The Oceanic Resource Foundation: Underwater Photography / Marine Conservation

January 15, 1998

UNESCO International Year of the Ocean-1998

One Earth, One Ocean, One Life

The United Nations, in recognition of the importance of the marine environment, has declared 1998 as the International Year of the Ocean. It is expected that this year of recognition will provide the means to raise awareness of the plight of the oceans. Governments, organizations and individuals need to accept a common responsibility to protect that which sustains us.

The idea for the Year of the Ocean came from the Seventeenth Session of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) held in March 1993. The resoultion was endorsed by the UNESCO General Conference in November 1993 and by ECOSOC in July 1994. The UN General Assembly formally adopted the proposal in December 1994.

Recent research has identified the crucial role of the marine systems as part of the Earth's climate system. The objective of the IYO 1998 is to focus attention on the importance of the oceans. A large number of Member States have committed themselves to this effort through education, awards, research, publications, cruises, workshops, postal stamps, and other initiatives.

Additional information about this year-long celebration may be obtained at the IYO 1998 website at http://www.unesco.org/ioc/iyo/iyohome.htm.

Scientists Warn that Oceans are in Peril

At the start of the United Nations's International Year of the Ocean, more than 1,600 marine scientists and conservation biologists from 65 countries have issued an unprecedented warning to the world's governments and citizens that the sea is in trouble. Troubled Waters: A Call for Action summarizes the urgent threats to marine species and ecosystems and calls for immediate action to prevent further damage.

Troubled Waters paints a dismaying picture of the destruction of marine biological diversity from five causes: 1) overexploitation of species, 2) physical alteration of ecosystems, 3) pollution, 4) alien species from distant waters disrupting local food webs and 5) global atmospheric change. Overfishing has decimated commercial fish populations and caused the collapse of many fisheries worldwide, including the once-bounteous cod fisheries of Georges Bank off New England. Destructive fishing methods such as bottom trawling have crushed and buried bottom-dwelling species by scouring a vast area of seabed. Coastal development has consumed mangrove forests and salt marshes. Reef corals and marine mammals are falling victim to new diseases, perhaps caused by pollution. And global warming has dramatically reduced the sea's productivity off Southern California since 1951 and contributed to the steep decline of salmon in the North Pacific.

The call for action comes from scientific leaders in renowned marine research institutions such as Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences, from scientists in universities, federal agencies, local governments, tribal fisheries commissions, conservation groups and private industry. Endorsers include marine scientists such as Drs. Jane Lubchenco, Past President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Paul Dayton of Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Sylvia Earle of Deep Ocean Exploration and Research. Leading conservation biologists who are expert on conserving species and ecosystems on land and are all too familiar with threats to biological diversity, including Drs. Edward O. Wilson of Harvard University; Peter Raven of the Missouri Botanical Garden and Michael SoulÇ, the father of the science of conservation biology, have also endorsed Troubled Waters. The signatures were collected in only eight months, starting just before the first Symposium on Marine Conservation Biology in June 1997.

"A recent New York Times poll found that only 1 percent of Americans consider the environment the most important problem facing our country," said Dr. Elliott Norse, marine ecologist and President of Marine Conservation Biology Institute (MCBI), the nonprofit organization that coordinated the statement. "Because few of us spend much time below the surface, it is easy to overlook signs that things are going wrong in the sea." But the signs are increasingly obvious to the experts," according to Norse. "The scientists who study the Earth's living systems are far more worried than the public and our political leaders. That's a wake up call that nobody can afford to ignore."

Dr. JoAnn Burkholder of North Carolina State University, who discovered the linkage between coastal pollution and outbreaks of nightmarish fish-eating Pfiesteria piscicida, said "It's hard to imagine that farming on land and building in cities could harm the marine environment and fishermen, but it does. The tons of sewage produced by millions of people don't just go away when we flush... a lot of it winds up in our coastal waters. And construction, agriculture and logging send clouds of choking sediments and excess nutrients into marine waters, smothering sensitive habitats. What we do on land profoundly affects life in the sea."

