Sustaining Aquatic Biodiversity

1
Sustaining Aquatic Biodiversity

• Chapter 11

2
A Biological Roller Coaster Ride in Lake Victoria

• Loss of biodiversity and cichlids
• Nile perch deliberately introduced
• Frequent algal blooms
• Nutrient runoff
• Spills of untreated sewage
• Less algae-eating cichlids

3
Natural Capital Degradation The Nile Perch
4
What Are the Major Threats to Aquatic
Biodiversity?

• Aquatic species are threatened by habitat loss,
  invasive species, pollution, climate change, and
  overexploitation, all made worse by the growth of
  the human population.

5
We Have Much to Learn about Aquatic Biodiversity

• Greatest marine biodiversity
• Coral reefs
• Estuaries
• Deep-ocean floor
• Biodiversity is higher
• Near the coast than in the open sea
• In the bottom region of the ocean than the
  surface region, greater variety of habitats

6
Human Activities Are Destroying Habitats

• Habitat loss and degradation - HIPPCO
• Marine only 4 of the worlds oceans are not
  affected by pollution
• Coastal
• Ocean floor effect of trawlers, which drag huge
  nets weighted with heavy chains and steel plates,
  reduce coral reefs to rubble
• Freshwater
• Dams
• Excessive water withdrawal

7
Invasive Species Are Degrading Biodiversity

• Invasive species
• Threaten native species
• Disrupt and degrade whole ecosystems
• Water hyacinth Lake Victoria (East Africa)
• Asian swamp eel waterways of south Florida
• Purple loosestrife indigenous to Europe
• Treating with natural predatorsa weevil species
  and a leaf-eating beetle

Invasive water hyacinth
8
How Carp Have Muddied Some Waters

• Lake Wingra, Wisconsin (U.S.) eutrophic,
  excessive nutrient inputs from run off with
  fertilizers from farms/lawns
• Contains invasive species
• Purple loosestrife and the common carp, which
  devour the algae
• Dr. Richard Lathrop
• Removed carp from an area of the lake
• This area appeared to recover

9
Population Growth and Pollution Can Reduce
Aquatic Biodiversity

• Nitrates and phosphates mainly from fertilizers
  enter water
• Leads to algal bloom and eventual eutrophication,
  fish die offs
• Toxic pollutants from industrial and urban areas,
  plastic items

Hawaiian Monk Seal
10
Climate Change Is a Growing Threat

• Global warming sea levels will rise and aquatic
  biodiversity is threatened in the past 100
  years , average 10-20 cm and scientists estimate
  another 18-59 cm, perhaps as high as 1-1.6 m
• Coral reefs
• Swamp some low-lying islands
• Drown many highly productive coastal wetlands
• New Orleans, Louisiana, and New York City

11
Overfishing and Extinction

• Marine and freshwater fish
• Threatened with extinction by human activities
  more than any other group of species
• Commercial extinction industrialized fishing
  fleets can deplete marine life at a much faster
  rate. Can cause 80 in 10-15 years
• Collapse of the cod fishery of the coast of
  Newfoundland and its domino effect leading to
  collapse of other species
• Bycatch seals, dolphins. 34 of marine, 71 of
  fresh water species face extinction within your
  life time.

12
900,000
800,000
700,000
600,000
500,000
Fish landings (tons)
400,000
1992
300,000
200,000
100,000
0
1900
1920
1940
1960
1980
2000
Year
Fig. 11-6, p. 254
13
Protecting and Restoring Mangroves

• Protect and restore mangroves
• Reduce the impact of rising sea levels
• Protect against tropical storms and tsunamis
• Cheaper than building concrete sea walls
• Mangrove forests in Indonesia

14
Industrial Fish Harvesting Methods are vacuuming
the seas

• Trawler fishing- shrimp, scallops
• Purse-seine fishing
• tuna, mackarel
• Longlining tuna, swordfish, sharks
• Drift-net fishing 1992 ban on the use of drift
  nets longer than 2.5 km

15
Protect and Sustain 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, and using community-based integrated
  coastal management.

