Are plastic-eating bacteria the solution to ocean pollution? It’s not that simple, science shows.

Recent reporting on the discovery and enhancement of plastic-dissolving enzymes in bacteria made me stop and think about what this might mean for the plastic pollution problem that is plaguing oceans and choking the world’s coral reefs.

While this development is interesting and draws necessary focus to an immense environmental challenge, it is premature to guess whether these kinds of enzymes might provide an effective silver bullet for treating plastics floating in the five great gyres of the sea.

There is so much more we need to understand about the complex relationships between plastics and marine ecosystems before we can take drastic action such as spraying the ocean with so-called plastic-eating bacteria.

Unknown and potentially hazardous side effects

First of all, it’s unclear whether this enzyme, or similar enzymes, are safe to use in widespread environmental remediation.

Using direct enzyme spraying – or microbes engineered to deliver environmentally active enzymes – widely in the sea presents all kinds of unassessed hazards. In general, such interventions have a long history of inducing underappreciated side effects, and we would be well-served to take it slow.

Plastics could be even more deadly than we realize today, which should also give us pause. Many types of plastics actively absorb highly toxic persistent pollutants such as PCBs, for example.

We know from our own work on reefs that floating plastics deliver disease-causing microbes to corals. Ecosystem and human health risks related to both floating and sinking plastics should be considered before any large-scale plan is employed to deal with floating or sunken plastics problems.

“Plastic-eating” bacteria are already at work

Another aspect worth considering: The untold millions of tons of plastic that ends up in the sea – and in landfills – have created an absolutely huge new food source for naturally existing, and very hungry, microbes.

In fact, some scientists think microbes eating plastic are already an important reason that the plastics numbers do not add up – the amount of plastic we see in the ocean is much less than the total amount of plastic calculated to have been piled and poured into it.

Similar “hydrocarbon digestion” was documented during the 2010 Gulf oil spill, for example, when a very large fraction of the oil was consumed by subsurface microbes.

 

An engineered enzyme digesting PET plastic. Photo: Dennis Schroeder/NREL

”Enhanced enzyme” wasn’t designed for this

If oceans already contain all these microbes, what’s my hesitation with this new discovery? For one, the enhanced enzyme that made headlines this spring was actually not developed to eat plastic.

In fact, the main goal of the researchers was to identify and empower it for industrial application. The enzyme facilitates plastic recycling by breaking down some plastics – such as PET #1, for all of you recyclers – into chemical intermediates that can be recovered and turned back into plastic products.

This concept is a big deal from a global solid waste and landfill point of view, and I’m excited to see such research grow to help solve this problem. The better we can manage waste on land, the less will end up in the ocean.

Tackling the problem at the source

The first order of the day must therefore be to reduce our reliance on single-use plastics and to improve solid waste management systems globally.

Once we tackle the problem at the source, we can start thinking about directly addressing the remaining plastic pollution accumulated in ocean gyres and on the bottom of the sea. Until then, we still have a lot to learn and do.

Get innovation updates

We’ll send regular updates about developments in technology, science and the environment.

Thank you for subscribing to the Climate Tech Brief.

krives July 13, 2018 - 11:08

Are plastic-eating bacteria the solution to ocean pollution? It’s not that simple, science shows.

Recent reporting on the discovery and enhancement of plastic-dissolving enzymes in bacteria made me stop and think about what this might mean for the plastic pollution problem that is plaguing oceans and choking the world’s coral reefs.

While this development is interesting and draws necessary focus to an immense environmental challenge, it is premature to guess whether these kinds of enzymes might provide an effective silver bullet for treating plastics floating in the five great gyres of the sea.

There is so much more we need to understand about the complex relationships between plastics and marine ecosystems before we can take drastic action such as spraying the ocean with so-called plastic-eating bacteria.

Unknown and potentially hazardous side effects

First of all, it’s unclear whether this enzyme, or similar enzymes, are safe to use in widespread environmental remediation.

Using direct enzyme spraying – or microbes engineered to deliver environmentally active enzymes – widely in the sea presents all kinds of unassessed hazards. In general, such interventions have a long history of inducing underappreciated side effects, and we would be well-served to take it slow.

Plastics could be even more deadly than we realize today, which should also give us pause. Many types of plastics actively absorb highly toxic persistent pollutants such as PCBs, for example.

We know from our own work on reefs that floating plastics deliver disease-causing microbes to corals. Ecosystem and human health risks related to both floating and sinking plastics should be considered before any large-scale plan is employed to deal with floating or sunken plastics problems.

“Plastic-eating” bacteria are already at work

Another aspect worth considering: The untold millions of tons of plastic that ends up in the sea – and in landfills – have created an absolutely huge new food source for naturally existing, and very hungry, microbes.

In fact, some scientists think microbes eating plastic are already an important reason that the plastics numbers do not add up – the amount of plastic we see in the ocean is much less than the total amount of plastic calculated to have been piled and poured into it.

Similar “hydrocarbon digestion” was documented during the 2010 Gulf oil spill, for example, when a very large fraction of the oil was consumed by subsurface microbes.

 

An engineered enzyme digesting PET plastic. Photo: Dennis Schroeder/NREL

”Enhanced enzyme” wasn’t designed for this

If oceans already contain all these microbes, what’s my hesitation with this new discovery? For one, the enhanced enzyme that made headlines this spring was actually not developed to eat plastic.

In fact, the main goal of the researchers was to identify and empower it for industrial application. The enzyme facilitates plastic recycling by breaking down some plastics – such as PET #1, for all of you recyclers – into chemical intermediates that can be recovered and turned back into plastic products.

This concept is a big deal from a global solid waste and landfill point of view, and I’m excited to see such research grow to help solve this problem. The better we can manage waste on land, the less will end up in the ocean.

Tackling the problem at the source

The first order of the day must therefore be to reduce our reliance on single-use plastics and to improve solid waste management systems globally.

Once we tackle the problem at the source, we can start thinking about directly addressing the remaining plastic pollution accumulated in ocean gyres and on the bottom of the sea. Until then, we still have a lot to learn and do.

Get innovation updates

We’ll send regular updates about developments in technology, science and the environment.

Thank you for subscribing to the Climate Tech Brief.

krives July 13, 2018 - 11:08

Plastic trash is killing coral reefs. Here’s how we can still save our oceans.

Plastic bag suffocating a coral. Photo: Rich Carey

In 2016, members of our research team were surveying the health of coral reefs along a 200-mile stretch off Myanmar’s southern coast when they made a startling discovery. Bags, bottles, diapers and other plastic debris were stuck everywhere on the reefs and, our data confirmed, adding to coral disease with alarming frequency.

Now that the extensive international coverage about the Cornell University-led oceans plastics study has subsided, we’re left with a towering question: How do we best help these littered reefs that are already so stressed by overfishing and climate change?

Better management of fisheries, as it turns out, may offset some of the damage from plastics and warming waters. This can have a bigger, long-term impact on coral health than you may think – and on the fishing communities worldwide that depend on healthy reefs.

That’s because just like fish depend on healthy reefs, reefs depend on healthy fish populations.

Some fish eat algae that can otherwise crowd out corals, for example, while other, predatory fish control the populations of snails that can damage corals. It’s even possible that some fish might slow coral disease by eating diseased coral tissue. There are literally dozens of these complex interactions that together keep coral reefs healthy.

Fishery management: Critical for coral survival 

Needless to say, nations should stop using oceans as a trash dump, and they must double down on efforts to tackle climate change, the main culprit behind ocean acidification and coral bleaching.

Nearly 200 nations recently committed to halting plastic dumping into the ocean, and the global community is moving forward with the Paris climate agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions that also warm and acidify the ocean. These are areas where we can’t let up.

But we also know that the health of coral reefs is closely tied to fishing practices. Overfishing remains the largest immediate threat to coral reefs because decreasing numbers of big fish disturbs the ecological balance of these reefs.

Here’s the good news: We know how to fix that. Our fishery management work around the globe shows that sustainable fisheries management brings back fish populations – along with the wellbeing of fishing communities.

Fishery progress around the world 

After fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico shifted to a right-based fishing system a decade ago, red snapper and other reef fish rebounded. We are now working with fishermen, communities and agency partners to take that lesson to countries across the coral world – including Belize, Cuba, Mexico, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Pacific Islands and the Philippines.

We plan to scale up our fisheries work in 12 places accounting for most of the world’s catch by 2020.

Belize became the first country in world to adopt a nationwide secure fishing rights program in 2016. We’re now demonstrating with our partners in that country that rebuilding fish populations through good management practices also improves reefs and makes them more resilient to changing conditions.

We hope to make sustainable fishing the norm worldwide, for the sake of people and reefs. Which brings me back to the plastics discovery in Myanmar.

With 100% of coral reefs polluted, Myanmar was a wake-up call

What began as research supporting our fishery management work in this Southeast Asian nation yielded a new study with major implications.

In Myanmar, all reefs of the 700-island Mergui Archipelago have corals ensnarled in plastics, and nearly every plastic-draped coral is diseased.

