The FINished Foundation was recently asked to speak at a local event designed to educate the concerned public as to how rising sea levels resulting from human induced climate change could affect their lives personally. The organisation, which shall be known simply as The Organisation to avoid any disrespect, is a well established and globally active organisation. However many of its employees and volunteers appear to remain wary of younger activists and younger organisations which, in comparison with their own methods of approach, could be deemed extreme. We at FINished do not believe in shying away from public debate – the eradication of sharks from the world’s oceans induced mixed reactions of the masses; everything from sadness to relief, anger to joy.
We had been asked to keep our speech quick and simple. We were informed that the attendees were well aware of our society’s beliefs, such as the complete refrainment from consuming seafood, and therefore it was not necessary to share these beliefs and suggestions for lifestyle alteration with the attendees.
Our fellow speakers all focused upon educating the citizens of how they should prepare for handling the effects of climate change. Whilst it is vital that people understand the magnitude of what will occur if we do not act quickly and dramatically on climate change as it should spur people into action, the general public must also be presented concurrently with actions they can take to prevent it. Don’t just tell people what the outcome will be if they don’t act, tell them how to act.
The theme of the evening seemed to revolve around portraying the ocean as the monster that will slowly creep up the shore to eat civilization, or the defenceless victim of the ignorant and selfish, and unpreventable, actions of the human race. What few people know and understand is how great an ally the Ocean is in the battle against climate change, and how the humble shark will influence the oceans capacity to take up arms in the epic battle of our lifetime.
“The seas of the world are often highlighted as being great victims of the global climate crisis, but very rarely have they been highlighted as an adversary in the battle against it.
We know that the old growth forests that cover the planets terrain act as vital carbon banks, but few are aware that the earth’s vast oceans hold up to 50 times more carbon dioxide than the earth’s atmosphere. The marine physical pump allows for carbon to be carried deep within the ocean where it may be safely stored for hundreds of years, with a small proportion being held within the ocean sediments for thousands of years.
At present the amount of oxygen produced by plants via photosynthesis almost perfectly correlates with that being consumed by terrestrial organisms; this is a scary thing to acknowledged whilst inhabiting the earth in the time of the great industrialised deforestation pandemic. However 70% of the worlds oxygen still comes from the photosynthesis of plankton, microscopic marine plant and plantlike organisms. Yet this basic biological fact and the urgent action required for the protection of this vital source of breathable air has gone practically uncommunicated to the general public by the scientific community and the world’s governments.
Thankfully this issue has recently been highlighted by both the United Nations Environmental Program and the International Union on the Conservation of Nature, with both releasing reports within the last 2 months highlighting how vital it is that we take the oceans into account when investigating ways of stabilizing this crisis.
The United Nations Blue Carbon report states that around the year 2000 the oceans carbon intake peaked. Whilst it is taking in a greater number of carbon than ever before recorded during human history, the percent of atmospheric carbon it is absorbing is in fact in decline. In 2004 a total of 146 dead zones were documented to exist in the world’s oceans, areas wherein marine life could no longer be supported due to depleted oxygen levels. Some of these were as small as a square kilometre, but the largest dead zone covered 70,000 square kilometres. A 2008 study counted 405 dead zones worldwide.
Whilst we are pumping insurmountable quantities of pollutants and wastes into the ocean, we are also seeking to take from the ocean more of its resources than ever before. Overfishing has become an issue of immediate address.
In a 2001 edition of Science a team of 19 researchers examined marine sediment evidence from about 125,000 years ago, archaeological information from early human coastal settlements some 10,000 years ago, and European trade records from the 15th century to the present. In every case they looked at, overfishing by humans preceded ecosystem collapse.
We at the FINished Foundation direct our efforts towards protecting the apex predators of the ocean. Sitting atop the oceanic food chain they have a direct and immense influence upon all animals who sit below them. The venerable shark is easily one of the most influential creatures of the deep. Inhabiting this planet since the time before the dinosaurs, sharks have influenced the oceans and the creatures to have evolved therein for the past 400 million years. They have survived every single major extinction event that our planet has until now endured – yet scientific records inform us that over the last 30 years we have lost 90% of the worlds shark populations with 18 species now listed by the IUCN as either threatened or endangered.
This tragedy is a shining example of mans insatiable self-absorption. We are not losing these beings to science, to medical research, to feed the starving of the world – we are losing them for soup. For shark fin soup to be specific. For 4% of the animals body weight to be cut from its live body and thrown back into the ocean to bleed to death, so that its mercury riddled, nutritionally lacking cartilage and contribute texture to a chicken flavoured soup. We are losing up to 100 million sharks every year for this purpose.
Whilst areas wherein shark fishing was permitted have seen a demise of their shark populations fishermen have illegally moved into some of the most fragile and protected waters on earth.
One of the few global organisations working to protect global shark populations is the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Sea Shepherd, upon initiation by the Ecuadorian Government, has been working with the local Environmental Police force in the Galapagos Islands to create a shark fin trade specific police unit, patrolling for long line fishermen and utilizing sniffer dogs in detecting outward bound shark fin cargo. In 2007 a sting launched by Sea Shepherd and operatives of the Ecuadorian Environmental Police seized a cargo of 18000 shark fins outbound from Ecuador.
With a population of over 6.4 billion people presently inhabiting the earth the practically unregulated plundering of our oceans to feed them must simply be stopped. Greater political, scientific and public pressure must be exerted to ensure we protect the 70% of the world’s surface that has too long been ignored.
We have already witnessed localized collapses of fisheries and ecosystems due to the removal of sharks, including the scallop fisheries in Chesapeake Bay, the coral reefs in Belize, the cod in New England and the lobster fishery of Tasmania resulting from the overfishing and subsequent loss of regional shark populations.
In November 2006 a study conducted by fourteen scientists from around the world was published in the internationally respected journal ‘Science’ reporting that all of the worlds fisheries are estimated to reach collapse – by the year 2048.
The study revealed that marine biodiversity loss is increasingly impairing the ocean’s capacity to provide food, maintain water quality, and recover from perturbations. Yet also states that available data suggest that at this point these trends are still reversible if the global community acts quickly.
It is vital that all of the planets ecosystems are taken into account when our governments convene on Copenhagen next month and it is important that the general public are encouraged to understand the interdependence of all the earth species and ecosystems. The human species must change what is ingrained in our ways and traditions. For it seems it will not be until we can all realise and embrace that it is all one big beautiful interconnected planet, that we will all come to realise and embrace that all we have is just this one planet.”
After conducting our speech I was approached by one of the women responsible for holding the event. Whilst everyone speaking at the event had been recorded by members of The Organisation, the camera had been turned off for our presentation. She was quick to prevent me in my attempt to leave following the conclusion of the evening to request that I email her the transcript of my speech. She informed me I would be added to her email list – but only if I provided her with my material. I politely declined informing her that she could easy find it upon our own website.
Whilst it was wonderful to be able to share these beliefs and concerns with a gathering of people with a clear interest in the issue of climate change, it was quite disheartening to experience for the first time the somewhat disrespectful attitude often shown to young conservationists by the older more experienced generation. We may sometimes appear to be extreme is our beliefs and actions, but we do possess fresh new ideas on how to approach the issues at hand, and ultimately we are the ones you will need to pass the torch to. Aid us and nurture us, for if there is to be a future for the planet and the human race there must be future generations of conservationists.
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