The Unnatural History of the Sea by Callum Roberts
Imagine an alien invasion of Earth not unlike the Vogan onslaught in Douglas Adam’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. However, in this case the vast fleets of alien motherships cruised far above the Earth's surface, and slowly dragged massive, kilometer-wide steel nets across the surface of the earth, scouring everything in their path. Trees, houses, buildings, people and animals, cars, everything on the surface being swept into giant metal nets and hauled up to the motherships for processing.
Then imagine thousands of motherships crisscrossing the surface of the earth over and over and over again tearing up everything from the surface and hauling it away. Much of what was scraped up and brought to the motherships was considered worthless, and it would come raining down from the sky, smashed, destroyed and dead, when the aliens were done sifting through it.
Now imagine after decades of this that much of the surface of the earth was nearly barren mud, debris and dust, but the ships continued to cruise above and scrape away, trying to get anything that was left. The few remaining people and animals scurrying in the shadows, hiding in cracks and crevices.
While this may sound like science fiction, it is unfortunately scientific fact for the seafloor and everything that lives in the oceans. In his new book, “The Unnatural History of the Sea” (Island Press), Callum Roberts describes in great detail the human onslaught directed against all living creatures in the oceans, an exploitation that began in earnest almost 1000 years ago, and continues with renewed effort to this day.
In part 1 of his book, Professor Roberts uses a mix of narrative and historical records to describe the early accounts of fishing in Europe and details the sea life observed by early sailors and near-shore fishermen. The bounty of the pristine rivers, lakes and the oceans off the coasts of Europe was unimaginable by today’s standards. But with increasing technological advances in fishing, and increased fishing effort in early Europe, overexploitation of a critical natural resource spread across the continent. The pattern of human overexploitation of the fish populations of rivers and oceans is repeated again and again. First rivers are dammed and strung with nets until the runs of various fish species dwindles to a minute fraction of pre-exploitation levels. As fish runs in rivers are choked off and decimated, fishers turn to the local seas to catch near-shore fish which moved along the coasts in massive shoals. As near-shore species are fished out, fishermen moved further and further out to sea to maintain their catches.
By the time early sailors arrived at the New World, fish stocks in Europe had already been long since depleted. The visitors to the New World were astounded by the bounty of the rivers and oceans they encountered, with one early visitor declaring that they found fish schools so thick inshore that an axe handle shoved down into the swarming mass would stand upright. As the Western Hemisphere was colonized, the same pattern of over-exploitation of fish populations in rivers played out in the New World.
In part 2 Professor Roberts details the modernization of the fishery industry, and it’s move away from depleted inshore seas to the open ocean. With the advent of the steam trawler in the late 1800s, fishing power, capacity and ability to fish at greater distances from shore signaled the beginning of the great exploitation of the worlds oceans. First would come the whalers and those seeking fur seals and other sea mammals. As each species gave way to excessive, unmanaged slaughter, ship’s crews would turn to the next most desirable species, and begin the over-exploitation again in one deadly cycle after another.
After the hunting of sea mammals became less lucrative due to diminishing populations, ships would either move further afield in an attempt to find un-spoiled herds, or instead turned to fishing. Early trawler fishing in the North Atlantic proved very lucrative, and the catches were phenomenal. Cod schools were enormous, and proved easy to exploit. The ability to pack fish in ice greatly expanded ship’s reach into the open oceans and their capacity to bring back larger hauls. Steam powered engines and winches made trawling the method of choice for clearing the high seas of fish.
Eventually, as the Americas were populated with Europeans, the same pattern of unmanaged exploitation of the rivers and lakes that had occurred centuries earlier in Europe played out once again. Rivers were dammed and crossed with nets until the runs of fish dwindled to a fraction of their pre-exploitation levels. Fantastically productive ecosystems such as the Chesapeake Bay were stripped of their fish, oysters and crabs until fights broke out over what little remained. The so-called “oyster wars” took place between oyster pirates and the Navy in the Chesapeake Bay in the 1800’s as oyster stocks became severely depleted by dredgers.
Unfortunately for many marine fish and mammal species, as their numbers dwindled, the price that they could fetch on the market skyrocketed. Such supply and demand considerations took a great toll on animals ranging from whales, to sea otters to abalone. The extremely lucrative nature of hunting these animals ensured their near extinction.
