been prohibited in the U.S. Atlantic since 1993. The U.S. Shark Finning Prohibition Act of 2000 banned the practice in all federal waters and directed the U.S. to work towards international finning restrictions as well as increased shark research and management worldwide. Other ICCAT member countries with domestic finning bans include Brazil, Canada, Namibia, South Africa and the European Union.
Sharks are especially vulnerable to overfishing because they grow slowly and produce few young. ICCAT’s North Atlantic mako shark assessment suggests depletions of 50% or more. A study by Canadian scientists reported a 99% decline in Gulf of Mexico oceanic whitetip sharks since the 1950s; the IUCN-World Conservation Union has proposed this species as “Critically Endangered.” In May, Canada declared porbeagle sharks as “Endangered” based on an assessment that revealed a 90% decline since the 1960s.
The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) adopted an International Plan of Action (IPOA) for shark conservation in 1999, but progress has been slow. Very few countries have produced the requested National Plans of Action (NPOAs) and there are still no international limits on shark catch. One week before the ICCAT action, the U.N. General Assembly called on Regional Fishery Management Organizations to initiate restrictions on unregulated fisheries, with priority for biologically vulnerable species and those subject to an IPOA.
Contact: Sonja Fordhma, The Ocean Conservancy. E-mail.
Back to the top
Cetacean Culture Should Be Consideration in Cetacean Conservation, Say Researchers
“There is increasing evidence that culture is an important determinant of behavior in some non-human species including great apes and cetaceans (whales and dolphins). In some cases, there may be repercussions for population biology and conservation. Rapidly evolving ‘horizontal’ cultures, transmitted largely within generations, may help animals deal with anthropogenic change and even allow them to exploit it, sometimes with negative consequences for both the animals and humans. In contrast, stable ‘vertical’ or ‘oblique’ cultures, transmitted principally between generations, may impede adaptation to environmental change, and confound range recovery, reintroductions and translocations …We suggest that non-human culture should be integrated into conservation biology when considering populations with such attributes, and also more generally by refining definitions of evolutionarily significant units and considering how cultural attributes may change our perspectives of non-humans.”
So argues a paper by Hal Whitehead, Luke Rendell, Richard W. Osborne, and Bernd Wursig, in the journal Biological Conservation.
Whitehead and colleagues note that, among the great apes and cetaceans, and perhaps some other species such as other primates and elephants, “social learning likely determines a large proportion of behavior, including functionally important behavior such as foraging. In these species, culture can affect fitness and population biology in important ways, and so … have a potential bearing on conservation biology. This is especially the case when the form that culture takes leads to discrete, behaviorally differentiated population segments that can possess quite distinct ecological roles.”
The authors argue that whereas cultural adaptation can allow some species to exploit anthropogenic changes—for example, cetaceans which learn to take fish from long lines—stable vertical cultures can have the opposite effect. For example, although robust, and sometimes growing, cetacean population densities are found in some areas following those populations’ decimation by whaling, other traditionally important habitat remains deserted. Right whales, for example, “are currently almost entirely absent from Labrador waters where Basque whalers caught tens of thousands of animals during the 16th and 17th Centuries. Oceanic climate change may play some role in this lack of recovery, but it is perhaps more plausible that the whalers, by killing the Labrador animals, also destroyed the cultural knowledge of how to use Labrador waters. While we can document the end of traditional use of a habitat, whaling probably removed other cultural knowledge from populations, and this loss likely inhibits their recovery.”
In addition to such pragmatic concerns, there are also ethical considerations. “It has been suggested that the recognition of culture in other animals should affect our perception of them … [I]n addition to considering culture as a part of the mix of biological attributes that affects how organisms interact with anthropogenic threats, perhaps culture should also be inserted into the roots of our conservation biology: why we wish to conserve organisms, and what we wish to conserve about them. These
questions are difficult, and perhaps beyond the scope of most practicing conservation biologists. However, this does not mean that the implications of non-human cultures should just be left to the ethicists: non-human culture is not just ‘‘chimpanzees/dolphins/elephants reading poetry’’, it is the source of survival skills fundamental to the daily lives of these animals.”
Source: Whitehead, H., et al. 2004. Culture and conservation of non-humans with reference to whales and dolphins: review and new directions. Biological Conservation 120: 427-437.
Contact: Hal Whitehead, Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. E- mail.
Back to the top
Paper Reviews Life History and Conservation Implications of Seahorses
In the first synthesis of the life history and ecology of seahorses, S.J. Foster and A.C.J. Vincent of Project Seahorse at the University of British Columbia’s Fisheries Center document the biology, distribution, reproduction, and conservation of these little known species. Writing in the Journal of Fish Biology, the authors note that seahorses occur, generally at low population densities, primarily amid temperate seagrasses and tropical coral reefs. Inferred life spans range from 1 to 5 years.
The best known aspect of seahorse life history is the fact that it is the males that become pregnant. Note the authors: “During mating the female seahorse deposits her entire clutch of eggs in the male’s brood pouch, where they are fertilized (ensuring paternity), whereupon the male seals the pouch shut.” This behavior helps explain the predominance of observations which appear to show monogamy in seahorses during a breeding season, although some studies do suggest that at least some seahorse species are predominantly polygamous, while others are monogamous during a specific season but may switch partners in subsequent breeding cycles.
Otherwise, the paper suggests that what is best known about seahorses is the fact that little is known about seahorses, including such matters as distribution, movement, and mortality. The authors argue that much more needs to be determined in many areas in order to establish the genus’ conservation status and needs. They write: “Seahorses are exploited and traded for use in traditional medicine (particularly traditional Chinese medicine), for the aquarium trade, and for sale as curiosities. Seahorses are also frequently brought up by nonselective fishing gear such as trawl nets and are vulnerable to degradation of their inshore habitats. Management guidelines and initiatives are required to ensure the persistence of seahorse populations, with each venture relying on an understanding of seahorse biology and ecology, within and across species.”
Source: Foster, S.J., and A.C.J. Vincent. 2004. Life history and ecology of seahorses: implications for ecology and management. Journal of Fish Biology 65: 1-61.
Contact: A.C.J. Vincent, Fisheries Center, University of British Columbia. E-mail.
Back to the top
Fecal Wastes from Land Bring Infection to Marine Waters, Says Study
“Attention to worldwide pollution of the coastal marine environment has focused primarily on toxic algal blooms and pathogenic bacteria that multiply in nutrient-rich waters. However, massive but unseen amounts of feces from humans, their pets, and their domesticated animals are discharged, dumped, or carried in runoff, bringing encysted zoonotic protozoan parasites to estuaries and coastal waters. Here, they contaminate bathing beaches, are filtered and concentrated by shellfish eaten by humans and marine mammals, and infect a wide range of marine animal hosts, resulting in morbidity and mortality to some populations.” So argues a recent review in the journal Trends in Parasitology.
The review, by Ronald Fayer of the United States Department of Agriculture and colleagues, observes laconically that, although “from space, the Earth appears to be covered in large part by water and is seen as a bright blue sphere, closer inspection would reveal human and animal feces spread over much of the planet.” Between them, the authors calculate, the world’s humans and livestock produce at least 4 billion metric tons of manure each year, with just one gram of feces capable of containing up to 10,000,000 cysts of the parasite Giardia.
The authors go on to observe that encysted protozoans originating in human and animal feces “are transported in runoff from agricultural, suburban and urban land surfaces, wastewater discharges and other sources to rivers and streams, which carry contaminated sediments to estuaries and eventually to coastal waters.” Here, they may survive up to twelve weeks before entering the food web, generally through intake by shellfish, by which route they may infect human consumers. The pathogens may also remain in the ocean environment and infect marine mammals, either through direct consumption of shellfish in the case of species such as sea otters, or via pathways that remain obscure, as with bottlenose dolphins.
The presence of toxoplasmosis in sea otters is of particular concern. The disease has been implicated in increased mortalities of the species in California; the paper notes that the parasite Toxoplasma gondii “has been isolated from brains or hearts of 22.3% of 67 and 32% of 75 California sea otters.”
The authors conclude: “Hopefully, more molecular data will become available from parasites isolated from marine mammals and will be compared with data from terrestrial animals. Such data will clarify our understanding of the complex relationships among hosts, and will help to identify the routes and mechanisms of land to sea transmission. Nevertheless, practices of wastewater disposal, drinking water purification, runoff control and farm manure management must improve. Otherwise, as human and animal populations grow, so will the negative impact of fecal contamination on public health and ultimately on marine life.”
Source: Fayer, R., et al. 2004. Zoonotic protozoa: from land to sea. Trends in Parasitology 20(11): 531-536.
Contact: Ronald Fayer, Environmental Microbial Safety Laboratory, Animal and Natural Resources Institute, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD 20705. E-mail.
Back to the top
For further information on SeaWeb, or for print copies of Ocean Update, please write to SeaWeb, 1731 Connecticut Ave., NW, 4th Floor, Washington, D.C., 20009, or email us at contactus@seaweb.org. Send any information, articles, press releases and ideas for inclusion in future issues to the editor: Kieran Mulvaney. |
|
| November 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 9
| November 2004 – Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 9
CITES Announces Reduction in 2004 Beluga Caviar Quota; Environmentalists Highly Critical
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meeting in Bangkok, Thailand in October, announced a reduction in the 2004 export quota for caviar from Caspian Sea beluga sturgeon of 50% over 2003 figures. The quota for stellate sturgeon was reduced by 40 percent compared to 2003, while the levels of caviar from Russian and Persian sturgeon were cut by 10 percent. According to the CITES Secretariat, these figures will now be considered the new base levels for discussions on quotas for future years.
“The Caspian states have agreed to reduce substantially their caviar exports this year. They have achieved these reductions through adjustments to the total harvest of sturgeons and through an increase in the amount of harvested sturgeons devoted to hatchery conservation programs,” said Dr. Jim Armstrong, CITES deputy secretary general. “The new approach agreed here gives the governments a strong economic stake in tackling illegal fishing. As the illegal trade declines, legal exports - and thus government earnings - will rise accordingly in future years.”
However, environmentalists were highly critical of the announcement, arguing that the reductions were symbolic because the 2004 fishing season had already all but ended, and that they were also based on 2003 quotas which did not take into account the number of sturgeon taken by illegal fishing. Of greater concern to critics, however, was the fact that CITES agreed to allow any export at all, particularly given its previous stand on the issue. According to Caviar Emptor, a sturgeon conservation coalition that includes SeaWeb, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the University of Miami’s Pew Institute for Ocean Science, CITES had announced just one month previously that the 2004 Caspian caviar trade would remain frozen “until the states fulfilled the obligations of an international sturgeon conservation agreement, including taking illegal fishing into account when setting sustainable fishing levels.” That same month, Dr. Armstrong was quoted in Science magazine as saying that if the level of illegal fishing in Caspian was greater than the legal quotas, “there is no way they are going to have a legal catch.” However, a legal quota was still granted, even though the CITES Secretariat itself stated in 2001 that “It is estimated that for every ton of fish caught legally, at least five tons are harvested illegally. Some estimates even place the illegal offtake as high as 12 times the legal catch.” Additionally, earlier this year, the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Vladimir Yakovlev, an envoy of the Russian president, as saying that up to 90 per cent of the black caviar on the market comes from poaching.
“CITES has flip-flopped under the pressure of heavy lobbying by Caspian states and the caviar industry,” said Vikki Spruill, president of SeaWeb. “CITES is on the wrong side of the effort to save the beluga sturgeon and is clearly putting trade first and endangered wildlife last.”
Caviar Emptor has called for a long-term ban on the international trade of beluga caviar as a way to protect the beluga sturgeon from extinction. In April 2004, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, acting on a petition by Caviar Emptor, declared beluga sturgeon as “threatened with extinction,” thus subjecting it to protections under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
Contact: Steven Capozzola, SeaWeb. Tel: (202) 483 9570. E-mail; Shannon Crownover, SeaWeb, E-mail.
For Further Information: See www.caviaremptor.org.
Back to the top
Sizeable Drop in Wasted Fish, Says United Nations Body
New analysis of global data for the last decade shows that on average some 7.3 million tonnes of fish are being thrown back to sea unused each year -- a decrease of about 12 million tonnes from previous estimates. This according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. In 1996 the UN agency estimated that average annual global fish discards were around 20 million tonnes. (One tonne equals approximately 1.1 US tons).
“In some fisheries, countries have implemented measures that aim at reducing incidental by-catch. These include initiatives that improve fishing selectivity to limit catches to only desired species as well as the increased use of by-catch excluder devices or anti-discard regulations,” FAO said in a statement. “In effect, these measures have prompted fishing boats to get much better at not catching unwanted species in the first place.”
The organization also noted that fish that in the past would have been thrown away as “trash fish” are today increasingly being kept on-board and used. “What is difficult is to know just how much of the approximately 12 million tonnes no longer being discarded is due to greater selectivity, versus how much of it comes from the fact that processing has improved and a larger proportion of catches are being effectively used,” said FAO. “Or do we simply now have much better data on selectivity and discards than before?”
The fact that we are seeing less waste is good news. But is this good news about discards masking some bad news too? Has increased use of previously discarded fish masked a decline in captures of conventional stocks? And how do natural fluctuations in fish abundance due to climatic conditions and natural lifecycles of fish populations play in? There are still a great many unknowns … Improved national monitoring of catches and more detailed reporting of catch composition and fish utilization is needed to get an accurate picture of the situation.”
Contact: George Kourous, Information Officer, FAO. Tel: +39 06 570 53168. E-mail.
Back to top
Greenland Ice Sheet “Likely To Be Eliminated” By Climate Change
“The Greenland ice-sheet would melt faster in a warmer climate and is likely to be eliminated — except for residual glaciers in the mountains — if the annual average temperature in Greenland increases by more than about 3° C. This could raise the global average sea-level by 7 metres over a period of 1,000 years or more.” So begins a paper in the journal Nature. [One degree Celsius is equivalent to 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit; one meter equals 1.094 yards]. The paper’s authors go on to argue that, by the year 2100, concentrations of greenhouse gases will have likely reached levels “that are sufficient to raise the temperature past this warming threshold.”
At present, notes the paper, “about half of the snow falling on Greenland melts and runs off as water, and the remainder is discharged in the form of icebergs. Climate change caused by higher greenhouse-gas concentrations is expected to produce both higher temperatures and greater precipitation, but most studies conclude that the increase in melting will outweigh the increase in snowfall. For an annual average warming of more than 2.7 °C, the melting exceeds the snowfall” — a situation in which, the authors observe, “the ice-sheet must contract, even if iceberg production is reduced to zero as it retreats from the coast.”
It has been predicted that a warming of 3 °C (5.4° F) would prompt a progressive retreat of the ice sheet over millennia, possibly reaching a steady state in an inland form. Greater temperature increases would result in more rapid and significant loss of the ice sheet.
