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When
the 60s Canadian pop singer Joni Mitchell crooned that "you
don't know what you've got till it's gone", she could easily
have been talking about the Canadian
codfish
industry. The pristine
shores of
Canada have, over time, lost a very important element in their marine
ecosystem;
namely, the fish. The once
abundant coastal fish population has been irresponsibly exploited
into near nonexistence by a host of nations, as well as by Canada
itself. And there is no excuse here; no ecological due to human
waste products or toxic spilis, no Exxon Valdez. Just
unrestrained
human
greed, pure and simple.
Now Canada, known for being a peaceful country with
conservationist-friendly politics and environmentally correct
legislation, has suddenly acquired a rather
crotchety
attitude towards other nations who
venture
too close to her shoreline. Perhaps there is still a chance to
recover the marine life that had once been so abundant in this
area. Perhaps the free-for-all on codfish will now be limited to
Canadian fishermen. lt's hard to tell. But the point is that this
incident has set off a damaging
ripple
of consequences that not only affects the delicate marine
ecosystems, but also thousands of people whose sole source of
income came from the bounty of these shores.
The ecosystem had survived the Portuguese, who learned how
to
salt cod in the 15th century and began fishing near these
shores long before Columbus discovered America. But now, fishing
has become a big money industry, and modern methods have turned it
more into
harvesting than hunting. For
the ocean, that means man has become a formidable
predator,
one whose arrogance before the natural order has directly led to
the unnatural extinction of thousands of species on the planet.
The fact is, life on the planet can continue with one or two
species less. But not without the oceans; the planet would never
be able too sustain life without the oceans. More than 70% of the
Earth's surface is covered by water. For this reason, many
scientists call Earth the "water planet". The various
names we use to geographically locate the bodies of water that dot
our maps are in reality all part of the same ocean.
There is a curious example to prove this; the
freighter
Hansa Carrier encountered a severe North Pacific storm, causing a
large part of her cargo
to spill
overboard, including 61,000 Nike shoes. A year later,
beachcombers
from Oregon, Washington and the Canadian coasts were finding thousands
of Nike shoes washing ashore. More shoes were found on the north
end of the Big Island of Hawaii, which
sparked
the interest of oceanographers who charted the path of the shoes
and
surmised that, if the shoes
survive the elements, within 5 to 7 years they will wash up on the
shores of the Philippines and Japan. Another spill of 29,000 toys
from a container
vessel en route from
Hong Kong to Tacoma, Washington, left rubber duckies floating
across the Bering Sea and freezing in the transpolar drift which
carries ice over the North Pole. They are expected, by the year
2001, to pass through the Gulf Stream and wash onto the beaches of
the British Isles! The world water system is interconnected, which
means that what happens in one area affects all of us at one time
or another, making the idea of finding an international code of
conduct truly imperative to all of us.
From the rain that nourishes
crops,
to life-saving medicines; from the fish that provide food, to the
goods that are transported on the sea's surface, the ocean plays a
role in our lives some way, every day. Globally, fish and seafood
represent one-fifth of the animal protein and 5% of the total
protein in the human diet. Over 70% of our natural resources are
borrowed from the sea, and human life has traditionally
conglomerated near her shores. Today, more than 60% of the human
population live in coastal areas. Yet the statistics of what we
are doing to the oceans are more than astonishing, and what
becomes clear is that we are sitting back and allowing billions of
gallons of
sewage, pesticides and
industrial chemicals to flow into the sea every day, destroying
fisheries, ecosystems, and, ultimately, ourselves.
Some examples of the way we abuse our oceans are that 60% of the
Pacific and 35% of the Atlantic Coast shorelines are eroding at a
rate of a meter every year. One cruise ship anchor was found to
have destroyed a
coral reef the size
of half a football field in one day. More than 2 million sea birds
have fallen victim to plastic trash. In 1988, a pollution-related
virus killed nearly half of a population of North Sea seals. In
1990, more than 6,000 Mediterranean dolphins died from a virus
caused by pollution.
There are only 2,400 California otters left. More than twice that number were killed in Alaska by the Exxon
Valdez. The crashed
tanker Sea
Empress leaked 20 million gallons of crude oil across 50 miles off
the coast of Wales, nearly double the size of the Exxon Valdez. Of
the U.S. beaches monitored, 3,500 were temporarily closed due to
sewer
contamination. The most frequently found items in beach
clean-ups
are, in order: pieces of plastic, plastic
foam,
plastic utensils, pieces of glass and cigarette
butts.
Run-off pollution (car oils, sewage, fertilizers, etc.) is
responsible for 60% of the primary water pollution in the U.S.
Pollutants entering the oceans worldwide carne from air emissions
(33%) and from
run-off in rivers and
streams (44%).
The
sum of these statistics is frightening,
and they are but a few
instances of what is happening to the
earth's final frontier. The message is absolutely clear; our arrogance
is killing us. |
