On December 5, 2008, the United Nations officially declared June 8th to be World Oceans Day, though it has been celebrated since 1992 when it came into being during the Earth Summit in Brazil. 

As a beach and ocean lover, an environmentalist, and one who is concerned with the fate of our oceans, planet, wildlife and society, I dedicate my following post in celebration.

We are in an unprecedented time of being confronted by the consequences human activities are having not only on the environment, but, in turn, how a degraded environment impacts our very survival.  Society is slowly coming to terms with the realization that we can no longer treat the planet as an endless resource for our exclusive benefit. 

Though some visionary people and groups such as Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Greenpeace and Paul Watson have been sounding the alarm for decades, there has been a growing chorus around oceanic issues in recent years.  Our prevailing attitude has been out of sight, out of mind.  The last great earthly frontier (which covers almost 75% of the planet’s surface) – we have treated it as a global wastebasket, and are now coming to terms with the effects and extents of our actions – whether it be overfishing an ocean we thought would never exhaust its supply of fish, ocean acidification from the impacts of our carbon emissions, or the pollution and accumulation of synthetic and toxic man-made materials. 

All of these have potentially serious consequences on aquatic wildlife, as well as on our own long-term survival.  Our inter-connectedness within the planet’s ecosystem is undeniable.  We are THE apex predator, and as such, have a responsibility to future generations to manage ecosystems in a sustainable manner.  The effects of our actions on the food webs are not only critical, but increasingly becoming impossible to deny.  As I am fond of saying, Mother Nature bats last.  We think we can outsmart nature or bend it to our needs, and indeed we may be able to in the short run, but she will always remind us who is in charge in the natural world.

There are three new films that address oceanic issues, which have so far played to film festivals and small screenings.  I am dying to see them, though I have not had the opportunity so far.  I am hopeful that they will initiate a broader dialogue among the general public, and bring about a shift in mind-set and behavior.

OVERFISHING: ‘THE END OF THE LINE’
‘The End of The Line’ is the first major documentary about the devastating effects of overfishing.  Opening in NYC on June 19th at the Cinema Village, it examines the effects of our love affair with fish as food, chronicling in particular the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna brought on by increasing demand for sushi, the collapse of the cod fisheries in the North Atlantic, how technology has enabled us to decimate entire fish populations, and how farmed fish as a solution is a myth.  Early screenings in the UK have prompted Sienna Miller, Sting, Woody Harrelson, Elle McPherson and Charlize Theron, among others, to urge Nobu to remove bluefin tuna from its menu, and have given the noted restaurant until tomorrow, World Oceans Day, to respond.  It’s pretty obvious that with bluefin breeding populations down an estimated 90% since 1980, there will be none left in the very near future for Nobu to serve if we keep eating it at such a rapacious rate.

I am also currently reading ‘The Empty Ocean’ by Richard Ellis.  While ‘The End of the Line’ tells the story of overfishing mainly through the bluefin, Ellis’s book looks at the wide array of endangered marine life, including whales, sharks, sea turtles, sea birds, seals and dolphins.  He delves into the technologies that enable us to locate and catch 100 tons of fish within an hour, the devastating amounts of ‘bycatch’ (animals caught unintentionally, which almost always die), IUU fishing (illegal, unreported and unregulated, worth an estimated $9 billion annually), and the collapse of various fisheries around the globe.  He tells us that the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo – five acres filled with all manner of seafood – is emptied in the space of six hours – seven days a week, that the Chesapeake Bay once produced more seafood per acre than any other body of water on earth, that there are 1 million vessels now fishing the world’s oceans - twice as many as there were 25 years ago, and that orange roughy do not mature until they are around 30 years, with some on record as being 150 years old.  Moreover, they school very tightly, and a trawl net can catch up to 10-50 tons of them in five minutes.  Can you imagine that we are overfishing and eating creatures which are potentially 150 years old?

Ellis’s book is filled with historical and cultural context and also looks at the perils of fish farming - water pollution, overfishing down the food chain to make food for the farmed fish, disease, and interbreeding by escaped fish.  And there are other issues - The Ecologist Film Unit made an excellent, eye-opening short called ‘The Greed of Feed’.  Filmed in Chimbote, Peru, one of the world’s largest ports for fishmeal production, it shows the true costs of cheap farmed salmon: air and water pollution resulting in severe health problems among the Chimbote population; the deprivation of resources for the locals, and the depletion of food for the local wildlife.

If you wish to be more diligent in the seafoods that you choose, there is a great widget HERE, courtesy of ‘The End of the Line’, which will tell you where and how various species of fish are caught, which ones to avoid and which ones are the best choice.


OCEAN ACIDIFICATION: ‘A SEA CHANGE’
‘A Sea Change’ is a look at the dramatic change in the pH balance of the ocean since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the potential to cause a total bottom-up collapse of the world’s fisheries.  The film follows a retired educator, a Norwegian whose parents once owned a fish market, on a journey through his awakening environmental consciousness and concern with the changing seas, and his attempt to reconcile it with his cultural identity.  The film does not yet have a NYC screening date.