Debris lining the beach in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Photo: Joleah Lamb

Throughout the Asia-Pacific region, the Cornell study estimates, there are now more than 11 billion plastic items caught on reefs. This looming environmental disaster is a wake-up call.

Our work in Myanmar and beyond will continue to focus on helping fishermen use new management programs to halt overfishing, rebuild fish abundances and help feed their communities for generations to come.

But today, these efforts are also emerging as a key strategy for strengthening the health of coral reef ecosystems that now – more than ever before – desperately need our help.

Oceans on the rebound? These 5 developments give us hope. krives February 9, 2018 - 03:41

See comments

Save our coral reefs which, in turn will save the fish which, in turn will save the people that rely on the coral reefs ecosystem to survive...

Jack Gajda February 9, 2018 at 5:39 pm

Hello, I am in Tanzania. I want to do the same as you. How can you help or advice? From the Indian Ocean.

Martin March 20, 2018 at 3:29 pm

Plastic trash is killing coral reefs. Here’s how we can still save our oceans.

Plastic bag suffocating a coral. Photo: Rich Carey

In 2016, members of our research team were surveying the health of coral reefs along a 200-mile stretch off Myanmar’s southern coast when they made a startling discovery. Bags, bottles, diapers and other plastic debris were stuck everywhere on the reefs and, our data confirmed, adding to coral disease with alarming frequency.

Now that the extensive international coverage about the Cornell University-led oceans plastics study has subsided, we’re left with a towering question: How do we best help these littered reefs that are already so stressed by overfishing and climate change?

Better management of fisheries, as it turns out, may offset some of the damage from plastics and warming waters. This can have a bigger, long-term impact on coral health than you may think – and on the fishing communities worldwide that depend on healthy reefs.

That’s because just like fish depend on healthy reefs, reefs depend on healthy fish populations.

Some fish eat algae that can otherwise crowd out corals, for example, while other, predatory fish control the populations of snails that can damage corals. It’s even possible that some fish might slow coral disease by eating diseased coral tissue. There are literally dozens of these complex interactions that together keep coral reefs healthy.

Fishery management: Critical for coral survival 

Needless to say, nations should stop using oceans as a trash dump, and they must double down on efforts to tackle climate change, the main culprit behind ocean acidification and coral bleaching.

Nearly 200 nations recently committed to halting plastic dumping into the ocean, and the global community is moving forward with the Paris climate agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions that also warm and acidify the ocean. These are areas where we can’t let up.

But we also know that the health of coral reefs is closely tied to fishing practices. Overfishing remains the largest immediate threat to coral reefs because decreasing numbers of big fish disturbs the ecological balance of these reefs.

Here’s the good news: We know how to fix that. Our fishery management work around the globe shows that sustainable fisheries management brings back fish populations – along with the wellbeing of fishing communities.

Fishery progress around the world 

After fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico shifted to a right-based fishing system a decade ago, red snapper and other reef fish rebounded. We are now working with fishermen, communities and agency partners to take that lesson to countries across the coral world – including Belize, Cuba, Mexico, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Pacific Islands and the Philippines.

We plan to scale up our fisheries work in 12 places accounting for most of the world’s catch by 2020.

Belize became the first country in world to adopt a nationwide secure fishing rights program in 2016. We’re now demonstrating with our partners in that country that rebuilding fish populations through good management practices also improves reefs and makes them more resilient to changing conditions.

We hope to make sustainable fishing the norm worldwide, for the sake of people and reefs. Which brings me back to the plastics discovery in Myanmar.

With 100% of coral reefs polluted, Myanmar was a wake-up call

What began as research supporting our fishery management work in this Southeast Asian nation yielded a new study with major implications.

In Myanmar, all reefs of the 700-island Mergui Archipelago have corals ensnarled in plastics, and nearly every plastic-draped coral is diseased.

Debris lining the beach in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Photo: Joleah Lamb

Throughout the Asia-Pacific region, the Cornell study estimates, there are now more than 11 billion plastic items caught on reefs. This looming environmental disaster is a wake-up call.

Our work in Myanmar and beyond will continue to focus on helping fishermen use new management programs to halt overfishing, rebuild fish abundances and help feed their communities for generations to come.

But today, these efforts are also emerging as a key strategy for strengthening the health of coral reef ecosystems that now – more than ever before – desperately need our help.

Oceans on the rebound? These 5 developments give us hope. krives February 9, 2018 - 03:41

See comments

Save our coral reefs which, in turn will save the fish which, in turn will save the people that rely on the coral reefs ecosystem to survive...

Jack Gajda February 9, 2018 at 5:39 pm

Hello, I am in Tanzania. I want to do the same as you. How can you help or advice? From the Indian Ocean.

Martin March 20, 2018 at 3:29 pm

5 teachings from the Pope on our struggling oceans

In his stirring and beautiful encyclical, “Laudato Si,” Pope Francis asks all of us to band together to protect and nourish our “common home.” 

As part of these visionary statements, he provides a firm foundation for building a more fruitful future ocean, completely consistent with new science that we at Environmental Defense Fund have helped produce.

The science makes clear that human prosperity does not require the compromising of ecological systems, but rather that it benefits from restoring fish populations to levels that also can support greater extraction for food. 

Our work with partners around the globe to realize this dramatic triple-bottom-line “upside” can provide powerful support for the optimism implicit in Pope Francis’ ground-breaking encyclical.

The fact that Pope Francis comes from a continent that sustains a huge number of Catholics, including many poor people who are dependent on fish for both food and livelihoods, as well as some of the world’s biggest fisheries - with huge potential upsides - suggests that his opinion will matter a great deal.

Here are five specific teachings included in the encyclical that show his support for the world’s struggling oceans:

1. Climate change threatens our oceans

“Carbon dioxide pollution increases the acidification of the oceans and compromises the marine food chain. If present trends continue, this century may well witness extraordinary climate change and an unprecedented destruction of ecosystems, with serious consequences for all of us. A rise in the sea level, for example, can create extremely serious situations, if we consider that a quarter of the world’s population lives on the coast or nearby, and that the majority of our megacities are situated in coastal areas.”

2. Marine biodiversity and fisheries in a fragile state

“Oceans not only contain the bulk of our planet’s water supply, but also most of the immense variety of living creatures, many of them still unknown to us and threatened for various reasons. What is more, marine life in rivers, lakes, seas and oceans, which feeds a great part of the world’s population, is affected by uncontrolled fishing, leading to a drastic depletion of certain species.”

Overfishing: How bad is it?

“Selective forms of fishing which discard much of what they collect continue unabated. Particularly threatened are marine organisms which we tend to overlook, like some forms of plankton; they represent a significant element in the ocean food chain, and species used for our food ultimately depend on them.”

3. Coral reefs need our help

“In tropical and subtropical seas, we find coral reefs comparable to the great forests on dry land, for they shelter approximately a million species, including fish, crabs, molluscs, sponges and algae. Many of the world’s coral reefs are already barren or in a state of constant decline… This phenomenon is due largely to pollution which reaches the sea as the result of deforestation, agricultural monocultures, industrial waste and destructive fishing methods, especially those using cyanide and dynamite.

It is aggravated by the rise in temperature of the oceans. All of this helps us to see that every intervention in nature can have consequences which are not immediately evident, and that certain ways of exploiting resources prove costly in terms of degradation which ultimately reaches the ocean bed itself.”

4.  The importance of marine sanctuaries

“Some countries have made significant progress in establishing sanctuaries on land and in the oceans where any human intervention is prohibited which might modify their features or alter their original structures. In the protection of biodiversity, specialists insist on the need for particular attention to be shown to areas richer both in the number of species and in endemic, rare or less protected species.

Certain places need greater protection because of their immense importance for the global ecosystem, or because they represent important water reserves and thus safeguard other forms of life.”

5. Needed: Oceans governance

“Let us also mention the system of governance of the oceans. International and regional conventions do exist, but fragmentation and the lack of strict mechanisms of regulation, control and penalization end up undermining these efforts. The growing problem of marine waste and the protection of the open seas represent particular challenges. What is needed, in effect, is an agreement on systems of governance for the whole range of so-called ‘global commons.”

Anonymous June 24, 2015 - 09:53

5 teachings from the Pope on our struggling oceans

In his stirring and beautiful encyclical, “Laudato Si,” Pope Francis asks all of us to band together to protect and nourish our “common home.” 

As part of these visionary statements, he provides a firm foundation for building a more fruitful future ocean, completely consistent with new science that we at Environmental Defense Fund have helped produce.

The science makes clear that human prosperity does not require the compromising of ecological systems, but rather that it benefits from restoring fish populations to levels that also can support greater extraction for food. 

Our work with partners around the globe to realize this dramatic triple-bottom-line “upside” can provide powerful support for the optimism implicit in Pope Francis’ ground-breaking encyclical.

The fact that Pope Francis comes from a continent that sustains a huge number of Catholics, including many poor people who are dependent on fish for both food and livelihoods, as well as some of the world’s biggest fisheries - with huge potential upsides - suggests that his opinion will matter a great deal.

