The End of Oceans As We Know Them?

The ocean is our friend. It supplies us with food and recreation, helps regulate our climate and is the livelihood for millions of people. But our seas are not the infinite bounty they appear to be. For many years worldwide fishing practices have been damaging the oceans by depleting fish populations, destroying habitats and polluting the water. According to Marine Conservation Biologist Callum Roberts, the author of 'The Unnatural History of the Sea', intensive fishing since medieval times has caused a gradual decline over the centuries, so that a fish-deprived sea now seems normal to us. He notes that industrial fishing, especially the practice of bottom trawling invented in the 14th centuny destroys fish habitats leaving a virtual desert of the sea floor. This technique during the last 50 years has been brought to perfection using sophisticated devices such as sonar depth sensors.

Scientists have estimated that we now have removed as much as 90% of the large predatory fish such as shark, swordfish and cod from the world's oceans. In 2003, the Pew Oceans Commission warned that the world's oceans were in a state of silent collapse, threatening our food supply, marine economies, recreation and the natural legacy we leave our children. Despite our best efforts, the global catch of wild fish leveled off over 20 years ago and 70 percent of the world's fisheries are now being harvested at capacity or are in decline. The alarming concusion is that unless we start doing something now, by mid-century most fish and shellfish species we exploit today will have collapsed due to overfishing, pollution and climate change.

Seventy percent of the earth's surface is covered by water, yet less than 5% is protected habitat compared to 11.5% of our land mass. We need to establish more Marine Protected Areas to allow ocean life to recover from over fishing. California has become a role model in this effort.

We need to also run our fisheries in in a more sustainable way by preventing over fishing, illegal and unregulated fishing, habitat damage from fishing gear and the accidental catch of unwanted species (by catch) It's estimated that hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, seabirds, marine mammals, including wha1es dolphins and porpoises and sexually immature fish die as a result of this by-catch.

Fish farming, when done properly, is a possible solution to the ever increasing pressures on our ocean resources. In fact today, half of our seafood comes from farms. But the ecological impact of these fish farms depends on the species chosen, where the farm is located, and the methods used to raise them. We need to learn how to be better consumers of ocean products. How do we select marine products that are good for human health and at the same time do not harm the oceans. To make a better greener environmental choice. as to what sea food products to buy go to the website for the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They will supply you with a regularly updated sustainable seafood guide.

When you think about what's happening to our oceans, remember the mass extinction of the passenger pigeon. This species went from being one of the most abundant birds in the world during the 19th century to extinction early in the 20th century It was estimated that there were 3 to 5 billion passenger pigeons in the U.S when Europeans came to North America. The last known Passenger Pigeon, died at the Cincinnati Zoo on Sept. 1, 1914, ending one of saddest cases of species destruction in human history. This extinction was brought about by habitat loss and over hunting on a massive, scale not unlike what is happening to many fish in the ocean today. Are we racing headlong towards an ocean devoid, of fish and dominated by bacteria and jellyfish or will we wake up in time?