Using methods deployed in the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the paper’s authors used climate models to calculate Greenland’s temperature rise under scenarios in which atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide stabilize at different levels. Temperature increase exceeded the 2.7° Celsius threshold in 34 of the 35 scenarios, although the authors note that calculations using summer warming (when the ice sheet is sensitive to temperature increase) rather than year-round warming could reduce that number to 24 out of 35.
Given that the lowest carbon dioxide concentration considered in the models was 450 parts per million (p.p.m.), and further given that (a) this level is exceeded by 2050 in all the IPCC’s emission scenarios, and (b) that carbon dioxide is not the only greenhouse gas, the authors conclude that the Greenland ice sheet “is likely to be eliminated by anthropogenic climate change unless much more substantial emission reductions are made than those envisaged by the IPCC …"
“Without the ice-sheet, the climate of Greenland would be much warmer because the land surface would be at a lower altitude and reflect less sunlight … Even if atmospheric composition and the global climate were to return to pre-industrial conditions, the ice-sheet might not be regenerated, which implies that the sea-level rise could be irreversible.”
Source: Gregory, J.M., et al. 2004. Threatened loss of the Greenland ice sheet. Nature 428: 616.
Contact: Jonathan M. Gregory, Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6BB, UK. E-mail.
Back to top
Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council Votes to Protect Deep-Sea Corals
In a move applauded by environmental organizations, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted in October to endorse a decision by its New England counterpart to protect deep-sea coral communities in New England and mid-Atlantic submarine canyons from monkfish bottom trawling gear.
The amendment bans fishing for monkfish by bottom trawling and gill-netting in the Oceanographer and Lydonia canyons, where marine scientists have identified and studied large deep-sea coral communities. The decision also limits the size of the bottom trawling roller gear and rockhopper gear on the mouth of the nets to no more than six inches in diameter in the submarine canyon areas off the shores of the mid-Atlantic states known as the “southern management area” of the monkfish fishery.
The bottom-trawling ban is seen as a proactive measure since there is currently no significant fishing activity along the canyon walls where most of the coral is thought to be located. However, experts say fishers are being pushed farther offshore after exhausting shallow areas of the fisheries and could eventually develop technologies that allow them to harvest fish from the sensitive canyon areas.
The environmental group Oceana lauded the proactive nature of the decision, praising the two councils for “setting the example for other fishery management councils around the nation to make similar decisions.” Said Dave Allison of Oceana: “We urge the North Pacific and Pacific regional fishery management councils to swiftly develop fishery management plans that protect deep-sea corals and other essential fish habitat in deep ocean canyons from destructive bottom trawling gear.”
Peter Auster, director of the New England Fishery Management Council’s Habitat Plan Development Team, said that the decision was consistent with the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy’s recommendation that fisheries be managed according to an ecosystem-based model that relies upon natural boundaries rather than political jurisdictions. He said it moved the council closer to ecosystem-based management by “recognizing the importance of habitat components that are easily disturbed by humans and that may take centuries to recover.”
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s decision must be approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service in Washington, D.C., and will go into effect for the 2005 monkfish fishery.
Contact: Daniel Furlong, Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. Tel: (302) 674 2331, ex. 19. E-mail.
Back to the top
New Book Evaluates, Advocates Marine Reserves
“Conventional fishery management practices have failed to prevent the collapse of numerous fish stocks around the world. Amid growing concern about our ability to protect marine biodiversity and ecosystem integrity, scientists and managers alike are seeking alternative management tools. One of the most promising of those is no-take marine reserves—areas of the sea where all consumptive use of natural resources is prohibited.” So argues a new book, Marine Reserves: A Guide to Science, Design, and Use. The book builds on concepts initially generated at a 1995 workshop on the Global Experience and Efficacy of Marine Reserves, and on the expanded experience, research and evidence for their effectiveness accumulated in the decade of additional research since.
The book makes a point of noting what marine reserves can not do, at least in and of themselves: for example, redress or mitigate issues of pollution, coastal development, or global change. But it argues that reserves can play a significant role in protecting marine fish and habitat from the direct impacts of destructive fishing practices, and in the process improve fishery yields, enhance non-consumptive opportunities, and expand knowledge and understanding of marine ecosystems.
In a preface, lead author Jack Sobel acknowledges that marine reserves “remain controversial and contentious in many places and among some stakeholders, despite, and in some cases because of, the considerable progress made to date in many areas with the participation of many stakeholders. In the United States, there has been some backlash within certain user communities to the successful establishment of marine reserves in the Florida Keys and Channel Islands. Yet, in the long run, we believe that the resulting public debate on marine reserves will be a net benefit, and that recent progress on marine reserve science, design, and use will continue and likely accelerate further …
“Human alteration of marine ecosystems and their living inhabitants continues to accelerate and expand, but increased public awareness of such anthropogenic change and related changes in societal values and ethics offer some hope for the oceans’ future. These two factors, combined with the continued failure of other existing management tools to successfully address the former and adapt to or reflect the latter, fuel our belief that the use of marine reserves will continue to advance. Marine reserves and the debate about their use are at least as much about societal goals, values, and ethics related to marine resource use as their science and design, though debate over the latter often masks more fundamental disagreement over the former. Nonetheless, such discord will likely ameliorate somewhat as the needs of ecosystem protection and more traditional fisheries management increasingly converge.”
Source: Sobel, J., and C. Dahlgren. 2004. Marine Reserves: A Guide to Science, Design, and Use. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 336 pp.
Contact: Evan Johnson, Island Press. Tel: (202) 232 7933, x. 24. E-mail; Jack Sobel, The Ocean Conservancy, (202) 429-5609. E-mail.
Back to the top
For further information on SeaWeb, or for print copies of Ocean Update, please write to SeaWeb, 1731 Connecticut Ave., NW, 4th Floor, Washington, D.C., 20009, or email us at contactus@seaweb.org. Send any information, articles, press releases and ideas for inclusion in future issues to the editor: Kieran Mulvaney.
|
|
| October 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 8
| October 2004 – Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 8
Recreational Fishing Rivals Commercial Fisheries in Depleting Fish Stocks, Says Paper
Recreational catches account for nearly a quarter of the total take of over-fished populations in U.S. waters, including many of the most economically valuable species such as red snapper, red drum, lingcod, and bocaccio. This according to a recent study in the journal Science. Indeed, for some depleted populations in the U.S., recreational landings outstrip commercial landings, says the study. Examples cited in the paper include red snapper (59% of the catch by recreational fishers) and gag (56%) in the Gulf of Mexico, red drum in the South Atlantic (93%), and bocaccio on the Pacific coast (87%).
“The conventional wisdom is that recreational fishing is a small proportion of the total take, so it is largely overlooked,” says lead author Felicia Coleman of Florida State University. “But if you remove the fish caught and used for fish sticks and fishmeal (pollock and menhaden) – two strictly commercially caught species that account for over half of all U.S. landings – the recreational take rises to 10% nationally. And if you focus in on the populations identified by the Federal government as species of concern, it rises to 23%.”
The study is the first comprehensive analysis of the impact of recreational saltwater fishing in the U.S. Using all available federal and state data, the authors formally compared commercial and recreational landings for the past 22 years - first for all federally managed fish, and then for species of concern (species officially classified by the National Marine Fisheries Service as “over-fished” or “experiencing over-fishing”), both nationally and regionally.
At the regional level, recreational catches for these species of concern made up 64% of landings in the Gulf of Mexico, 38% in the South Atlantic, 59% along the Pacific Coast, and 12% in the Northeast in 2002.
“With over ten million saltwater recreational anglers in the U.S., and recreational fishing activity growing as much as 20% in the last 10 years, their aggregate impact is far from benign,” says coauthor Will Figueira of Duke University, currently at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia. “Recreational anglers are operating below the radar screen of management. While the individual may take relatively few fish, we show that a few fish per person times millions of fishermen can have an enormous impact.” If anything, adds co-author Larry Crowder of Duke University, the study’s results “likely underestimate the true impact of recreational fishing because we did not include fish that are discarded at sea or die from the effects of catch-and-release fishing.”
Recreational fishing targets large, top-level predatory fish in the ocean. Removal of these fish can cause dramatic changes in ocean food webs through cascading effects, altering structure, function, and productivity of marine ecosystems. In addition, some fish populations have dropped to such low numbers that they have been considered for placement on the threatened and endangered species lists, including bocaccio (a rockfish) on the Pacific coast which is primarily caught in recreational fisheries; and Goliath grouper, which is currently protected in the southeastern U.S., but is still targeted by catch-and-release.
While the cumulative impact of commercial fishers is constrained by limits on who, where, when and how much fish they can catch, there are no controls on the aggregate impact of recreational fishers. Current management of saltwater recreational fisheries focuses primarily on the individual fisherman — setting limits on the number and size of fish one can bring in — without restricting the number of people allowed to fish. Approximately 40% of coastal states do not even require salt-water recreational fishing licenses. No states require a license for people younger than 16, and few require it for anyone fishing from shore.
“In some ways, recreational fishing is where commercial fishing was 20 years ago with very weak controls and rapidly increasing numbers of fishermen,” says Federal Ocean Commissioner Andrew Rosenberg, of the University of New Hampshire and former Deputy Director of NMFS. “The challenge is to come up with new ways to balance the increase in the number of people fishing with the need to reduce the number of fish caught and killed. The stocks can’t sustain the increasing pressure and the only way to ensure we will have fish in the future is to leave more in the water now.”
“Recreational fishing is important to many people,” says Coleman. “For some it’s a way to commune with nature, for others it fulfills a deep desire to hunt. But if folks want to continue recreational fishing, we all need to support management of both commercial and recreational fisheries that will allow fish populations to recover and protect the structure and function of marine systems.”
Source: Coleman, F.C., et al. 2004. The impact of United States recreational fisheries on marine fish populations. Science Express 26 August 2004 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1100397]
Contact: Felicia Coleman, Florida State University. Tel: (850) 644 2019. Cell: (850) 545 2841. E-mail. A copy of the paper and related materials can be found at http://www.bio.fsu.edu/us_landings/
Back to the top
Old Maternal Rockfish Produce More and “Better” Offspring Than Younger Females, Says Study
“Relative body size has long been recognized as a factor influencing reproductive success in fishes, but maternal age has only recently been considered.” So begins a recent paper in the journal Ecology. The paper’s authors “monitored growth and starvation resistance in larvae from 20 female black rockfish (Sebastes melanops), ranging in age from five to 17 years. Larvae from the oldest females in our experiments had growth rates more than three times as fast and survived starvation more than twice as long as larvae from the youngest females. Female age was a far better predictor of larval performance than female size.”
The most significant physiological difference between the larvae born to older females and those from younger fish was that the former “provision their larvae with significantly larger oil globules”—small droplets that serve as metabolic reserves after the yolk sac has been absorbed. The paper notes that: “The volume of the oil globule present in larvae at parturition increases with maternal age and is correlated with subsequent growth and survival. These results suggest that progeny from older females can survive under a broader range of environmental conditions compared to progeny from younger females.”
This discovery adds to concern over the fact that there is an apparent precipitous decline in older age classes of rockfish: for example, off the coast of Oregon, the paper’s authors note a decline in the mean age of mature females between 1996 and 2000 from 9.3 years to 7.4 years.
The authors conclude: “These findings have important ramifications for management of marine fish populations. Current management paradigms for a broad array of species assume that all larvae, regardless of parental age, have an equal probability of survival. Results of our experiments suggest that this assumption is not true for black rockfish. Comparable effects of maternal age on progeny quality are evident in haddock and Atlantic cod, unrelated species with very different reproductive strategies than the live-bearing rockfish we studied, suggesting a broad generality to such age effects. Age truncation induced by removing large fish via fishing can, therefore, have a much greater impact on the reproductive capacity of a population than the simple reduction in biomass of mature females. Maintaining a significant proportion of older fish may be critical to long-term replenishment and stability in exploited fish populations.”
To this end, a paper in the journal Fisheries, with the same lead author as the Ecology study, advocates the adoption of marine reserves, which have “the potential to allow at least a segment of the population to age naturally and export larvae produced by a broad age range of female spawners. These benefits are not limited to rockfishes, but would apply more generally to other groundfish as long as the adults tend to stay in the reserve … We believe that the implementation of such spatially explicit management tools, combined with conventional approaches, is essential for the replenishment and sustainability of groundfish stocks.”
Sources: Berkeley, S.A., et al. 2004. Maternal age as a determinant of larval growth and survival in a marine fish, Sebastes melanops. Ecology, 85(5), 2004, pp. 1258–1264; Berkeley, S.A., et al. 2004. Fisheries sustainability via protection of age structure and spatial distribution of fish populations. Fisheries 29(8): 23-32.
Contact: Steven A. Berkeley, Long Marine Lab, University of California, Santa Cruz. E-mail.
Back to the top
Subsistence Hunting Levels Must Be Reduced, or West Greenland Belugas Will Become Extinct, Says Study
Beluga numbers in West Greenland have declined considerably over the past half century and will continue to decline, with extinction a near-certainty, unless subsistence catches are reduced significantly, according to a recent paper in the ICES Journal of Marine Science.
The beluga has long been part of Inuit hunting culture, providing meat for humans and dogs and the nutritious layer of skin and blubber known as mattak in Greenland, and muktuk in North America. However, note the paper’s authors, in several areas where large-scale hunting has taken place (e.g. Svalbard; Cook Inlet, Alaska; Saint Lawrence river, Ungava Bay, East Hudson Bay, and Cumberland Sound, Canada), belugas have been reduced in numbers, or there has been a contraction in their range. In West Greenland, they continue, “the introduction of new hunting methods and the subsequent large catches is assumed to have resulted in the disappearance of belugas from most of the area south of 65oN. Apparently, the beluga[s] either abandoned some fjords where they were previously found in large numbers or the fraction of the population with affinity for these fjords were eliminated through over-harvesting. Indeed, belugas are no longer found in many areas where they were harvested during their seasonal migrations.”
The authors examined catch totals since 1954 and current population estimates derived from aerial surveys, and concluded that, with a total of approximately 7,900 animals, there is a 95% probability that the population is less than or equal to 38% of its size in 1954. Furthermore, they extrapolate that, with a catch of 1,000 whales per year, there is “a 99% probability that the population will be extinct in 20 years. At the actual catch level (around 700 animals), the estimated probability of extinction is 90% after 20 years, and 99% after 50 years. A catch of 100 animals shows a small probability (3%) of extinction after 50 years.”
The authors recommend a steady reduction in catch, until a point in the near future where the catch of belugas is no more than 200, and is conducted in tandem with surveys which project population levels five years into the future and adjust the catch accordingly.