As modern open ocean trawling and long-line fishing depleted cod, tuna, herring and other fish stocks, massive trawler-factory ships equipped with fish processing plants made their way into deeper and deeper waters looking for new fish shoals around sea mounts. One such discovery included the massive schools of slimehead fish found around sea mounts in the Pacific. These were quickly renamed “orange roughys” to make them sound more palatable, and they became a popular type of frozen fish. But after a few decades of unmanaged exploitation, orange roughy populations declined sharply, which baffled fishermen. The problem was identified when scientists carbon dated the inner ear bones of fully grown orange roughys and found that they could live to be nearly 150 years old. Indeed, these deep sea fish did not reach sexual maturity until they were decades old, ensuring sharp declines in their numbers as the slowly reproducing fish were removed wholesale from sea mount after sea mount in the Pacific.
Professor Roberts pinpoints the major sources of fisheries mismanagement as a combination of shifting expectations in conjunction with improved technologies and increased fishing effort. At fish stocks are depleted, the newly depleted oceans are accepted as the norm. As the catches are reduced, fishing effort increases in an attempt to make up the difference. In conjunction with improved trawling technologies, the detrimental effects on the oceans have been devastating. Shortsighted politicians consistently watered down the already over optimistic projections provided by scientists, with the inevitable result that virtually no limits were placed on how many fish could be taken from the seas.
In part 3, the reader is given hope that the situation can be turned around with vastly improved fishery management, including reduced fishing effort, moratoriums and a great expansion of marine refuges. An unexpected result of the closing of certain small areas of the ocean to all forms of fishing for research purposes was that fish stocks not only rebounded in the protected areas, but also in nearby waters that were still open to fishing. Unfortunately for some previously plentiful fish stocks such as cod in the North Atlantic, fishing moratoriums have had little effect on bringing back the species from population collapse. However, other species have responded to fishing moratoriums and sanctuaries far better.
Professor Roberts outlines the steps that will be required to bring back the previously prolific oceans of the past. His seven steps include 1) reduced fishing capacity in terms of the size of fishing fleets, 2) getting politicians out of the decision-making process of fisheries management, 3) eliminate catch quotas and replace them with controls on the levels of fishing effort, 4) require fishermen to keep all fish that they catch and stop discarding less valuable species (bycatch), 5) mandate the use of gear that reduces “bycatch” 6) ban the most destructive fishing methods, and 7) establish a large network of marine sanctuaries which are off limits to all fishing.
Professor Roberts dedicates the entire last chapter to issue number seven; establishing a network of permanent marine sanctuaries in every ocean around the world. Scientists have estimated that if between 20% and 30% of the world’s oceans, especially those that act as critical breeding grounds for important species, are made permanently off-limits to fishing, that these will act as nurseries or incubators which can repopulate the world's oceans with a virtually inexhaustible source of fish, if managed properly. Fishing effort could be greatly reduced while the size of the catches would greatly increase. But as long as the decisions on how to manage the worlds oceans are handled by fishermen and politicians, the relentless over exploitation of the world's oceans will continue unabated.
Dr. John Moffett is an active research neuroscientist in the Washington, DC area, who has published over 45 scientific articles on the nervous and immune systems. Dr. Moffett is also the author and webmaster of the political opinion website www.Factinista.org, and is a Managing Editor at OpEdNews.com.
Thank you John for your informative article, which goes to show how my Plan ACET/SugarCityCane will benefit the ocean waters by occupying space above the waters that would prevent fishing ships from exploiting the ocean floors from beneath.
SugarCityCane is the place around the equator that will grow 1 acre size aquarafts "Aqrafts" connected in series like a train which hydroponically grow sugarcane for ethanol production.
Someday there is not going to be any more oil from the earth, and the people need to be thinking about its future and what alternative fuel to use.
With the burgeoning population of China someday America is going to be out of the economic business, cowtowing to China. Simply because China out numbers Americans by a billion strong economically.
If America is to stop this progression they need to be in the drivers seat when it comes to energy production. That worldwide monopoly will control the energy flow and really be the deciding factor in who is in control of economic stations in the world.
