Common Vision for Sustainable Seafood

This is the way to advance seafood sustainability!

There is now a Common Vision for Sustainable Seafood that is supported by a wide range of conservation groups and seafood businesses. For more information, here is the press release announcing the new effort.

If you're a seafood business person and you're interested in helping to advance a shared vision for sustainable seafood, please contact me or go to the link above.

Consumers, you will soon see the benefits of this effort when you visit your favorite seafood retailer. Or...if you don't...ask them to get involved.

For a better ocean future!

Conservation, sensuality, and Proust

What was your first taste of conservation? Love of nature? My guess is that your senses were involved before your brain.

Maybe you saw something fantastic, or had a blissful time soaking up nature in a beautiful place.

Then what happened? You saw a threat and got worried or even angry about harm to nature?

If you're like me, you fell in love with nature first, and only later had your brain awakened to threats and the need for conservation action. You started with a loving connection to nature, and only later got all thinky and brain-centered about saving things.

This is well-said by Justin Van Kleeck over at sustainablog, where he writes

environmentalism is mostly about the amazing power and glory of nature. Indeed, environmentalism means luxuriating in the abundance of beauty lying just beyond your door. It is like a life lived within a Proust novel: every thing, every moment, is just dripping with sensuality.

Which part of environmentalism do you talk about now? How do you try to hook people on conservation? Do you invite the connection first, or call people out on the need for action? If you're like most of us, you probably rely on facts--talking about a development project that threatens harm or the risk of rising sea level from warming.

But what happens when people hear "WATCH OUT OR YOU'LL BE UNDERWATER SOON!" Their adrenal glands contract, squirting out adrenaline and they get a "fight or flight" response. Or...they turn the page and go on to something more pleasant.

In his strong post over at sustainablog, Justin Van Kleeck invites you to consider the sensual side of conservation--invoking Marcel Proust as his guiding light. It's a great take on conservation and desire, a blogfish favorite subject.

In this post, he sets out to explode three myths about environmentalism:

This myth that being environmentally responsible is just downright too costly and complicated in numerous ways is perhaps the most pervasive

But, in truth, we need not forsake modernity or take out another mortgage in order to afford new ultra-efficient gadgets. Little things can have big impacts, too: tossing that can or bottle in a recycling bin rather than a trashcan, replacing an incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent, bringing your own bag to the grocery store.

A second myth is that environmentalism is like reading the obituary page unto eternity: nothing but gloom, doom, disaster, and death. We see images of mountaintops and glaciers simply erased. We see forests felled and rivers drained dry. We see polar bears paddling in an endless Arctic Ocean. These sorts of things can shatter both your heart and your ability to hope for our future. Even worse, such hopelessness easily leads to the “What can I do?” syndrome in which any changes, small or large, seem futile.

But, in truth, environmentalism is mostly about the amazing power and glory of nature. Indeed, environmentalism means luxuriating in the abundance of beauty lying just beyond your door. It is like a life lived within a Proust novel: every thing, every moment, is just dripping with sensuality.

One other myth is that environmentalism is some sort of contagious disease whose main symptom is a smug clique mentality, with side effects ranging from mildly annoying uppity behavior to slinging red paint, destroying property, and even homicide.

But, in truth, this smugly antagonistic environmentalism is by far the worst pollution: the spewing out of toxic deeds, words, thoughts, and energy that raise the temperature of our warming planet ever higher. I believe that environmentalism is about loving kindness—for the Earth and its inhabitants, one and all and all as one…living community, that is. I believe that the real green movement, the greenness that can lower our global thermostat, is a green with heart.

Great stuff, Justin, thanks.

Now for the critique: Why do you start with an apology--your admission of an addiction to nature? You've got a great message, and I encourage you to start with a celebration.

And what about Justin's solution? He talks about exploding the myths of environmentalism, but his recipe seems a bit off to me, he calls for maturity and thinking:

We can explode the myths of environmentalism—these myths of costliness, gloominess, and smugness—much as we did the one of the monster under the bed: with self-education and a few mature actions. Yes, the changes on our planet may leave us wanting to hide under the covers. But sometimes we have to grow up. Sometimes we have to drop the myths and be the change.

I think there's a better solution, and it's found in Justin's "living community" that's "green with a heart." Rather than telling people to "grow up," we should invite them to feel connected and live their lives with a consciousness and a celebration of the connections between people and nature. That's the way to explode the myth that environmentalism is costly, gloomy, and smug.

