Sustaining Aquatic Biodiversity Part 2

Protecting Sustaining Marine Biodiversity?

•  We can help to sustain marine biodiversity by •  Using laws and economic incentives to protect species Setting aside

marine reserves to protect ecosystems

•  Using community-based integrated coastal management.

Why is it hard to protect marine biodiversity?

1.  Human ecological footprint and fishprint are expanding.

2.  Much of the damage in the ocean is not visible.

3.  The oceans are incorrectly viewed as an inexhaustible resource.

4.  Most of the ocean lies outside the legal jurisdiction of any country.

Legal Protection of Some Endangered and Threatened Marine Species

•  1975 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species

•  1979 Global Treaty on Migratory Species

•  U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972

•  U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973

•  U.S. Whale Conservation and Protection Act of 1976

•  1995 International Convention on Biological Diversity

Economic Incentives Can Be Used to Sustain Aquatic Biodiversity

•  Tourism makes money! •  Sea turtles

•  Whales

•  Economic rewards

El Tayyar Group. 2014 April 1.

Case  Study:  Holding  Out  Hope  for    Marine  Turtles  

•  Threats to the leatherback turtle •  Trawlers and drowning in fishing nets

•  Hunting

•  Eggs used as food

•  Pollution

•  Climate change

•  Protection •  Fishing boats using turtle excluder devices

•  Communities protecting the turtles

Sea Turtle Species

Fig. 11-9, p. 262

Marine Sanctuaries Protect Ecosystems and Species

•  High seas governed by treaties that are hard to enforce

•  Law of the Sea Treaty •  Calls for technology transfers and wealth transfers from

developed to undeveloped nations

•  Requires parties to the treaty to adopt regulations and laws to control pollution of the marine environment

•  Establishes specific jurisdictional limits on the ocean area that countries may claim

•  Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) •  Marine Protected Area (MPA) designations are some of

the simplest of marine management tools that can offer some of the highest gains in terms of marine conservation.

Establishing a Global Network of Marine Reserves—An Ecosystem Approach

•  Marine reserves closed to •  Commercial fishing •  Dredging •  Mining and waste disposal

•  Core zone •  No human activity allowed

•  Less harmful activities allowed •  E.g., recreational boating and shipping

Establishing a Global Network of Marine Reserves—An Ecosystem Approach

•  Fully protected marine reserves work fast •  Fish populations double

•  Fish size grows

•  Reproduction triples

•  Species diversity increase by almost one-fourth

•  Cover less than 1% of world’s oceans •  Marine scientists want 30-50%

Individuals Matter: Creating an Artificial Coral Reef in Israel

•  Reuven Yosef, Red Sea Star Restaurant •  Coral reef restoration

•  Reconciliation ecology

•  Treatment of broken coral with antibiotics

•  This restaurant is now closed…..

Protecting Marine Biodiversity,

•  Oceans 30% more acidic from increased carbon dioxide in atmosphere and increased temperature

•  Integrated Coastal Management •  Community-based group to prevent further degradation of the

ocean

•  Sustaining marine fisheries will require •  Improved monitoring of fish and shellfish populations

Cooperative fisheries management among communities and nations

•  Reduction of fishing subsidies

•  Careful consumer choices in seafood markets.

Estimating and Monitoring Fishery Populations Is the First Step

•  Maximum sustained yield (MSY): traditional approach

•  Optimum sustained yield (OSY)

•  Multispecies management

•  Large marine systems understood using large complex computer models

Precautionary Principle

The Precautionary Principle represents a shift in decision-making. It allows for five key elements that can prevent irreversible damage to people and nature: •  Anticipatory Action: There is a duty to take anticipatory action to prevent harm. •  Right to Know: The community has a right to know complete and accurate

information on potential human health and environmental impacts associated with the selection of products, services, operations, or plans. The burden to supply this information lies with the proponent.

•  Alternatives Assessment: An obligation exists to examine a full range of alternatives and select the alternative with the least potential impact on human health and the environment, including the alternative of doing nothing.

