CHAPTER THREE

    The Earth's atmosphere and oceans are a tightly coupled system. Normally, strong winds from the eastern Pacific (10 kilometers per second) blow from east to the west carrying warm surface waters with them, and creating a huge upwelling of cold, nutrient rich waters off the coasts of Peru and Chile. These upwellings fuel a short and very productive food web of plankton and grazing anchovies, and support millions of sea birds and marine life that feed on their bounty. Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography say this movement of the lighter warmer waters across the Pacific normally creates a deep thermocline of about 200 m in the Western Pacific and a shallow one at 50 m in the east.

    When these easterly winds stop, or when the wind switches direction and blows from the WEST to the east, an El Nino occurs. A huge amount of water starts its movement from west to east, warming the normally cold ocean from Chile to Alaska (called the "Southern Oscillation"). The thermocline in the Eastern Pacific is pushed down so that its nearly flat (it's now at a depth of about 100 m across the entire Pacific!). Sea levels rise in the Eastern Pacific (and Scripps scientists have said that there is a general 0.6-0.7' sea level rise happening on the West Coast due to global climate change). And the ocean in the Eastern Pacific warms. In the current El Nino, a warming of 4-5 degrees C has been recorded over a huge area of the Eastern Pacific, with 10 degree anomalies recorded in some places.

    The massive warming of the oceans off Peru, Ecuador and Chile (about 20 degrees of latitude by 90 degrees of longitude) causes equally massive changes in ocean ecosystems, with many cold water species migrating elsewhere and other non-migratory species dying due to food shortages.

    This (1997) El Nino is the largest one on record to date. It has caused large scale flooding in Chile and Peru, deep snows in the Andes, and been blamed for the drought and damaging forest fires in the Western Pacific (Indonesia). In addition, to direct climate affects, economies of Peru and Chile have been severely affected by the lack of fish. A ban on anchovy fishing due to El Nino conditions in Peru has been in effect since March 1997. Peruvian officials announced the ban would be lifted on 15 October 1997 due to increased anchovy abundance's.

FOLLOW THE 1997 ENSO WORLDWIDE!!!

Click here on ENSO for the El Nino page of the University of Alaska and University of California Irvine
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Home Page - Contents

The Ocean Environmental Crisis

Webliography

American Fisheries Society
Aquatic Biodiversity Crisis (Nature Conservancy 1997)
"Troubled Waters Statement" (Marine Conservation Biology Institute 1997)
Greenpeace International Toxics Campaign Home Page
Greenpeace Marine Services Home Page
 National Institute for Global Environmental Change
National Fisherman Homepage
List of Oceanography Resources
Oceanography on the Web
Oceanography, Dalhousie University
Salmon Conflict Investigations
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service World Wide Web Site

Habitats

     States Dayton (1995), "Coastal wetlands and bays are probably the world's most endangered habitats and are especially vulnerable to human disturbance and habitat destruction because they are often near population centers and locations where inputs are not rapidly dispersed." 60% of global population lives with 100 km of coast. As  result, about 50% of the Earth's have been mangroves lost and native species in coastal habitats have been impacted heavily by exotics. In addition, fishing has disturbed much of the bottom to the point where many marine bottoms are like "oceanic dust bowls" (Dayton (1995) cites a particularly appalling example in Italy [Fanelli et al. 1994]).

    The world's fishing fleet, estimated to have twice the capacity and technology available than what is needed to harvest the same amount of product, is one severely impacting oceanic and benthic ecosystems and modifying habitats. Bottom dredging scrapes and plows the ocean bottom to depths as great as 15 cm. Besides the direct destructive impact on organisms themselves, increased turbidity kills many species outright or changes benthic communities. Near bottom trawling produces a huge amount of by-catch.

    The areas of habitat affected by towed fishing gear is astounding. The 800 km² Bay of St. Brieuc, France is trawled over as many as 7 times a year; Narragansett Bay and Long Island Sound 3 times a year; several North Sea habitats 3-5 times a year; and one author reported that 70% of the Dutch North Sea had visible trawler tracks (Dayton 1995). States Safina, "(scientists) have pointed out that the vast majority of shallow shelves have been scared by fishing, whereas large untouched tracts of rainforest still exist."