Source: Alvarez-Flores, C.M., and M.P. Heide-Jørgensen. 2004. A risk assessment of the sustainability of the harvest of beluga (Delphinapterus leucas (Pallas 1776)) in West Greenland. ICES Journal of Marine Science 61: 274-286.
Contact: Carlos M. Alvarez-Flores, School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington. E-mail.
Back to the top
Climate Change Affecting Plankton Distribution, Marine Ecosystems, in Atlantic: Study
“Not only do plankton provide food for marine mammals and commercially important fish, they also play a fundamental role in the functioning of marine ecosystems by providing half the global primary production and contributing substantially to biogeochemical cycling. How global climate change might affect biological communities such as marine plankton is therefore a matter for concern. There is evidence of climate-mediated biogeographical shifts among some groups of marine plankton such as the calanoid copepods, but the overall response of phytoplankton and zooplankton communities, which is likely to depend on the form and strength of the linkages between successive trophic levels, is not known. Until we understand these processes, we will not know how resilient such food webs are to global-scale impacts, such as climate change, eutrophication, pollution, or over-fishing, and it will be difficult to manage marine resources sustainably.” So begins a recent paper in the journal Science.
Using a considerable data set of 115,322 samples collected in the North Atlantic between 1958 and 2002 by a system known as the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR), the paper’s authors sought to establish a correlation between phytoplankton abundance and sea surface temperature, and changes as a result of warming temperatures. They found that phytoplankton abundance increases as cooler regions of the North Atlantic warm, but decreases in already-warm regions that become warmer still.
By way of explanation, the authors hypothesize: “In cooler waters with relatively strong turbulence and plentiful nutrients, it is likely that warming will boost phytoplankton metabolic rates as well as increase stratification, both processes leading to increased phytoplankton abundance. In warmer, more stratified waters with limited nutrients, it is likely that warming may reduce total phytoplankton abundance (at least of large cells), because increased heating can enhance existing stratification, reducing the availability of nutrients to phytoplankton and leading to a microbial-dominated community.”
The study also noted an increase of approximately one degree Fahrenheit in sea surface temperature in southern regions of the research area since 1958, which is between one quarter and one eighth of the total increase in the Northeast Atlantic predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by 2100. The paper concludes: “Our findings suggest that any effects of such climate change will have an impact on phytoplankton, copepod herbivores, and zooplankton carnivores, thereby affecting ecosystem services, such as oxygen production, carbon sequestration, and biogeochemical cycling. Although the direct consequences of these changes for fisheries are not clear, it seems inevitable that fish, seabirds, and marine mammals will need to adapt to a changing spatial distribution of primary and secondary production within pelagic marine ecosystems.”
Source: Richardson, A.J., and D.S. Schoeman. 2004. Climate impact on plankton ecosystems in the Northeast Atlantic. Science 305: 1609-1612.
Contact: Anthony J. Richardson, Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science, Plymouth, United Kingdom. E-mail.
Back to the top
New York Aquarium’s Annual “Dinner on the Sea” Honors SeaWeb President Vikki Spruill
Congratulations to Vikki Spruill, President of SeaWeb, for being awarded the 2004 Conservation Award by the New York Aquarium. The award was presented during its annual fundraising event, "Dinner on the Sea," in September. Proceeds from the event benefited the diverse Pre-K through 12th grade programs offered by the Aquarium's Educaton Department to students throughout New York City, training programs that reach more than 800 teachers, and outreach programs to underserved populations such as pediatric hospitals and senior centers.
Back to the top
For further information on SeaWeb, or for print copies of Ocean Update, please write to SeaWeb, 1731 Connecticut Ave., NW, 4th Floor, Washington, D.C., 20009, or email us at contactus@seaweb.org. Send any information, articles, press releases and ideas for inclusion in future issues to the editor: Kieran Mulvaney.
|
|
| September 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 7
| September 2004 – Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 7
Commission Beats Back Efforts to Approve Commercial Whaling, Overturn Sanctuaries; But Movement Toward Full-Scale Resumption of Commercial Whaling Gathers Momentum
The 56th Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), held in Sorrento, Italy, in July, rejected a proposal by Japan to overturn the ten-year-old Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and establish a five-year commercial whaling quota of 2,914 minke whales annually. But it was one of the few victories for environmentalists and anti-whaling governments, as pro-whaling forces continued to push the Commission toward a return to full-scale commercial whaling.
Japan, the leading pro-whaling nation in the IWC, is pushing for rapid adoption of the Revised Management Scheme (RMS), a package of measures which have been developed over the past decade as a way of managing and controlling commercial whaling should the Commission elect to lift its indefinite commercial whaling moratorium, which has been in effect since 1986. Japan is insisting that adoption of the RMS be linked to an immediate lifting of the moratorium, a stance which anti-whaling members reject.
At the heart of the RMS is the Revised Management Procedure, or RMP, a scientific protocol for calculating catch limits. Some environmental organizations have supported the RMP as presently constituted, on the grounds that it is highly conservative and, if adopted, would result in such small quotas that commercial whaling would not be commercially viable. However, because of opposition by other environmentalists, the RMP has not been formally agreed, and at the Sorrento meeting, Norway urged that the RMP’s parameters be altered to make it less conservative and much more likely to produce larger quotas.
In recent years, pro-whaling forces have been making ground within the IWC, due to the recruitment of small, predominantly island, states: a direct result, environmentalists and some governments charge, of those countries being given fisheries or other development aid by Japan. Since 2000, Guinea, Morocco, Panama, Benin, Gabon, Palau, Mongolia, Belize, Iceland, Nicaragua, Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritania, Suriname, and Tuvalu have all joined the Commission on the pro-whaling side; in contrast, only Portugal, San Marino, Belgium, and Hungary have joined the IWC and supported a conservationist stance in that period.
The next meeting of the IWC will be in Ulsan, South Korea in 2005; the 2006 meeting will be in St. Kitts (a Caribbean island nation that also supports Japan). Japan has said it expects progress on the RMS to be complete by the St. Kitts meeting, although it has not said what actions it will take if that does not happen.
Contact: Daniel J. Morast, International Wildlife Coalition. E-mail.
Back to the top
Dolphin Calves Use “Drafting” To Keep Up With Mothers; By Separating Adults and Young, Tuna Fishing May Add to Mortality
Researchers have long speculated as to how dolphin calves are able to keep up with their fast-swimming mothers. One favored theory has been that they employ “drafting,” defined as “the transfer of forces between individuals without actual physical contact between them.” Through theoretical analysis and observations of free-swimming dolphins, a new study in the Journal of Biology has demonstrated the existence and importance of drafting.
The study shows that two major effects are involved. “First, the so-called Bernoulli suction, which stems from the fact that the local pressure drops in areas of high speed, results in an attractive force between mother and calf. Second is the displacement effect, in which the motion of the mother causes the water in front to move forwards and radially outwards, and water behind the body to move forwards to replace the animal’s mass. Thus, the calf can gain a ‘free ride’ in the forward-moving areas.” In theory, the study notes, a calf can gain up to 90% of the thrust needed to keep up with its mother; in practice, the gain is something like 60%.
As an article in the same issue of the Journal of Biology emphasizes, this relationship is placed at severe risk by the practice of yellowfin tuna fleets in the Eastern Pacific of setting purse-seine nets around dolphin schools in order to capture the tuna that swim beneath them. In the process, adult dolphins attempting to flee encirclement frequently become separated from their offspring; it is therefore entirely possible, the author notes, that even the calves which escape being encircled suffer from greater fatigue, and are less able to keep up with their mothers and thus become more susceptible to later mortality.
Sources: Moore, P. 2004. Examining dolphin hydrodynamics provides clues to calf-loss during tuna fishing. Journal of Biology 3(2): 6.1-6.5; Weihs, D. 2004. The hydrodynamics of dolphin drafting. Journal of Biology 3(2): 8.1-8.16.
Contact: Daniel Weihs, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel. E-mail.
Back to the top
Albatross Populations Threatened by Disease, Says Study
The greatest risk to bird life of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean is generally considered to be posed by commercial fisheries, and in particular the danger of becoming ensnared on long-line hooks. However, a recent paper suggests that avian disease outbreaks, while never previously confirmed in that part of the world, may be at least as significant a factor in the declines of at least some albatross populations.
Amsterdam Island, a remote island in the southern Indian Ocean, is home to the only population of the critically-endangered Amsterdam albatross, and also to a large population of yellow-nosed albatrosses. Over the last 20 years, this latter population has halved in size, from 37,000 to 18,000 pairs. This decline has generally been ascribed to long line fisheries – and indeed, yellow-nosed albatross are known to be caught in long lines off Australia and South Africa. However, the paper’s author argues that “there has been a tendency to attribute decrease of albatross populations to long-line fishing whereas very few studies so far have tried to estimate the potential effect of long-lining on the dynamics of populations affected by this type of fishery … For example, on Amsterdam, yellow-nosed albatrosses have suffered heavy mortalities of chicks during their first weeks of life that cannot be attributed to long-line fishing at sea, suggesting that other factors might be involved in the population decrease.”
During observations of a colony of approximately 100 pairs of yellow-nosed albatross one month after hatching, the author and his colleagues observed that “31 healthy well-fed chicks died within a few minutes after convulsions, apparently from a disease that spread progressively between neighboring nests, and from low to high altitude in the colonies … Laboratory analyses of 25 individuals (21 chicks and 4 adults) found dead under these circumstances … indicate that 2 chicks were infected by the bacterium Erysipelothrix rhusiopathidae [and] four adults and the remaining chicks collected … were infected by the bacterium Pasteurella multicida, which is responsible for avian cholera.”
Meanwhile, although the population of Amsterdam albatross has increased since its discovery in the early 1980s, in recent years very high mortality in chicks has been observed, with 66% of chicks dying in 2000 and 74% in 2001. More recently, in 2003, high mortalities among chicks of sooty albatross have also been observed.
The autopsies and field studies, concludes the author, point strongly to avian cholera in particular being a major cause of early chick mortality in the albatross species on Amsterdam Island. This is of particular concern to the survival of the Amsterdam albatross, because of its extremely low numbers (20 pairs in 2003). Indeed, the author hypothesizes that one reason for the very small population might be that the species was previously more numerous, only to have been reduced to a few individuals by disease before beginning a slow recovery.
The author concludes: “The outbreak on Amsterdam Island may have been favored by the marked increase in temperature that has taken place in the Indian Ocean during the 1970s, since host-parasite relationships are predicted to experience more frequent or severe disease impacts with global warming. But infection might also be the result of a contamination by poultry, which have been present on Amsterdam Island since the early 1960s. Avian cholera is known to be widespread in poultry, and was present on Réunion Island from where poultry was introduced to Amsterdam. Today, most research stations in the subantarctic have curtailed the import of poultry products, and poultry have been removed. Now that cholera and other pathogens have reached and established on Amsterdam, the removal of poultry there would not solve the current problem, but at least would reduce the risk of novel introductions …"
“In Antarctica, exploitation of marine resources and associated mortality of seabirds has been the major cause for concern for the conservation status of seabirds. Effects of climate changes at various trophic levels or as catalysers of epizootics, but especially infectious diseases, might be in the future a major threat for the Southern Ocean environment where ecosystems have evolved in isolation.”
Source: Weimerskirch, H. 2004. Diseases threaten Southern Ocean albatrosses. Polar Biology 27: 374-379.
Contact: Henri Weimerskirch, Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, UPR 1934 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 79360 Villiers en Bois, France. E-mail.
Back to the top
Paper Reviews Disease and Immunity in Caribbean and Indo-Pacific Coral Reefs
“Coral reefs are in severe decline. The most reliable estimates suggest that worldwide 27% have already been lost, with another 16% at serious risk of loss. Coral disease is thought to be a major cause for this decline.” So begins a recent review in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.
The review notes that epizootics “have been reported for several coral species,” and that “evidence is mounting of substantial declines in the biodiversity and abundance of reef-building corals worldwide. Within the Caribbean, populations of elkhorn and staghorn corals, Acropora palmata and A. cervicornis, are being decimated by disease, with losses of A. palmata in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) averaging 87% or greater.”
Coral disease, says the review, is “becoming more widespread. The first coral disease was reported in 1965 and during the subsequent 3 decades, only 4 new diseases were reported. Beginning in the mid-1990s, reports of novel coral diseases increased worldwide, and by 2002, 13 new diseases were described. In the FKNMS, number of locations exhibiting disease increased from 26 to 131 stations (404% increase) and number of coral species exhibiting disease increased from 11 to 36 (218% increase) between 1996 and 2000. These disease increases parallel a 37% decline in living coral over the same time period and at the same stations.”
The review goes on to observe: “Accumulating evidence suggests that human activity in the watershed may be causally related to coral decline. Increases in the number of both new diseases and species affected may be directly linked to human-induced alterations in coral reef environments both in terms of land-based sources of pollution as well as global climate change issues such as global warming.” However, much remains to be learned. “Knowledge of coral disease reservoirs, transmission, pathogenesis, and epizootiology is limited, and significant advances remain to be made in the field of coral immunology.”
Source: Sutherland, K.P., et al. 2004. Disease and immunity in Caribbean and Indo-Pacific zooxanthellate corals. Marine Ecology Progress Series 266: 273-302.
Contact: Kathryn P. Sutherland, Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, 1033 Green Street, Athens, Georgia 30602. E-mail.
Back to the top
Fishing Lines Involved in Coral Death: Study
“Fishing gear used in coral reef areas is known to cause direct physical damage to the reef substratum. Gill nets, fish traps, and anchors break coral branches directly or cause coral death through entanglement. Lost or discarded monofilament fishing lines, along with other marine debris such as fishing nets and plastic ropes, have been reported to entangle marine wildlife such as seals, sea lions, turtles, and sea birds. Only a few studies, however, have documented monofilament fishing lines as a cause of coral damage and death.” So begins a study of the effect of such monofilament lines on coral reefs, published in a recent issue of the journal Biological Conservation.
The study notes that: “When cast fishing lines catch corals by their lead sinkers and steel hooks, they are often cut off at the reel. Cut, lost, and discarded lines, swept by surge action, entangle corals and abrade their polyps and upper tissue layers. Corals are capable of recovering from small lesions; however, when a damaged area is large, or physical damage occurs frequently, recovery may be difficult.”
In an attempt to quantify possible damage, the study’s authors conducted a sample of 16 random squares at the Kaka’ako Waterfront State Recreation Area, Kewalo, Honolulu, a popular cast fishing spot at the south shore of Oahu, Hawaii. In these 16 sample squares, the authors counted 129 colonies of cauliflower coral Pocillopora meandrina. Sixty-five percent of coral colonies had fishing lines on their surface. Sixty-four percent of colonies were entirely dead, and 17% were partially dead. The percent of totally or partially dead colonies was positively correlated with the percentage of colonies entangled with fishing lines; in colonies with fishing lines, percent dead area was positively correlated with percent area of fishing lines.