"If it's business as usual," said Dr. M. Patricia Morse, a marine biologist from Northeastern University, "we'll see more declines in corals, fishes, marine mammals and seabirds. That spells disaster for industries like fishing and tourism that depend on healthy marine life, and for every human on Earth, because we all use goods and services provided by the sea every day. Oceans regulate our climate, provide a breathable atmosphere and break down wastes. Coastal wetlands protect our shores from flooding and storm damage, improve water quality and provide crucial habitat for fishes and other marine life. When we destroy these ecosystems, we lose both their products and services."

Troubled Waters calls on citizens and governments to act now to reverse current trends and avert even more widespread harm to marine species and ecosystems. It outlines needed changes, including elimination of government subsidies that encourage overfishing, an end to fishing methods that damage fish habitat, reduction of non-point source pollution from activities on land, cuts in emissions that cause global warming and the creation of an effective system of marine protected areas from the shore to the open ocean.

"Getting scientists to agree on anything is like herding cats," said Norse, "so having 1,600 experts voice their concerns publicly highlights how seriously the sea is threatened. Troubled Waters shows that the world's experts want the public and our leaders to know that threats to marine species and ecosystems are urgent, and that we must change what we're doing now to prevent further irreversible decline. A White House Conference on the Marine Environment would help to highlight what's known about marine environmental problems and to address the most pressing ones. The International Year of the Ocean provides the ideal opportunity to move forward in protecting, restoring and sustainably using life in the sea. We need to do it for two reasons: because it's essential to our well-being and survival and because it's the right thing to do."

Press Release, Dr. Elliot A. Norse, January 6, 1998

Global Warming Conference-Kyoto, Japan

The Third Conference of the Parties (COP3) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), held in Kyoto, Japan from December 1-11, 1997, was attended by over 10,000 officials from governments, intergovernment organizations and NGO's. A high-level segment of the conference included statements from ministers representing more than 125 countries. After intense formal and informal negotiations, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted on December 11.

Parties to the protocol agreed to view overall reductions of six greenhouse gases (GHG's) by at least 5% below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. The six gases are CO₂, CH₄, N₂O, HFC's, PFC's, and SF6. Emissions trading, joint implementation between countries, and a "clean development mechanism" to facilitate join emissions reductions projects were established within the protocol.

The zen-like challenge to the conference was presented by FCCC Executive Secretary Michael Zammit Cutajar in the form of a Japanese waka by Mahoroba Kaoru.

"Falling into the Moon's reflection
From a single petal
Rings of waves
Blown by the breeze
Touching each life."

Simply stated, our individual actions will reshape the world.

Significant targets for emissions reduction included 7% for the US, 8% for Europe and 6% for Japan. The conference concluded with a consensus among the world's scientific community that the global weather patterns are "out of kilter" and that mankind is largely to blame. The adoption of the Kyoto Protocol is seen as a positive step on a long journey of man treating the earth with more concern.

Earth Negotiations Bulletin, 13 December 1997

Westin Los Cabos / Club Regina Funding for ASUPMATOMA

The Westin Los Cabos Hotel / Club Regina, on December 12, 1997, presented a check to Sr. Rene Pinal, president of the Asociacion Sudcalifornia de Proteccion al Medio Ambiente y La Tortuga Marina (ASUPMATOMA). The donation will be used for the construction of beach camp facilities at Punta San Cristobal. The new facilities will be utilized by volunteer marine turtle researchers during the annual nesting seasons. Turtles arrive on the Los Cabos beaches from September through February and the presence of eco-volunteers has proved important to the success of the hatchling release program, with more than 10,000 hatchlings released during the 1997 season. With the newly constructed camp facilities, it is expected that the beach areas under protection will be expanded and a greater number of freshly-laid eggs may be gathered and returned to nursery areas.

The Westin Los Cabos / Club Regina is a strong supporter of the turtle restoration program in Baja California and sponsors release programs on the beach at the hotel. Hotel guests participate in releases and children place individual turtles on the sand and adopt their releases. ASUPMATOMA offers a turtle adoption certificate for a $20 donation to the program. This hands-on experience for the children encourages them to take an active interest in the protection of turtles and to better understand the importance of a healthy marine environment.

Information about marine turtles and ASUPMATOMA is available on the Oceanic Resource Foundation website at http://www.orf.org/turtle_project.html. Tax deductible donations may be made to the Oceanic Resource Foundation through the Adopt a Turtle, Adopt a Nest and Adopt a Beach programs. Additional information about ASUPMATOMA may be obtained through the internet at http://www.mexonline.com/tortuga.htm.