Pollution

Toxins: bioaccumulative and not 

    The toxic flood of pollutants continues to increase to the world's oceans. In many economically developing nations, especially in East Asia, pollution has accompanied prosperity and the environment and people's health are suffering. Forecasts are that average life spans in many east Asian nations could drop in the next century unless effective controls on pollution are achieved. Pollution has become so severe in some places that once pristine tourist areas have been closed due to healthful ocean waters. The Gulf of Thailand, the Java Sea,  Manila Bay and the Cebu City harbor have all been called "a huge waste sink". In these bays, hundreds of ships visit daily, rivers dump untreated raw sewage and industrial wastes, mangroves have been virtually eliminated, and huge quantities of rubbish enter the sea, especially in the wet seasons.  The "witches brew" of toxins coming into the oceans are heavy metals, hydrocarbons, pesticides, medical waste, plastics, and other trash.

    The types and quantities of wastes have increased with increased economic growth, and the establishment of "export processing" and "free trade" zones. While the revenues of these areas have skyrocketed, governments and donors have done little or nothing to rescue these environments and the peoples who depend on them. Marine trash is becoming a threat to life even in the most "pristine" areas: In 38 days, one Faroe Island fishing boat caught 26 porbeagle sharks fouled with packing bands (Dayton 1995).

Nutrients: point and non-point pollution

    In the developed countries, pollution from point sources has been controlled over the past thirty years by strengthening of legislation (The Clean Water Act in the United States) and regulations on point source discharges. Now the principal challenge in the developed countries is dealing with non-point pollution. Polluted waters from city streets, construction sites, agricultural lands has caused serious impairment of coastal water quality worldwide. This pollution is responsible for closed beaches, shellfish fishing areas, fish kills, harmful algal blooms (HABs), sediment contamination and destruction of coral reefs.

    In March 1997, 104 organizations wrote Congress and asked for increased funding to deal with non-point pollution. On 23 Sept. 1997, Congressional Representatives N. Lowrey (D-NY), W. Gilchrest (R-Md) and M. castle (R-De) and F. Pallone (D-NJ) formulated a $2.5 million amendment to fund non-pollution control (Capitol Switchboard 202-224-3121 or 800-962-3524 to talk to your representative about this issue)

HABs (Harmful Algal Blooms)

    Blooms of noxious algae have increased in the past 20 years worldwide and are being blamed on inputs of excess nutrients due to human activities. Some of these noxious algae produce powerful nerve toxins which can an cause massive fish kills or even kill a person who unsuspectingly eats shellfish that was harvested from waters tainted with toxic algae. The case of the "Cell from Hell" (Pfiesteria piscicida (National Ag. Library Site) now blooming in East Coast waters (North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland) is especially noteworthy. Until recently, Pfiesteria was only a curiosity of academic specialists. In the past few years, this organism has been blamed in fish kills unprecedented in their size, and been linked to neurological damage in people who worked or swam in these waters (memory loss, learning difficulties, and decreases in white blood cell content upwards of 20% have been recorded in people who were exposed to Pfiesteria). Blooms of Pfiesteria have been linked to nutrient enrichment of coastal waters due to non-point pollution from agriculture. Nutrients in waters allow huge population increases of toxic organisms in water that were unknown or rare. The US EPA has pledged to adopt new standards on nutrient inputs to waters.

    Its hard to image an organism more bizarre than Pfiesteria. When no fish prey are present, it goes into a cyst form and settles to the bottom, lying dormant in the sediments. It can also emerge to form an amoeba that feeds on algae in the water column, and even can become a photosynthetic plankton-like organism, except it "steals" the chloroplasts from algae from its algal prey and uses photosythnesis only to supplement its nutrient supply in the water column. In the presence of certain species of fish, however, it becomes a "monster" predator capable of mass fish kills. As a "predatory" dinoflagellete it produces different types of toxins that do an incredible array of damage to fish. Some toxins attack internal organs. Another works on the fish immune system. And one toxin actually strips the skin off of the fish! (Burkholder 1997 & the P. piscicida Site at North Carolina State University). To those who have witnessed the power of Pfiesteria report thousands of fish flopping and thrashing on the water surface, and fish actually beaching themselves, fleeing the water as if on fire.

    A popular book has been written on the subject which is highly recommended:

Barker, R. 1996. And the waters turned to blood. Simon and Shuster.

