Our Plastic Legacy Afloat

A New York Times Editorial

Until recently, the earth had seven continents. To that number, humans have added an eighth — an amorphous, floating mass of waste plastic trapped in a gyre of currents in the north Pacific, between Hawaii and Japan. Researchers have estimated that this garbage patch may contain as much as 100 million tons of plastic debris and is perhaps twice the size of Texas, if not larger.

Across the world’s oceans there are still many more millions of tons of floating plastic, most of it originating from land, not ships. All of this solid waste is bad news. It traps as many as a million seabirds every year, as well as some 100,000 marine mammals.

Now comes what could be more bad news. A new study, announced at a recent meeting of the American Chemical Society, suggests that plastics in seawater break down faster than expected. As they do, they apparently release contaminants, including potentially harmful styrene compounds not normally found in nature. This was not merely a laboratory finding. The author of the study, Katsuhiko Saido, a scientist at Nihon University in Japan, found the same chemical compounds in seawater samples collected near Malaysia, the Pacific Northwest, and in the northern Pacific.

The effects of these broken-down plastics on marine organisms is as yet unknown, and they will be harder to measure than the damage that plastic refuse does to sea-life. But adding to the contaminant load of the oceans cannot be a good thing.

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A National Policy for Our Crowded Ocean

Roll Call
By Vikki Spruill

When we look out to the blue horizon, the ocean seems like a calm, vast space. But what we see on the surface of the water is deceiving — the ocean is alive with activity and it is crowded with wildlife and industrial uses. Like urban sprawl on land, the demand for space in our oceans and on our coasts is growing. New renewable energy and aquaculture facilities, commercial fishing, recreation, offshore drilling and shipping are all competing for space, and our demands continue to grow. Our ocean is getting crowded at a time when it is vulnerable to major changes.

Climate change is damaging the ocean — temperatures are rising and ocean acidification is taking place as the water absorbs the excess carbon dioxide we pump into the atmosphere. In addition to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, we must protect ocean ecosystems the best we can in the face of our growing industrial demands, to help them remain resilient against the threat of climate change.

Protections are critical. A healthy ocean is essential to our health and the stability of our economy. The ocean is the engine that drives our climate. It provides much of the oxygen we breathe and food we eat. It is also important to our economy — more than $1 trillion, or one-tenth of the nation’s annual gross domestic product, is generated from the coasts.

We need to bring order to the ocean and provide a framework for balancing ocean conservation and competing interests, which can be achieved through a comprehensive planning approach called Marine Spatial Planning. It is already being used effectively by other countries — and is under way in states like Massachusetts and Rhode Island — to do just that. It puts a process in place to manage the ecosystem as a whole and to evaluate cumulative impacts of the many uses of the ocean.

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A Real Fish Story

A New York Times Editorial

Here is an unusual fish story. And a positive one.

On Thursday, Gary Locke, the secretary of commerce, approved a plan that would prohibit commercial fishing in a huge swath of American waters in the Arctic that have never been actively fished and that nobody is much interested in fishing now.

That sounds odd, but it’s a smart move based on the assumption that the rapid melting of Arctic sea ice caused by climate change will someday make the area more accessible and commercially more attractive.

This was also the first time the United States shut down a fishery because of climate change rather than overfishing. Mr. Locke’s objective is to buy time to get a fix on the area’s resources and develop a sustainable fishing plan that would assure lasting protection for a fragile and poorly understood ecosystem.

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Finding Sanctuary - A Nifty New Website

Finding Sanctuary is a partnership project that aims to create a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) around the coasts and seas of South West England.

Through Finding Sanctuary’s Web-GIS you can see different information layers.

Through this map you can input information that will be used by the Finding Sanctuary to plan Marine Conservation Zones. (You need to register to do this)

Check it out!

In Maine, Tensions Over Ailing Lobster Industry

The New York Times
By ABBY GOODNOUGH

This tiny island, 22 miles out at sea, is generally so quiet that it is hard to imagine the chaos that descended one midsummer day.

Early that morning, one veteran lobsterman shot and seriously wounded another on the Matinicus wharf, the peak of a dispute over whether the gunman’s son-in-law — a mainlander — could fish in the waters surrounding the island. The feud had been escalating for months, a symptom of the economic crisis battering lobstermen up and down Maine’s coast.

Now the gunman is banned from the island, and the roughly three dozen other lobstermen here are pleading for help. They want the state to carve out a restricted zone where only full-time Matinicus residents can catch lobsters, an extraordinary step that the state is now considering to preserve the local livelihood and the island itself. Such a zone would most likely need legislative approval.