The study noted that very few large colonies were without fishing lines, suggesting that entanglement is almost inevitable as a colony grows. Furthermore, the paper’s authors suggest that their figures may be underestimates, as fishing lines on corals become encrusted with corraline algae, making their detection difficult.
In conclusion, the paper’s authors argue that reefs “should be protected not only from the ecosystem effects of removal of fish, but also from damages caused by unsuccessful fishing that results in entanglement of fishing lines around coral colonies. Coral reef areas accessible to shore fishermen may be limited and destructive effect of fishing lines may not be a major threat to the coral populations in general; however, the aesthetics and local population abundance are severely impacted. Establishment of conservation measures, such as limitation of fishing in heavily visited sites, is an important issue for the maintenance of local reef appearance.”
Source: Yoshikawa, T., and K. Azoe. 2004. Entanglement of monofilament fishing lines and coral death. Biological Conservation 117: 557-560.
Contact: Tomoko Yoshikawa, Department of Zoology, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Tel: (808) 956 4712; Fax: (808) 956 9812. E-mail.
Back to the top
For further information on SeaWeb, or for print copies of Ocean Update, please write to: SeaWeb, 1731 Connecticut Ave., NW, 4th Floor, Washington, D.C., 20009, or emails us at contactus@seaweb.org. Send any information, articles, press releases and ideas for inclusion in future issues to the editor: Kieran Mulvaney. |
|
| August 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 6
| July/August 2004 – Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 6
US Proposes Delay in Protection of Beluga Sturgeon
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed allowing continued importation of beluga caviar into the US for at least nine months, and thereafter if certain conditions are met. The US is the single largest importer of beluga caviar, the eggs of the beluga sturgeon. Concerned groups, arguing that the species is severely depleted, have campaigned for years for caviar importation to be halted until the species recovers.
“We are enormously disappointed in the government’s decision to allow
continued imports of the eggs of this critically depleted species,” said Lisa Speer, senior policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), one of the co-founders of Caviar Emptor. “An immediate ban on the import of beluga products is essential if beluga sturgeon are to be rescued from extinction.”
For more than three years, Caviar Emptor, a coalition of organizations
working in collaboration with scientists, chefs and connoisseurs, has called for an immediate and long-lasting ban on US imports of beluga caviar as a way to protect the beluga sturgeon from extinction. In 2000, Caviar Emptor petitioned the US Fish and Wildlife Service to list the fish as endangered under the US Endangered Species Act. Two years later, NRDC sued the government for failing to act on the petition within the required deadlines; later that year, and in response to the lawsuit, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced a proposal to list beluga sturgeon as an endangered species. This proposal was met with overwhelming support from 50 leading US scientists, 200 chefs, and thousands of individuals around the world. It received a total of 4,257 public comments, all but 14 of which were supportive. One Caspian Sea nation, Azerbaijan, also endorsed the action. Finally, in 2004, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced officially that it would list the species as “threatened,” one step short of “endangered.”
“The ongoing inaction and delay will only serve to accelerate the clearly evident decline in the species,” said Dr. Ellen Pikitch, the lead scientist for Caviar Emptor and executive director of the University of Miami’s Pew Institute for Ocean Science. In her recent review of data from the Caspian Sea, Dr. Pikitch concluded that the beluga sturgeon numbers had fallen by 39 percent from 2001 to 2002. In total, the beluga sturgeon population has declined by an estimated 90 percent during the past 20 years, and many researchers believe few mature beluga remain.
“Given the government’s inaction, there is an even greater need for consumer action,” said Vikki Spruill, president of SeaWeb and a co-founder of Caviar Emptor. “It’s absolutely in bad taste to eat the eggs of a fish that is in such dire straits, especially when there are alternatives, such as the environmentally friendly American caviars.”
Beluga caviar is one of the world’s most valuable wildlife commodities. In addition to the demand for its caviar, habitat loss and pollution have contributed to the decline of the species.
For Further Information: Steven Capazolla, Seaweb. Tel: (202) 483 9570. E-mail.
Back to the top
Report Examines Biology, Ecology, Conservation of Cold-Water Coral Reefs
The existence of coral reefs in warm, shallow waters of the tropics and subtropics is well known. Far less well known are cold-water corals, which are found throughout the world’s seas: in fjords, along the edge of the continental shelf, and around offshore submarine banks and seamounts. Although their existence has been known for centuries, it is only within the past decade or so that, thanks to technological advances, it has been possible for researchers to study them in their natural environment. A new report by the United Nations Environment Program World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC) provides an overview of these reefs’ biology, ecology, distribution, threats, and status.
The report notes that, living “without light and in relatively nutrient-rich seawater, cold-water coral ecosystems function in a very different way from shallow-water coral systems. Cold-water corals, living at depth in the dark, have no light-dependent symbiotic algae (marine plants) and therefore depend on the supply of current-transported particulate organic matter and zooplankton for their food. To capture the food efficiently, many cold-water corals produce tree-like branching structures supporting colonies of polyps sharing a common calcium carbonate frame.” The report further observes that: “The most spectacular reefs are constructed by stony corals down to depths of several hundred meters below sea level. These stony corals form colonies that vary tremendously in size from small, scattered colonies no more than a few meters in diameter to vast reef complexes measuring several tens of kilometers across.”
Sadly, the report continues, “as we expand our understanding of the distribution, biological dynamics and rich biodiversity of cold-water ecosystems, we are also gathering evidence that shows clearly that these vulnerable ecosystems are being damaged by human activities. Undoubtedly, the greatest and most irreversible damage is due to the increasing intensity of deep-water trawling that relies on the deployment of heavy gear which ‘steamrollers’ over the sea floor. There is also concern about the potential effects of oil and gas exploration, in particular the potentially smothering effects of drill cuttings.”
It concludes: “Cold-water coral reefs have recently become an important topic on the political agenda of various national and international bodies due to the realization that many of the most spectacular examples discovered so far could be gone in less than a generation… if we do not act quickly. Cold-water coral reefs are out of sight – but no longer out of mind.”
Source: Freiwald, A., et al. 2004. Cold-water Coral Reefs. UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge, UK.
For Further Information: The report is available online at http://www.ourplanet.com/wcmc/pdfs/Cold-waterCoralReefs.pdf
Back to the top
Whalewatching Requires More Uniform Regulation, Says Study
“From small beginnings in California in the 50s, whalewatching has grown into a major tourist activity, and one that is evidently capable of delivering substantial socioeconomic benefits to the many communities around the world in which it takes place. It has also been advocated as a potent tool for the conservation of whales, particularly as a non-extractive alternative to whaling. Yet there are also widespread concerns that this recreational activity may have serious impacts on the animals being watched.” So opens a new overview on the whalewatching industry, published in the journal Annals of Tourism Research.
The review notes that in 1990, the total number of participants in commercial whalewatching worldwide was calculated to be 2 million, while by 1999 this had risen to an estimated 9 million. Whalewatching took place in 87 countries in 1999, more than twice the number at the beginning of the decade.
However, one concern about this growing enterprise is the potential for harm to the cetaceans being watched. Vessels may approach close enough to cause stress to the whales or dolphins concerned, or, as has been known to happen, even so close as to cause physical injury. In other cases, some operators encourage swimming with cetaceans, or even feeding them.
As a result of such practices and concerns, many countries and communities have adopted formalized regulations to govern the activities of commercial whalewatching ventures. However, the rules established by these regulations are inconsistent and implementation is often patchy. The review’s author suggests that a more productive approach may be the establishment of an industry-wide, semi-formal code of conduct, which would lay down specific, consistent standards of behavior that could be “used to fill the regulatory void while formal national regulations are being formulated and implemented.”
The review notes that, as a result of the growth of whalewatching, a “live whale is now worth more than a dead whale.” It concludes: “The voluntary approach is increasingly being accepted as the best regulatory way forward. Therefore, what needs to be done is to find ways to maximize the benefits of the voluntary approach while avoiding its many pitfalls. Perhaps the best means of achieving this would be wider sharing of knowledge and experience. Tour operators, local communities, NGOs, and cetacean scientists all have critical roles to play in this process. By sharing what actually works and what does not, those responsible for whalewatching codes of conduct may be able to move progressively towards an internationally recognized code, based on sound scientific advice, implemented locally and completely owned by its various stakeholders.”
Source: Garrod, B., and D.A. Fennel. 2004. An analysis of whalewatching codes of conduct. Annals of Tourism Research. 31(2): 334-352.
Contact: Brian Garrod, University of Wales. E-mail.
Back to the top
New Book Examines Maine’s “Lobster Coast”
The traditional fishing villages of the Gulf of Maine are among the oldest European settlements in the United States; most of them have been inhabited for more than 400 years, and one of them, the island of Monhegan, is the oldest continually inhabited such community in the country. For centuries, these communities have sought to resist and repel pressure from outside forces seeking access to the Gulf’s most valuable resource, the American lobster. In his new book, The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier, journalist Colin Woodard notes that Maine “has vigorously defended its icon from outside intrusion. It’s illegal to touch, molest, or possess an undersized lobster, unless … you have the proper permits. From 1941 to 1973, it was illegal to sell or even possess a crawfish, langouste, or spiny lobster—fresh, frozen, or otherwise—within the state of Maine. This official effort to ban the lobster’s competition was eventually challenged by the Maine Restaurant Association, which got the state legislature to change the law. Another state law banning the importation of picked lobster meat from other states was overturned in 1968 by a panel of federal judges who declared the measure unconstitutional. However, the industry has run such successful promotion campaigns that virtually any Homarus americanus caught anywhere from North Carolina to Newfoundland winds up being marketed as “Maine lobster.”
Perhaps surprisingly, notes Woodard, lobster landings in the Gulf of Maine have remained robust, despite significant growth in the number of lobstermen and in the size and number of their boats. Not least, it seems, this may be an accidental consequence of the inefficiency of the fishing gear: video taken by a scientific researcher with the University of New Hampshire showed lobsters, in Woodard’s words, “happily wandering in and out of the traps at will.” The researcher postulated that lobstermen catch the lobsters that just happen to be in the traps at the time. One of the reasons the lobster resource is so healthy, suggests Woodard, “may be that Maine lobstermen are, in effect, ranching lobsters: raising them at feeding stations and occasionally harvesting some of the herd.”
There are other factors, too, Woodard notes, not the least of which is oceanography, including an apparent change in ocean currents in the late 1980s, which has resulted in more larvae being delivered to their nursery grounds. Either way, observes Woodard, it “appears that lobsters and lobstermen may have reached a complicated symbiosis, one with few precedents in the postindustrial world, but with many antecedents going back to the dawn of human history. If the symbiosis can be preserved, large numbers of both lobsters and lobstermen could be around for a very long time to come.”
Source: Woodard, C. 2004. The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier. New York: Viking, 372pp.
Contact: Zaidee B. Rose. Tel: (212) 366 2225. Fax: (212) 366 2952. E-mail.
Back to the top
Blue Vision Conference Helps Launch “Seaweed Rebellion.”
“They call themselves seaweed rebels, their logo an upraised fistful of the stuff that almost militantly declares the oceans an issue that the United States can no longer handle in half measures.” So reads the opening paragraph from one of a series of articles in the Naples (Florida) Daily News, reporting on the coming together of some 250 grassroots marine activists from 170 coastal and ocean organizations for the Blue Vision Conference that took place July 11-13, in Washington DC.
Watermen and women from more than 25 states including Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico heard presentations by ocean conservationists like Peter Benchley, Philippe Cousteau, Congressman Sam Farr, and members of two major ocean commissions. The conferees also heard from top officials in the Bush and Kerry campaigns on what they plan to do to protect America’s public seas, and met with Senators, members of Congress and others about the need for a comprehensive, solution-oriented American Oceans Act that, like the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts of the last century, can help protect and restore our living seas. Among the many panel speakers was Mike Boots of Seaweb’s Seafood Choices campaign.
Contact: David Helvarg, Blue Vision Conference. E-mail.
Back to the top
Dr. Jane Lubchenco Elected To Royal Society
SeaWeb board member Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Valley Professor of Marine Biology and Distinguished Professor of Zoology at Oregon State University, has been elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London, the national academy of science for the United Kingdom. The Fellowship of the Royal Society is composed of about 1240 members and 125 Foreign Members who are among the most distinguished scientists in the world.
The Royal Society was founded in 1660. Current Members include Francis Crick, Richard Dawkins, and Stephen Hawking; previous Fellows include Isaac Newton, Christopher Wren, Charles Darwin, Ernest Rutherford and Dorothy Hodgkin. There are currently 25 Nobel Prize winners as Members and 43 Nobel laureates as Foreign Members.
SeaWeb and the Ocean Update would like to congratulate Dr. Lubchenco for this considerable honor.
Back to the top
For further information on SeaWeb, or for print copies of Ocean Update, please write to: SeaWeb, 1731 Connecticut Ave., NW, 4th Floor, Washington, D.C., 20009, or email us at contactus@seaweb.org. Send any information, articles, press releases and ideas for inclusion in future issues to the editor: Kieran Mulvaney,
|
|
| June 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 5
| June 2004 – Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 5
U.S. Ocean Commission Publishes Preliminary Report
“Living ocean and coastal resources, once thought to be boundless, have revealed their limits. Coastal areas are essential spawning, feeding, and nursery areas for over three quarters of U.S. commercial fish catches, however about 40,000 acres of coastal wetlands disappear yearly. Current projections indicate 50-60 percent of coral reefs may be lost during the next 30 years. Twelve billion tons of ballast water is shipped around the world each year, spreading alien and invasive species.” So notes a press release announcing publication of the Preliminary Report of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy.
The Commission was established under the Oceans Act 2000, with a mandate to establish findings and develop recommendations for a new and comprehensive national ocean policy. It began its work in September 2001 with a series of 15 public meetings and 17 additional site visits in every coastal region of the country and the Great Lakes.
The overarching theme of the Commission’s Preliminary recommendations is ecosystem based management. The Commission concluded that it is critical that ocean and coastal resources be managed to reflect the complex interrelationships among the ocean, land, air, and all living creatures, including humans, and consider the interactions among the multiple activities that affect entire systems. It identified a number of needed changes based upon three fundamental themes:
- Creating a new national ocean policy framework to improve decision-making;
- Strengthening science and generating high-quality accessible information to inform decision makers;
- Enhancing ocean education to instill future leaders and informed citizens with a stewardship ethic.
According to the report, a new national ocean policy framework must be established to improve federal leadership and coordination “to enable agencies to address the ocean, land and air as one inter-connected system.” The Commission also calls for “new investment in the infrastructure to support data collection and research and the means to
effectively translate scientific findings into useful, timely information for policy managers, educators, and the public.”