Here are five specific teachings included in the encyclical that show his support for the world’s struggling oceans:

1. Climate change threatens our oceans

“Carbon dioxide pollution increases the acidification of the oceans and compromises the marine food chain. If present trends continue, this century may well witness extraordinary climate change and an unprecedented destruction of ecosystems, with serious consequences for all of us. A rise in the sea level, for example, can create extremely serious situations, if we consider that a quarter of the world’s population lives on the coast or nearby, and that the majority of our megacities are situated in coastal areas.”

2. Marine biodiversity and fisheries in a fragile state

“Oceans not only contain the bulk of our planet’s water supply, but also most of the immense variety of living creatures, many of them still unknown to us and threatened for various reasons. What is more, marine life in rivers, lakes, seas and oceans, which feeds a great part of the world’s population, is affected by uncontrolled fishing, leading to a drastic depletion of certain species.”

Overfishing: How bad is it?

“Selective forms of fishing which discard much of what they collect continue unabated. Particularly threatened are marine organisms which we tend to overlook, like some forms of plankton; they represent a significant element in the ocean food chain, and species used for our food ultimately depend on them.”

3. Coral reefs need our help

“In tropical and subtropical seas, we find coral reefs comparable to the great forests on dry land, for they shelter approximately a million species, including fish, crabs, molluscs, sponges and algae. Many of the world’s coral reefs are already barren or in a state of constant decline… This phenomenon is due largely to pollution which reaches the sea as the result of deforestation, agricultural monocultures, industrial waste and destructive fishing methods, especially those using cyanide and dynamite.

It is aggravated by the rise in temperature of the oceans. All of this helps us to see that every intervention in nature can have consequences which are not immediately evident, and that certain ways of exploiting resources prove costly in terms of degradation which ultimately reaches the ocean bed itself.”

4.  The importance of marine sanctuaries

“Some countries have made significant progress in establishing sanctuaries on land and in the oceans where any human intervention is prohibited which might modify their features or alter their original structures. In the protection of biodiversity, specialists insist on the need for particular attention to be shown to areas richer both in the number of species and in endemic, rare or less protected species.

Certain places need greater protection because of their immense importance for the global ecosystem, or because they represent important water reserves and thus safeguard other forms of life.”

5. Needed: Oceans governance

“Let us also mention the system of governance of the oceans. International and regional conventions do exist, but fragmentation and the lack of strict mechanisms of regulation, control and penalization end up undermining these efforts. The growing problem of marine waste and the protection of the open seas represent particular challenges. What is needed, in effect, is an agreement on systems of governance for the whole range of so-called ‘global commons.”

Anonymous June 24, 2015 - 09:53

What fishing in Myanmar means for the world

When I tell people I recently spent two weeks in Myanmar exploring how to expand our oceans work to this isolated Asian nation, I am most often greeted by puzzled looks. Clearly, few Americans know much about the myth-shrouded land known more familiarly as Burma.

People of all stripes, however, have heard of Nobel Peace Prize winner and social activist, Aung San Suu Kyi, who struggled for many years against a repressive military government, and who is now working within the political system to test the boundaries of the developing “Burma Spring.”

The emergence of democracy and progressive political thought in Myanmar is especially important to Environmental Defense Fund’s oceans work: The Republic of the Union of Myanmar is the world’s 10th largest fishing power and one of the fastest growing.

Myanmar’s fisheries in danger of collapse

Its reemergence as an economic force means that getting fishing right in Myanmar is critical both to the future of that part of the Indian Ocean, but also as a building block in Southeast Asia for sustainable fishing.

Just beginning its economic emergence, Myanmar remains desperately poor, and relies upon fishing - in both marine and freshwater - and aquaculture as an essential food source and economic engine. Yet, the productivity of the fisheries is low and in danger of total collapse, as fishermen of all types scramble to catch everything that moves, from tiny baby fish to adults.

That desperation threatens not just the well-being of more than 53 million people who depend on fish for 43 percent of their animal protein, but also the health of the incredible coral reef and mangrove ecosystems of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

Strong partnerships with locals key to success

I traveled with a team of experts from the Charlottesville-based foundation “blue moon fund,” which has been funding sustainable forestry work for many years in northern and central Myanmar. My job was to help scope fisheries and other marine conservation opportunities.

With help from the fund’s connections with the government, we spent four days taking a detailed look at the most important fishing region in the Myeik Archipelago.

We worked directly with established non-governmental organizations – including the Wildlife Conservation Society and Flora and Fauna International, which both have excellent work underway – and high-ranking scientists, managers and fishing industry representatives to explore partnerships we would need to be effective in such an unfamiliar cultural context.

Overfishing: How bad is it?

We were escorted by U Hla Win, Myanmar’s retired deputy director general of fisheries, and Dr. Swe Thwin, a retired professor. The two are also important consultants for the Myanmar Fisheries Federation, the powerful umbrella association of all of Myanmar’s fisheries.

We spent considerable time understanding the fisheries operations of Pyi Phyo Tun International, Aung Myat Phyo International and the Myeik Public Corporation, who together manage most seafood processing and exports from the region. We also toured their very extensive aquaculture operations, including a two-million unit crab shedding facility that produces soft-shell crabs for broader Asian markets. 

A door has been opened

We were welcomed with open arms and great warmth by the Myanmar people – from simple fishermen to chief executives. Most Myanmar people today understand that their world is changing, and that a shining future can be built through enduring partnerships with people and organizations that care about their country and the broader world we share.

We still have work to do to establish the shared strategies and partnerships we need to succeed, and to find the resources required, but in Southeast Asia, I know, a new door has opened.

dupham June 16, 2015 - 12:56

What fishing in Myanmar means for the world

When I tell people I recently spent two weeks in Myanmar exploring how to expand our oceans work to this isolated Asian nation, I am most often greeted by puzzled looks. Clearly, few Americans know much about the myth-shrouded land known more familiarly as Burma.

People of all stripes, however, have heard of Nobel Peace Prize winner and social activist, Aung San Suu Kyi, who struggled for many years against a repressive military government, and who is now working within the political system to test the boundaries of the developing “Burma Spring.”

The emergence of democracy and progressive political thought in Myanmar is especially important to Environmental Defense Fund’s oceans work: The Republic of the Union of Myanmar is the world’s 10th largest fishing power and one of the fastest growing.

Myanmar’s fisheries in danger of collapse

Its reemergence as an economic force means that getting fishing right in Myanmar is critical both to the future of that part of the Indian Ocean, but also as a building block in Southeast Asia for sustainable fishing.

Just beginning its economic emergence, Myanmar remains desperately poor, and relies upon fishing - in both marine and freshwater - and aquaculture as an essential food source and economic engine. Yet, the productivity of the fisheries is low and in danger of total collapse, as fishermen of all types scramble to catch everything that moves, from tiny baby fish to adults.

That desperation threatens not just the well-being of more than 53 million people who depend on fish for 43 percent of their animal protein, but also the health of the incredible coral reef and mangrove ecosystems of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

Strong partnerships with locals key to success

I traveled with a team of experts from the Charlottesville-based foundation “blue moon fund,” which has been funding sustainable forestry work for many years in northern and central Myanmar. My job was to help scope fisheries and other marine conservation opportunities.

With help from the fund’s connections with the government, we spent four days taking a detailed look at the most important fishing region in the Myeik Archipelago.

We worked directly with established non-governmental organizations – including the Wildlife Conservation Society and Flora and Fauna International, which both have excellent work underway – and high-ranking scientists, managers and fishing industry representatives to explore partnerships we would need to be effective in such an unfamiliar cultural context.

Overfishing: How bad is it?

We were escorted by U Hla Win, Myanmar’s retired deputy director general of fisheries, and Dr. Swe Thwin, a retired professor. The two are also important consultants for the Myanmar Fisheries Federation, the powerful umbrella association of all of Myanmar’s fisheries.

We spent considerable time understanding the fisheries operations of Pyi Phyo Tun International, Aung Myat Phyo International and the Myeik Public Corporation, who together manage most seafood processing and exports from the region. We also toured their very extensive aquaculture operations, including a two-million unit crab shedding facility that produces soft-shell crabs for broader Asian markets. 

A door has been opened

We were welcomed with open arms and great warmth by the Myanmar people – from simple fishermen to chief executives. Most Myanmar people today understand that their world is changing, and that a shining future can be built through enduring partnerships with people and organizations that care about their country and the broader world we share.

We still have work to do to establish the shared strategies and partnerships we need to succeed, and to find the resources required, but in Southeast Asia, I know, a new door has opened.

dupham June 16, 2015 - 12:56

Ecotourism in Cuba: A model for sustainable economic development

EDF’s Cuba Program Director Dan Whittle co-authored this post.

With relations between the United States and Cuba defrosting and investment interest building for the island in the U.S. and beyond, Cuba is at a crossroads.

Will its tropical coastlines soon be home to towering cruise ships and sprawling resorts, or is there a more sustainable way forward for a nation that cares deeply about its unique natural heritage? Many Cubans think there is, and we agree.

Cuba’s approach to conservation and environmental protection is already a model for other Caribbean nations. The country is now positioned to be a regional model also for sustainable economic development.