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The Climate and National Security

A New York Times Editorial

One would think that by now most people would have figured out that climate change represents a grave threat to the planet. One would also have expected from Congress a plausible strategy for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that lie at the root of the problem.

That has not happened. The House has passed a climate bill that is not as strong as needed, but is a start. There are doubts about whether the Senate will pass any bill, given the reflexive opposition of most Republicans and unfounded fears among many Democrats that rising energy costs will cripple local industries.

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Landmark global fisheries assessment finds good and bad news

Noreen Parks

Environ. Sci. Technol., Article ASAP

A new analysis on the status of the world’s beleaguered fisheries shows that, after many decades of overfishing, efforts to halt fisheries depletion and restore marine ecosystems are paying off in some parts of the ocean. Nonetheless, overexploitation still occurs for a majority of fish stocks assessed, and many remain vulnerable to collapse, the authors warn in a Science paper (2009, DOI 10.1126/science.1173146).

The study bridges a longstanding rift between fisheries scientists and marine ecologists over the severity of the crisis. A 2006 study led by Boris Worm of Dalhousie University (Canada) ignited a firestorm of controversy when it concluded that, without aggressive management measures, the accelerating downturn in ocean biodiversity portends the global collapse of saltwater fisheries by mid-century (DOI 10.1126/science.1132294). Fisheries specialists such as Ray Hilborn of the University of Washington Seattle criticized the report as alarmist, but ecologists contended that population estimates by their counterparts relied too narrowly on fish-catch records—which may not provide an accurate picture of abundances—without considering entire ecosystems. After several rounds of debate in the scientific literature, Worm and Hilborn found enough common ground to collaborate, along with 19 other researchers, on a fresh investigation.

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Jeff Ardron Explains Ocean Acidification

A New Focus on Ocean Conservation

The New York Times
Green Inc. Column
By KATE GALBRAITH

Over the past weekend, President Barack Obama took a break from the heat — literal and political — to take his family on a whirlwind tour of two national parks in the western United States.

Mr. Obama used his trip to Grand Canyon and Yellowstone to highlight the importance of parks to America’s heritage. (He was heard to pronounce the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone “cool.”)

But to the world at large, Yellowstone also carries a deep significance: When it was established in 1872, it was the first national park ever created. A movement was born.

“It’s been one of the great ideas that the U.S. has nourished here at home and stimulated others to follow,” said Bill Eichbaum, a parks expert at the World Wildlife Fund.

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A World Without Whales?

The Huffington Post

Philippe Cousteau
CEO of EarthEcho International and MCBI Board Member

The water was the kind of blue usually reserved for color saturated photographs that hang on the walls of natural history museums; so deep and perfect that one would swear it was fantasy. All around us we could sense the mighty creatures even before they appeared out of the abyss. At first a faint shimmering of shadow alerted us to their presence until shadow gave way to form and first one, then two then eight graceful giants slowly emerged from the depths, their unmistakable form as familiar as any...humpback whales! Silently rising up from a deep dive, easily 50 feet long and over 40 tons each, their effortless ascent towards us is a sight not easily forgotten. While there is no way to know what they were thinking as they passed within a few yards away of my sister Alexandra and me, I like to think that they were as curious about us as we were about them. Regardless, coming face to face with a pod of humpback whales is a magnificent site that is at once both thrilling and humbling. I have traveled the world, from the frigid waters of the Arctic to the tropical paradise of the South Pacific and have been lucky to grow up witness to countless such wonders.

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Trial set in death of monk seal- 78-year-old man pleads not guilty in the fatal shooting on Kauai beach

By Curtis Lum
Honolulu Advertiser

A 78-year-old man accused of shooting to death an endangered Hawaiian monk seal on Kaua'i in May pleaded not guilty to the charge yesterday in U.S. District Court.

Charles Vidinha of Kaua'i was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond after entering his plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie Kobayashi. Vidinha's trial was set for Oct. 14.

Vidinha was indicted Aug. 5 on a charge of knowingly and unlawfully taking or attempting to take the monk seal, a violation of the Endangered Species Act. The charge is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum one year in prison and a fine of $50,000.

Dressed in blue jeans, a long-sleeve denim shirt and cowboy hat, Vidinha said nothing at yesterday's hearing, except to acknowledge that he understood the terms of his release. He and his attorney, federal public defender Alexander Silvert, declined comment outside the courtroom.

Vidinha is charged with shooting a pregnant monk seal May 21 at Pila'a Beach, a remote beach on Kaua'i's north shore. The seal, known as RK-06, was the mother of five pups, federal officials said.

