On Monday the papers were abuzz with a new study on the state of our oceans. An international team of researchers combed through hundreds of texts from ancient times to piece together a picture of what global fisheries looked like in days of yore. According to their results, there are 85 to 90 per cent fewer fish and marine mammals in the ocean today that there once were.The picture sounds bleak to say the least, but the research also provided a number of success stories, suggesting that given the time, oceans can recover. European herring stocks, Elephant seals and Sea Otters were all provided as examples of marine species driven to the brink of extinction that have subsequently made dramatic recoveries. The ocean, it appears, is far more resilient than the land.
In ecology and conservation it ‘s easy to be distracted by doom and gloom stories and miss the solutions all together. Sometimes it can be hard to see how an average individual can assist with the recovery of marine life. So what can you do to help preserve our oceans? Think about what you eat! Through simple choices consumers can weigh in on species preservation. Many institutions produce Seafood guides to help consumers identify species with low impact and high recovery times from species whose populations are currently at risk. I even found this nifty iPhone app, making the choice to eat green easier than ever.
No one said saving our oceans would be easy, but with a little thought and planning, we can all pitch in and make a difference.
- Elaisha Stokes, Producer, Schad Gallery of Biodiversity
- Photo courtesy of hiitscj's
Posts