By scaling up its small and exclusive ecotourism industry, Cuba can stimulate investment and create jobs, while preserving the coral reefs and big fish that make it one of the world’s most special places.

Emerging ecotourism industry points the way

Today, Cuba’s pristine Jardines de la Reina National Marine Park – Gardens of the Queen – is home to a sustainable, but small, tourism enterprise that provides badly needed economic impetus for small coastal communities.

Nearly one-quarter of the families in Jucaro – the small fishing village from which trips to the Gardens depart – already have a source of income directly related to the largest marine protected area in the Caribbean.

The current ecotourism operation in the Gardens is tiny still; only 1,500 visitors per year are granted access to this world-class treasure.

But the industry also has a tiny spatial and ecological footprint, which means it could be replicated at broader scales across Cuba’s two southern archipelagos, and become an economic and ecological centerpiece for broader development plans for the region.

There are, of course, challenges associated with building out the ecotourism industry in the Gardens of the Queen, like elsewhere.

Fragile ecosystems and remote natural areas can only sustain a certain amount of infrastructure to accommodate new visitors. A careful assessment of potential environmental impacts, in accordance with existing Cuban law, should precede and guide any new tourism development.

If such precautions are not taken, these special places will disappear along with the tourists who loved them. But we feel hopeful Cuba will choose the right path, because the Cuban people know they sit atop a coral treasure box.

Cuba took bold action to protect reefs

Cuba’s coast is often portrayed as a place frozen in time – a selling point to tourists willing to pay a premium for a unique experience. Of course, there’s more to the story.

The people of Cuba have chosen to protect wide swaths of their most valuable habitats – ocean and land alike – in a national network of parks and other protected areas.

For marine waters and ecosystems, the goal is to eventually protect an astonishing 25 percent of Cuba’s shallow-water area, with a focus on four island arcs each the size of the Florida Keys.

Today, the Gardens of the Queen is among just a few places in the Western Hemisphere where you can still see dense stands of elkhorn corals. They are reminiscent of the reefs that existed in Florida in the 1960s and elsewhere before disease wiped most of them from the map.

The Gardens also boasts many species of sharks – Caribbean reef, silky, lemon, nurse, whale sharks and more – along with large numbers of big groupers, snappers and other reef fishes.

These waters are special in their own right, but they’re also tightly linked to the health of coral reefs in the United States, Mexico, the Bahamas and the rest of the broader West Central Atlantic.

If and when Cuba matches up the ecological values of different areas in the region with their highest and best economic uses, it can create a portfolio of approaches that can serve Cubans – and those of us down-current from Cuba – now and in the future.

Anonymous March 3, 2015 - 01:56

Ecotourism in Cuba: A model for sustainable economic development

EDF’s Cuba Program Director Dan Whittle co-authored this post.

With relations between the United States and Cuba defrosting and investment interest building for the island in the U.S. and beyond, Cuba is at a crossroads.

Will its tropical coastlines soon be home to towering cruise ships and sprawling resorts, or is there a more sustainable way forward for a nation that cares deeply about its unique natural heritage? Many Cubans think there is, and we agree.

Cuba’s approach to conservation and environmental protection is already a model for other Caribbean nations. The country is now positioned to be a regional model also for sustainable economic development.

By scaling up its small and exclusive ecotourism industry, Cuba can stimulate investment and create jobs, while preserving the coral reefs and big fish that make it one of the world’s most special places.

Emerging ecotourism industry points the way

Today, Cuba’s pristine Jardines de la Reina National Marine Park – Gardens of the Queen – is home to a sustainable, but small, tourism enterprise that provides badly needed economic impetus for small coastal communities.

Nearly one-quarter of the families in Jucaro – the small fishing village from which trips to the Gardens depart – already have a source of income directly related to the largest marine protected area in the Caribbean.

The current ecotourism operation in the Gardens is tiny still; only 1,500 visitors per year are granted access to this world-class treasure.

But the industry also has a tiny spatial and ecological footprint, which means it could be replicated at broader scales across Cuba’s two southern archipelagos, and become an economic and ecological centerpiece for broader development plans for the region.

There are, of course, challenges associated with building out the ecotourism industry in the Gardens of the Queen, like elsewhere.

Fragile ecosystems and remote natural areas can only sustain a certain amount of infrastructure to accommodate new visitors. A careful assessment of potential environmental impacts, in accordance with existing Cuban law, should precede and guide any new tourism development.

If such precautions are not taken, these special places will disappear along with the tourists who loved them. But we feel hopeful Cuba will choose the right path, because the Cuban people know they sit atop a coral treasure box.

Cuba took bold action to protect reefs

Cuba’s coast is often portrayed as a place frozen in time – a selling point to tourists willing to pay a premium for a unique experience. Of course, there’s more to the story.

The people of Cuba have chosen to protect wide swaths of their most valuable habitats – ocean and land alike – in a national network of parks and other protected areas.

For marine waters and ecosystems, the goal is to eventually protect an astonishing 25 percent of Cuba’s shallow-water area, with a focus on four island arcs each the size of the Florida Keys.

Today, the Gardens of the Queen is among just a few places in the Western Hemisphere where you can still see dense stands of elkhorn corals. They are reminiscent of the reefs that existed in Florida in the 1960s and elsewhere before disease wiped most of them from the map.

The Gardens also boasts many species of sharks – Caribbean reef, silky, lemon, nurse, whale sharks and more – along with large numbers of big groupers, snappers and other reef fishes.

These waters are special in their own right, but they’re also tightly linked to the health of coral reefs in the United States, Mexico, the Bahamas and the rest of the broader West Central Atlantic.

If and when Cuba matches up the ecological values of different areas in the region with their highest and best economic uses, it can create a portfolio of approaches that can serve Cubans – and those of us down-current from Cuba – now and in the future.

Anonymous March 3, 2015 - 01:56

Oil and water: Lessons from the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill

For many, April brings the hope of rebirth – new beginnings, springtime, Earth Day. For me, however, April always reminds me of the hopeless feeling in spring 2010, as we all watched – month after month – as huge quantities of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. This Sunday’s anniversary presents an important chance to review what we have learned, and not yet learned, from this tragedy, and what those lessons might mean for the future of the Gulf.

The U.S. was simply not prepared for a challenge of this magnitude. Despite previous spills like Ixtoc (1979), Exxon Valdez (1989), Montara/Timor Sea (2009) and many more, the protection and response systems were not in place to address a large-scale oil catastrophe. It took three months before the well could be sealed. During that time, more than 200 million gallons of crude oil gushed into the Gulf, carried by the currents, creating a widening area of oil pollution.

We came very close to causing an international incident. It was only through the vagaries of the Gulf Loop Current that the best beaches and most valuable coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangrove swamps downcurrent in Florida and Cuba were not slimed with U.S. oil. As it was, oil-based fisheries closures in U.S. waters extended to more than 150 miles of the edge of Cuba’s Exclusive Economic Zone. No one knows how much oil entered Cuban waters. It remains a great irony that we U.S. citizens have been so afraid of Cuban oil development, when U.S.-derived oil very nearly destroyed essential shared resources in Cuban waters in 2010!

Gulf Loop Current conformation on April 25, 2010; Credit: NOAA

Oiled sea birds, sea turtles and marine mammals received abundant press, all around the world. Oil-polluted beaches and marshes were on everyone’s front page. Unfortunately, the natural resources certain to be most damaged received short shrift, because they were both poorly recognized and monitored.

Out-of-sight, and so out-of-mind

A dispassionate scientific review makes clear that the biggest environmental impacts were felt by small and sensitive early life stages, and creatures of the deep. Especially vulnerable elements included tiny floating larvae of local seafood species (including shrimp, crabs, and many shellfish species, spawned offshore and drifting back nearshore where their nurseries occur), and similarly small larvae of species that use the Loop Current as a highway in the sea for transport of their young.

The plight of ancient deepwater corals and other bottom dwellers bathed in erupted oil, and then also rained upon by oil remnants sinking back from the surface, was also largely ignored. Some of those corals take thousands of years to grow.

In addition, oil suffocated large areas of the extraordinarily dense layers of life of the middle zone of the sea – where light does not penetrate, but now widely recognized as one of the sea’s great natural resources. This so-called “deep scattering layer” of life holds much of the ocean’s living mass, and serves as forage for squids and other residents as well as deep-diving tunas, billfishes and marine mammals.

The big impact on the large population of sperm whales in the northern Gulf was not from direct oiling, but from impacts through their food, occurring in the unseen depths. None of these deep resources are well-studied, and none received baseline monitoring beforehand.

In my view, few of the most damaged natural resources are well-known enough to calculate the natural resource damages much less the compensation payments they deserve. It will probably take many years before scientists can look back and guess the degree to which the future populations were damaged by oil pollution exposure.

I believe that it will turn out that use of dispersants on the bottom should never have been approved. Those materials were not only incrementally toxic, but they also greatly expanded the zone of sub-surface toxic exposure, and the complexity of transport-and-fate relationships for oil-derived pollutants, not to mention making recovery on the surface less certain. That such a decision would have to be made in the heat of response clearly illustrates the degree to which those response systems were inadequately prepared.