    In addition, please visit "Red Tides" and Harmful Algal Blooms produced by the National Office of Marine Biotoxins and Harmful Algal Blooms and housed at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. This site focuses on algae that produce potent neurotoxins that "can be transferred through the food web where they affect and even kill the higher forms of life such as zooplankton, shellfish, fish, birds, marine mammals, and even humans that feed either directly or indirectly on them." The site is divided into the following sections: photos of "Red Tide" blooms, species responsible for harmful effects, adverse impacts at higher trophic levels, human illness associated with algal blooms, and regional impacts.

Mallin MA, Burkholder JM, Larsen LM, et al. Effects of the toxic dinoflagellate Pfiesteria piscimorte on two estuarine zooplankton grazers. American Society of Limnology and Oceanography and The Phycological Society of America 1994 Joint Meeting 1994.

Fish-killing dinoflagellates in a tropical marine aquarium. HARMFUL MARINE ALGAL BLOOMS. PROLIFERATION D'ALGUES MARINES NUISIBLES 1995;65-70.

Stage transformations in the complex life cycle of an ichthyotoxic "ambush-predator" dinoflagellate. HARMFUL MARINE ALGAL BLOOMS. PROLIFERATION D'ALGUES MARINES NUISIBLES 1995; 567-572.

Blakesley BA, Landsberg JH. Scanning electron microscopy of selected protists associated with marine fish. INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON AQUATIC ANIMAL HEALTH: PROGRAM AND ABSTRACTS 1994;-43.

Burkholder JM, Glasgow HB, Jr. Interactions of a toxic estuarine dinoflagellate with microbial predators and prey. Source SELECTED PAPERS OF THE TENTH BIENNIAL MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR EVOLUTIONARY PROTISTOLOGY 1994;145:3-4.

Burkholder JM, Glasgow HB, Jr. Response of the toxic estuarine dinoflagellate, Pfiesteria piscicida to N and P from organic and inorganic sources. American Society of Limnology and Oceanography 1995 Meeting 1995.

Burkholder JM, Glasgow HB, Jr., Hobbs CW. Fish kills linked to a toxic ambush-predator dinoflagellate: Distribution and environmental conditions. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 1995;124:43-61.

Burkholder JM, Glasgow Jr HB. Pfiesteria piscicida and other Pfiesteria-like dinoflagellates: Behavior, impacts, and environmental controls. Limnology and oceanography. 1997;42:1052.

Guo C, Tester PA. Production, growth and feeding rates of the zoospores of Pfiesteria piscimorte. American Society of Limnology and Oceanography and The Phycological Society of America 1994 Joint Meeting 1994.

Hart K. Killer dinoflagellate fact sheet. UNC SG FS 1994.

Levin ED, Schmechel DE, Glasgow HB, Jr., et al. Cognitive effects seen in rats exposed to the dinoflagellate pfiesteria. 36th Annual Meeting of the Society of Toxicology 1997.

Lewitus AJ, Glasgow HB, Jr., Burkholder JM. Retention of cryptophyte chloroplasts by the toxic dinoflagellate, Pfiesteria piscicida. Estuarine Research Federation's 1995 Conference on Estuaries: Bridges From Watersheds to Coastal Seas 1995.

Lewitus AJ, Jesien RV, Kana TM, et al. Discovery of the "phantom" dinoflagellate in Chesapeake Bay. Estuaries 1995;18:373-378.

Mallin MA, Burkholder JM, Larsen LM, et al. Response of two zooplankton grazers to an ichthyotoxic estuarine dinoflagellate. J. Plankton Res. 1995;17:351-363.

Matuszak DL, Sanders M, Taylor JL, et al. Toxic Pfiesteria and human health. Maryland medical journal : MMJ. 1997;46:515.

Smith AD, Haas LW. Grazing by a heterotrophic dinoflagellate: A comparative study with Pfiesteria piscicida. American
>Society of Limnology and Oceanography 1995 Meeting 1995.

Springer JJ, Burkholder J, Shumway SE. Effects of the toxic dinoflagellate, Pfiesteria piscicida, on juvenile bay scallops (Argopecten irradians, Lamarck). J. SHELLFISH RES 1996;15:530.

Steidinger KA, Truby EW, Garrett JK, et al. The morphology and cytology of a newly discovered toxic dinoflagellate. HARMFUL MARINE ALGAL BLOOMS. PROLIFERATION D'ALGUES MARINES NUISIBLES 1995;83-88.