Ocean garbage mess and possible solutions

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is in the news again. Today, the Washington Post profiles a citizen hero who saw the nasty mess and is trying to do something about plastics in the ocean.

Or, if you prefer your news with a sharper edge and a foul tongue, then check out the sharp reporting of VBS-TV as they sail into the Garbage Patch and pull no punches regarding what they find.

Why all the news on human trash turned to ocean flotsam?

Something important happens to people when they encounter the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the central Pacific Ocean. They get very upset. Jean-Michel Cousteau found it "horrifying," and First Lady Laura Bush saw how our waste can "devastate marine life." There's something awful about plowing through mountains of mostly plastic trash on beaches, or sailing through seas choked with plastic garbage in the middle of the ocean.

On land and at sea, dead animals testify to the harm caused by man-made trash in the ocean. Plastics seem to be the worst of the mess, animals can eat it, or get tangled in it, and many of them die. Yecch, what a way to go, starving because your stomach is stuffed full of indigestible bits of garbage.

Everyone who sees this mess seems to agree that something must be done.

And that's where the agreement ends. Talking about solutions just gets arguments started.

Some advocate getting rid of plastic bags, like Rebecca Hosking, a Washington Post Innovator (the world's ground-breakers and contrarians, problem solvers and restless minds). She cried tears that changed her life when she landed on Midway Island in the Pacific. "All you could smell was death," she recalled, thanks to plastic debris that clogged the stomachs and killed the dead albatrosses rotting on the Midway beach.

When she got back home to the village of Modbury in England, she found plastic bags littering the nearby sea. She researched substitute bags, enlisted the local butcher to test biodegradable cornstarch bags, and won a unanimous vote of support from local merchants. Now, most shoppers in Modbury carry reusable cloth bags, a key goal of the campaign, and the movement is spreading around the world. "I'm not an eco-warrior" she says, "we just did a little thing that worked."

Others, such as the American Chemistry Council (a chemical industry association), think the solution is recycling and litter control. They quoted Jean-Michel Cousteau in an Earth Day press release, saying people (not products) pollute. They believe the solution is in recycling, and they have a new campaign to promote recycling of plastics, because they're "too valuable to waste."

Doubt about the effectiveness of recycling are raised on the blog rise above plastics, but The Plastics blog reports on the other side of the story, and how corn-based bioplastics just confuse consumers.

How can we cut through the confusion? Let's listen to some experts.

The answer may be in green chemistry, the effort to design products and production methods so that we prevent problems like plastic waste accumulation in the ocean. An authoritative report from the University of California notes the Garbage Patch as the type of problem that could actually be prevented using smart production.

Contamination of the environment by plastic materials reflects a product management system gone awry. Plastic products are manufactured out of non-renewable materials, contain substances that are toxic to biological and ecological systems, and are designed and packaged for disposal rather than re-use. The resulting pollution presents unique environmental hazards; ocean plastics provide one example.

The North Pacific central gyre is a region of the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii in which ocean currents and wind patterns gather plastic and other debris into a central area. Plastic debris now covers an area of the gyre about twice the size of Texas. Researchers estimate that the mass of plastic particles is about six times greater than that of plankton, and that this ratio will grow ten-fold over the next ten years.6 Nearly all of this material comes from urban areas. Plastic debris has been found in the stomachs of 43 to 86 percent of seabirds and marine animals studied.

Due to their small size, plastic particles are not recoverable from the ocean; they are likely to remain in the marine ecosystem for hundreds of years. Ninety percent of the mass of floating debris in the world’s oceans — and 99% of the material on the world’s beaches — consists of plastic products and the pellets used to manufacture them.

A product management system gone awry? Those strong words are endorsed by 127 faculty members from seven UC campuses, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Maybe we should listen carefully to what they're saying.

Or, we could keep on making the mess and pay federal tax dollars to clean it up.

What do you think we should do about the garbage in the ocean? Please answer the blogfish poll in the upper right sidebar. I want your opinion on solving the ocean plastic trash problem.

The most important solution for the ocean plastic trash problem is:

-better plastic recycling
-ban the worst products
-clean up the mess
-what trash problem?

Jumbo squid on the move

Watch out, jumbo squid may be coming to an ocean near you. They're coming at me at least, moving north into Oregon and Washington's ocean waters. And this may be just one more result of climate change.

Some worry that the voracious predators will harm already-depleted salmon populations, but we humans should not deflect the credit for that achievement.