The fact that we were a mere razor’s edge away from much worse impacts – including those downcurrent in Cuba and Florida – clearly illustrates the folly in our nation’s unwillingness to engage with Cuba in managing shared resources.

If our “oil history” reveals one thing it is that spills and even gushers will occur again, and that we must be prepared. Perhaps the best single result of Deepwater Horizon – from the ocean perspective – it that we are now talking and planning for such responses. Many other good things are also happening in the Gulf now – sustainable commercial fisheries for red snapper and other reef fishes, the “Gulf Wild” safe seafood program, new momentum to rebuild the Mississippi Delta, and others.

At the end of the day, much more needs to be done for nature and for the people of the Gulf so that this mighty ecosystem can be safe for the future.

Join us to save ecosystems dupham April 18, 2014 - 11:26

See comments

I have a friend who works in the aviation training field. He once told me that almost every safety feature you see in any aircraft today was the direct result of a catastrophic failure brought on by the inability to see said failure before it became critical, or a complete lack of understanding/acceptance of what risks actually existed.

This made complete sense to me, and the more I thought about the more I could see this is how we apply ourselves in every area of mechanical and technical development.

Rick Maher August 16, 2018 at 9:59 am

Oil and water: Lessons from the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill

For many, April brings the hope of rebirth – new beginnings, springtime, Earth Day. For me, however, April always reminds me of the hopeless feeling in spring 2010, as we all watched – month after month – as huge quantities of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. This Sunday’s anniversary presents an important chance to review what we have learned, and not yet learned, from this tragedy, and what those lessons might mean for the future of the Gulf.

The U.S. was simply not prepared for a challenge of this magnitude. Despite previous spills like Ixtoc (1979), Exxon Valdez (1989), Montara/Timor Sea (2009) and many more, the protection and response systems were not in place to address a large-scale oil catastrophe. It took three months before the well could be sealed. During that time, more than 200 million gallons of crude oil gushed into the Gulf, carried by the currents, creating a widening area of oil pollution.

We came very close to causing an international incident. It was only through the vagaries of the Gulf Loop Current that the best beaches and most valuable coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangrove swamps downcurrent in Florida and Cuba were not slimed with U.S. oil. As it was, oil-based fisheries closures in U.S. waters extended to more than 150 miles of the edge of Cuba’s Exclusive Economic Zone. No one knows how much oil entered Cuban waters. It remains a great irony that we U.S. citizens have been so afraid of Cuban oil development, when U.S.-derived oil very nearly destroyed essential shared resources in Cuban waters in 2010!

Gulf Loop Current conformation on April 25, 2010; Credit: NOAA

Oiled sea birds, sea turtles and marine mammals received abundant press, all around the world. Oil-polluted beaches and marshes were on everyone’s front page. Unfortunately, the natural resources certain to be most damaged received short shrift, because they were both poorly recognized and monitored.

Out-of-sight, and so out-of-mind

A dispassionate scientific review makes clear that the biggest environmental impacts were felt by small and sensitive early life stages, and creatures of the deep. Especially vulnerable elements included tiny floating larvae of local seafood species (including shrimp, crabs, and many shellfish species, spawned offshore and drifting back nearshore where their nurseries occur), and similarly small larvae of species that use the Loop Current as a highway in the sea for transport of their young.

The plight of ancient deepwater corals and other bottom dwellers bathed in erupted oil, and then also rained upon by oil remnants sinking back from the surface, was also largely ignored. Some of those corals take thousands of years to grow.

In addition, oil suffocated large areas of the extraordinarily dense layers of life of the middle zone of the sea – where light does not penetrate, but now widely recognized as one of the sea’s great natural resources. This so-called “deep scattering layer” of life holds much of the ocean’s living mass, and serves as forage for squids and other residents as well as deep-diving tunas, billfishes and marine mammals.

The big impact on the large population of sperm whales in the northern Gulf was not from direct oiling, but from impacts through their food, occurring in the unseen depths. None of these deep resources are well-studied, and none received baseline monitoring beforehand.

In my view, few of the most damaged natural resources are well-known enough to calculate the natural resource damages much less the compensation payments they deserve. It will probably take many years before scientists can look back and guess the degree to which the future populations were damaged by oil pollution exposure.

I believe that it will turn out that use of dispersants on the bottom should never have been approved. Those materials were not only incrementally toxic, but they also greatly expanded the zone of sub-surface toxic exposure, and the complexity of transport-and-fate relationships for oil-derived pollutants, not to mention making recovery on the surface less certain. That such a decision would have to be made in the heat of response clearly illustrates the degree to which those response systems were inadequately prepared.

The fact that we were a mere razor’s edge away from much worse impacts – including those downcurrent in Cuba and Florida – clearly illustrates the folly in our nation’s unwillingness to engage with Cuba in managing shared resources.

If our “oil history” reveals one thing it is that spills and even gushers will occur again, and that we must be prepared. Perhaps the best single result of Deepwater Horizon – from the ocean perspective – it that we are now talking and planning for such responses. Many other good things are also happening in the Gulf now – sustainable commercial fisheries for red snapper and other reef fishes, the “Gulf Wild” safe seafood program, new momentum to rebuild the Mississippi Delta, and others.

At the end of the day, much more needs to be done for nature and for the people of the Gulf so that this mighty ecosystem can be safe for the future.

Join us to save ecosystems dupham April 18, 2014 - 11:26

See comments

I have a friend who works in the aviation training field. He once told me that almost every safety feature you see in any aircraft today was the direct result of a catastrophic failure brought on by the inability to see said failure before it became critical, or a complete lack of understanding/acceptance of what risks actually existed.

This made complete sense to me, and the more I thought about the more I could see this is how we apply ourselves in every area of mechanical and technical development.

Rick Maher August 16, 2018 at 9:59 am

The future of Galveston Bay: Implications of the oil spill

Galveston Bay is a busy body of water. It carries the traffic of the Houston Ship Channel. It is a popular recreation destination for fishermen and others. It not only serves as a home to birds and large marine animals, but also as a nursery ground for many important seafood species. It is the nation’s seventh largest estuary and among them the second most important seafood producer, behind only the Chesapeake Bay.

The immediate effects of the oil spill on March 22, 2014, are visible in the oil sheens and tar balls floating in the water and the “oiled” birds and animals that crews are trying to help. But, we can’t see how this heavy marine fuel, containing toxic chemicals including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), is harming shrimp, crabs, oysters, red drum and other fish that call the waters of Galveston Bay home. This contamination can hang around for a long time. Studies from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill show that even in low concentrations PAHs can disrupt the development of fish and invertebrate larvae; and in high concentrations can be lethal. Recent reports of tunas susceptible to deformities from the 2010 spill attest to the potential risks long after the spill itself is gone.

The timing of this spill is bad for several key species especially important to the seafood industry and consumers. Brown shrimp have already spawned offshore, and March is the month when the young ride tides coming back inshore to settle in seagrass beds and marshes, habitats that are their nurseries – and where the water is now contaminated with oil pollution. The young are especially vulnerable from now until about May or June. Young blue crabs that settled during the winter in Galveston Bay are also in danger, as are baby fish; including Gulf menhaden, a large harvest in the region’s fishing industry and a fish that is a vital food for larger fish and other animals. Marine life in the way of the oil is dying; and those not killed are exposed to toxic chemicals that could impair their reproductive potential, and some fish that feed on worms in bottom sediments may acquire and carry toxics in their tissues. The seafood “crops” in the area could well be reduced.

Anyone who has been to Galveston Bay has seen the many dolphins are other large marine life that frequent the area and eat these other fish. As these contaminants enter Bay food chains our concern turns not only to how these animals are affected by the spill in the short term, but also to their longer-term health, and even to whether or not seafood species that live there could constitute a human health risk that must be guarded against into the future.

Long-term monitoring of the ultimate footprint of this spill will be necessary so that we can continue to understand how it impacts the ecosystem, and protect people who eat seafood from the bay.

As reports come out about the history of the ships involved in this spill and how the accident occurred it is important to remember that in areas where a large amount of pollution exists so close to such important habitat we must do everything we can to ensure the long-term safety of the species we rely on for ocean health and our own supply of food.

More research must be done on the long-term impacts spills like this have on all the species above and below the water, so we can understand the total cost of these accidents as regulators and others look to address safety and other concerns in the future.

The species that we spend much of our time talking about in the Gulf of Mexico – red snapper and grouper – are caught in offshore waters and will be little affected by this spill. Red snapper and some grouper species spend part of their life in the more saline parts of the bay, but relatively few of them come from those waters. Our friends at Gulf Wild do a great job making sure the offshore seafood you eat is safe and sustainable. Those fishermen are great sources for fish that are caught in the most sustainable way possible and that also undergo additional testing for toxicity.