Steidinger KA, Burkholder JM, Glasgow HB, Jr., et al. Pfiesteria piscicida gen. et sp. nov. (Pfiesteriaceae fam. nov.), a new toxic dinoflagellate with a complex life cycle and behavior. J. Phycol.1996;32:157-164.

Steidinger KA, Burkholder JM, Glasgow Jr HB. Government Pfiesteria: Federal and state agencies research. Chemical and engineering news : "news edition" of the American Chemical Society. 1997;75:14.

Toffer KL, Rublee PA, Burkholder JM. Genetic analysis of the toxic dinoflagellate Pfiesteria piscicida based on small subunit ribosomal DNA. American Society of Limnology and Oceanography 1995 Meeting

        There are different types of fisheries resource exploitation:

Underfishing: many fish die of "old age" because production is greater than removal by fishing.
Sustainable fishing: using the ocean's "surplus capacity", e.g. where natural recruitment in balance with fishing effort.
Overfishing: fishing to the level where natural recruitment cannot replace the catch.
Biomass fishing: investing in small mesh nets to catch everything to make fish meal and oils for chicken, pig and aquaculture feeds. In 1950, one half of the world's marine fish were distributed fresh; this percentage dropped to 20% by 1982.
Malthusian overfishing: a desperate attempt to fish to survive where fishers destroy the very     environment that the fish (and they) depend on for survival using poisons, dynamite, etc.

    It is amazing to contrast the information on marine fisheries from just 30 years ago with today. Emery and Iselin (1967, p. 1281) compared developed of food resources on land and oceans in 1967 and concluded that "the development of marine food resources is in a more primitive stage than the development on land. Progress in inhibited by political factors... and industrial factors (conservative design of fishing boats and equipment, and preference of American fishermen for small independent boats rather than the large factory ships used by the Soviets and Japanese".

    Compare those comments about the "primitive" nature of fishing with the information given by Dayton (1995), Safina (1995), and Botsford et al. (1997). Between 1970 and 190 the world's fishing fleet grew at twice the rate of global catch. Safina (1995) reviews the technological marvels now used to catch fish, sonar, helicopters, drift nets, pair trawls, etc., etc., calling it a "war on fishes". He states the world's fish cannot survive this technological and monetary onslaught. To catch $70 billion of fish the fishing industry spent $124 billion; the $54 billion balance came from taxpayers.

    In an OECD (1997) report called "Towards Sustainable Fisheries" the history of the global fisheries crisis is reviewed. Throughout the late 40's and 1950's scientists estimated that fish stocks could be exploited to levels of 200-1,000 million tons (the 1993 world yield with all our technology was 100.4 million tons). In addition, there was strong support for "Freedom of the High Sea" because fish were though inexhaustible. These scientific projections were terribly wrong, and by the end of the 1960's the number of heavily exploited fish stocks increased so dramatically that some scientists were calling for restraint. However, new technologies and massive government investments and subsidies flowed into capture fisheries in the 1970's-80's. "New fisheries could be developed so fast that time was not allowed to design management measures" (OECD 1997).

    OCED (1997) blames the following actions for the crisis:

high yield expections
technical advancements in harvesting and processing
distant water fleet expansion
increasing aquatic protein demands
domestic political pressures
limited success of regulations
absence of well defined property rights.

    "On Oct. 3, 1997, NMFS announced the release of a report to Congress entitled Status of Fisheries of the United States identifying 86 species as overfished, 10 species as approaching an overfished condition, 183 species as not overfished, and 448 species of unknown status.  Regional Fishery Management Council are required to develop programs to end overfishing and rebuild overfished stocks.  This report states that these numbers probably understate the number of fisheries that will eventually be determined to be overfished". (Sustainable Fisheries Act, NMFS)

    Globally about half of fish stocks are fully exploited and 22% are overexploited (Botsford et al. 1997). Fisheries remove about 8% of global primary production but 24-25% of production in coastal areas. But this removal is not limited to products for consumption or economic use. The level of waste in industrial fishing operations (called "bycatch") is threatening the very basis of the ocean's food web. In a number of fisheries, bycatch exceeds the catch actually utilized, and the "throwbacks" change the form and functioning of the marine food web. Discards cause aggregations of predators, oxygen depletions and changed behaviors of marine animals. Jones (1992) shows where decomposing discards caused a disease which eliminated a scallop fishery. Shrimp bycatch can be as high as 125-830% (Safina 1995). Australian data show that 3000 tons of living animals were discarded for each 500 tons of shrimp (Dayton 1995). Fishing threatens a wide variety of marine mammals that are caught as bycatch (Dayton 1995). And the bycatch is not only restricted to aquatic creatures. Tuna longliners have been implicated in the annual kill of 44,000 wandering albatrosses.

