Deep trouble in deep blue: Decline of great sea predators imperils ocean ecosystems

Santa Barbara News-Press | May 16, 2004
Voice From Marine Conservation Biology Institute in Redmond, Wash.: Elliott A. Norse

We're losing marine equivalents of tigers, wolves, bears, eagles

First an admission: Like billions of people around the world, I love seafood. But as a marine conservation biologist, I am also one of the very few people fortunate enough to pay his mortgage by working to protect the sea.

Often I recall a scene in my favorite movie, William Wyler's 1958 "The Big Country," in which a rancher rhapsodizes about the vast Texas landscape to a former ship's captain:

"Did you ever see anything so big?" the rancher drawls.

The mariner says: "Well, yes. A couple of oceans."

To which the disbelieving Texan responds: "Well I declare! Oceans. Hmmmph!"

The oceans are vast indeed. The Pacific that tickles Santa Barbara's ankles is larger than all the continents together. Yet many people who realize some things are even more important than Texas perceive the oceans as being so big they're invulnerable. Sadly, they're not.

In the wild frontier hundreds of miles beyond coastal cities and oil platforms, the oceans are not only deep; they're in deep trouble. It's as if somebody's pulling the plug in the ocean basins, leaving the water but rapidly emptying their life. Not all life; the microscopic phytoplankton that fuel marine food webs still are doing their business, as are the little things that eat them. What's increasingly missing are the big things: the sharks, billfishes, big tunas, sea turtles and albatrosses at the apex of marine food webs.

Commercial fishing -- most of all the fishing method called longlining -- is decapitating open ocean ecosystems by eliminating these animals, the marine equivalents of tigers, jaguars, wolves, bears and eagles. It's happening all around the world.

Some of the vanishing wildlife species are swordfish and bluefin tunas that longliners deliberately target. Others, such as giant leatherback sea turtles (which could be extinct in the Pacific within 10 or 15 years); and wandering albatrosses (which have the biggest wingspan among the world's 10,000 bird species), are just innocent victims of longlining operations. Roadkill on the highway to dinner. Sharks can be either targeted or unintended victims.

People are eating these animals into oblivion. Swordfish is one fish that even dedicated American steak-eaters will order. Toro or fatty tuna comes from bluefins, the largest and most imperiled tuna species. Overfishing has caused bluefin populations to crash throughout the world's oceans because Japanese and, increasingly, Americans, love toro. And many of the world's billion-plus Chinese prize sharkfin soup and are buying more and more as China's economy rises.

Longliners are commercial fishing vessels from countries such as Spain, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico and the U.S. They play out heavy lines up to 60 miles long to which hundreds or thousands of dropper lines are tied, each armed with a baited hook. Sometimes longliners attach chemiluminescent plastic "light sticks" to attract big fish in the wine-dark sea.

Longliners keep the swordfish, marlins, tunas and the meat of some sharks they kill. They dump sea turtles, albatrosses and the bodies of the other sharks, minus their fins, overboard.

This might make you think longliners are no better than cigarette manufacturers who provide their product to anyone willing to pay. But consumers are no less responsible: Unless you -- yes, you! -- and lots more people who can afford swordfish steaks, bluefin toro sashimi and shark-fin soup reduce your demand, longliners will be only too happy to satisfy your appetites.

In fact, the seafood industry lobbies our elected officials to maintain its "right" to fish the oceans to emptiness. But there are some things really wrong about their right. One is that the living sea belongs to you and me as much as to them. Another is that our government and some others actually subsidize the killing of the sea's great predators.

The numbers are truly frightening. Last year, a study published by Ransom Myers and Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Canada in the prestigious scientific journal Nature showed that 90 percent of the large predatory fishes have disappeared worldwide since the 1950s.

Since longlining began in the Gulf of Mexico, more than 99 percent of oceanic whitetip sharks have vanished there. If you discovered that 90 percent or 99 percent of your income or your friend's had just vanished, you'd probably start asking questions. The sudden realization that these magnificent ocean wildlife are disappearing is causing more and more marine scientists to ask questions.

If current trends continue, the only oceanic whitetip sharks and bluefin tunas will be ones in old photographs, drawings and, perhaps, on flags, like the extinct -- since 1922 -- golden bear on California's state flag. Of course, that will cause some people to rush to trendy L.A. sushi places for some toro sashimi while it's still available. But for most of us, it suggests the need to do things differently.

What can you do? For starters, vote with your credit cards. If you're an ethical person who would never eat tiger soup or eagle breast, you should never eat toro or sharkfin soup. We're not talking about feeding the starving masses here. No species is so tasty that eating it or its associated species into extinction is acceptable.

What's nice is that you don't have to tie your knickers in a knot to learn which seafoods are sustainable. Three authoritative sources are

http://www.blueoceaninstitute.org/seafood/,

http://www.environmentaldefense.org/seafood/fishhome.cfm?CFID=3384781&CFTOKEN=12259839

and http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp.

They make it easy to make good decisions when you go to a restaurant or seafood counter. And for some real fun, tell the chef or seafood manager why you order as you do.

One of the best things to do is to help nonprofit public interest organizations that fight on your behalf to protect marine life. Oceana and the Natural Resources Defense Council are very effective. My organization, Marine Conservation Biology Institute, fights way above our weight class, and we could do more if we had your help. You can check out these organizations online at www.oceana.org, www.nrdc.org and www.mcbi.org.

Another crucial thing: You can vote blue. Many people who care about nature think we should vote green, but more than two-thirds of the Earth's surface is actually blue ocean. Protecting the blue is really important. If you love the Earth, vote blue.

Write a letter urging your political leaders to actually do some leading by reducing the capacity of fishing fleets that are emptying our oceans. Tell them to establish more fully protected places in California's spectacular coastal waters. And state that if their actions don't show they're hearing you, you'll vote accordingly with your ballot and your checkbook. That really gets their attention.

I can offer one more innovative way to save big animals in the open ocean, but I've run out of space today. Since Californians already have heard the phrase, please know that in coming weeks, "I'll be back."

The author is President of Marine Conservation Biology Institute in Redmond, Wash. He wrote this for Voices. His next book, with co-editor Dr. Larry B. Crowder, is Marine Conservation Biology: The Science of Maintaining the Sea's Biodiversity.