We’re hearing from our fishermen partners and others in Galveston that crews are working hard to quickly clean up this spill. We hope that authorities are just as diligent in the months and years ahead to monitor and understand all of the impacts from the spill on Saturday, and help keep Texas seafood healthy and sustainable.

dupham March 26, 2014 - 11:57

See comments

What has been happening with the 'oil spill' cleanups, over all these years, since the 1989 Exxon Valdez? With all the EPA regulations imposed, the millions of tax dollars thrown at this environmental disaster - where are the fast isolation methods and control systems that were developed after the BP Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010? Nothing but more questions and slow response from the EPA. All absorbents should be ON the shorelines - NOW.

Harry Jones March 28, 2014 at 11:06 am

The future of Galveston Bay: Implications of the oil spill

Galveston Bay is a busy body of water. It carries the traffic of the Houston Ship Channel. It is a popular recreation destination for fishermen and others. It not only serves as a home to birds and large marine animals, but also as a nursery ground for many important seafood species. It is the nation’s seventh largest estuary and among them the second most important seafood producer, behind only the Chesapeake Bay.

The immediate effects of the oil spill on March 22, 2014, are visible in the oil sheens and tar balls floating in the water and the “oiled” birds and animals that crews are trying to help. But, we can’t see how this heavy marine fuel, containing toxic chemicals including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), is harming shrimp, crabs, oysters, red drum and other fish that call the waters of Galveston Bay home. This contamination can hang around for a long time. Studies from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill show that even in low concentrations PAHs can disrupt the development of fish and invertebrate larvae; and in high concentrations can be lethal. Recent reports of tunas susceptible to deformities from the 2010 spill attest to the potential risks long after the spill itself is gone.

The timing of this spill is bad for several key species especially important to the seafood industry and consumers. Brown shrimp have already spawned offshore, and March is the month when the young ride tides coming back inshore to settle in seagrass beds and marshes, habitats that are their nurseries – and where the water is now contaminated with oil pollution. The young are especially vulnerable from now until about May or June. Young blue crabs that settled during the winter in Galveston Bay are also in danger, as are baby fish; including Gulf menhaden, a large harvest in the region’s fishing industry and a fish that is a vital food for larger fish and other animals. Marine life in the way of the oil is dying; and those not killed are exposed to toxic chemicals that could impair their reproductive potential, and some fish that feed on worms in bottom sediments may acquire and carry toxics in their tissues. The seafood “crops” in the area could well be reduced.

Anyone who has been to Galveston Bay has seen the many dolphins are other large marine life that frequent the area and eat these other fish. As these contaminants enter Bay food chains our concern turns not only to how these animals are affected by the spill in the short term, but also to their longer-term health, and even to whether or not seafood species that live there could constitute a human health risk that must be guarded against into the future.

Long-term monitoring of the ultimate footprint of this spill will be necessary so that we can continue to understand how it impacts the ecosystem, and protect people who eat seafood from the bay.

As reports come out about the history of the ships involved in this spill and how the accident occurred it is important to remember that in areas where a large amount of pollution exists so close to such important habitat we must do everything we can to ensure the long-term safety of the species we rely on for ocean health and our own supply of food.

More research must be done on the long-term impacts spills like this have on all the species above and below the water, so we can understand the total cost of these accidents as regulators and others look to address safety and other concerns in the future.

The species that we spend much of our time talking about in the Gulf of Mexico – red snapper and grouper – are caught in offshore waters and will be little affected by this spill. Red snapper and some grouper species spend part of their life in the more saline parts of the bay, but relatively few of them come from those waters. Our friends at Gulf Wild do a great job making sure the offshore seafood you eat is safe and sustainable. Those fishermen are great sources for fish that are caught in the most sustainable way possible and that also undergo additional testing for toxicity.

We’re hearing from our fishermen partners and others in Galveston that crews are working hard to quickly clean up this spill. We hope that authorities are just as diligent in the months and years ahead to monitor and understand all of the impacts from the spill on Saturday, and help keep Texas seafood healthy and sustainable.

dupham March 26, 2014 - 11:57

See comments

What has been happening with the 'oil spill' cleanups, over all these years, since the 1989 Exxon Valdez? With all the EPA regulations imposed, the millions of tax dollars thrown at this environmental disaster - where are the fast isolation methods and control systems that were developed after the BP Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010? Nothing but more questions and slow response from the EPA. All absorbents should be ON the shorelines - NOW.

Harry Jones March 28, 2014 at 11:06 am

Trending: Concern for ocean health and the resources to help

Last week, a CBS news story highlighting a 2006 study on the decline of oceans’ health, was rediscovered and began trending on Facebook. With the study back in the spotlight, I was delighted to join lead author Dr. Boris Worm on HuffPo Live to discuss the study’s findings and solutions for improving the state of our oceans.

While great strides have been made in the eight years since the study was written, overall oceans’ health continues to decline. Globally, nearly two-thirds of fisheries are in trouble with pollution, overfishing, and habitat loss all continuing to pose a very real threat to oceans and their resilience in the face of new threats, including climate change and ocean acidification.

Overfishing: The root cause of oceans decline

During our talk, Dr. Worm and I discussed these issues and took a deeper dive into the root cause of oceans decline—overfishing. The world’s population is rising steadily and is estimated to reach about 8 billion people by 2024 and 9 billion by 2040. As the population increases, so too does the world’s appetite for seafood. As a result, fish are taken out of the ocean faster than they can reproduce. This can cause obvious problems up to and including extinction of especially vulnerable species (thus the catchy but grim headline on the HuffPo story, “Scientists Predict Salt-Water Fish Extinction”).

Frankly, extinction is not the biggest problem. Overfishing reduces the abundance of vulnerable species, but it also alters ecosystem structure and function, as other species react to the reduced abundance through what ecologists call “ecological cascades.” Valuable large fish that help maintain stable ocean ecosystems can be replaced by more opportunistic, “weedy” species. Under severe fishing pressure, the ability of marine food webs to sustain themselves can be compromised – a real problem with the challenges that lie ahead from climate change.

When our oceans suffer, we do too. Overfishing affects the three billion people around the world who rely on seafood as a source of protein and millions more that depend on healthy fisheries for their livelihoods. Furthermore, poor management costs the world’s fisheries $50 billion annually.

Programs and resources to help

But this isn’t a post of doom and gloom. There are sustainable fishery management systems that are helping to keep marine ecosystems balanced, fish on our plates and wages in the pockets of the fishermen and industry workers that rely on healthy oceans. These management programs are called catch shares.  To date there are about 200 programs managing more than 500 different species in 40 countries. Many studies tout the benefits of catch shares including one worldwide review which found that catch shares significantly lower the incidence of overfishing compared to conventional management practices.

At EDF, we work to share lessons from these successful programs and develop sustainable fishery management resources that help fishermen design these programs. Along the way, we’ve partnered – and become fast friends – with fishermen, as well as NGOs, academics and others who wish to secure a healthy ocean for future generations to come. We want the passion and ideas around sustainable fisheries to go viral.

Perhaps, one day, the trending topics on Twitter and Facebook will be:

 #CatchShares #ReviveWorldFisheries

dupham February 26, 2014 - 11:19

Trending: Concern for ocean health and the resources to help

Last week, a CBS news story highlighting a 2006 study on the decline of oceans’ health, was rediscovered and began trending on Facebook. With the study back in the spotlight, I was delighted to join lead author Dr. Boris Worm on HuffPo Live to discuss the study’s findings and solutions for improving the state of our oceans.

While great strides have been made in the eight years since the study was written, overall oceans’ health continues to decline. Globally, nearly two-thirds of fisheries are in trouble with pollution, overfishing, and habitat loss all continuing to pose a very real threat to oceans and their resilience in the face of new threats, including climate change and ocean acidification.

Overfishing: The root cause of oceans decline

During our talk, Dr. Worm and I discussed these issues and took a deeper dive into the root cause of oceans decline—overfishing. The world’s population is rising steadily and is estimated to reach about 8 billion people by 2024 and 9 billion by 2040. As the population increases, so too does the world’s appetite for seafood. As a result, fish are taken out of the ocean faster than they can reproduce. This can cause obvious problems up to and including extinction of especially vulnerable species (thus the catchy but grim headline on the HuffPo story, “Scientists Predict Salt-Water Fish Extinction”).

Frankly, extinction is not the biggest problem. Overfishing reduces the abundance of vulnerable species, but it also alters ecosystem structure and function, as other species react to the reduced abundance through what ecologists call “ecological cascades.” Valuable large fish that help maintain stable ocean ecosystems can be replaced by more opportunistic, “weedy” species. Under severe fishing pressure, the ability of marine food webs to sustain themselves can be compromised – a real problem with the challenges that lie ahead from climate change.

When our oceans suffer, we do too. Overfishing affects the three billion people around the world who rely on seafood as a source of protein and millions more that depend on healthy fisheries for their livelihoods. Furthermore, poor management costs the world’s fisheries $50 billion annually.

Programs and resources to help

But this isn’t a post of doom and gloom. There are sustainable fishery management systems that are helping to keep marine ecosystems balanced, fish on our plates and wages in the pockets of the fishermen and industry workers that rely on healthy oceans. These management programs are called catch shares.  To date there are about 200 programs managing more than 500 different species in 40 countries. Many studies tout the benefits of catch shares including one worldwide review which found that catch shares significantly lower the incidence of overfishing compared to conventional management practices.

