Issues This Week

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Issues This Week

• The marine environment fisheries, ocean
  pollution.
• Resource economics.
• Open Access Resources and why they get
  over-exploited
• What are some open access resources?
• Depletable and Non-depletable resources
• Your use does / does not diminish my use
• Examples?
• Tragedy of the Commons

There will be terminology and math-like stuff, do
not PANIC
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Announcements

• Problem with test question answer key?
• Reading for the week
• Pew Ocean Commission report on managing fisheries
  (chapters 2, 3, pages 1-11).
• Optional reading Worm et al Hilborn.
• Exam on Monday blue scantron form
• First set of papers due Friday
• Whiners, Bowlers, Ducts

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Standings

• Bay Area
• San Jose Bush Babies 4
• Berkeley Bowlers 4
• Lafayette Diablos 4
• Oakland Bombers 2
• San Francisco Huskies 1

• Pacific Rim
• Sac Planetiers 8
• Alaska Drillers 2
• Sonoma Whiners 2
• Hawaii T.huggers 2
• Martinez Muirs 2

• So Cal
• Ventura Squid 5
• Snta Barb Green 3
• SLO Moes 2
• LA Ducts 2
• SD Explorers 1

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Marine Environmental Issues
Midterm 1 week from today

• Oceanography
• physical structure seawater composition
  currents, oceanic topography
• Marine Ecosystems
• Biodiversity and food webs
• Examples coral, kelp, intertidal zone, marshes,
  mangroves
• Human Impacts
• Pollution
• Emptying the Oceans
• Conserving Ocean Resources

Lecture material will focus HERE
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www.shiftingbaselines. org
The decline of marine life
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http//www.coml.org/medres/hmap7a.htm
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The Pew Oceans Commission

• Several recent bodies, governmental and private,
  have focused on how to become better stewards of
  the resources of the earths oceans.
• The goal is to reach sustainable harvest of
  resources, protect oceanic food webs, protect
  species diversity, and reduce pollution.

June 4, 2003 3 year, nationwide study
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Bur first, some

• Good News
• Bad News
• And then some oceanography

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Chemical Spills in the Ocean
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Good News Oil spills are down.

• Better Navigation
• Double-hulled ships.

Lebanese oil clean-up BBC, Oct. 26, 2006
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Bad News Red Tides on the rise
Japan
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Lots of different types of Harmful Algal Blooms
(HAB)
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Red tide cell counts in the past 30 days
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Three clear drivers of HABs

• High salinity
• Water withdrawals from streams and rivers
• Warm water temperature
• Global warming?
• Excess nutrients
• Pollution runoff

Each driver subject to increasing frequency and
severity with human impacts
Doesnt that make a good quiz ?
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Some oceanographic issues to bear in mind for the
present section, later in the quarter, and life
in general.

• Most water is in the deep zone HUGE buffering
  capacity for
• pollution, nutrients, temperature, carbon

Dilution as a solution?
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Ocean CO2 uptake, leading to ocean acidification
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Change in ocean pH,1700s to present
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1. A large fraction of the surface zone and
pycnocline are near shore. 2. Pollutants
released near shore, often stay near shore. 3.
Near shore is where we gain the vast majority of
resources we use.
On the issue of Ocean pollution (dilution is NOT
the solution).
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Some oceanographic issues to bear in mind for the
present section, later in the quarter, and life
in general.
2. Ocean currents have a very large effect on
climate. Factors that affect these ocean currents
are poorly understood or modeled.
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Some oceanographic issues to bear in mind for the
present section, later in the quarter, and life
in general.
3. Coastal winds drive surface temperatures
which drives inland climate
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Warm oceanic surface waters drove 2005 to be the
largest hurricane year on record (21 named
storms 13 hurricanes)
El Nino events
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Guilt and eBay
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An Ocean Food Web
Topic Shift From physical environment to biotic
environment
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Marine Biodiversity

• Marine biodiversity is very high
• Not at the species level, but at a deeper level
  of taxonomy
• Of 33 known phyla (eg, chordata, mollusca,
  arthropoda), 32 are found in the ocean (18 on
  land) and 15 are exclusively marine
• Some marine environments rival tropical forests
  in terms of diversity
• Coral reefs
• Mud bottom bay in Maine gt 1000 species of
  invertebrates