Among the report’s recommendations for action:
- Establishment of a National Ocean Council in the Executive Office of the President chaired by an Assistant to the President;
- Creation of a non-federal President with Presidential Council of Advisors on Ocean Policy;
- Strengthening of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and improving federal agency structure;
- Development of a flexible, voluntary process for creating regional ocean councils, facilitated and supported by the National Ocean Council;
- Doubling of U.S. investment in ocean research;
- Implementation of a national Integrated Ocean Observing System;
- Increased attention to ocean education through coordinated and effective formal and informal programs;
- Strengthening the link between coastal and watershed management;
- Creation of measurable water pollution reduction goals, particularly for non-point sources, and strengthen incentives, technical assistance, and other management tools to reach those goals;
- Reform of fisheries management by separating scientific assessment and allocation, improving the Regional Fishery Management Council system, and exploring the use of dedicated access privileges;
- Accession to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; and
- Establishment of an Ocean Policy Trust Fund based on revenue from offshore energy activity and other new and emerging offshore uses to pay for implementing the recommendations.
The Commission’s Preliminary Report is part of a two-stage process. In this stage, the report will be available for review and comment by the nation’s governors and interested stakeholders. Availability of the Preliminary Report appears in the Federal Register and includes information about the comment period, which begins April 21, 2004 and ends May 21, 2004. Stage two begins when the public comment period closes on May 21, 2004. At that point, the Commission will take time for a comprehensive review of the comments received from the governors and others. Once all comments are considered, the Commission will prepare and deliver its final report and recommendations on a coordinated and comprehensive national ocean policy to the President and Congress.
Contact: Scott Treibitz, Tel: (703) 276-2772 ext.11; David Roscow, Tel: (703) 276-2772 ext. 21;
Kate Naughten, Tel: (202) 309-5476.
For Further Information: An electronic copy of the report and detailed instructions for submitting comments also is available on the Commission website, http://oceancommission.gov.
Back to the top
Is Horseshoe Crab Harvesting Causing Declines in Red Knots?
Aerial surveys conducted throughout the known South American wintering range of Red Knots indicate that the shorebird’s population has undergone a “drastic decline” in those areas – not only “in the major sites in Tierra del Fuego, but also throughout the rest of the main wintering areas on the Patagonian coast of Argentina, where knots declined substantially or in some cases disappeared from many areas where they had been observed in the 1980s.” So says a recent paper in the journal The Condor.
The paper notes that these aerial surveys reinforce the findings of ground-based observations. In parts of Argentina, for example, such observations have found that peak numbers of knots on northbound migrations have fallen from more than 20,000 in the early-1980s to 3000 in recent years. At the birds’ most important spring stopover point, Delaware Bay, counts have fallen from over 100,000 in the mid-1980s to fewer than 10,000 in 2003. Furthermore, recent attempts to estimate the population of the North American race of Red Knot in the western hemisphere appear to show a steady decline: around 100,000-150,000 up to the early 1990s; closer to 80,000 by the late nineties; and perhaps as low as 35,000-40,000 now.
The paper’s authors suggest the declines “may be related to problems knots are encountering during their northward migration.” They write: “Red Knots are highly specialized long-distance migrants, and many features of their biology indicate that they are likely to be highly susceptible to environmental changes, especially changes that could affect adult mortality. Small reductions in refueling rates at stopover areas, for instance, could lead to disproportionate increases in mortality during the next leg. Such effects would be particularly drastic at the final stopover area … before the birds reach the breeding grounds. These final sites are not only refueling stops, where the birds accumulate the fuel and undergo other physiological changes required for the final stage of the journey, but they also provide key resources enabling the birds to acquire additional reserves needed in preparation for breeding in the Arctic.”
In this context, they argue, some of the environmental changes at Delaware Bay, the major stopover area for the North American race of Red Knots, may be of particular significance and concern. Specifically, heavy harvesting has led to significant reductions of horseshoe crabs, and more particularly their eggs, which are the major food source for knots at Delaware Bay.
They conclude: “Fewer breeding crabs produce fewer eggs, reducing their overall volume on the bayshore. Egg availability to shorebirds also declines because there are fewer crabs to unearth previously laid eggs as they dig to lay new egg masses. As a result, the availability of eggs on the beach has fallen significantly, especially in the last four years. This decline would affect Red Knots more than other species because they rely mostly on horseshoe crab eggs found on the beach surface. As a result, an increasing proportion of knots in recent years has been unable to achieve weight levels required for successful migration and breeding. This has led to a measurable increase in annual adult mortality rates between the mid- and late 1990s, with annual survival decreasing from an average of 87% to 55%. Projected population trends using the latter figure closely follow the observed survey numbers in Tierra del Fuego, demonstrating that the increased annual mortality could lead directly to the observed 50% decrease in the population, and implying that the population could become extinct or nearly so by 2010 if survival remains at the depressed level.”
Source: Morrison, R.I.G. et al. 2004. Declines in wintering populations of Red Knots in southern South America. The Condor 106: 60-70
Contact: R.I. Guy Morrison, Canadian Wildlife Service. E-mail.
Back to the top
Pelagic sharks “have declined precipitously” in Gulf of Mexico, says study
Pelagic shark species are estimated to have declined “precipitously” in the Gulf of Mexico since the onset of industrialized fisheries, with those species that were initially the most commonly caught undergoing the steepest declines, according to a study in the journal Ecology Letters. The study notes that, in particular, the oceanic whitetip shark, the most prevalent species in the region in the 1950s, is estimated to have declined by over 99%, while silky and dusky sharks have declined by an estimated 91% and 79%, respectively.
The paper notes that the “near disappearance of oceanic whitetip sharks from the Gulf of Mexico is a clear example of our shifting baseline in marine ecosystems. This species was initially described as the most common pelagic shark beyond the continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. Between two and three to as many as twenty-five oceanic whitetip sharks were usually observed following the vessel during longline retrieval on the exploratory surveys, and the abundance of these sharks was considered a serious problem because of the high proportion of tuna they damaged. In contrast, recent papers on pelagic sharks have either not mentioned the oceanic whitetip or have dismissed it as a rare species, with no recognition of its former prevalence in the ecosystem. The oceanic whitetip shark is assessed by the World Conservation Union only as lower risk/near threatened.”
The authors ask how such declines could go largely unnoticed, and theorize that whereas declines in coastal sharks were noted because of declining catches in the species targeting them, pelagic species such as the oceanic whitetip were never the primary target of the fisheries in which they were taken, and thus received “little research or management attention despite their high levels of exploitation.”
As well as noting that their results “strongly imply that oceanic whitetips are ecologically extinct in the Gulf of Mexico,” the authors conclude that their study “contributes to the growing awareness that human impacts on natural ecosystems extend to our oceans, and that retrospective analyses are essential to understand the full magnitude and nature of these. The perception of what was natural in the open ocean has clearly changed over a very short period (less than half a century), and our results suggest that it may be particularly easy for baselines of incidentally harvested species to shift because they are usually poorly monitored.”
Source: Baum, J.K., and R.A. Myers. 2004. Shifting baselines and the decline of sharks in the Gulf of Mexico. Ecology Letters 7: 135-145.
Contact: Julia K. Baum, Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. E-mail.
Back to the top
Competition to Find Fishing Gear That Reduces Wildlife Deaths
A coalition of fishermen, scientists, and conservationists has announced a competition to seek “innovative fishing gear that reduces bycatch” – the accidental deaths of marine mammals, birds, sea turtles and non-target fish species. The International Smart Gear Competition is open to anyone and will award a $25,000 Grand Prize to the design “judged to be the most practical, cost-effective method for reducing bycatch of any species.” The winner will also be provided with assistance in bringing the design to market.
Participants in the International Smart Gear Competition are asked to develop fishing gears or methods that increase selectivity for target fish species and reduce bycatch of non-target species in ways that still allow fishermen to fish profitably. There are three categories for entries: gear that reduces sea turtle bycatch, gear that reduces cetacean bycatch, and gear that reduces bycatch of any other non-target species. The winning entry will receive funding to take the design from the drawing-board stage to prototype development, testing, and initial manufacture.
The winner of the International Smart Gear Competition will be decided by judges from World Wildlife Fund, the National Fisheries Institute, the American Fisheries Society, the Fisheries Conservation Foundation, the Marine Wildlife Bycatch Consortium (comprised of the New England Aquarium, Duke University, the University of New Hampshire and the Maine Lobstermen’s Association), the Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Resources at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
For Further Information: www.smartgear.org.
Back to the top
Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration
The second National Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration, entitled “Weaving Restoration into the Tapestry of Coastal Life!” will be held September 12-15, at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center and the Grand Hyatt Seattle in Seattle, Washington. Incorporating non-profit and community organizations, government agencies, tribes, businesses, and academic and research institutions, the gathering will seek to enable networking and communication throughout the growing habitat restoration movement.
Organizers hope the conference will provide participants with an opportunity to:
- Connect with leaders and peers from every corner of the restoration community - practitioners, scientists, community leaders, businesses, tribes, program managers and others;
- Learn successful strategies for all aspects of habitat restoration;
- Share experiences and talents to help craft the future of restoration;
- Discover how to fund restoration projects; and
- Explore the latest products, tools and services available from businesses, government agencies, non-profit organizations, tribes, research programs and others at the Restoration Expo.
For Further Information: Register online at http://www.estuaries.org/2ndregistration.php. Save $100 if you register before June 25th.
Back to the top
Correction
The quote attributed to the Marine Fish Conservation Network in the story “Marine Stewardship Council Certifies Part of Chilean Sea Bass Fishery; Other Environmentalists Critical,” in the May 2004 Ocean Update should have been attributed to the National Environment Trust. Additionally, the contact number for Sarah Bruchmann at NET is (202) 887-1347. Apologies for the errors.
For further information on SeaWeb, or for print copies of Ocean Update, please write to SeaWeb, 1731 Connecticut Ave., NW, 4th Floor, Washington, D.C., 20009, or email us at contactus@seaweb.org. Send any information, articles, press releases and ideas for inclusion in future issues to the editor: Kieran Mulvaney. |
|
| May 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 4
| May 2004 – Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 4
CITES Rebuffs Environmentalists’ Pleas to Suspend Caviar Trade
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in March granted an extension of three more months for the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to fulfill the requirements of an international agreement on sturgeon conservation. The Caspian states had faced a possible ban on their international caviar trade, so the CITES reprieve means the spring fishing season, the biggest of the year, will go forward.
The decision came following discussion of the Caspian states’ compliance with the “Paris Agreement” of 2001, whose deadlines expired at the end of 2003. Under that agreement, the four states were required to make significant improvements in science, management and enforcement related to depleted sturgeon populations.
Caviar Emptor, a coalition of three organizations seeking to protect and restore endangered Caspian Sea sturgeon (including SeaWeb, publishers of Ocean Update), had claimed there had been little apparent progress in several crucial areas of the Paris Agreement and had urged CITES to immediately suspend international trade of beluga caviar from the four countries, as provided for in the agreement.
Caviar Emptor expressed particular concern with the Caspian states’ “lack of significant steps in meeting the agreement’s directives to adopt a collaborative, basin-wide management system for sturgeon; establish a long-term, modernized survey program; and combat illegal trade.” After hearing CITES’ decision, the groups criticized further postponement of the trade ban, saying the states had previously been granted more than a year’s extension.
The global caviar market has placed a premium on Caspian sturgeons, prompting overfishing and illegal trade that have driven the ancient species to the brink of extinction. Of most concern is beluga sturgeon, whose population has declined by 90 percent in the past 20 years and which scientists believe can no longer withstand fishing pressure. Recent beluga stock surveys indicate the Caspian Sea population plummeted by almost 40 percent between 2001 and 2002, as indicated by the number of beluga sturgeon caught per trawl.
Contact: Sunny Wu. E-mail; Shannon Crownover, E-mail.
Back to the top
Dead Zones Emerging as Major Threat to Fish Populations, Says United Nations Body
There are nearly 150 oxygen-starved or “dead zones” in the world’s oceans and seas, according to a new report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). These dead zones are linked to an excess of nutrients, mainly nitrogen, that originate from agricultural fertilizers, vehicle and factory emissions, and wastes.
Such excess nutrients can trigger blooms of phytoplankton, the rapid growth and decomposition of which can use up much of the available oxygen in the water column, making it difficult or even impossible for marine life in the area to survive. According to UNEP, the number and size of deoxygenated areas is on the rise, with the total number detected increasing every decade since the 1970s. The agency warns that these areas are “fast becoming major threats to fish stocks and thus to the people who depend upon fisheries for food and livelihoods.”
“Human-kind is engaged in a gigantic, global, experiment as a result of the inefficient and often over-use of fertilizers, the discharge of untreated sewage and the ever rising emissions from vehicles and factories,” said Klaus Toepfer, UNEP’s Executive Director. “The nitrogen and phosphorous from these sources are being discharged into rivers and the coastal environment or being deposited from the atmosphere, triggering these alarming and sometimes irreversible effects.
“Some of these so-called dead zones or oxygen-starved areas are relatively small, less than one square kilometer in size, whereas others are far larger at up to 70,000 square kilometers [27,000 square miles]. What is clear is that unless urgent action is taken to tackle the sources of the problem, it is likely to escalate rapidly.”
Some of the earliest recorded dead zones were in places like Chesapeake Bay in the United States, the Baltic Sea, the Kattegat, the Black Sea and the northern Adriatic Sea. Others have been reported in Scandinavian fjords, while still others have appeared off South America, China, Japan, south east Australia and New Zealand. But probably the best known area of depleted oxygen is in the Gulf of Mexico. Its occurrence is directly linked to nutrients brought to the Gulf by the Mississippi River.
In some parts of the world, actions have been taken to reduce the amounts of fertilizer and sewage running off the land. An agreement for the River Rhine in Europe, in which countries agreed to reduce by half the levels of nitrogen being discharged, has cut by 37 per cent the quantities of nitrogen entering the North Sea. However, there is concern that more oxygen starved areas will emerge in coastal waters off parts of Asia, Latin America and Africa as industrialization and more intensive agriculture increase the discharge of nutrients.
Furthermore, global warming, with its likely increase in rainfall and temperatures, may aggravate the problem. Research by a team at the College of William and Mary, Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester Point, Virginia, indicates that there may be large changes in rainfall patterns with a doubling of levels of carbon dioxide. In some areas, this in turn could lead to a marked increase in the levels of run-off from rivers into the seas.
The findings on dead zones, with recommendations for individual, industry, government, and intergovernmental actions, are included in the recently-published UNEP Global Environmental Outlook (GEO) Yearbook 2003.
