By Dr
Simon Cripps*
08 Jun 2006 - Today is World
Ocean Day, a day to pause and take stock of our
marine resources and our personal connection to
the sea, even for all those who are landlocked
or haven’t had time to go to the beach this summer.
Considering the sad state of
our oceans these days, it seems that there is
not much to celebrate. Many marine species are
threatened with extinction, coral reefs are being
destroyed, the waters are polluted and overfished,
and the list goes on. Sadly, the largest living
space on Earth — oceans cover 71 per cent of our
planet’s surface — is fast deteriorating.
In fact, much of the world’s
fisheries are already fully exploited or overfished.
And each year billions of unwanted fish and other
animals — like dolphins, marine turtles, seabirds
and sharks — needlessly die from inefficient,
illegal, and destructive fishing practices. As
many as 90 per cent of the ocean’s large fish,
such as tuna, swordfish, and marlin, as well as
numerous shark species, have been fished out.
Today, poor fisheries management is probably the
largest threat to ocean life and habitats, not
to mention the livelihoods and food security of
over a billion people.
The impacts of declining fish
catches are being painfully felt by many coastal
fishing communities around the world. Newfoundland
in Canada provides a sobering example of what
happens to communities when fish populations are
fished to commercial extinction. For centuries
the cod stocks of the Grand Banks seemed inexhaustible,
but today the fishery has all but collapsed with
thousands of people out of work. In Senegal, fishermen
no longer catch prized barracudas and red carp,
but instead go after smaller and less appetizing
kobos because most of the time there is nothing
else. Similar scenarios are being observed throughout
the world.
So what can we do to conserve
the future of our oceans? Protect them.
Less than 1per cent of the world’s
oceans are under some form of protection compared
to almost 13 per cent of the planet’s land area.
And the vast majority of existing marine parks
and reserves suffer from little or no effective
management.
But with the introduction of
marine protected areas, things are starting to
change. Marine protected areas — include marine
reserves, areas closed to fishing or oil and gas
exploration, and locally-managed marine areas
— are an essential insurance policy for the future
of both marine life and local people. They safeguard
the ocean’s rich diversity of life and provide
safe havens for endangered species, as well as
commercial fish populations, and can offer sources
of income for local communities, such as through
tourism and park management.
WWF, together with its partners,
is working towards a network of effectively managed,
ecologically representative marine protected areas
that will cover at least 10 per cent of the world’s
oceans by 2020. This is an ambitious goal, but
in the last few years alone, we have helped achieve
protection for more than 200,000km2 of marine
areas, including coral reefs, mangrove forests,
seagrass beds, fish breeding grounds, and deep-sea
habitats. This is but a drop in the ocean, but
some countries are heeding the call. Just last
year, Fiji announced that it will establish a
marine protected network covering 30 per cent
of its waters by 2020 — one of the largest areas
of protected ocean in the world. Other island
nations have made similar commitments, including
Australia, Micronesia and Granada.
Protected areas do not simply
mean maintaining biodiversity and providing refuges
for species — although this is a significant goal
within itself considering increasingly high levels
of biodiversity loss — but it is also intended
to support sustainable fisheries. Protected marine
areas can be used to provide areas where fish
are able to spawn and grow to their adult size,
increasing fish catches (both size and quantity)
in surrounding fishing grounds, and helping maintain
local cultures, economies, and livelihoods which
are intricately linked to the marine environment.
Marine ecosystems are very complex
and our knowledge of them limited. We are still
discovering new species and new habitats. But
we do know that if we continue to fish and use
the world’s marine resources at the rate we are
now, there won’t be too much left for future generations,
let alone the next few years.
Fortunately, many within the
fishing industry and seafood sector are aware
of the crisis at sea and are working with environmental
organizations and forward-looking governments
towards a healthy, more sustainable marine ecosystem.
They are trying to find ways to improve fisheries
management, reduce the impacts of destructive
fishing, and promote sustainably caught seafood.
In other words, tying to change the way fish are
caught, marketed, and bought.
Whether you are a fisherman,
a seafood retailer or a fish consumer, whether
you live inland or on the coast, we are all connected
to the ocean in some way or another. World Ocean
Day may only come around once a year without much
fanfare, but it is precisely because we take our
oceans for granted that they are in the poor state
that they are now in. It is time to pause for
a moment to take stock about how the ocean affects
you, and how you affect the ocean.
• Dr Simon Cripps is Director
of WWF’s Global Marine Programme, based in Gland,
Switzerland.