(The following is edited from an earlier post.  For the full post, click HERE.)
Oceanic acidification is the ongoing, decreasing pH of the world’s oceans, and is correlated to the carbon dioxide emissions that are the result of human activity.  Since the Industrial Revolution, acidity of the oceans has increased 30%, and it is projected that the ocean will absorb 2 billion tons of carbon this year alone.  Ocean chemistry is being altered on a scale not seen for hundreds of thousands of years and the effects promise to be profound - enormous environmental destruction and the threat of mass extinctions  - with a huge potential impact on food security

Though absorbing carbon has always been a function of the oceans, with emissions having doubled since the Industrial Revolution, the excess carbon is having a direct impact on the ocean’s chemistry and on marine life.  The ability of shell-forming organisms to produce outer shells has already been compromised because of the lower concentration of calcium carbonate in acidic water.  Research has found that shells of microscopic organisms called foraminifera have become significantly thinner since the Industrial Revolution, and that the acidification also affects the skeletal structures of corals.  The kicker here is that many of these same organisms are vital and responsible for absorbing carbon pollution from the atmosphere when the system is in equilibrium.  Many of these microscopic organisms are critical links in the food web.  If they fail, the ramifications could reach all the way up the food chain, and guess who’s at the top?

Interestingly, the tagline for this film and for ‘The End of the Line’ are the same: Imagine a world without fish.

If you’re interested in a ballpark estimate of your carbon footprint, click HERE.


ENDANGERED WILDLIFE: ‘THE COVE’
‘The Cove’, which won the Sundance Audience Award in 2009 and has been described as an eco-thriller, is about some of Japan’s darkest secrets.  Featuring former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry and his team of activists, (which includes surfer Dave Rastovich, and free diver Mandy Rae Cruickshank), “The Cove’ investigates the dolphin trade in Japan, launches a clandestine operation to film the brutal and secret slaughter of dolphins in the small fishing village of Taiji (which local fisherman view as a form of pest control, eliminating their competition for fish), and exposes the Japanese government’s complicity in passing off the egregiously mercury-tainted dolphin meat as whale meat, even in school lunch programs.  Many Japanese do not even know about the slaughter, or the fact that their children are being fed meat not fit for consumption.

According to SaveJapanDolphins.org, approximately 23,000 dolphins, porpoises and small whales are killed in Japan every year - the largest scale slaughter of cetaceans in the world.  And dolphins face additional hazards from fishing nets, boat strikes and pollution.  One species of dolphins has already been declared extinct in 2008 largely due to pollution and boat strikes - careless human activity.

Dolphins are some of the most intelligent creatures on this planet, along with whales, their fellow cetaceans.  They are highly social, are the only known wild animals that will come to the rescue of a human being, and use sonar as their primary sense.  O’Barry, who trained the dolphins for the hit TV series ‘Flipper’, saw the spawning of the captive dolphin industry as a result, and eventually came to dedicate his life to undoing the damage.  Some of the dolphins caught during the slaughter/dolphin hunt are sold to zoos and aquariums for top-dollar, rewarding the hunters well beyond what they would command if the dolphin was sold for meat.  As long as people participate in dolphin swim programs and go to see dolphin shows, the hunters have an incentive to provide dolphins for captivity.


RESOURCES
I offer a very short list of additional resources for those wanting further or more detailed information.  It is in no way meant to be comprehensive, just a few things which have impressed me.

If you have not yet seen the series Blue Planet, it is a must see.  It is a beautiful, majestic, magnificent, fascinating and eye-opening look at the world’s oceans from the producers of Planet Earth.  The underwater photography is stunning and shows many animals and behaviours which have never been caught on camera before.  I have seen it three times and am captivated each and every time.  You can buy the DVD HERE.

‘Song for the Blue Ocean: Encounters Along the World’s Coasts and Beneath the Seas’ by Carl Safina is an award-winning and oft-cited book that has been called the ‘Silent Spring’ of our time.  Safina is a MacArthur Fellow, Pew Fellow and has been named by the Audubon Society as one of the 100 leading conservationists of the 20th century.  This book was published in 1997, yet remains hugely relevant to this day.  Bill McKibben in Interview Magazine said it “is one of those revolutionary works that permanently alters our view of the subject”, and The New York Times Book Review called it a landmark book.  It is next up on my reading list.  You can check out his blog HERE.

The Algalita Marine Research Foundation has worked tirelessly to educate on marine plastics pollution since 1997.  I have written about their work previously.  Click HERE and HERE.

Cousteau is dedicated to the protection and improvement of quality of life for present and future generations by educating people to understand, love and protect the water systems of the planet.

The Blue Ocean Institute uses science, arts and literature to inspire solutions and a deeper connection with nature, especially the ocean.

Sea Shepherds was founded by Paul Watson in 1977 to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans.  Though their tactics may be controversial, I have utmost respect for Watson and his hardline stance towards exposing illegal activities on the high seas.  They are the subjects of the current Animal Planet series ‘Whale Wars’.

Surfers for Cetaceans was founded by surfer David Rastovich to support the conservation and protection of whales, dolphins and marine wildlife. 

How will you celebrate World Oceans Day?