For Further Information: The entire GEO Yearbook may be viewed at http://www.unep.org/geo/yearbook/
Back to the top
U.S. Not Doing Enough to Protect Coral Reefs, Says Paper
“America’s coral reefs are in trouble. From the disease-ridden dying reefs of the Florida Keys, to the over-fished and denuded refs of Hawaii and the Virgin Islands, this country’s richest and most valued marine environment continues to decline in size, health, and productivity.” So begins a paper in a recent issue of the journal Issues in Science and Technology.
Noting that, for example, “37 per cent of all corals in Florida have died since 1996,” the paper observes that, whereas “in many parts of the world coral reefs are deliberately destroyed in the process of coastal development or to obtain construction materials, in the United States coral reefs suffer the classic death of a thousand cuts” – for example, as a result of eutrophication, sedimentation, removal of reef fish, and changes in the ambient environment. The paper identifies several reasons why, in the opinion of the author, the United States has responded inadequately to addressing the status of reefs under U.S. jurisdiction, among them:
- Incomplete understanding of the problem and communication failures. Writes the author: “Everyone is quick to lament the destruction of Southeast Asian and Indian Ocean reefs by dynamite fishers, or the use of cyanide in collecting coral reef fish in the Philippines, but the reefs under U.S. jurisdiction have hardly fared better. In the past decade, we have seen a slow awakening to the problems facing U.S. reefs, but the response has been to collect more data, slowly and painstakingly.”
- Poor use of cutting edge science and the at-large scientific community. For example, the paper argues that, “Decisionmakers have not engaged the scientific community and have failed to heed what scientific advice has been put forward. For instance, the government did not fully mobilize nongovernmental academic institutions and conservation organizations to help draft its National Action Plan to Conserve Coral Reefs, and as a result the plan has been criticized as lacking in rigor and ambition.”
In addition, the paper points to in-fighting and lack of coordination among government agencies, and the global nature of the threats to coral reefs, as further reasons for slow progress in addressing the problem to this point.
The author concludes: “The coral reef crisis is indeed our problem. It affects our natural heritage and the livelihoods of a great number of our citizens. Only when the people in power recognize the magnitude of the problem will effective steps be taken to engage the wider scientific and conservation community in safeguarding reefs. When future generations look back at the dawn of the millennium and the environmental choices that were made, they will either curse us for letting one of nature’s most wondrous ecosystems be extinguished or praise us for recognizing the great value of reefs and moving to protect them.”
Source: Agardy, T. 2004. America’s coral reefs: awash with problems. Issues in Science and Technology XX (2): 35-42.
Contact: Tundi Agardy. E-mail.
Back to the top
Marine Stewardship Council Certifies Part of Chilean Sea Bass Fishery; Other Environmentalists Critical
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) declared in March that the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) toothfish fishery has met the MSC’s Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Fishing. This completes the first step toward toothfish, commonly known as Chilean sea bass, caught in this particular fishery being marketed with the MSC’s imprimatur as a sustainably-caught seafood. Other toothfish fisheries are not affected by the decision and have not been certified as meeting MSC standards.
The decision met strong condemnation from other environmental groups. “This fishery should never have even been considered for certification,” said Gerald Leape, Vice President for Marine Conservation at the National Environmental Trust (NET). “Chain of custody alone is a potential Achilles heel preventing the consumer from ever really knowing if the MSC labeled fish is truly legally caught.” Chain of custody, the path a fish takes from the ocean to dinner plates, is, says Leape, extremely difficult to verify – all the more so in a case like Chilean Sea Bass, which is caught thousands of miles from port and can pass through many hands before arriving into the importing country.
Chilean Sea Bass has become a popular menu item within the last ten years, but now, says a press release from the Marine Fish Conservation Network (MFCN) – which also condemned the MSC decision – the fishery “suffers from acute over-fishing by ‘pirate’ poachers in the remote waters near Antarctica, and is on the verge of collapse.” According to MFCN: “Scientists estimate that uncontrolled illegal fishing could drive Chilean Sea Bass to commercial extinction within five years. Pirate fishermen have left a trail of destruction through the Southern Ocean; populations of Chilean Sea Bass have already crashed in the Indian Ocean around Prince Edward and Crozet Islands.”
The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), the international body that regulates Chilean Sea Bass, expressed concerns about the SGSSI toothfish fishery at its most recent meeting in November 2003. NET and other groups are pushing for the toothfish trade to be monitored and regulated under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). “A CITES listing is the only way to effectively protect the worldwide Chilean sea bass population,” said Leape.
Contact: Sarah Bruchmann, National Environmental Trust. Tel: (202) 887 1437; (202) 285 6385 (M); Karen Tarica, Marine Stewardship Council. Tel: (206) 691 0188, (206) 369 0855 (M).
Back to the top
Report “Cautions Against Pitfalls of Individual Fishing Quotas”
The Marine Fish Conservation Network (MFCN) has published a report that “examines the potential consequences of implementing individual fishing quota (IFQ) programs in marine fisheries.” The report summarizes scientific research that identifies the environmental, public trust, and socioeconomic impacts of already established quota system programs in Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, and calls for legislation to establish national standards to avoid the potential pitfalls identified by researchers if such programs are to be implemented nationwide.
Individual fishing quota programs grant fishermen exclusive access to catch a portion of the overall number of fish that will be caught in a fishery during a particular year on an on-going basis. This program is an alternative to traditional fishery management methods which limit the number of fishing days or lower the total annual catch to manage fishing levels.
Proponents of IFQ programs suggest that this system promotes safety and better conservation measures. Many fishermen and conservationists, however, are concerned that poorly regulated programs will negatively impact fishing communities and harm efforts to conserve fish populations. MFCN’s report claims that IFQs “privatize publicly-owned fishery resources, often increase bycatch (the catching and killing of non-target ocean wildlife) because fishermen may toss back less economically valuable fish, and consolidate quota into the hands of a few large fishing businesses, thus excluding smaller fishermen and hurting fishing communities.”
Congress placed a moratorium on new IFQ programs from 1996 to 2002 to further study their pros and cons before such systems were established. Currently, the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific regional fishery councils are developing IFQ programs to manage red snapper and groundfish respectively.
Legislation addressing many of the concerns raised about individual fishing quota programs has been introduced by Congressmen Tom Allen (D-ME), Bill Delahunt (D-MA), and Rob Simmons (R-CT). This bill, H.R. 2621, the Fishing Quota Standards Act of 2003, outlines national standards aimed at “preventing IFQ programs from adversely affecting marine ecosystems, family fishermen, and the public trust,” says MFCN.
Contact: Eric Rardin. Tel: (202) 543 5509. E-mail.
For Further Information: The full report can be viewed at http://www.conservefish.org/site/mediacenter/network_reports/ifqwhitepaper.pdf
Back to the top
For further information on SeaWeb, or for print copies of Ocean Update, please write to SeaWeb, 1731 Connecticut Ave., NW, 4th Floor, Washington, D.C., 20009, or email us at contactus@seaweb.org. Send any information, articles, press releases and ideas for inclusion in future issues to the editor: Kieran Mulvaney.
|
|
| April 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 3
| April 2004 – Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 3
Whaling “Too Cruel”, Say Critics
In 1946, Dr. Harry Lillie, who worked as a physician on board an Antarctic whaling ship, wrote that: “If we can imagine a horse having two or three explosive spears stuck in its stomach and being made to pull a butcher’s truck through the streets of London while it pours blood into the gutter, we shall have an idea of the method of killing [whales]. The gunners themselves admit that if whales could scream, the industry would stop for nobody would be able to stand it.” More than a half-century later, a coalition of more than 140 conservation and animal welfare organizations from around the world is issuing a call for whaling to be halted on the grounds that “there is no humane way to kill a whale at sea.”
In a report, Troubled Waters: A Review of the Welfare Implications of Modern Whaling Activities, the Whalewatch coalition notes that, for example:
- During the 2002/2003 Japanese minke whale hunt in Antarctica, only 40.2 per cent of whales were recorded as killed instantaneously.
- Recent data show that, for commercial and scientific whale hunts, the average time to death is over two minutes.
- The common use of secondary killing methods, such as the rifle, during whaling operations reflects the inefficiency of primary killing methods.
- Whaling operations can impose a degree of physical and psychological stress upon a pursued cetacean before any killing method is deployed.
- The combination of visibility, sea state, ship motion and marksmanship are likely to impact significantly on the ability of a whaler to reliably kill a whale instantaneously.
- The complex social behavior of cetaceans may mean that the killing of one cetacean from a social group may have a significant effect on others within the group.
The report concludes that: “Modern day whaling activities give rise to serious animal welfare concerns. A number of factors inherent in current whaling practices render it unlikely that truly humane standards could ever be achieved. On grounds of animal welfare alone, therefore, all whaling operations should be halted.” Argues Peter Davies, Director General of the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), one of the leading groups in the coalition: “The cruelty behind whaling has become obscured in recent years by abstract arguments over population statistics. The fact is that, whether it is one whale or a thousand, whaling is simply wrong on cruelty grounds alone.”
Source: Brakes, P.A., et al. (eds.) 2004. Troubled Waters: A Review of the Welfare Implications of Modern Whaling Activities. World Society for the Protection of Animals, 150pp.
For Further Information: The report, news releases, and other background information is available at www.whalewatch.org.
Back to the top
Meanwhile, Whaling Could Affect Tourism in Iceland …
Formerly a major commercial whaling nation, Iceland has in recent years evolved into one of the most significant markets for whale-watching tourism. Whale-watching, despite being a relatively new enterprise, is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the world tourism market: in 1983, only 12 countries hosted whale-watching operations, but this had climbed to 65 by 1994 and 87 by 1998. Participants and revenue also have increased markedly: from 5.4 million tourists spending $504 million in 1994, to 9 million tourists spending $1,059 million in 1998.
The first whale-watching operation in Iceland did not begin until 1990, but the industry has enjoyed an annual growth rate of over 250% since then; by 2002, it was estimated that the direct value of Icelandic whale-watching was in excess of $12 million. The birth and growth of whale-watching in the country coincided with Iceland’s withdrawal from commercial whaling in 1989; however, in 2002, the Icelandic government rejoined the International Whaling Commission (IWC) – which it had left in 1992 – and vowed to resume commercial whaling by 2006. It began a program of “scientific whaling” last year.
A new study in the journal Current Issues in Tourism surveyed tourists on whale-watching trips and asked them if a country’s whaling policy would affect the likelihood of them visiting that country. Seventy-nine per cent of respondents said they would boycott trips to an active whaling nation, and an additional 12.4 % responded that, while they might not outright boycott the country, they would not visit for purposes of going whale-watching. In other words, note the study’s authors, Iceland’s whale-watching industry could lose over 90 % of its customers.
The prospect has not gone unnoticed by the Iceland Tourist Industry Association, which in 1999 passed a resolution stating that, “to resume whaling … would cause great damage to the Icelandic tourism industry.” The new study notes that, even at its peak, commercial whaling generated only around one-third to one-fifth of the income presently derived from whale-watching, and concludes that: “Whale-watching is presently the golden egg of the Icelandic economy. Care must be taken not to kill the goose that laid it.”
Source: Parsons, E.C.M., and C. Rawles. 2003. The resumption of whaling by Iceland and the potential negative impact in the Icelandic whale-watching market. Current Issues in Tourism 6(5): 444-448.
Contact: Chris Parsons, Department of Environmental Science & Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. E-mail.
Back to the top
… And “Seal Management” Could Do the Same in Scotland
In a similar vein, one of the authors of the Icelandic study also polled tourists in Scotland over the possible impact of seal-culling on the likelihood of their vacationing in the country.
There are estimated to be between 33,000 and 35,000 common seals, and 120,000 gray seals, in British waters, of which 90% are in the waters of Scotland. The United Kingdom accounts for 85% of gray seals’ numbers in Europe, and 40% of those worldwide. Gray seals are believed to be increasing by 5% a year in Scottish waters, and the British fishing industry has been vocal in its demand for a cull of both gray and common seal populations.
Seals are considered the third most influential draw for tourists wanting to see wildlife in Scotland, and 74% of tour operators considered seal-watching tours to be an important part of the local economy in rural west Scotland, reports the study.
In a survey, respondents were asked two questions: “Local seal populations have increased significantly in recent years; do you think that population numbers should be regulated?” and, “If culls to reduce seals were introduced in Scotland, would this affect your decision to come to the area on holiday?” The study reports that approximately 60% argued that seal populations should not be controlled, and roughly 17% agreed that the institution of a cull or culls would affect their decision to visit Scotland.
The study notes that tourism contributes more to the Scottish economy than the oil/gas or whisky industries, and more than four times more than agriculture and fishing. Tourism, the study continues, is particularly important to rural regions of west Scotland (where seal numbers are concentrated, and where discussion over a cull is most pronounced); were a seal cull introduced, the study’s author says, “and the 17% of tourists who stated that they would be influenced by a seal cull did indeed not visit Scotland, this could represent a loss of nearly half a million tourists to Highlands of Scotland alone … a boycott by tourists to the Highlands could equate to a financial loss equivalent to a third of the total value of Scottish fisheries.”
Source: Parsons, E.C.M. 2004. Seal management in Scotland: Tourist perceptions and the possible impacts on the Scottish tourism industry. Current Issues in Tourism. In press.
Contact: Chris Parsons, Department of Environmental Science & Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. E-mail.
Back to the top
Paper Documents High Rates of Sea Turtle Mortality in Fishing Gear …
More than 250,000 loggerhead and 60,000 leatherback turtles are estimated to be inadvertently snared each year by commercial longline fishing round the world. Although these numbers are estimates, they are firm enough to warrant the development of rules for fishing equipment and practices to reduce or avoid such losses. So says a new study in the journal Ecology Letters.
The study’s authors collected available turtle bycatch data from the 13 nations that collect such information, and extrapolated estimates for areas like the Indian Ocean where bycatch data was unavailable. They also collected the most current fishing information from three primary sources: The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission and the Secretariat for the Pacific Community Oceanic Fisheries Program.
To obtain a global picture of where and how frequently turtles were being caught, the researchers then superimposed fishing and bycatch data on a grid map of the global ocean. They also added available demographic data for loggerheads and leatherbacks.
The published study located four “primary hotspots” for longline fishing: in the central and southern Pacific Ocean, the southern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. Such hot spots mark sectors where currents converge in a way that boosts the productivity of marine life, which in turn attracts turtles, fish, and fishing fleets.
The authors estimated that longline fleets from 40 different countries set about 1.4 billion hooks in the studied year of 2000 – the equivalent of about 3.8 million hooks each day. And their results suggest that longline fishing worldwide was “likely to have caught at least 200,000 loggerheads and 50,000 leatherback turtles in 2000,” they wrote. Using National Marine Fisheries Service bycatch mortality figures, the study estimated that “tens of thousands” of the total hooked or entangled turtles ultimately died from those encounters.
