Not that long ago the world’s oceans were viewed as too gargantuan for humans to influence. This view was voiced most notably in 1883 by the English biologist Thomas Huxley, who in his inaugural address to the International Fisheries Exhibition in London asserted that “all the great sea fisheries are inexhaustible”.
Nowadays, such naïveté seems inconceivable. We’re witnessing rampant overfishing and the decline in size of commercially important fish; rising water temperatures and even “marine heat waves” that are throwing ecosystems into disarray and driving fish and crustacean stocks to the relief of deeper water and toward the poles; acidity that is challenging the ability of sea creatures to form shells; lessening oxygen levels and “dead zones”; contamination from oil spills — a gloomy totality that has come to be known as the “Aquacalypse”.… Seguir leyendo »
Los océanos de la Tierra enfrentan muchas amenazas, ninguna de las cuales tiene soluciones rápidas. Incluso así, las soluciones son conocidas, y con una coalición de socios suficientemente amplia, podemos lograr que se comience a actuar en varios frentes.
Una amplia gama de actividades humanas, desde la quema de combustibles fósiles hasta la sobrepesca, han degradado los océanos durante años. Al aumentar la absorción de dióxido de carbono, el calentamiento global está acidificando los océanos, y, consecuentemente, reduciendo los niveles de oxígeno, lo que a su vez daña o mata plantas marinas, animales y otros organismos. Conjuntamente, a medida que se derriten las capas de hielo, el aumento del nivel del mar pone cada vez en mayor riesgo a cientos de millones de personas en las zonas costeras.… Seguir leyendo »
Tourists come here from around the world to watch whales. It’s common to see humpbacks leaping out of the water and fin whales slapping the waves with their flukes. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch a gray whale poking its head out of the water to scope out the surroundings. And if you’re really lucky, you’ll see a blue whale — at up to 165 tons, the largest animal on earth.
But all is not well here this year. Gray whales are dying in large numbers. Since January, at least 167 North Pacific gray whales have washed ashore dead from Mexico to Alaska.… Seguir leyendo »
On Monday, under United Nations auspices, 71 countries debated in the first round of negotiations for a new “international legally binding instrument … on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction.”
That’s significant, given that oceans make up roughly 70 percent of the planet’s surface area — and nearly two-thirds of that will be regulated by this treaty. Here’s what you need to know about what these negotiations are up to.
1. What is “marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction” and why does it need a treaty?
The major international law governing the world’s oceans is the U.N.… Seguir leyendo »
Desde hace mucho tiempo se viene diciendo que sabemos más sobre la Luna que sobre los océanos. Después de todo, 12 personas han caminado sobre la superficie de la Luna, pero sólo tres se han adentrado en la parte más profunda del mar. Pero ahora parece que sabemos mucho menos acerca de los océanos de lo que pensábamos - y que tal vez hemos podido hacer incluso más daño de lo que creíamos.
En un estudio reciente se observó que durante años se han subestimado las capturas de pescado. Este hecho debería captar la atención tanto de las organizaciones regionales de ordenación pesquera, que supervisan la pesca comercial en alta mar, como de las que velan por el cumplimiento de la Convención de las Naciones Unidas sobre la conservación de las especies migratorias de animales silvestres (CMS), que abarca las especies migratorias en peligro de extinción.… Seguir leyendo »
Tout est affaire de territoire, disait Deleuze, tant chez les animaux que chez les humains ; nous sommes tous définis par la territorialité qui nous emprisonne. Mais comment se fait-il que le territoire de la baleine ne sente pas, comme le territoire humain, le renfermé ?
Détériorant allègrement notre monde jusqu’à nous mettre nous-mêmes en danger avec lui (scier la branche…), nous en repoussons aussi les limites, remplaçant peu à peu tous les paysages de la planète et des environs par nos selfies d’un horrible goût : autoportraits de l’humain en usine désaffectée, en site d’exploitation pétrolière, en enfilade d’hypermarchés, en robot sur Mars, etc.… Seguir leyendo »
On Friday we humans observed V-E Day, the end to one part of a global catastrophe that cost the planet at least 60 million lives. But if we were fish, we would have marked the day differently — as the beginning of a campaign of violence against our taxonomic classes, one that has resulted in trillions of casualties.
Oddly, the war itself was a great reprieve for many marine species. Just as Axis and Allied submarines and mines made the transportation of war matériel a highly perilous endeavor, they similarly interfered with fishing. The ability to catch staple seafoods, like cod, declined markedly.… Seguir leyendo »
Los tiburones y las rayas, sus primas, son anteriores a los dinosaurios. Sobrevivieron a la catastrófica extinción masiva que hizo desaparecer al Tyrannosaurus Rex, entre otros, así como a la del Pérmico-Triásico, que acabó con cerca del 96% de las especies marinas. Incluso las especies de evolución más reciente de esta familia, como los tiburones martillo, han existido por más de 30 millones de años.