At EDF, we work to share lessons from these successful programs and develop sustainable fishery management resources that help fishermen design these programs. Along the way, we’ve partnered – and become fast friends – with fishermen, as well as NGOs, academics and others who wish to secure a healthy ocean for future generations to come. We want the passion and ideas around sustainable fisheries to go viral.

Perhaps, one day, the trending topics on Twitter and Facebook will be:

 #CatchShares #ReviveWorldFisheries

dupham February 26, 2014 - 11:19

Preserving magic in the depths and saving undersea worlds

Coral off the Georgia coast

NOAA’s National Ocean Service

The deep sea has always fascinated me. It’s an unexplored world – with creatures unknown to science – right on our doorstep.

My own journey into the sea began very early, walking the beach after storms, carefully handling the weird creatures thrown up by waves and tides, and imagining what lurked beyond my view. As a boy, my brothers and I would seine the shallows, marveling at the flashing silver fish and odd shaped creatures we hauled in after every pass of the net.

As an adult, my wife and children – and brother and sister-in-law – have joined me in exploring the uppermost zone of marine life while snorkeling and scuba diving around the tropical world. Wonders exist in those top two hundred feet – but they offer only a tiny window into what lies beneath. Always, the depths have drawn me, down, down, to where the light dims and the creatures change in their colors and shapes.

The race to the bottom

In the early 1990s, it became clear to me that a race to the bottom was underway. Fishermen were exploring and exploiting every corner of the world ocean, at depths never before considered even potentially fishable. The race for fish was happening faster than the science could be done to develop harvest guidelines, and much faster than management systems could be created to limit harvests to sustainable levels.

In fact, many of those races for deepsea fish came and went before anyone outside the industry even knew they were on. It isn’t unusual to hear from fishermen friends, “Oh, we fished those seamounts [undersea mountains] out back in the 1980s.”

Deep-water species appear on dinner plates more often than most people think. If you eat orange roughy, “white tuna” (aka escolar), wreckfish, “Chilean seabass” (aka Patagonian toothfish), royal red shrimp, or red or golden crab you are eating seafood from the deep sea.

The race for deep-water seafood brought other discoveries. Unknown species came up in nets, and scientific explorations were made as a result. One area of research that I became involved in was with the ancient deepwater coral reefs along the southeast coast of the United States.

Specimens of reef-building corals had been dredged from deep Atlantic southeast waters as far back as 1886, on the Albatross expedition. Until the early 1990s, however, no one had any idea, of the extent of those reefs. That’s when Dr. Steve Ross, Dr. John Reed and other scientists began exploring those waters in detail. They found massive deepwater reefs, covering tens of thousands of square miles just off America’s populous East Coast. There were slow-growing corals thousands of years old, and coral mounds hundreds of feet high that were perhaps a million years old.

At the time, I chaired the Habitat and Environmental Protection Advisory Panel of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, with a new mission to protect what U.S. federal law calls “essential fish habitat.” South Atlantic Council staff member Roger Pugliese brought these new discoveries to us for consideration, and it quickly became apparent that the deepwater reefs were threatened by potential bottom-disturbing fishing activities. We went to work to protect them.

Saving undersea worlds

Over the next decade, there was an extraordinary degree of collaboration between scientists, who shared unpublished data (which is almost unheard of) with managers eager to prevent irreplaceable coral habitat losses. The council decided to protect every single known reef – all of it! – and then proceeded to do so. The result was the creation of a zone, embracing some 23,000 square miles of “habitat areas of particular concern,” where bottom disturbing fishing was prohibited. Recently, new discoveries have resulted in additional protected areas.

This could not have happened without the support of fishermen targeting deepwater shrimps and crabs. Dr. Roy Crabtree, at the National Marine Fisheries Service, and I successfully worked with those fishermen to design “allowable gear zones” for each fishery, with a dual aim of protecting the corals and helping traditional fisheries to continue operation.

Even today, I get chills looking at the photographs captured by Drs. Reed and Ross from their deep sea expeditions, thinking of the beautiful creatures that live in those reefs. All of them might have been destroyed had not this committed partnership arisen from what began as pure scientific exploration. It was a wonderful example of scientists, managers and fishermen working together for the good of the planet.

What else lies undiscovered in the abyss? No one knows, though recent discoveries funded through the Census of Marine Life suggest that whole worlds remain to be found and explored, together with endless life forms as yet unseen and unnamed.

In fact, there is another race now underway, one dedicated to learning about deepsea life before it disappears. The world ocean is changing as it absorbs carbon dioxide, acidifies and warms. This is shifting basic ocean patterns and potentially threatening ocean life we do not yet even know exists.

The task for scientists, managers and fishermen is to learn enough about these as yet undiscovered worlds to help find ways to preserve them for future generations.

Take a virtual tour of Cuba’s underwater Eden krives August 13, 2013 - 05:11

Preserving magic in the depths and saving undersea worlds

Coral off the Georgia coast

NOAA’s National Ocean Service

The deep sea has always fascinated me. It’s an unexplored world – with creatures unknown to science – right on our doorstep.

My own journey into the sea began very early, walking the beach after storms, carefully handling the weird creatures thrown up by waves and tides, and imagining what lurked beyond my view. As a boy, my brothers and I would seine the shallows, marveling at the flashing silver fish and odd shaped creatures we hauled in after every pass of the net.

As an adult, my wife and children – and brother and sister-in-law – have joined me in exploring the uppermost zone of marine life while snorkeling and scuba diving around the tropical world. Wonders exist in those top two hundred feet – but they offer only a tiny window into what lies beneath. Always, the depths have drawn me, down, down, to where the light dims and the creatures change in their colors and shapes.

The race to the bottom

In the early 1990s, it became clear to me that a race to the bottom was underway. Fishermen were exploring and exploiting every corner of the world ocean, at depths never before considered even potentially fishable. The race for fish was happening faster than the science could be done to develop harvest guidelines, and much faster than management systems could be created to limit harvests to sustainable levels.

In fact, many of those races for deepsea fish came and went before anyone outside the industry even knew they were on. It isn’t unusual to hear from fishermen friends, “Oh, we fished those seamounts [undersea mountains] out back in the 1980s.”

Deep-water species appear on dinner plates more often than most people think. If you eat orange roughy, “white tuna” (aka escolar), wreckfish, “Chilean seabass” (aka Patagonian toothfish), royal red shrimp, or red or golden crab you are eating seafood from the deep sea.

The race for deep-water seafood brought other discoveries. Unknown species came up in nets, and scientific explorations were made as a result. One area of research that I became involved in was with the ancient deepwater coral reefs along the southeast coast of the United States.

Specimens of reef-building corals had been dredged from deep Atlantic southeast waters as far back as 1886, on the Albatross expedition. Until the early 1990s, however, no one had any idea, of the extent of those reefs. That’s when Dr. Steve Ross, Dr. John Reed and other scientists began exploring those waters in detail. They found massive deepwater reefs, covering tens of thousands of square miles just off America’s populous East Coast. There were slow-growing corals thousands of years old, and coral mounds hundreds of feet high that were perhaps a million years old.

At the time, I chaired the Habitat and Environmental Protection Advisory Panel of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, with a new mission to protect what U.S. federal law calls “essential fish habitat.” South Atlantic Council staff member Roger Pugliese brought these new discoveries to us for consideration, and it quickly became apparent that the deepwater reefs were threatened by potential bottom-disturbing fishing activities. We went to work to protect them.

Saving undersea worlds

Over the next decade, there was an extraordinary degree of collaboration between scientists, who shared unpublished data (which is almost unheard of) with managers eager to prevent irreplaceable coral habitat losses. The council decided to protect every single known reef – all of it! – and then proceeded to do so. The result was the creation of a zone, embracing some 23,000 square miles of “habitat areas of particular concern,” where bottom disturbing fishing was prohibited. Recently, new discoveries have resulted in additional protected areas.

This could not have happened without the support of fishermen targeting deepwater shrimps and crabs. Dr. Roy Crabtree, at the National Marine Fisheries Service, and I successfully worked with those fishermen to design “allowable gear zones” for each fishery, with a dual aim of protecting the corals and helping traditional fisheries to continue operation.

Even today, I get chills looking at the photographs captured by Drs. Reed and Ross from their deep sea expeditions, thinking of the beautiful creatures that live in those reefs. All of them might have been destroyed had not this committed partnership arisen from what began as pure scientific exploration. It was a wonderful example of scientists, managers and fishermen working together for the good of the planet.

What else lies undiscovered in the abyss? No one knows, though recent discoveries funded through the Census of Marine Life suggest that whole worlds remain to be found and explored, together with endless life forms as yet unseen and unnamed.

In fact, there is another race now underway, one dedicated to learning about deepsea life before it disappears. The world ocean is changing as it absorbs carbon dioxide, acidifies and warms. This is shifting basic ocean patterns and potentially threatening ocean life we do not yet even know exists.