The authors warned of “serious consequences” for the future of loggerhead and leatherback in the Pacific, where they wrote that “precipitous declines” in the numbers of nesting females are already being recorded.
Source: Lewison, R. L.., et al. 2004. Quantifying the effects of fisheries on threatened
species: the impact of pelagic longlines on loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles. Ecology Letters 7: 221-231. (AScribe Newswire contributed to the above report).
Contact: Rebecca L. Lewison, Duke University Marine Laboratory. E-mail.
Back to the top
… As U.S. Bans Longlining for Swordfish For Turtle Protection
Meanwhile, the federal government has imposed a ban on U.S. fishermen setting longlines for Pacific swordfish in response to concerns over the possible extinction of Pacific loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles. The move comes in response to a 2003 ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that found the National Marine Fisheries Service was improperly issuing longline permits because it had not adequately evaluated the impact of the practice on federally protected turtle species. Both leatherbacks and loggerheads are listed under the Endangered Species Act.
The ban covers an approximately 1,600-mile stretch of the ocean from the mainland U.S. west coast to just east of Hawaii, will come into effect April 12 and will affect about two dozen boats based in California, Oregon, and Washington.
Most of these boats moved to the west coast after being expelled from Hawaiian waters several years ago. It is expected that the boats will return to Hawaii, when the ban will be rescinded under limited conditions, requiring fishing with new types of longlines. Federal official hope that experimental fishing gear, using large, circular hooks and a different type of bait, will reduce the likelihood of ensnaring turtles and other bycatch. Initial tests using this gear resulted in reductions in turtle catch of 60% to 90%.
Todd Steiner, director of Turtle Island Restoration Network, declared the ruling “another important victory for the sea turtles.” At the same time, he cautioned that it was only a preliminary step. “The international longline fleet sets 2 billion hooks in the Pacific each year,” he said, “and the U.S. accounts for only 5 percent of that. What this decision does is provide an example for the international community. It shows them we’re doing the right thing, and allows us to put legitimate pressure on them.” Steiner also said that some scientists were not as convinced as the government that the new experimental gear would prove successful in reducing turtle bycatch. “I want, as much as the next guy, to find a techno-fix to stop the turtles from going extinct,” he said. “But I want to make sure it works.”
Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, urged that the search for solutions to sea turtle declines not be restricted to longlines. “More than anything else ... we need to develop more selective fishing gear and we need to protect marine habitats -- and we need to do both on an international basis, and we need to do both very aggressively,” he said. “If we don’t do that, we’re going to lose the turtles anyway.”
Contact: Todd Steiner, Turtle Island Restoration Project. Tel: (414) 488 0370. Ext. 103
Back to the top
New Book Advances “Solutions for Saving Our Seas”
Humans have “decimated enormous herds of sea cows, sea otters, and sea turtles … Mind-boggling numbers of fish have been removed from the ocean and as a result, global fish catches are declining, and several major fisheries have collapsed altogether. Some ocean species are already on the verge of extinction – and we have only just begun to explore the ocean’s biological diversity.” So begins Heal the Ocean: Solutions for Saving Our Seas, by Dr. Rod Fujita, Senior Scientist with Environmental Defense.
Fujita notes that “powerful forces are arrayed against ocean conservation … Economic activities are allowed to begin and continue, and are even encouraged, despite little understanding of their ecological or health impacts. But extensive evidence is often required before conservation measures can be implemented.”
Fujita offers a series of solutions for protecting and restoring ocean ecosystems, ranging from pragmatic suggestions such as “international fishing agreements with teeth” to more fundamental pathways. Arguing that “activism rooted in anger or frustration is unsustainable,” he offers his belief that “the cultivation of a peaceful nature and of our innate biophilia will nourish the great movement necessary to instill a widespread ocean conservation ethic. This ethic will in turn guide the formulation of intelligent policies, the wise use of technology, and the countless actions of individuals.”
“To heal the ocean,” he concludes, “we must heal ourselves.”
Source: Fujita, R. 2003. Heal the Ocean: Solutions for Saving Our Seas. New Society Publishers, 228pp.
Contact: Dr. Rod Fujita. Tel: (510) 658 8008.
Back to the top
For further information on SeaWeb, or for print copies of Ocean Update, please write to SeaWeb, 1731 Connecticut Ave., NW, 4th Floor, Washington, D.C., 20009, or email us at contactus@seaweb.org. Send any information, articles, press releases and ideas for inclusion in future issues to the editor: Kieran Mulvaney.
|
|
| March 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 2
| March 2004 – Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 2
Mangroves Enhance Biomass of Coral Reef Fish Communities, Says New Study …
Mangroves “are unexpectedly important, serving as an intermediate nursery habitat that may increase the survivorship of young fish. Mangroves in the Caribbean strongly influence the community structure of fish on neighboring coral reefs. In addition, the biomass of several commercially important species is more than doubled when adult habitat is connected to mangroves. The largest herbivorous fish in the Atlantic, Scarus guacamaia, has a functional dependency on mangroves and has suffered local extinction after mangrove removal.” So notes a new study in the prestigious journal Nature.
The paper’s authors studied fish communities at atolls off Belize, comparing three atolls which had been almost completely denuded of mangroves with three which remain mangrove-rich. They found that the structure of reef fish communities differed markedly between the two types of atolls, and biomass of several fish species was up to 25 times higher on atolls where mangroves are abundant.
The authors suggest their data supports the hypothesis that “mangrove nurseries may provide a refuge from predators and/or plentiful food that increases the survivorship of juveniles … In short, some fish species move to their adult habitat in stages. As the biomass of predators increases at each stage, it is desirable to grow as large as possible before taking the next step towards adult habitat. We suggest that mangroves provide an intermediate nursery stage between seagrass beds and patch reefs …”
They conclude: “Extensive mangrove habitats can enhance the biomass of fishes on Caribbean reefs because tropical coastal ecosystems are functionally linked. Although precise corridors of connectivity between habitats are not fully understood as yet, the results have an important implication for conservation planning: management schemes should explicitly protect swaths of connected habitats rather than simply identify representative areas of each habitat in isolation. Given the ever-increasing range and severity of natural and anthropogenic disturbances to coral reefs, any natural source of ecosystem production and resilience should be conserved. Our data suggest that the current rate of mangrove deforestation, which is greatest in the Americas at 2,251 km2 yr and exceeds that of tropical rainforests, will have significant deleterious consequences for the functioning, fisheries, biodiversity and resilience of Caribbean coral reefs.”
Source: Mumby, P.J., et al. 2004. Mangroves enhance the biomass of coral reef fish communities in the Caribbean. Nature 427: 533-536.
Contact: Peter J. Mumby, Marine Spatial Ecology Laboratory, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of Exeter, England. E-mail.
Back to the top
… And Mangroves Need Protection Worldwide, Says Another
Over the past fifty years, approximately one-third of the world’s mangrove forests have been lost, and their destruction is “usually positively related to human population density. Major reasons for destruction are urban development, aquaculture, mining and overexploitation for timber, fish, crustaceans and shellfish. Over the next 25 years, unrestricted clear felling, aquaculture, and overexploitation of fisheries will be the greatest threats, with lesser problems being alteration of hydrology, pollution and global warming. Loss of biodiversity is, and will continue to be, a severe problem as even pristine mangroves are species-poor compared with other tropical ecosystems.” So notes a review in the journal Environmental Conservation.
The review argues that “most current uses and abuses of mangroves” are likely to continue for at least the next two decades: “Aquaculture, mining, housing and industrial encroachment and overexploitation of resources will continue and some impacts will probably increase with concomitant growth and development of coastal settlements. Many past and current abuses are now irreversible. Global production of farmed fish and shellfish in the coastal zone has more than doubled in the past 15 years. Despite many unsustainable methods and a leveling off of total production, aquaculture will still result in the loss of mangrove resources; they may at best slow in some countries, but they will be maintained or even accelerated in others. As long as human populations grow in size, present impacts will not subside.” Additional complications are likely to arise as a result of, for example, sea level rise due to global warming, although the precise manifestation of such threats, and their likely impacts, remain uncertain.
However, the paper notes, the future “is not entirely bleak. The number of rehabilitation and restoration projects is increasing worldwide with some countries showing increases in mangrove area … Some commercial projects and economic models indicate that mangroves can be used as a sustainable resource, especially for wood. The brightest note is that the rate of population growth is projected to slow during the next 50 years, with a gradual decline thereafter to the end of the century … [T]he future of mangroves will depend on technological and ecological advances … but the greatest hope for their future is a reduction in human population growth.”
Source: Alongi, D.M. 2002. Present state and future of the world’s mangrove forests. Environmental Conservation 29 (3): 331–349.
Contact: Dr. Daniel M. Alongi, Australian Institute of Marine Science. E-mail.
Back to the top
Consumption of Farmed Salmon Could Pose Health Risks Due to Contamination Levels, Claims Study
Concentrations of organochlorine contaminants are “significantly higher” in farmed salmon than in wild, particularly in salmon farmed in Europe, and as a result, consumption of farmed Atlantic salmon “may pose health risks that detract from the beneficial effects of fish consumption.” So claims a recent study in the journal Science.
The study’s authors measured levels of fourteen organochlorine contaminants in approximately 700 farmed and wild salmon. They found that thirteen of these contaminants were significantly more concentrated in the farmed salmon as a group than in the wild salmon. Concentrations in farmed salmon from Europe and from North America were significantly higher than those in wild salmon for all fourteen contaminants. Concentrations in farmed salmon from South America were significantly higher than wild salmon for six contaminants but significantly lower for two contaminants. In addition, concentrations of contaminants in farmed salmon from Europe were significantly greater than concentrations in farmed salmon from both North and South America.
The study conjectures that the “large differences between the farmed and wild salmon contaminant concentrations are most likely a function of their diet. Farmed salmon are fed a concentrated feed high in fish oils and fish meal, which is obtained primarily from small pelagic fishes.” The authors analyzed thirteen samples of commercial salmon feed, and found that contaminant concentrations “were generally similar to or greater than those in the farmed salmon.” They further observed that “concentrations in feed purchased from Europe were significantly higher than those in feed purchased from North and South America. This may reflect higher contamination concentrations in forage fish from the industrialized waters of Europe’s North Atlantic …”
The authors conclude: “Fish that is not contaminated is a healthy food, high in nutrients, such as omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, that are known to have a variety of beneficial human health effects. However, this study suggests that consumption of farmed salmon may result in exposure to a variety of persistent bioaccumulative contaminants with the potential for an elevation in attendant health risks.”
Source: Hites, R.A., et al. 2004. Global assessment of organic contaminants in farmed salmon. Science 303: 226-229.
Contact: David Carpenter, University of Albany. Tel: (518) 525 2660. E-mail.
Back to the top
Environmentalists, Scientists, Others Take Issue With “Freedom to Fish” Bills
Environmentalists, scientists, fishers, and state and national regulatory agencies are mobilizing in opposition to proposed state legislation known collectively as “freedom to fish” bills, according to the State Environmental Resource Center (SERC). An article on the SERC website states that, in 2003, eleven states introduced such “Freedom to Fish” bills, which SERC describes as “measures promoted by a concerted, nationwide campaign of the Recreational Fishing Alliance and other fishing organizations.” The text of many of these bills claims “that enactment of this legislation is necessary to ensure that both the interests of the fishing public and the interests of the marine environment are adequately protected.”
According to SERC, the basic language of these bills prohibits states from closing waters to fishing unless “there is a clear indication that recreational fishing is the cause of a specific conservation problem.” In an April 2003 letter to the New Jersey governor, ten academic scientists expressed concern that passage of the Act would effectively end the ability of the state to create marine reserves or any protected ocean zones, regardless of the demonstrated value of such areas. The scientists wrote: “Studies show areas within marine reserves have an average of three times as many plants and animals, and these plants and animals are 80 percent larger, than those outside reserves… By protecting habitats, especially biological structures that may take a long time to grow, reserves allow for persistence of marine ecosystems that otherwise could be degraded by a suite of extractive activities.”
In their letter regarding the New Jersey Act, the scientists also pointed out that the bill “sets an unachievable burden of proof” by requiring that recreational fishing be determined the cause of an ecological problem, without allowing the establishment of “no fishing” zones for comparison – a critical scientific control. “Given the lack of existing data on recreational fishing, and the expansive amount of data that this bill requires, it may be statistically impossible to determine the effects specific to rod and reel fishing on any particular marine environment,” they concluded. Moreover, “for many species, recreational fishing is the primary source of fishing mortality, and catch-and-release practices are often not effective” management compromises.
Of the eleven states where Freedom to Fish bills have been introduced, only in one – Rhode Island – has a bill been signed into law. However, says SERC, supporters of the legislation “are mobilizing in New Hampshire, Maryland, and other coastal states to get the Act passed during upcoming legislative sessions.”
For Further Information: http://www.serconline.org/freedomFish.html.
Back to the top
Book Examines Plight of Alaska’s Belugas
In 1915, the year Anchorage was founded, a commercial whaler named Joseph McGill began hunting the population of belugas that inhabits Cook Inlet, the expanse of water that forms the western boundary of Alaska’s largest city. Between 1918 and 1920, his company killed a recorded 196 belugas, partly for their oil but mostly for their hides, which were used to make fine gloves. His firm went bankrupt in 1920, and whale numbers remained steady enough that, by the mid-1960s, shooting belugas became a local sport. The Beluga Whale Hunt Club, based in the small town of Kenai, even paraded a dead beluga through town during a festival known as Kenai Days, then ground it up into patties to grill “beluga burgers” for picnicking families.
Today, however, the situation is very different. The 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibited sport hunting of whales. Public sentiment turned sharply against the recreational or commercial killing of whales and dolphins. And recent counts suggest that the days when there were, in the words of one member of the Beluga Whale Hunt Club, “thousands of the doggone things” in Cook Inlet are long gone, if indeed there were ever that many to begin with.
In her new book, Beluga Days: Tracking a White Whale’s Truths, Alaska author Nancy Lord notes that a 1979 aerial survey by the University of Alaska placed the Cook Inlet population at about 1,300 whales, although several key areas where belugas are found today, Lord writes, were not included in the count. A 1994 count by the National Marine Fisheries Service, despite being more comprehensive, came up with a much smaller estimate of 653. Around the same time, Lord, a commercial salmon fisherman, also noticed a decline in the number of belugas she saw each year at her fish camp. Over the ensuing decade, population estimates continued to plummet: 594 in 1996, 347 in 1998, an apparent slight recovery to 435 in 2000, and then another slump to a lowest-ever estimate of 313 in 2002.