    Fisheries employ about 200 million people and account for 19% of total human consumption of animal protein, producing revenues of $70 billion per year. No country has a successful fisheries management strategy in place or plans for recovering the bounty and beauty of the world's oceans. A fish war nearly erupted in the early 1990's between Spain and Canada because of illegal overfishing and fraud on the high seas. Canadian military seized a Spanish ship on the high seas. The boat had two sets of log books, illegal size fish and nets. Distant water nations fished 16 times the quotas of fish set for the Grand Banks from 1986-92 (Safina 1995).

     The ocean commons is clearly at an end but this will be very difficult for governments to do. Many nations will have to move thousands of people out of fishing and dramatically cut subsidies for fishers. Governments will have to apply the "precautionary principle" (Botsford et al. 1997, p. 514). Botsford et al. (1997) state, "The challenge for the next century lies in crafting new local and regional institutions, not just in filling the scientific gaps. The best hope for greater sustainability of marine ecosystems is to insulate management from pressure for greater harvest while attempting to reduce uncertainty through a comprehensive ecosystem view." Dayton (1995) goes further, stating "We point out that in almost all cases the situation is so desperate that we cannot afford to wait for more research but must begin strong risk aversion management now. The traditional view is that resource exploitation is a right rather than a privilege and that restrictive management cannot be justified without conclusive evidence of adverse effects. A scientific hypotheses are never proven, only disproven, conservative management is very difficult because exploiters can always point out uncertainties about the causal relationships between exploitation and environmental degradation. We suggest that the burden of proof more properly lies with the exploiter."

    As late as 1992, the world's fishing fleets were still increasing. The number of vessels in 1992 was 3.5 million, an increase of 136,000 since 1989 (FAO 1995). 70% of the world's fish stocks are now regarded as fully exploited, overexploited, or depleted. FAO warns nations to constrain production to rehabilitate stocks, or else stock collapses may become permanent. Waste reduction, habitat rehabilitation, and development of sustainable aquaculture must also be a part of creating a sustainable future for the blue planet.

Hopeful Actions?

Asian Development Bank On Oct. 16, 1997 the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced a new fisheries policy moving to emphasis on "equity, efficiency and sustainability', and not increasing production. The new ADB policy seeks to encourage greater private sector involvement in fishery production and processing while fostering regional cooperation in long-term policies for sustainable fisheries management.

The Resurgence of the Striped Bass on the US East Coast  In late October 1997 the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission nade a formal declaration that the Albermarle Sound-Roanoke River striped bass population had recovered to historic levels. Similar determinations were made in 1995 for the Chesapeake Bay and New England striped bass populations.
 

References

Botsford, L. et al. 1997. The management of fisheries and marine ecosystems. Science 277: 509-515.

Dayton, P. et al. 1995. Environmental effects of marine fishing. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 5: 205-232.

Emery, K. and C. Iselin, 1967. Human food from ocean and land. Science 1279-1281.

Roodman, D. 1997. Reforming subsidies, p. 132-150. Chapter 8 in State of the World. Worldwatch, Washington, DC.

Safina, C. 1995. The world’s imperiled fish. Scientific American 273: 46-53.

Can Aquaculture Help??

Salmon Conflict Investigations and The Oregon Plan

Webliography

American Fisheries Society
Aquatic Biodiversity Crisis (Nature Conservancy 1997)
"Troubled Waters Statement" (Marine Conservation Biology Institute 1997)
Greenpeace International Toxics Campaign Home Page
Greenpeace Marine Services Home Page
National Fisherman Homepage
Salmon Conflict Investigations
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service World Wide Web Site

Other References

Fanelli, G. et al. 1994. Human predation along Apulian rocky coasts (SE Italy): desertification caused by fisheries. Marine Ecology Progress Series 110: 1-8.

FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization). 1995. State of the World's Fisheries. FAO, Rome, Italy.

Jones, J. 1992. Environmental impact of trawling on the seabed: a review. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 26: 59-67.

National Research Council. 1995. Understanding Marine Biodiversity. National Academy Press, Washington, DC.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). 1997. Towards Sustainable Fisheries. OECD, Paris, France.