Sin embargo, en apenas unas cuantas décadas una cuarta parte de todos los tiburones y rayas han caído en peligro de extinción por causas de origen humano, y corregir esta situación es nuestra responsabilidad.
No se trata solamente de estas especies: muchos otros componentes de la biodiversidad marina (en especial los corales, los mamíferos marinos, las aves marinas y las tortugas) también padecen la presión humana.… Seguir leyendo »
Parrotfish eat algae and seaweed. These brightly colored fish with beaklike mouths inhabit coral reefs, the wellsprings of ocean life. Without them and other herbivores, algae and seaweed would overgrow the reefs, suppress coral growth and threaten the incredible array of life that depends on these reefs for shelter and food.
This was happening in Bermuda, until the government stepped in 30 years ago and banned fish traps that were decimating the parrotfish population. Today, Bermuda’s coral reefs are relatively healthy, a bright spot in the wider Caribbean, where total coral cover has declined by half since 1970.
Last month, in a reminder of just how dire the situation facing the world’s coral reefs is, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it was listing 20 species of coral as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, including all of what were once the most abundant Caribbean corals.… Seguir leyendo »
It´s past time to tell the truth about the state of the world’s coral reefs, the nurseries of tropical coastal fish stocks. They have become zombie ecosystems, neither dead nor truly alive in any functional sense, and on a trajectory to collapse within a human generation. There will be remnants here and there, but the global coral reef ecosystem — with its storehouse of biodiversity and fisheries supporting millions of the world’s poor — will cease to be.
Overfishing, ocean acidification and pollution are pushing coral reefs into oblivion. Each of those forces alone is fully capable of causing the global collapse of coral reefs; together, they assure it.… Seguir leyendo »
Deep below the ocean surface lies a cold, hostile environment where the light of day cannot penetrate. The life-forms inhabiting this murky world grow slowly, mature late and take time to reproduce. Many species live 30 years or more, some up to the grand age of 150. Most have not yet been defined by science.
This dark void, which lies beyond any country’s national jurisdiction, is in trouble.
The world’s deep-sea catch is steadily declining, and the high vulnerability of these fish populations and diverse marine ecosystems is well documented. Last year, officials from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea declared that in the Northeast Atlantic, 100 percent of all targeted deep-sea species have been fished “outside safe biological limits.”… Seguir leyendo »
Coral reefs, the colourful rainforests of the ocean and home to a quarter of fish in the sea, seem doomed. Yet in the remote heart of the Indian Ocean lies a tiny group of islands that chance and biology have conspired to preserve in pristine, primal condition. They are as biologically significant as the Galápagos Islands or the Great Barrier Reef, bathed in seawater thought to be purer than any on the planet. The Chagos Islands offer a glimmer of hope for an ocean choking from man's impact. Best of all, they are administered by Britain. We have the golden opportunity to protect them.… Seguir leyendo »
Anticipando un día caluroso, se había levantado pronto para recorrer las rocas del litoral en busca de marisco aprovechando el frescor de las primeras horas del día y la bajamar. Al alcanzar la orilla del mar se sentó sobre sus talones y se dejó invadir por el sonido de las olas que acariciaban la suave pendiente de la playa en su devenir, humedeciéndola en un juego de cambiantes texturas y color. Era su momento preferido del día.
Esta escena podría describir las sensaciones del lector de vacaciones en la costa, pero igualmente podría referirse al habitante de la cueva situada junto a la orilla del mar en Sudáfrica que representa el asentamiento de humanos modernos más antiguo conocido, y cuyos habitantes se alimentaban hace ya 170.000 años de moluscos, erizos y otros productos del marisqueo.… Seguir leyendo »
Late last year, a flotilla of fluorescent jellyfish covering 10 square miles of ocean was borne by the tide into a small bay on the Irish Sea. These mauve stingers, venomous glow-in-the-dark plankton native to the Mediterranean, slipped through the mesh of aquaculture nets, stinging the 120,000 fish in Northern Ireland’s only salmon farm to death.
Closer to home, the Asian carp, which has been working its way north from the Mississippi Delta since the 1990s, is now on the verge of reaching the Great Lakes. This voracious invader, which weighs up to 100 pounds and eats half its body weight in food in a day, has gained notoriety for vaulting over boats and breaking the arms and noses of recreational anglers.… Seguir leyendo »
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