Posted on: Thursday, September 16, 2004
COMMENTARY
The ocean is being left behind
By Joshua Reichert
As millions of Americans pack up their beach towels and folding umbrellas, many assume that the ocean they leave behind will be waiting for them next season, much the same as it has been for generations. We can no longer make such assumptions.
In the coming weeks, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy will deliver its report to the president. It follows on the heels of another landmark study released earlier this year by the Pew Oceans Commission.
Both of these national commissions, one public and the other private, come to similar conclusions. America's oceans are in crisis.
Two-thirds of our estuaries and bays are polluted, and over 1,000 of the nation's beaches are routinely closed for periods of time each year due to pollution advisories. Coastal development and sprawl are destroying wetlands and other habitat essential for fish and wildlife at an alarming rate, further degrading water quality. More than a third of the nation's assessed fisheries are either overfished or approaching that condition. An estimated 25 percent of all fish caught in American waters are thrown back dead or dying because fishermen do not want them.
And countless seabirds including albatrosses, shearwaters and petrels are caught and drowned each year by fishing gear, together with thousands of sea turtles, all of which are highly endangered in American waters.
Both of these commissions provide numerous reasons why we should care about the fate of our coastal waters. First, they are critically important to our lives and the livelihood of many Americans. More than half of the U.S. population lives in coastal areas and over 180 million people visit the shore each year. Millions of Americans earn all or a portion of their livelihood from commercial and recreational fishing, tourism, recreation and other activities that take place on America's beaches, bays, estuaries and deeper ocean waters. Collectively, these and other ocean related pursuits generate tens of billions of dollars each year for the nation's economy.
Of the area under U.S. jurisdiction, 23 percent more is covered by ocean than by land. Residing within this vast area are countless species of fish, birds, turtles, marine mammals and other creatures that actually outnumber those species found on land. Many of these ocean dwellers are as yet unidentified and hold the potential to offer new medicines and other products of potential benefit to human society.
And beyond what they give us materially, the nation's oceans provide tremendous pleasure and a source of aesthetic, spiritual and creative inspiration to millions of Americans no matter where they live.
The consequences to the nation of not addressing the problems identified by the Pew and U.S. oceans commissions are profound. Not only do we stand to lose tens of thousands of jobs and the revenue that sustains hundreds of coastal communities, but we will also forfeit numerous other benefits that America's oceans provide.
For many years, we have failed to act on information that signaled the increasing deterioration of our marine environment. Perhaps the most egregious example of this relates to fishing. By failing to address problems of over fishing in many regions of the country, government officials and lawmakers have actually condemned the very people they are reportedly trying to help in the short term with the loss of far more fishing jobs in the long run, along with the deterioration of ecosystems that are important to coastal economies and the American people as a whole. We have seen this in New England and the maritime provinces of Canada, where government refusal to cut back on fishing for fear of angering fishermen eventually resulted in the total collapse of the cod fishery, the elimination of thousands of jobs and terrible economic hardship for fishing communities.
As these two reports indicate, America is at a crossroads with respect to the way in which we manage our ocean resources. We can continue on the road we are on, and collectively witness the ongoing decline of one of the nation's most important natural resources, along with the jobs and other benefits it provides. Or we can take another path, one dictated by more careful stewardship and a willingness to make the hard choices in the short run that will benefit us all in the long. The latter course promises a bright future. The other will leave us little more than memories of the ocean we once had, but left behind.
Joshua Reichert is Director of the Environment Division, The Pew Charitable Trusts.