•  Full Cost Accounting: When evaluating potential alternatives, there is a duty to consider all the reasonably foreseeable costs, including raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, use, cleanup, eventual disposal, and health costs even if such costs are not reflected in the initial price.

•  Participatory Decision Process: Decisions applying the Precautionary Principle must be transparent, participatory, and informed by the best available science and other relevant information.

Communities Cooperate to Regulate

Fish Harvests

•  Community management of the fisheries

•  Co-management of the fisheries with the government •  Government sets quotas for species and divides the

quotas among communities

•  Limits fishing seasons

•  Regulates fishing gear

Government Subsidies Can Encourage Overfishing

�  Taxpayers throughout the European Union finance the subsidies given to the fishing sector.

�  Despite the precarious condition of fisheries in Europe and beyond, the EU continues to provide massive subsidies to support its fishing fleets.

�  Total subsidies to the fishing sector are equivalent to 50 percent of the value of the total fish catch.

�  Fuel subsidies amount for half of all EU fisheries subsidies.

�  More than two-thirds of these EU subsidies have the ability to enhance fishing capacity and promote overfishing.

Consumer Choices Can Help to Sustain Fisheries and Aquatic Biodiversity

•  Need labels to inform consumers how and where fish was caught

•  1999: Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) •  Certifies sustainably produced seafood

•  Proper use of sustainable aquaculture •  Plant eating fish best -- Tilapia

Fig. 11-11, p. 267

To maintain the ecological and economic services of wetlands, we must maximize preservation of remaining wetlands and restoration of degraded and destroyed wetlands.

Coastal and Inland Wetlands Are Disappearing around the World

•  Highly productive wetlands

•  Provide natural flood and erosion control

•  Maintain high water quality; natural filters

•  Effect of rising sea levels

We Can Preserve and Restore Wetlands

•  Laws for protection •  Zoning laws steer development away from wetlands

•  In U.S., need federal permit to fill wetlands greater than 3 acres

•  Mitigation banking •  Can destroy wetland if create one of equal area

•  Ecologists argue this as a last resort

Can We Restore the Florida Everglades?

�  Water in south Florida once flowed freely from the Kissimmee River to Lake Okeechobee and southward over low-lying lands to the estuaries of Biscayne Bay, the Ten Thousand Islands, and Florida Bay.

�  This shallow, slow-moving sheet of water covered almost 11,000 square miles, creating a mosaic of ponds, sloughs, sawgrass marshes, hardwood hammock, and forested uplands.

�  For thousands of years this intricate system evolved into a finely balanced ecosystem that formed the biological infrastructure for the southern half of the state.

�  However, to early colonial settlers and developers the Everglades were potential farm land and communities. By the early 1900s', the drainage process to transform wetland to land ready to be developed was underway. The results would be severely damaging to the ecosystem and the species it supported.

Can We Restore the Florida Everglades?

•  Book “River of Grass” by Marjorie Stoneman Douglas •  In the 1940s, many people saw the Everglades as a "worthless swamp”. This

book helped convince people that the Everglades was a special place worth preserving. She spent much of her life working for Everglades restoration and she lived to be 108 years old!

•  1947 Everglades National Park

•  But more damage to the Everglades in the 20th century •  Drained •  Diverted •  Paved over •  Nutrient pollution from agriculture •  Invasive plant species

Can We Restore the Florida Everglades?

•  1990: Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) •  Restore curving flow of ½ of Kissimmee River

•  Remove canals and levees in strategic locations

•  Flood farmland to create artificial marshes

•  Create 18 reservoirs to create water supply for lower Everglades and humans

•  Recapture Everglades water flowing to sea and return it to Everglades

•  The National Research Council reported in September 2008 that no CERP projects had been completed, and the lack of progress on water deliveries to Everglades National Park "is one of the most discouraging stories in Everglades restoration”.

•  Weakened by Florida legislature

•  Taken off and then put back on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2010

The World’s Largest Restoration Project

Fig. 11-13, p. 269