Restoring the Oceans
Every single living organism has developed a finely-tuned relationship with their surrounding ecosystem. I still find it baffling how perfectly designed our planet is, especially in the intricate relationships that exist between some of its smallest and largest creatures. One of my favourite examples of this are whales and phytoplankton (microscopic plants that inhabit the oceans). Together, they contribute to a large portion of the oxygen in our atmosphere: through photosynthesis phytoplankton produce oxygen, and they grow thanks to the nutrients that they take from whale poop, rich in iron and nitrogen. Additionally, whales accumulate carbon throughout their lifetime -up to 200 years- and take it with them to the bottom of the ocean when they die. They sequester 97% more carbon than a tree over the same period.
Unfortunately, we’re altering this delicate balance: whale populations are decreasing as larger numbers of the species are victims of collision with large ships and entanglement in commercial fishing gear.
The three major issues with species extinction in the ocean are associated with exploitation, pollution and, of course, climate change.
Pollution
What first comes to mind when thinking about pollution in the ocean is the Great Pacific garbage patch , a concentration of marine debris (mainly plastic) that is formed by currents of different temperature.
And guess what. Half of the garbage patch is made up of synthetic fishing nets. It’s the scale of the fishing industry that makes me shiver: ships have the capacity to catch hundreds of tons of fish per day and it is estimated that 78,000 km2 of nets, 740,000 km of longlines and 25 million posts and traps are lost to sea every single year. Being designed specifically for the purpose of trapping and killing marine life, this lost equipment on its own is responsible for the death of around 650,000 marine animals annually. The other half of the garbage comes from different sources, some directly dumped into the sea, other coming all the way from inland via drains and sewers.
Exploitation
Many people say it’s natural to hunt, that we’ve done it for centuries. But this sort of intensive hunting has, in my opinion, left the realm of ‘natural’ a long time ago. Whilst species have the time to adapt to the evolving world around them, the rate at which we have evolved our hunting technologies is too rapid for animals to respond to. As we maintain current fishing trends facing no obstacle whatsoever, the oceans will slowly be depleted and species will go extinct if no efforts are made to control our activities.
Current regulations are not effective enough to ensure sustainable fishing. The oceans seem to be too large to control.
According to WWF analysis, roughly 85% of global fish stocks are at risk of Illegal, Unreported, or Unregulated fishing, resulting in fish production being 2.5 times larger that what the oceans can sustainably support. FAO reports, on the other hand, estimate this figure to be 1.5. In any case, we are killing fish at higher rates than they are able to reproduce.
Fishing techniques
Different techniques have varying by-catch ratios and degrees of habitat damage. The most common fishing techniques are pursue seine and bottom trawling. Purse seine involves using a huge net to target a specific school of fish which is closed at the bottom like a drawstring purse. Bottom trawling is used to catch species that inhabit the seafloor, such as cod and haddock, and involves dragging a net along the seafloor. This results in high habitat damage and release of large amounts of CO2 (approximately equivalent to the aviation industry) caused by the disturbance of the seafloor.
Climate change
Other than the threat of overfishing, increasing ocean temperatures directly caused by global warming are altering the ocean's balance. Every species thrives within certain conditions, known as ecophysiological tolerances.
The increase in water temperature increases organisms' oxygen demand, radically altering the aerobic balance of habitats. As O2 demand surpasses O2 availability, marine life will disappear from the location, but where will they go? The habitats they live in, such as corals, can't simply relocate to a better location.
Anthropogenic climate change effects are intensifying species losses in the ocean as marine life struggles to adapt to the rapidly changing environment.
So, what’s the solution?
The most obvious and effective solution to the extinction of marine species seems to be to cut, or reduce, fish consumption. The amount of fish that we consume cannot be produced sustainably, in my opinion. Real improvement can be made by supporting small, local fisheries that value the oceans ecosystem and demonstrate their efforts to protect the oceans ecosystem. If we all ate less fish, there would be no need for the multinational corporations to engage with their large scale fishing activities which can be harder to regulate due to the massive volume catch.
Humans are part of the food chain so I can justify us eating meat, but since we have the capacity to notice the effects of over exploitation and have the means to solve the problem, we should pursue this path. We have the skills and knowledge to be aware of the consequences of our actions, we can monitor other species, learning their habits and routines. We can notice who is thriving and who is not, record where they will be and when, and when they are most vulnerable. If we use these capacities to the benefit of all species and not just ours we can effectively create a legislative framework that, if followed, can make fishing sustainable.
Regarding plastic pollution, initiatives such as The Ocean Clean Up and the Global Ghost Gear Initiative are committed to be part of the solution and checking out and supporting their pages always helps.
Great efforts are also being made to engage with circular economy principles by recycling these fishing nets and plastic waste into news products. Various companies have released collections made up entirely of these innovative materials such as Patagonia (NetPlus®), Outer Known (ECONYL®), Vivo Barefoot, Adidas (Parley from the Ocean) and Rothy’s. These initiatives, complemented by incentives for fishing companies to improve their efforts to reduce gear loss by subsidising return of old gear can lead to a substantial reduction in unnecessary marine kills.
Numbers count, and taking action starting today can generate the ripple effect we need in society to drive change and protect our planet.