It's much more fun to ponder the coming of the red devils that are reputed to attack divers when alarmed.

Probably a good idea to keep your alarm clocks at home when you go diving.

Image: Deep-Sea News

Carnival of the blue 12

is on an island, thank goodness...far from parts well traveled, in unchartered waters beyond the Sea of Certainty, on the Island of Doubt. This outpost of Scienceblogs.com welcomes all who dare to abandon all dogma.

Stop by for the best of ocean blogging if you can do without dogma.

Ocean plant will save the world with ethanol

Give me sunshine and CO2 and I'll make a highly useful and convenient energy source. Sounds too good to be true? Well it isn't. You can kiss climate change goodbye, thanks to a blue-green algae from the ocean.

Umm...that is if all the kinks can be worked out. But hey, it's a great concept that deserves a chance.

Scientists produced genetically modified cyanobacteria that convert sunlight and CO2 into glucose, sucrose, and cellulose that are readily convertible into ethanol. If development goes well, algal ethanol (Alganol?) can be produced using much less land and far fewer resources than corn-based ethanol production.


Hat tip: Endangered Spaces

Sea otters worse than seals in some very bad behavior

A bad behavior spree by a sea otter that took indecent liberties and actually killed up to 20 young seals a few years back seems more extreme than the much-noted recent example of a a seal that attempted to mate with a penguin.

Somehow, the heinous otter crimes have gone unnoticed. The story is that at least two sea otters sexually assaulted young seals and killed the victims through drowning or shock. Most of the problem was caused by a certain sea otter, dubbed "Morgan," that had been found abandoned as a baby and rehabilitated by people and later relased into the wild. But at least one wild sea otter was seen doing similar bad things. The end of the story? Morgan the very bad otter was captured.

Scientists and commenters have suggested that the recent 40 minute seal attack on the penguin is "the most unusual case of mammal mating behavior yet known" but I don't think so. A serial rape and murder spree by sea otters victimizing young seals seems more unusual.

Sea otters certainly look cuddly, but looks can be deceiving.

Ocean dead zone monster feeds off climate change

Bad news from the deep dark and scary ocean, a new sea monster is rising from the depths and threatening people. Or at least it's threatening our uses of the ocean. It's toxic water with no oxygen, and it's getting worse thanks to global warming.

Low oxygen dead zones are not a new thing, but a new study says that the dead zones are getting bigger and scarier, probably because of global warming.

And there may be real monsters in the story. Massive Humboldt squid (bigger than you!) are lurking in the dead zones since they can tolerate low oxygen (like a real monster!), and devouring unsuspecting fish. Are you scared yet? Ready to give up that gas-guzzler, or at least turn off the engine when you park?

Note that the monster in the picture bears no resemblance to actual ocean life, which is mostly fun and cuddly--okay maybe a little to wet and cold to be cuddly, anyway the picture is just a visual metaphor for the scary ocean hypoxia monster.

Rescued from a remote island

Some stranded people were rescued from a remote Pacific Island. The question is: why would anyone want to leave?

No, it's not Gilligan's Island, it's Palmyra. It's beautiful, pristine, perfect, and why would anyone want to leave?

I suppose it would get old after a while, but I'd love the chance to find out how long I'd have to be there before I got tired of it and wanted to leave. Probably longer than the week this stranded group was there.

How about you? Wanna go to Palmyra? And how long would you want to stay? I'm thinking a couple of months at least, maybe a year.

Congress considers climate change impacts on oceans

Will our oceans get hammered by climate change? Is it true that corals are already being harmed by climate change? The US Congress wants to know, and decided to ask a panel of experts in a hearing today.

The answers? Climate change is already harming oceans, and corals are the canaries in the coal mine, showing impacts before most other ocean life. Climate change is first an ocean issue. Should people care? Well, our oceans absorb over a third of the greenhouse gases produced and up to 80% of the world's excess heat, so oceans truly are the engine that drive and steer the earth's climate

What to do? Ocean Conservancy President Vikki Spruill suggested the following actions:

First, every climate change bill should include support for adaptation strategies. Mitigation alone won't solve the problem. We need to take on both the cure and the recovery of this disease called climate change. Second, this Congress should pass three ocean bills that are already in the pipeline: Oceans 21, the Coral Reef Conservation Act and the National Marine Sanctuary Act. Lastly, do no harm. There are ocean sequestration proposals to deposit the CO2 underwater that would be potentially devastating to the health of the ocean and need to be researched further.