Lord reports that the sharp decline during the early 1990s coincided with an increase in subsistence hunting of the whales – not by the region’s native Dena’ina Indians, of whom only a few continued to hunt the Cook Inlet belugas, but by Inupiat Eskimos from farther north in the state, who lived in the Anchorage area or visited seasonally.
As reports of the decline continued, scientists with the National Marine Fisheries Service prepared evidence to support classifying the population as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Policy makers in NMFS, however, demurred, writes Lord.
Although that decision removed any legal obligation for the federal government to take any action to protect the belugas, the Native hunters ultimately acted themselves, by imposing a voluntary ban on hunting, which is still in place. And residents of Anchorage wait to see if it is too little, too late or whether one of the many natural treasures of the Last Frontier will once more thrive.
Source: Lord, N. 2004. Beluga Days: Tracking a White Whale’s Truths. New York: Counterpoint, 242pp.
Contact: Patty Garcia, Senior Publicict, Counterpoint. E-mail.
Back to the top
New Online Magazine Celebrates Coral Reefs
A new online magazine has been launched to “celebrate the power and mystery of the planet’s coral reefs.”
Coral Reef Report bills itself as “the very first online magazine to explore the beauty of coral reefs through the personal stories, photographs, and art of people who have dedicated their lives to protecting this magical underwater world.”
The Coral Reef Report features articles, personal stories, and audio interviews with, among others, Pulitzer Prize nominee Osha Gray Davidson, Pew Fellow Dr. Rod Fujita, and Marine Scientist and Explorer-In-Residence for the National Geographic Society, Dr. Sylvia Earle. The site also features a rotating photo gallery currently featuring award-winning photographer Linda Cline.
In celebration of the first issue, jazz musician Ottmar Liebert has generously donated an electric guitar as the grand prize for the Coral Reef Buddy raffle. The proceeds from the raffle will help fund a ranger training program at Bonaire National Marine Park in the southern Caribbean.
For Further Information: The Coral Reef Report is available at http://coralreefreport.info.
Back to the top
For further information on SeaWeb, or for print copies of Ocean Update, please write to SeaWeb, 1731 Connecticut Ave., NW, 4th Floor, Washington, D.C., 20009, or email us at contactus@seaweb.org. Send any information, articles, press releases and ideas for inclusion in future issues to the editor: Kieran Mulvaney |
|
| January 15, 2004 - Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 1
| January/February 2004 – Ocean Update Vol. 9 No. 1
Long-Term Effects of Oil Pollution More Significant Than Previously Believed, Says Review
A paper in the journal Science has challenged the widely-held assumption that oil spills, such as the one that contaminated Alaska’s Prince William Sound almost fifteen years ago, have only short-term impacts on coastal marine ecosystems. The review synthesized results of a series of studies of the impact of the March 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, and found, says lead author Charles H. Peterson of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, that “oil has persisted in surprisingly large quantities for years … in subsurface reservoirs under course intertidal sediments. This oil was sequestered in conditions where weathering by wave action, light and bacteria was inhibited, and toxicity remained for a decade or more.”
As a result, numbers of many species declined, says Peterson. For example, chronic exposure to the oil in mouths of streams boosted mortality among incubating pink salmon eggs for at least four years after the spill. “Higher mortality was induced by concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons of only a few parts per billion,” Peterson says. “These results require a complete reconsideration of the foundations of ecological risk assessment and ecotoxicology because acute mortality from oil involves
concentrations perhaps 1,000 times greater. Earlier experiments incorrectly implied that lower oil concentrations were safe, which the new work clearly showed was not true.”
Beyond initial mortalities, marine mammals (such as sea otters and orcas) and sea ducks suffered increased death rates for years after the accident in part because they ate contaminated food, and in some cases also came into direct contact with oil. Oiled mussel beds and other tidal shoreline habitats will take an estimated 30 years to recover. “Long-term declines also were observed in pink salmon as sublethal effects of oil exposure early in their life history led to stunted growth and indirect increases in mortality while they were in the ocean phase of their lives,” adds Peterson.
Peterson argues that studies of the Exxon Valdez oil spill should lead to a new understanding of how lingering oil deposits affect species over many years, and how sublethal, chronic doses compromise health, growth and reproduction.
“Recognition that chronic exposures of fish eggs to oil concentrations as low as a few parts per billion lead indirectly to higher mortality shows the critical need to better control stormwater runoff of petroleum hydrocarbons and other toxins,” he concludes. “In a developed country like the United States, an amount of petroleum equal to the Exxon Valdez oil spill is spilled annually for every 50 million people.”
Source: Peterson, C.H., et al. 2003. Long-term ecosystem response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Science 302 (5653): 2082-2086.
Contact: Charles H. Peterson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Institute of Marine Sciences, Morehead City, NC 28557. Tel: (252) 726 6841. E-mail.
Back to the top
Conservationists Applaud New Spiny Dogfish Limits
Conservationists are applauding a December decision by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) to set next year’s fishing limits for overfished spiny dogfish sharks at what they call “scientifically defensible” levels.
The new ASMFC limits are dramatically lower than those currently in place. Last February, the ASMFC adopted a Massachusetts proposal to set the dogfish quota for the 2003 fishing year at double the level recommended by scientists and to allow the limit per trip to exceed technical recommendations by an order of magnitude. Massachusetts fishermen, primarily from Cape Cod, are responsible for nearly 80 percent of the total U.S. Atlantic dogfish landings.
Dogfish, like other sharks, are especially susceptible to overfishing because they grow slowly, mature late, and produce few young. Female spiny dogfish produce only six pups on average after a two-year gestation period. Dogfish fisheries target large, mature females based on market demand. According to The Ocean Conservancy, lax limits on this practice have led to a 75 percent decline in reproductive females and virtually no offspring for the last seven years.
The Ocean Conservancy says that “excessive ASMFC dogfish limits have undermined federal dogfish recovery efforts, negotiations with Canada regarding the same population, and the U.S. leadership role in international shark conservation initiatives. The higher allowances in state waters also drive dogfish fisheries closer to
shore, thereby increasing the risk for incidental capture of bottlenose dolphins, threatened sea turtles and depleted Atlantic sturgeon.”
The new science-based limits take effect May 1, 2004. Damage to the population, says The Ocean Conservancy, is “expected to take several decades to repair.”
Contact: Sonja Fordham, The Ocean Conservancy. Tel: (202) 429 5609. E-mail.
Back to the top
After Four Decades of Protection, Humpback Whales in North Atlantic Show Signs of Recovery …
Humpback whales in the North Atlantic were severely depleted by commercial whaling over the course of several centuries. The species is known to have been hunted in the area since at least the 17th century; over 2,000 were taken by non-mechanized pelagic and small-scale coastal operations during the 19th century; and from 1885 to 1910 nearly 5,000 were taken in the waters off Norway and Iceland. As a result, the species was considered seriously depleted in much of the region by the early 1920s, although commercial hunting continued until the species was protected in the North Atlantic by the International Whaling Commission in 1955.
Following four decades of protection, it would be expected that humpback whales would be increasing in number in the North Atlantic, and a recent paper in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series argues that this is indeed the case. Based upon sightings studies, photographic records, and previous studies, the paper estimates that there are approximately 11,570 humpbacks in the North Atlantic, compared to an estimate of between 1,700 and 3,400 at the time the population was protected in 1955.
Although this likely represents only a fraction of the likely initial population size, which may have been as much as 240,000 animals (see Ocean Update, August/September 2003), the results are “strongly indicative of a substantial recovery of humpback whales in the North Atlantic following the end of commercial hunting.”
Source: Stevick, P.T., et al. 2003. North Atlantic humpback whale abundance and rate of increase four decades after protection from whaling. Marine Ecology Progress Series 258: 263-273.
Contact: Peter T. Stevick. E-mail.
Back to the top
… But in Pacific, Collisions With Vessels Increase, Too
A 1959 article in the journal Pacific Naturalist proposed that humpback whales “without flukes” off California had been the victims of collisions with vessels, possibly the first print reference to “ship strikes” on humpback whales. In the decades since, collisions between whales and vessels have becoming a growing problem, with the situation a particular concern for right whales in the western North Atlantic. A new study suggests that the problem is also increasing for humpbacks in the waters of Hawaii.
Between 1975 and 2003, 22 collisions between vessels and whales were publicly reported from the waters of Hawaii. Two incidents were reported between 1975 and 1984, six between 1985 and 1994, and fourteen between 1994 and 2003. Close to half of all the reports (nine of 22) came within the years 1999-2003. Only two fatalities presumed to be caused by ship strikes were reported, both in January 1996.
The study surmises that the growing population of humpback whales in the area, as well as the increasing number of vessels transiting through and/or occupying areas preferred by whales are responsible for the greater number of incidents. In addition, increased awareness and more efficient reporting may have contributed to a rise in reports greater than the increase in actual collisions.
Source: Lammers, M.O. et al. 2003. Historical Evidence of Whale/Vessel Collisions in Hawaiian Waters (1975-Present). OSI Technical Report 2003-01 Prepared for NOAA’s Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.
Contact: Marc O. Lammers, Oceanwide Science Institute, P.O. Box 61692, Honolulu, HI 96839.
Back to the top
Could Oceanic Methane Eruptions Cause Mass Extinctions?
The history of life is punctuated by mass extinctions, but in many instances their causes remain obscure. Extraterrestrial causes have attracted the most attention, but some researchers have argued that “there is no reason why all catastrophes on Earth should be induced” by meteor impacts such as the one believed to have exacerbated the mass extinction of dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous Era: “As yet we know too little about the workings of our planet to dismiss Earth-induced catastrophes.”
A new paper in the journal Geology posits one such possible Earth-induced catastrophe. According to the paper, mass extinctions might be caused by “an extremely fast, explosive release of dissolved methane (and other dissolved gases such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide) that accumulated in oceanic water masses prone to stagnation and anoxia.”
The paper notes that methane is continually produced beneath the ocean floor; much of it is consumed by archaea and bacteria in the upper layer of sediments, with the rest escaping into the water column. Under normal conditions, this methane is ultimately oxidized by microbes; however, in circumstances where oxygen flow in the water column is greatly reduced or non-existent – in water bodies that are stagnant or anoxic – methane can escape oxidation and steadily accumulate. Ultimately, the water column could in effect become saturated with methane, at which point a disturbance such as an earthquake or an underwater volcano can lead to a gaseous eruption. This process occurred in 1986 in Cameroon’s Lake Nyos, when CO2 of magmatic origin erupted, causing a gas-water fountain approximately 400 feet high and releasing a lethal cloud of carbon dioxide.
As the paper vividly describes, the “consequences of a methane-driven oceanic eruption for marine and terrestrial life are likely to be catastrophic. Figuratively speaking, the erupting region ‘‘boils over,’’ ejecting a large amount of methane and other gases into the atmosphere, and flooding large areas of land. Whereas pure methane is lighter than air, methane loaded with water droplets is much heavier, and thus spreads over the land, mixing with air in the process (and losing water as rain). The air-methane mixture is explosive at methane concentrations between 5% and 15%; as such mixtures form in different locations near the ground and are ignited by lightning, explosions, and conflagrations destroy most of the terrestrial life, and also produce great amounts of smoke and of carbon dioxide. Firestorms carry smoke and dust into the upper atmosphere, where they may remain for several years; the resulting darkness and global cooling may provide an additional kill mechanism. Conversely, carbon dioxide and the remaining methane create the greenhouse effect, which may lead to global warming. The outcome of the competition between the cooling and the warming tendencies is difficult to predict.”
Expanding on this latter theme, the paper recalls that the “effect of a methane-driven eruption on climate could be drastic. Global warming is an obvious possibility; global cooling could result as well, if a large eruption produced a global cloud of smoke and dust particles in the upper atmosphere. Some versions of the nuclear winter scenario predict cooling so strong that continental glaciation could be triggered. While these predictions remain controversial, a large methane-driven oceanic eruption entails energy release so much greater than that in the nuclear-winter scenario … that it may be capable of triggering continental glaciation. The subsequent eruptions, with no smoke or dust coming from the ice-covered land, would be more likely to result in global warming due to the greenhouse effect, and could terminate the glaciation.” By way of supporting evidence for this last postulation, the paper notes that the “ice-core record for the past 420 [thousand years] shows a jump in the atmospheric concentration of methane at each glacial termination; the jump coincides with the start of rapid melting of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. These methane jumps are so sharp and pronounced that they became a standard means of synchronizing the ice-core records from Antarctica and Greenland.” Perhaps, the paper speculates, “these glacial terminations were caused by (smaller-scale) methane-driven oceanic eruptions.”
Although much of the hypothesis remains speculation, the paper does note that the geological record at the Permian-Triassic boundary, a time when the planet underwent a mass extinction that dwarfed even that which later led to the disappearance of the dinosaurs, is consistent with the after-effects of a massive oceanic methane eruption. It conjectures: “The paleogeography of the Permian may have led to development of a large number of stagnant anoxic regions, and thus to accumulation of very large amounts of dissolved methane. The unusual severity of the Permian-Triassic extinction may have been a result of chance as several different oceanic locations erupted in succession.”
Source: Ryskin, G. 2003. Methane-driven oceanic eruptions and mass extinctions. Geology 31(9): 741-744.
Contact: Gregory Ryskin, Department of Chemical Engineering, Northwestern University, Illinois. E-mail.
Back to the top
Report on Stakeholder Perspectives on Ocean Zoning Released
The Ecology Action Centre has released a report, Ocean Zoning: Perspectives on a New Vision for the Scotian Shelf and Gulf of Maine, by Penny Doherty, which relates the results of interviews with U.S. and Canadian stakeholders on zoning these large offshore areas.
Most of the stakeholders interviewed thought zoning was a viable management tool that should be implemented on the Scotian Shelf and Gulf of Maine, with the provision that it be used in conjunction with other management tools. They also noted that zoning might not be appropriate for some areas or for certain management concerns. A few stakeholders were opposed to zoning because they felt “it limited access to the resource,” was logistically impossible to implement, or was based on managing for multiple uses rather than maintaining ecological integrity.
Key recommendations of the report include: ensuring that conservation is the driver for zoning; involving stakeholders in the development and application of the zoning process; and encouraging governments and all stakeholder groups to consider multi-sector zoning to promote conservation and uniform management decisions among different jurisdictions.
Contact: Ecology Action Centre. Tel: (902) 429-2202. E-mail.
Back to the top
For further information on SeaWeb, or for print copies of Ocean Update, please write to SeaWeb, 1731 Connecticut Ave., NW, 4th Floor, Washington, D.C., 20009, or email us at contactus@seaweb.org. Send any information, articles, press releases and ideas for inclusion in future issues to the editor: Kieran Mulvaney. |
|
|
|
