@ Sea Feature--Oceans Under Siege

Oceans Under Siege

from the American Oceans Campaign (AOC)

Above, AOC President Ted Danson speaks about beach water quality to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. AOC engages in educational outreach and implements cooperative programs with private sector, governmental, and environmental organizations toward their goal of preserving the health of the world's oceans.

Poorly managed fisheries discard tons of unintended catch, known as "bycatch." For every pound of shrimp that American consumers buy, an average of three to four pounds of other sea life is killed and discarded overboard.

The Earth and its resources are dependent upon healthy oceans. Many of us assume that these resources will always be there. However, there are increasing threats to coastal water quality and fish habitat. Fish stocks continue to collapse. Beaches are contaminated and closed. And we, the users of these resources, fail to recognize the increasing frequency of these events.

Many of our nations beach waters are unsafe for swimming. In 1998 states and localities that test coastal water quality closed beaches over 7,000 times due to the presence of bacteria and viruses from stormwater pollution, polluted runoff from our streets, overburdened sewage treatment facilities, and malfunctioning septic systems.

Currently, only nine states comprehensively test their beach waters and notify the public when this sort of contamination occurs. The United States Environmental Protection Agency recommended beach water quality criteria in 1986, however fewer than half the states have adopted it. Also, many states that do test their waters do not always alert the public when conditions are unhealthy.

"This summer, thousands of adults and children will swim, snorkel, surf or wade in beach waters that, unbeknownst to them, are contaminated by disease causing micro-organisms," testified American Oceans Campaign President and actor Ted Danson at a recent U.S. Senate hearing. "These pathogens can cause a variety of illnesses, ranging from gastroenteritis, hepatitis, and various ear, nose, and throat infections."

Currently, environmental groups are working with the U.S. Congress to ensure that the problems of inconsistent beach water quality testing and public notification practices are addressed. The national BEACH bill, if passed, will ensure the public's "right to know" when beach waters are unsafe for swimmers. On Earth Day April 22, 1999 the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed this historic legislation. Now before the U.S. Senate, environmental groups are advocating for the bill's swift passage.

A ship runs aground on a coral reef in the Florida Keys...
as a result, the reef is devastated.

Diving beneath the surface, researchers, environmentalists, and resource managers are seeking long-term solution to ensure the future of our fisheries. Stocks are dwindling, small fishermen are forced out of business, and marine diversity is decreasing. There are numerous, interrelated pieces to the fishery management puzzle. Overfishing, bycatch, data collection, overcapitalization and habitat concerns all play a role. Fish, like all wildlife, depend on a healthy habitat. Without those areas necessary for spawning, breeding, feeding, and growth, our fisheries will continue to be less and less productive. Our nation's fishery managers have been mandated by law in the Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996 to protect essential fish habitats.

Major threats to fish habitat include destructive fishing gears and practices. Bottom trawling and dredging have been suggested by many scientific studies to be the most widespread, physically and biologically devastating fishing methods currently practiced. These gear types consist of large, weighted nets that are dragged along the sea floor, scooping up everything in their path. This fishing practice scours an area twice the size of the contiguous U.S. each year.

"Bottom trawling and scallop dredging are devastating to life on the seafloor," said Dr. Les Watling, Professor of Oceanography at the University of Maine. "When I make a dive to the bottom of the Gulf of Maine in a research submersible, I can tell immediately whether an area has been recently trawled for fish or dredged for scallops. After trawling, the sponges and mussels, the tube-dwelling worms and the amphipod crustaceans that live in undisturbed areas are almost all gone. Boulders formerly covered with marine animals are almost lifeless from being rolled around by nets or dredges. And the mud has deep scars. It doesn't take a marine biologist to realize that these fishing methods are terrible for marine animals. Nothing humans do to the sea has more physical impact."

Although laws exist that require resource managers to protect essential fish habitat from the adverse impacts of fishing gear and fishing practices, many regional fishery management councils have failed to comply.

For more information on the extent and effects of bottom trawling and dredging, on beach water quality, or to learn more about AOC, visit our website at www.americanoceans.org or come back to the @Sea site during the "Keys to Cures" mission (August 5 - 25) to read our follow-up feature story on the impacts of bottom trawling on fish habitat.