On the day of the shooting, witnesses told The Advertiser that they had just arrived at the beach when they saw a man standing next to a pickup truck, then heard loud noises. The couple said they then saw a monk seal scamper into the ocean.

A short while later, the two witnesses found the body of the seal floating in the water. Federal officials later confirmed that the seal had been shot to death.

RK-06 was the second endangered monk seal that was shot to death on a Kaua'i beach this year. On April 19, a 4-year-old male seal was found dead on the west side of the island.

No charges have been filed in that case.

Good News: Two Extraordinary People Have Joined MCBI's Board of Directors

They are Gene Duvernoy, President, Cascade Land Conservancy (Seattle WA) and Tom Allen, President, The Association of American Publishers (Washington DC) and former Congressman (D-ME).

A plan for ocean protection

Sonoma News
Opinion
Thu 7/30 6 PM
Op-ed
A plan for ocean protection
By Lance Morgan

Here in Sonoma County, we live a little closer to nature than many of our Bay Area neighbors. We know what it means to rely on the land - and the sea - for food, jobs and our quality of life. And we also know how vital tourist dollars are to our region's economy.

In our bucolic corner of the world, economic and environmental health go hand in hand. You can't pursue one at the expense of the other, and you can't bleed a resource dry without paying a high price in the long run. Ocean fish and wildlife off our coast are a renewable resource, but they're not infinite. We have to watch over them just as we proudly steward the lands of our Valley. With care, and with an eye for our future sustainability. Marine protected areas are like money in the bank. You invest a little now, watch it grow, and eventually you can live off the dividends. Makes sense to me.

I have lived and worked as a marine biologist in Sonoma for more than 20 years. I completed my Ph.D. at Bodega Marine Lab, and spent hundreds of hours underwater. I have enjoyed my own freshly caught rockfish, crabs and abalone, swum, dove, whale-watched, kayaked and explored tidepools, spending many enjoyable hours on the coast. I love this place, but I stopped fishing for rockfish after witnessing the declines firsthand. When it came time to develop an ocean health plan for the north central coast, California did something smart - they brought together the folks who know our ocean best and care about it the most.

I was one of these people. Along with fishermen, divers, scientists and conservationists we all worked together, albeit with some tense moments. But we all shared a common interest - more fish in the sea benefits all of us.

And I do mean everyone. The coastline is probably California's most recognized landmark. Our pocket beaches, rocky shore and kelp forests - our equivalent of coral reefs - draw visitors by the millions. And those people come expecting to see whales migrating, sea birds nesting, sea lions sunning. They may come to check out the amazing variety of tidepool life, like the 50 different species found by a marine biologist on a single intertidal rock at Coleman Beach, or they may come expecting to enjoy locally caught seafood.

A well-designed network of marine protected areas will ensure those experiences are available to our kids and grandkids. And they'll ensure that tourist dollars keep coming into the north coast, and local fishermen have something to catch.

On Aug. 5, the state Fish and Game Commission is expected to adopt a compromise plan for ocean protection called the Integrated Preferred Alternative. It is based in the best available science, and draws from proposals that fishermen and conservationists created. It's not exactly what either side had in mind at the outset, but it will protect key habitat areas like the Farallon Islands and Fisk Mill Cove while leaving almost 90 percent of the coast open for fishing.

This compromise plan is the result of nearly two years of public meetings and careful study. It was created to meet the needs of this diverse community, from hotel owners to abalone divers. And designed to minimize short-term economic impacts while delivering maximum conservation value.

Almost every square mile of ocean contains someone's favorite fishing grounds. And no one wants to give up an area they like to fish. But if we don't set aside parts of the coastline as safe havens for sea life and habitat, our kids - and my son - aren't likely to experience the wonder of a vibrant Sonoma coast.

Scientists have already documented huge drops in fish size and abundance; economic data tells the same story. Each year, there are fewer vessels, fewer processors, and less revenue generated from fisheries off our coast. We have to turn this thing around, and the only way to do it is to start thinking about tomorrow today.

A science-based network of marine protected areas can help restore ocean ecosystems that are under pressure from climate change, fishing and a variety of other human impacts. It will improve the health of one of this region's most valuable economic and environmental resources.

That strikes me as a very good investment indeed. I hope my friends and neighbors will join me in supporting the Integrated Preferred Alternative plan for our region's ocean health.

And I hope the Fish and Game Commission will respect the wisdom of us local folks who helped design it.

• • •

Lance Morgan, Ph.D., is a biologist and vice president for Science at the Marine Conservation Biology Institute. He is a 20-year resident of Sonoma Valley.