16
Legal Protection of Some Endangered and
Threatened Marine Species

• Why is it hard to protect marine biodiversity?
• Human ecological footprint and fish print are
  expanding
• Much of the damage in the ocean is not visible
• The oceans are incorrectly viewed as an
  inexhaustible resource that can absorb an almost
  infinite amount of waste
• Most of the ocean lies outside the legal
  jurisdiction of any country
• Treaties - CITES, Marine Mammal Protection Act,
  Endangered Species Act, Whale Conservation and
  Protection Act, International Convention on
  Biological Diversity

17
Protecting Whales Success Story So Far

• Cetaceans Toothed whales and baleen whales
• 1946 International Whaling Commission (IWC)
  set annual quotas
• 1970 U.S.
• Stopped all commercial whaling
• Banned all imports of whale products
• 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling
• Japan ,Norway, Iceland, Russia do not support the
  IWC ban

18
Norwegian Whalers Harpooning a Sperm Whale
19
Economic Incentives Can Be Used to Sustain
Aquatic Biodiversity

• Tourism example sea turtles, worth more to
  local communities alive than dead (WWF)
• Economic rewards

20
Holding Out Hope for Marine Turtles(6 out of 7
endangered)

• Carl Safina, Voyage of the Turtle
• Studies of the leatherback turtle
• Threats to the leatherbacks
• Trawlers destroy coral reefs which is their
  feeding grounds
• Entangled in fishing nets and lines
• Pollution discarded plastic bags
• Climate change- rising sea levels will flood
  nesting and feeding areas
• Communities protecting the turtles
• Turtle Excluder Devices on shrimp boats

21
An Endangered Leatherback Turtle is Entangled in
a Fishing Net
22
Marine Sanctuaries Protect Ecosystems and Species

• Offshore fishing extends to 370 kilometers
• Exclusive economic zones-can take certain quotas
  of fish
• High seas-beyond legal jurisdiction of any
  country
• Law of the Sea Treaty worlds coastal nations
  have jurisdiction over 36 of the ocean surface
  and 90 of the worlds fish stocks
• Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) 4000 world wide,
  200 in US waters

23
Ecosystem approach to sustainability

• Marine
• Commercial fishing
• Dredging reserves
• Mining and waste disposal
• Core zone
• No human activity allowed
• Less harmful activities allowed
• E.g., recreational boating and shipping
• Fully protected marine reserves work fast
• Fish populations double
• Fish size grows
• Reproduction triples
• Species diversity increase by almost one-fourth

24
Protecting Marine Biodiversity Individuals and
Communities Together

• Integrated Coastal Management
• Community-based group to prevent further
  degradation of the ocean
• More that 100 such groups
• seek reasonable short term trade offs that can
  lead to long term ecological and economic benefits

25
How Should We Manage and Sustain Marine Fisheries?

• Sustaining marine fisheries will require improved
  monitoring of fish populations, cooperative
  fisheries management among communities and
  nations, reduction of fishing subsidies, and
  careful consumer choices in seafood markets.

26
Estimating and Monitoring Fishery Populations Is
the First Step

• Maximum sustained yield (MSY) maximum number of
  fish that can be harvested annually without
  causing a population drop
• Optimum sustained yield (OSY)-interactions among
  species
• Multispecies management of a number of
  interacting species
• Large marine systems using large complex
  computer models
• Precautionary principle because of the
  uncertainty of all the above methods

27
Some Communities Cooperate to Regulate Fish
Harvests

• Community management of the fisheries allotment
  and enforcement systems. Norways Lofoten fishery
  (cod)
• Co management of the fisheries with the
  government sets quotas for various species and
  divide the quotas among communities.

