Is It Too Late to Save Our Oceans?

“The rea­son for a pos­i­tive approach is I would cer­tainly pre­fer to save our oceans,” Safina told Organic Connections. “There’s really no point in say­ing that any­thing is too late. It’s instruc­tive to see that it can be too late for cer­tain things, but it’s only instruc­tive because it’s not too late for other things. If it’s too late and there’s noth­ing you can do, why would you attend to it? I think that one of the rea­sons that envi­ron­men­tal issues are so unpop­u­lar is because they all seem so gloomy. Many peo­ple don’t see what can be done or what they could do.”

Safina also believes there is a com­mu­ni­ca­tion prob­lem between marine sci­en­tists and the pub­lic. “Most sci­en­tists are not trained to com­mu­ni­cate out­side of sci­ence,” Safina said. “Science is what tells us what’s really going on. It’s a crit­i­cal break­down in com­mu­ni­ca­tion when the peo­ple who know what’s actu­ally going on don’t know how to tell you about it in a way that you could under­stand. So I think that the com­mu­ni­ca­tion of sci­ence and sci­en­tists as com­mu­ni­ca­tors is really crucial.”

This atti­tude is clearly reflected in Blue Ocean Institute’s activ­i­ties, summed up in their mis­sion state­ment: “Blue Ocean Institute uniquely works through sci­ence, art, and lit­er­a­ture to inspire solu­tions and a deeper con­nec­tion with nature. We share reli­able infor­ma­tion that enlight­ens per­sonal choices, instills hope, and helps restore liv­ing abun­dance in the ocean.”

Their pro­grams include Sea Ethic, through which Blue Ocean Institute is aim­ing to help peo­ple under­stand how the ocean sup­ports all life on our planet. The institute’s Next Wave pro­gram is work­ing to influ­ence the next gen­er­a­tion of world lead­ers. With their Seafood Guide, they have gone all out in assist­ing con­sumers to pur­chase safe fish through restau­rants and mar­kets. The guide is even avail­able through a “FishPhone” mobile-phone tex­ting ser­vice, so all of the infor­ma­tion is avail­able wher­ever you are.

Safina’s own intro­duc­tion to the sea was one of love and pas­sion as a child, which prob­a­bly con­tributes to the way he com­mu­ni­cates about it. “I grew up not far from the ocean and my father and uncles intro­duced me to it,” Safina recalled. “I don’t know why, but for some rea­son it just really caught.” He went on to study seabirds and fishes, which led to his PhD in ecol­ogy from Rutgers University. The ocean has pro­foundly influ­enced his work ever since.

Safina has uti­lized his upbeat phi­los­o­phy to help bring about many pos­i­tive changes. Among these he has led cam­paigns to ban drift nets, achieve a United Nations fish­eries treaty, and reduce seabird and sea tur­tle drown­ing on com­mer­cial fish­ing lines.

We indeed have a long way to go in some areas, Safina admits. For exam­ple, he agrees with other experts, such as Dr. Thomas Goreau, that there is con­sid­er­able work needed in per­ma­nently sav­ing our oceans’ coral reefs. “I do think the sit­u­a­tion is quite bad,” Safina said. “The main prob­lem from my point of view is the chang­ing pH of the ocean, which is the result of the same car­bon diox­ide that is caus­ing the other main prob­lem for coral reefs: the warm­ing of the water. So the car­bon diox­ide both warms the water and cre­ates more acidic con­di­tions. Not to over­look over­fish­ing, which is a prob­lem for the reefs them­selves; but ulti­mately the two most sys­temic problems—the tem­per­a­ture changes and the pH change—are energy pol­icy issues. They’re caused by our fossil-fuel-based energy sys­tem. As far as I can see, they really can’t go away until the energy sys­tem is changed and, in fact, not for quite some time after that hap­pens. So those are pretty hefty problems.”

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But in other areas, Safina has observed sub­stan­tial change for the bet­ter. “You solve over­fish­ing with just catch­ing fewer fish,” Safina remarked. “You can do it with agree­ments, reg­u­la­tions and mod­er­at­ing enforce­ment, which has resulted in a major change in US waters in the last 20 years. There were a lot of over­fished species in the US, and because of changes in leg­is­la­tion and enforce­ment, there are now a lot of recov­er­ing species. The fish­eries recov­er­ies that are man­dated in US law now are sig­nif­i­cant. So some of those things are get­ting a lot bet­ter than they used to be.”

In the end, it is up to each and every one of us to help save our seas—in more ways than one. First, sus­tain­able fish­ing is dri­ven by con­sumer demand. “When peo­ple decide that they want more sus­tain­ably caught fish—for instance, Whole Foods has decided to sell only fish that are rated as sus­tain­ably caught—then the pro­duc­ers have to take notice,” said Safina. “And they cer­tainly have taken more notice over the last few years. The buy­ers work­ing with them, or sim­ple com­pe­ti­tion and the desire to stay in busi­ness, will cause them to alter their prac­tices, to catch fish in ways that are less harm­ful and less inten­sive and less wasteful.”

Then, of course, there is our use of fos­sil fuels and the way we live our lives. “It includes every­body,” Safina con­cluded. “Anybody who uses fos­sil fuel has a direct effect on the ocean, and any­body who eats any seafood has a direct effect on the ocean. Very few peo­ple are really exempt. Therefore very few peo­ple are exempt from think­ing about it, and think­ing about doing things in a bet­ter way.”

Here are some of the many sug­ges­tions from Blue Ocean Institute that all of us could uti­lize in help­ing to save our oceans:

• Tell your local rep­re­sen­ta­tives that you sup­port expan­sion of marine reserves to pro­tect valu­able and threat­ened marine species and habitats.
• Get involved with man­age­ment of marine areas in your own locality.
• Take steps to reduce your own car­bon footprint.
• Participate in beach clean-ups.
• Limit your use of plastic.
• Make edu­cated choices in pur­chas­ing seafood.
• Go out snor­kel­ing or div­ing and expe­ri­ence the ocean for yourself.

To learn more about sav­ing our oceans, visit www.blueocean.org.

To find out more about Carl Safina and the broad scope of his work, visit www.carlsafina.org.