But America has not come up to the plate. Bush follows the oily brick road to Iraq, and other candidates say nothing about the need to stabilize and control the energy sector. They all think oil, without the real ethanol plan which provides a way to provide ethanol for the entire world not just the USA.
Someday acres and acres of aqrafts will appear on the Ocean horizons growing sugarcane for the worlds supply of Ethanol in keeping the fuel in the trucks that crisscross the landscapes in each and every country. Or maybe not, because no one gives a shit. Hope the word shit isn't banned yet Rob!
Oil is a limited resource. Someday it will be gone, whether we burn up first because of its CO2 ozone damage, or run out of oil, they are both disasters approaching our planet.
We need to do something now, while we still have some economic flexibility to build the floating fleets that will fill in for the lost gasoline we have literally wasted.
ACET; Aquatic Charcoal Ethanol Technicorp will grow sugarcane the best crop for ethanol production because of it regrowing properties without the need to replant after each harvest, and it is already a sugar. No need to convert starch plants into sugar to make the ethanol.
It will eat up tons of CO2 in the atmosphere and give back tons of O2, and with its floating Aqrafts they will spread across vast ocean areas making harbors beneath for the fish to escape the nets of greedy fisheries.
We need to pursue this, to protect our oceans, and to use our oceans right.
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Dom Jermano (20 articles, 0 quicklinks, 40 diaries, 934 comments)
on Saturday, September 1, 2007 at 6:58:39 PM
The sad thing is, all it takes is one rogue nation which allows a fishing fleet to ravage the seas. And all that takes is one or two influential rich people influencing one or two politicians.
As a catch and release fisherman who rarely keeps any fish, and only if I'm going to eat them, I have seen, in the past 45 years, since I started fishing, as a boy, a huge drop in the amount of fish and their size. A mass extinction process has been in the works and in the flash of an eye, the creeks, rivers and seas could lose so much biodiversity. Already, it's so rare to see amphibians and turtles.
For years, I've been a "rock turner." When wading a creek or river, I'll turn over rocks to see what's living under them, sometimes looking for live bait, like helgramites-- bug larvae. In the past few years, my rock turning has been finding less and less life. It used to be I'd turn over rocks at water's edge or in the shallowest water and I'd see frogs, toads, salamanders, helgramites, crayfish... but no more. Now all you see are the long term species that have survived for hundreds of millions of years long before amphibians and mammals-- beetles, ants, spiders and worms. Will mankind be far behind.
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Rob Kall (761 articles, 3850 quicklinks, 320 diaries, 1642 comments)
on Sunday, September 2, 2007 at 4:28:26 AM
You are absolutely right, and the book goes into great detail about how poor countries set up resource sharing agreements with industrialized nations that have large fishing fleets. The poor host countries often place virtually no limits on the amount of fish that can be taken from their waters. Often the only limit will be on the number of ships that can fish the coastal waters. Accordingly, the industrialized nations send their largest factory ships to fish the waters of the poor nation, taking and processing as much as they can. This is another example of politicians and businessmen sidestepping, bypassing or ignoring fisheries management guidelines, and going for the greatest profit possible.
I used to fish every day after school for many years. We caught quite a few bluefish and striped bass in Long Island sound, even from shore in the 1960s and 70s. By the mid to late 70s their populations had declined to the point where it wasn't even worth going out on a boat to fish anymore, because we never even got a bite.
In the future, if people still want fish in the oceans that can be taken for food the entire world is going to have to cooperate. It might even require a UN-based Fleet of ships to patrol the most critical marine sanctuaries. It would also be possible to sink huge concrete pylons in critical breeding grounds which would prevent trawlers from fishing because their gear would be damaged. Satellite surveillance also could help. But it's a massive task, and as emerging industrial powers like India and China and even Russia experience food shortages, it could get ugly.
Knowing human nature, I have a feeling that rather than making any attempt to protect marine sanctuary breeding grounds for important species, businessmen will try to set up larger and larger marine fish farms, turning the oceans into nothing more than human stockyards for fish.
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John R Moffett (80 articles, 14 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 601 comments)
on Sunday, September 2, 2007 at 5:46:04 AM