28
Government Subsidies Can Encourage
Overfishing-30-34 billion around the world

• 2007 World Trade Organization, U.S.
• Proposed a ban on fishing subsidies
• Reduce illegal fishing on the high seas and in
  coastal waters
• Close ports and markets to such fishers
• Check authenticity of ship flags
• Prosecution of offenders

29
Some Countries Use the Marketplace to Control
Overfishing

• Individual transfer rights (ITRs)
• Control access to fisheries
• New Zealand and Iceland
• Difficult to enforce
• US 1995 to protect the halibut fishery
• Problems with the ITR approach
• transfer ownership of fisheries in publically
  owned waters to private owners
• squeeze out small fishing companies

30
Consumer Choices Can Help to Sustain Fisheries
and Aquatic Biodiversity

• 1997 Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), London
  20 nations
• Certifies that fish caught using sustainable
  practices
• Manage global fisheries more sustainably
• Individuals
• Organizations
• Governments

31
SOLUTIONS
Managing Fisheries
Fishery Regulations
Bycatch
Set catch limits well below the maximum
sustainable yield
Use wide-meshed nets to allow escape of smaller
fish
Use net escape devices for seabirds and sea
turtles
Improve monitoring and enforcement of regulations
Ban throwing edible and marketable fish back into
the sea
Economic Approaches
Sharply reduce or eliminate fishing subsidies
Aquaculture
Charge fees for harvesting fish and shellfish
from publicly owned offshore waters
Restrict coastal locations for fish farms
Control pollution more strictly
Protect Areas
Depend more on herbivorous fish species
Certify sustainable fisheries
Establish no-fishing areas
Nonnative Invasions
Establish more marine protected areas
Kill organisms in ship ballast water
Rely more on integrated coastal management
Filter organisms from ship ballast water
Consumer Information
Label sustainably harvested fish
Dump ballast water far at sea and replace with
deep- sea water
Publicize overfished and threatened species
Fig. 11-12, p. 265
32
How Should We Protect and Sustain Wetlands?

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

33
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

34
Natural Capital Restoration Wetland Restoration
in Canada
35
Can We Restore the Florida Everglades?

• River of Grass south Florida, U.S.
• Since 1948 damaged
• Drained
• Diverted
• Paved over
• Nutrient pollution from agriculture
• Invasive plant species
• 1947 Everglades National Park unsuccessful
  protection project

36
Can We Restore the Florida Everglades?

• 1970s political haggling
• 1990 Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan
  (CERP)
• Restore the curving flow of most of the Kissimmee
  River
• Remove canals and levees in strategic locations
• Flood 240 sq. km farmland to create artificial
  marshes

37
Can We Restore the Florida Everglades?

• Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP)
  cont
• Create reservoirs and underground water storage
  areas
• Build new canals, reservoirs and efficient
  pumping systems
• Why isnt this plan working?

38
The Worlds Largest Restoration Project
39
Protect and Sustain Freshwater Lakes, Rivers, and
Fisheries

• Freshwater ecosystems are strongly affected by
  human activities on adjacent lands, and
  protecting these ecosystems must include
  protection of their watersheds.

40
Freshwater Ecosystems Are under Major Threats

• 40 of the worlds rivers have been dammed or
  otherwise engineered
• invasive species, pollution , climate change

41
Repeated Invasions by Alien Species in the Great
Lakes

• Collectively, worlds largest body of freshwater
• Invaded by at least 162 nonnative species
• Sea lamprey
• Zebra mussel
• Good and bad
• Quagga mussel
• Asian carp

Zebra Mussels Attached to a Water Current Meter
in Lake Michigan, U.S.
42
Managing River Basins Is Complex and
Controversial

• Columbia River U.S. and Canada
• Dam system 119 dams , 19 of which are
  hydroelectric power plants
• Pros electricity con salmon affected
• Snake River Washington state, U.S.
• Hydroelectric dams removed
• Pro salmon saved con economy affected

43
Natural Capital Ecological Services of Rivers
44
Protect Freshwater Ecosystems by Protecting
Watersheds

• Freshwater ecosystems protected through
• Laws
• Economic incentives
• Restoration efforts
• National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act-reestablish
  protection of rivers
• Sustainable management of freshwater fishes

45
Priorities for Protecting Biodiversity, Ecosystem
Services

• 2002 Edward O. Wilson
• Complete the mapping of the worlds terrestrial
  and aquatic biodiversity
• Keep old-growth forests intact cease their
  logging
• Identify and preserve hotspots and deteriorating
  ecosystem services that threaten life
• Ecological restoration projects
• Make conservation financially rewarding