The task for scientists, managers and fishermen is to learn enough about these as yet undiscovered worlds to help find ways to preserve them for future generations.

Take a virtual tour of Cuba’s underwater Eden krives August 13, 2013 - 05:11

Momentum for restoration started with the BP spill and keeps building In my previous post, I surveyed the damage to the Gulf of Mexico caused by the BP oil spill. It’s serious, widespread and ongoing. The good news is that many dedicated people, at Environmental Defense Fund and elsewhere, are working hard to rebuild the Gulf, whose problems go well beyond those caused by the spill. Here is a quick overview of some of that work. Once and future fish?

Perhaps the best news is that commercial fishermen and managers are working together to rebuild fish populations.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has been among the leaders in the United States in implementing high-performance fishery management programs, including catch shares. Catch shares give fishermen a direct incentive to help rebuild stocks, which makes their “share” of the scientifically set allowable catch more valuable.

• In the Gulf, the emblematic red snapper has been in a commercial catch share program since 2007. And while it will take years to fully rebuild red snapper stocks, this fish is on its way back.
• In 2010, 13 species of groupers and deepwater tilefishes joined the Gulf commercial catch shares program. There’s also talk of adding other hard-hit reef fish populations (vermilion snapper, greater amberjack and gray triggerfish, among others).
• Gulf fishermen, under a program called GulfWild, are adding voluntary seafood testing to verify that their catch is free of lingering oil-based pollutants from the BP spill.

Improving recreational fishing programs and practices

One problem the catch share programs haven’t addressed is the Gulf’s poorly managed recreational fishing industry. Its red snapper harvest commonly exceeds set quotas by 45% to 100% or even more. This is unsustainable and needs to be fixed if the red snapper recovery is to continue.

Fortunately, there is progress to report on this front, too. This is especially important, since the Southeast region of the U.S. includes by far the largest number of recreational fishermen, as well as the most fish caught and landed by saltwater anglers. Many recreational fishermen care deeply about marine conservation – and their own fishing future – and are working on improved practices.

• Efforts are underway to develop practices that will reduce mortality that results when bottom-dwelling reef fish are brought up too quickly.
• A group of for-hire fishing operators have banded together and are working to create pilots for high-performance management of red snapper. Their ideas are currently under consideration by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
• Florida’s Angler Action Program, is exploring the use of on-line and mobile applications to improve recreational fishing data collection. This data would feed directly into better stock assessments, better goal-setting and improved performance tracking for recreational fishing. A similar project is underway at Texas A&M’s Harte Research Institute, called “i-Snapper.”

Despite this progress, the political situation in the Gulf right now is volatile.  Recreational fishermen understandably wonder, with red snapper populations rebuilding, why this has not yet translated into improved fishing access.  There may well be important lessons to apply from big-game management – perhaps with state-level implementation – that could make a real difference.

Cuba and Mexico – hope for shared resources?

There may be light at the end of the tunnel for highly migratory species like sharks and tunas, which move among the territorial waters of various nations. The Gulf of Mexico has become a test bed for sharing shark science as a basis for improved management later.

The Gulf has the benefit of having only two small areas of “high seas,” where no nation holds sovereignty. All of the rest is in the exclusive control of the U.S., Mexico and Cuba. Thus, these three nations could create a pilot for cooperative management of shared waters, and of the species that range across territorial waters.

The hope is that, by managing migratory species cooperatively, the Gulf nations will be able to rebuild threatened populations of top predators. So far, it’s encouraging that scientists from these three countries, despite all the historical and political sensitivities involved, are talking to each other.

Wetland restoration and beyond

Finally, there is good reason to hope that billions of dollars in damage assessments from BP will go toward restoration for the Gulf Coast, including the Mississippi River Delta. This area is critical as a nursery ground for nearshore seafood species, and for a way of life.

Angelina Freeman, EDF Coastal Scientist, surveys oil on Elmer’s Island Wildlife Refuge

Yuki Kokubo

Restoring the Mississippi ecosystem, in the face of rising seas and intensifying storms, will not be easy. This huge undertaking will require redirecting sediment from the Mississippi so that it once again helps to build coastal wetland. So far, a tremendous amount of planning has been done, and some initial projects have been funded.

The Gulf today

Today, the Gulf of Mexico stands at a crossroads. The oil disaster was a body blow, and there are no guarantees that others will not follow. However, the spill also served as a wake-up call to everyone who cares about the Gulf, creating momentum for restoration that might not have existed otherwise.

As a result, there is now real hope that our grandchildren – and those of today’s Gulf communities – will be able to experience a Gulf that remains a vibrant, living system despite the worst disaster in U.S. marine history.

krives July 25, 2013 - 07:59

Momentum for restoration started with the BP spill and keeps building In my previous post, I surveyed the damage to the Gulf of Mexico caused by the BP oil spill. It’s serious, widespread and ongoing. The good news is that many dedicated people, at Environmental Defense Fund and elsewhere, are working hard to rebuild the Gulf, whose problems go well beyond those caused by the spill. Here is a quick overview of some of that work. Once and future fish?

Perhaps the best news is that commercial fishermen and managers are working together to rebuild fish populations.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has been among the leaders in the United States in implementing high-performance fishery management programs, including catch shares. Catch shares give fishermen a direct incentive to help rebuild stocks, which makes their “share” of the scientifically set allowable catch more valuable.

• In the Gulf, the emblematic red snapper has been in a commercial catch share program since 2007. And while it will take years to fully rebuild red snapper stocks, this fish is on its way back.
• In 2010, 13 species of groupers and deepwater tilefishes joined the Gulf commercial catch shares program. There’s also talk of adding other hard-hit reef fish populations (vermilion snapper, greater amberjack and gray triggerfish, among others).
• Gulf fishermen, under a program called GulfWild, are adding voluntary seafood testing to verify that their catch is free of lingering oil-based pollutants from the BP spill.

Improving recreational fishing programs and practices

One problem the catch share programs haven’t addressed is the Gulf’s poorly managed recreational fishing industry. Its red snapper harvest commonly exceeds set quotas by 45% to 100% or even more. This is unsustainable and needs to be fixed if the red snapper recovery is to continue.

Fortunately, there is progress to report on this front, too. This is especially important, since the Southeast region of the U.S. includes by far the largest number of recreational fishermen, as well as the most fish caught and landed by saltwater anglers. Many recreational fishermen care deeply about marine conservation – and their own fishing future – and are working on improved practices.

• Efforts are underway to develop practices that will reduce mortality that results when bottom-dwelling reef fish are brought up too quickly.
• A group of for-hire fishing operators have banded together and are working to create pilots for high-performance management of red snapper. Their ideas are currently under consideration by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
• Florida’s Angler Action Program, is exploring the use of on-line and mobile applications to improve recreational fishing data collection. This data would feed directly into better stock assessments, better goal-setting and improved performance tracking for recreational fishing. A similar project is underway at Texas A&M’s Harte Research Institute, called “i-Snapper.”

Despite this progress, the political situation in the Gulf right now is volatile.  Recreational fishermen understandably wonder, with red snapper populations rebuilding, why this has not yet translated into improved fishing access.  There may well be important lessons to apply from big-game management – perhaps with state-level implementation – that could make a real difference.

Cuba and Mexico – hope for shared resources?

There may be light at the end of the tunnel for highly migratory species like sharks and tunas, which move among the territorial waters of various nations. The Gulf of Mexico has become a test bed for sharing shark science as a basis for improved management later.

The Gulf has the benefit of having only two small areas of “high seas,” where no nation holds sovereignty. All of the rest is in the exclusive control of the U.S., Mexico and Cuba. Thus, these three nations could create a pilot for cooperative management of shared waters, and of the species that range across territorial waters.

The hope is that, by managing migratory species cooperatively, the Gulf nations will be able to rebuild threatened populations of top predators. So far, it’s encouraging that scientists from these three countries, despite all the historical and political sensitivities involved, are talking to each other.

Wetland restoration and beyond

Finally, there is good reason to hope that billions of dollars in damage assessments from BP will go toward restoration for the Gulf Coast, including the Mississippi River Delta. This area is critical as a nursery ground for nearshore seafood species, and for a way of life.

Angelina Freeman, EDF Coastal Scientist, surveys oil on Elmer’s Island Wildlife Refuge

Yuki Kokubo

Restoring the Mississippi ecosystem, in the face of rising seas and intensifying storms, will not be easy. This huge undertaking will require redirecting sediment from the Mississippi so that it once again helps to build coastal wetland. So far, a tremendous amount of planning has been done, and some initial projects have been funded.

The Gulf today

Today, the Gulf of Mexico stands at a crossroads. The oil disaster was a body blow, and there are no guarantees that others will not follow. However, the spill also served as a wake-up call to everyone who cares about the Gulf, creating momentum for restoration that might not have existed otherwise.

As a result, there is now real hope that our grandchildren – and those of today’s Gulf communities – will be able to experience a Gulf that remains a vibrant, living system despite the worst disaster in U.S. marine history.

krives July 25, 2013 - 07:59