Construction on Playa La Flor National Wildlife Refuge-Nicaragua

Playa La Flor, located on Nicaragua's Pacific Coast, is one of only two arribada (arrival) sites for the endangered olive ridley sea turtle in Nicaragua, and is one of six sites still remaining in the Eastern Pacific. Approximately 15,000 olive ridley turtles nest at the Playa La Flor each year. Leatherback sea turtles also nest at the site regularly, and green and hawksbill sea turtles have also been reported to nest there occasionally. Playa La Flor has been protected as a National Wildlife Refuge for several years, although its official status as a Wildlife Refuge was only finalized in 1996.

The Nicaraguan Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA) and the University of Central America (UCA) have been carrying out efforts to develop sea turtle monitoring and research programs, as well as community-based conservation programs.

A landholder with property inside the refuge (and directly behind the nesting beach) has illegally, and without permits, begun construction activities in recent months that threaten the nesting beach including: road building, land clearing and second growth tree cutting, fencing the nesting beach with barbed-wire, planting non-native vegetation (teak, melina, pine) in areas used by nesting turtles, and within the Refuge in general, illegal collection of more than 70 truck loads of river rock and dumping into the Refuge for the future hotel construction site, and allowing cattle and horses to enter the nesting area and trample nests. This work is being done for either a hotel or high-priced residences.

JA! (Environmental Youth!), UCA (University of Central America) and other Nicaraguan biologists and conservationists have requested support to pressure the Nicaraguan government to enforce the General Law of the Environment, in order to protect Playa La Flor and the endangered sea turtles that nest there. During the Regional Workshop for the Conservation of Central American Sea Turtles, held in Tortuguero, Costa Rica, from September 26 through October 1, 1997, the participating group voted unanimously to support a Resolution directed toward the President of Nicaragua to protect Playa La Flor and ensure the General Law of the Environment is fully enforced. Individuals are encouraged to send a letter of support to:

President Arnoldo Aleman
Republic of Nicaragua
Casa Presidencial
Managua, Nicaragua

Further information concerning the efforts to protect sea turtles in Central America may be obtained from Environmental Youth! (JA!) via ja@nicarao.apc.org.ni, the Nicaraguan Sustained Development Network via ayon@ns.sdnnic.org.ni, and:

Randall Arauz
Central American Director
Sea Turtle Restoration Project, EIIApdo 1203-1100
Tibas, San Jose, COSTA RICA
Phone/FAX 506-236-6017
Email: rarauz@caiari.ucr.ac.cr

Deep Sea Thermal Vents

Current research by marine biologists on deep sea thermal vents continues to shed light on the origins of life on the planet. Thermal vents were discovered 1977 and during the past twenty years, scientists have discovered hundreds of new species. These undersea species are living in conditions never before thought possible. Extreme pressures and depths, sulphur-rich waters, temperatures that exceed 500-degrees Fahrenheit, and lack of light offer conditions that were never considered possible to sustain life. Yet, on and around the anhydrite (calcium sulfate) chimneys scientists are discovering microscopic organisms, giant clams, tubeworms (Ridgeia and Riftia), spider crabs, large sea anemones, rattail fish, yellow mussels and numerous other animals living in a highly complex food web. The anhydrite chimneys are formed by chemical-rich waters from magma flows along mid-ocean ridges at spreading zones where oceanic plates part. Evidence indicates that these hydrothermal vents supported thriving ecosystems 3.2 billion years ago.

Studies of the mineral-rich vents have been prompted in part by the potential for deep ocean mining. However, the potential for gain from biotech uses of bacteria living at high temperatures may exceed any mineral recovery. The Thermus aquaticus DNA ploymerase is becoming an important catalytic component in medical research, and new enzymes are being discovered with every dive to a thermal site.

Some of the scientists studying these remarkable hydrothermal areas are Verena Tunnicliffe (University of Victoria, British Columbia), Mary Fowler (Royal Holloway, University of London), Peter Jumars and Craig Smith (University of Washington), John Edmond (MIT), and Jim Childress (UCSB).

Earth, June 1997