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Globally, fisheries production and demand
continues to increase. Humans consume a pretty
diverse array of ocean resources. High harvest
has raised global concern of SUSTAINABILITY
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Some have argued that global fisheries are in a
state of collapse
Species richness scale
Worm, et al. 2006. Impacts of Biodiversity Loss
on Ocean Ecosystem Services. Science 314787.
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Fisheries are historically characterized by a
series of catastrophic collapses Some economic,
some ecological
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Whaling
IWC, formed in 1946, called for complete
moratorium on whaling in 1985.
Virtually all whaling is banned by International
Whaling Commission (51 member nations).
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http//www.iwcoffice.org/_documents/meetings/Chair
SummaryReportIWC57.pdf
http//IWCoffice.org
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Why were so valued?

• Whale Oil
• Lighting. Whale-oil burned slowly, without an
  offensive odor. It was considered one of the
  finest oils for illumination used in an oil lamp.
  
• For lubricating Whale-oil was processed into
  fine lubricating oils for industries such as
  clock making.
• Other uses soaps, varnish, cosmetics, paint, .
• Whale bone - Baleen
• Buggy whips, Carriage springs, Corset stays,
  Fishing rods, Hoops for women's skirts, Umbrella
  ribs and many other applications where nowadays
  plastic or steel would be used.
• Meat

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HOW ARE WHALE POPULATIONS DOING?
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Most whale populations are increasing
IWC statistics
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Badger culling
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Good News?
10/24/ 2007
51 in 2003, 66 in 2005
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From whaling to fishing
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Global prod.
But,.. Back to this.
How long can this go on?
?
1950 1970 1990 2010
http//www.fao.org/DOCREP/FIELD/006/AD743E/ad743e0
3.htm
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Data indicate that we are saturating (or
over-saturating) capacity.
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Example 1. Caribbean Coral Reefa cascade of
human exploitation

• Top Predator Monk seal (extinct)
• Large herbivores
• Sea turtles hawksbill, green, manatee
• All nearly extinct
• Sharks and large fish--declining
• Small fish now being exploited

Exploitation down the food chain
From J.B.C. Jackson. 1997. Reefs since Columbus.
Coral Reefs 16(s) 23-32
Sequential exploitation
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On the abundance of sea turtles
.but in those twenty leagues, they saw very
many more, for the sea was thick with them, and
they were of the very largest, so numerous that
it seemed that the ships would run aground on
them. gt Bernaldez on Columbus 2nd voyage in
1494
Jackson asserts that the biomass of turtles (660
million) was likely as large as the biomass of
ungulates on the Serengeti and kept the sea grass
beds trimmed like a lawn
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Georges Bank
2 Case Study
Cold storage long-range
fleets
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Northwest Atlantic Ocean Fisheries
FAO 1997
New England, Canadian Maritime Provinces
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FOR SALE
Northwest Atlantic Ocean Fisheries
FAO 1997
This has been managed for sustainability since
the 1950s
Economic Collapse
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Northwest Atlantic Ocean Fisheries
FAO 1997
This has been managed for sustainability since
the 1950s
Resource switching
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Only 50 years of fish left?
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Solutions

• Traditional fisheries management
• What is that?
• Globalization and free trade issues
• Local fisherman vs offshore fishing
• Single species versus ecosystem management
• Marine reserves and no fish zones

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Appendix

• Slides from here forward present more FAO
  fisheries trend data.

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Northeastern Atlantic Fisheries
FAO, 1997
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Franz Fischler, EU, closes Baltic fishery on
April 15, 2003
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Mediterranean and Black Sea
Eastern Indian Ocean
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Southwestern Pacific (Australia)
These numbers are suspect
Western Pacific (China)
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The local perspective S.F. Baywe often hear of
pollution and habitat loss

• Each year, 88 million pounds of pesticides and
  toxic chemicals drain into the Bay
• Adults are recommended to limit their consumption
  of sport fish to 2 meals per month.
• 30 of Bay has been filled in, 92 of tidal
  wetlands lost.
• Less than 50 of original freshwater input now
  runs through the Bay.