Sustaining Aquatic Biodiversity

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Chapter 11

• Sustaining Aquatic Biodiversity

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11-1

• What are the Major Threats to Aquatic
  Biodiversity?

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Core Case Study A Biological Roller Coaster Ride
in Lake Victoria

1. Where is Lake Victoria?
2. What is the endemic species there?
3. What happened to the endemic species?

Figure 12-1
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1. What was the intentionally introduced species and
   why was it introduced?
2. How did the introduction of this species change
   the fishing industry?
3. How did the introduction of this species change
   the lake?
4. What were the unintended consequences beyond
   changes to the lake?
5. What is the situation with the Nile perch now?

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AQUATIC BIODIVERSITY

• We know fairly little about the biodiversity of
  the worlds marine and freshwater systems.
• Explored only 5 of the earths global oceans.
• What are the 3 general patterns of marine
  biodiversity?

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Ecological and Economic Services

• 21 trillion a year.
• Twice that of the terrestrial ecosystems
  including croplands.
• More than half of the worlds population depend
  on the seas for their primary source of food.
• Some aquatic organisms have antibiotic and
  anticancer properties and well as sources for
  other medicines.

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HUMAN IMPACTS ON AQUATIC BIODIVERSITY

• Think HIPPCO
• H for Habitat
• Destruction, disruption, degradation
• High diversity areas
• Coral reefs
• Mangrove forests

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HUMAN IMPACTS ON AQUATIC BIODIVERSITY

• Area of ocean before and after a trawler net,
  acting like a giant plow, scraped it.

Figure 12-2
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I for Invasive Species

• Ballast water
• Asian swamp eel

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• Purple loosestrife
• Water hyacinths

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P for PopulationP for Pollution

• Population
• Almost half of the worlds people live on or near
  a coastal zone.
• Pollution
• 80 of ocean water pollution comes from
  land-based human activities.
• Nitrogen from fertilizers.
• Industrial and urban waste.
• Plastic litter.

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Pollution

• Each year plastic items dumped from ships and
  left as litter on beaches threaten marine life.

Figure 12-3
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C for Climate Change

• During the last 100 years, sea levels have risen
  4 8 inches.
• Destruction of coastal areas
• Coral reefs
• Mangrove forests
• Costal wetlands

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O for Overexploitation

• Overfishing and Extinction
• Gone Fishing, Fish Gone
• About 75 of the worlds commercially valuable
  marine fish species are over fished or fished
  near their sustainable limits.
• What is the cause of overfishing?
• What is the fishprint?
• What is commercial extinction?

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• What are the extended effects of fish gone?
• Explain the domino effect of cod gone.
• Which type of fish are becoming scarce?
• What is the worlds most desirable fish?

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• What is bycatch and its affect on marine
  biodiversity?

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W
Industrial Fish Harvesting Methods
Trawler fishing
Fish farming in cage
Spotter airplane
Sonar
Describe each.
Purse-seine fishing
Trawl flap
Trawl lines
Fish school
Trawl bag
Drift-net fishing
Long line fishing
Buoy
Float
Lines with hooks
Deep sea aquaculture cage
Fish caught by gills
Fig. 12-A, p. 255
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11-2

• How Can We Protect and Sustain Marine
  Biodiversity?

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Why is it Difficult to Protect Aquatic
Biodiversity?

• Rapid increasing human impacts.
• The invisibility of damage to the ocean
• Citizen unawareness.
• Peoples view of ocean resources.
• Lack of legal jurisdiction.

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PROTECTING AND SUSTAINING MARINE BIODIVERSITY

• National and international treaties, laws.
• CITES
• 1979 Global Treaty of Migratory Species
• U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act
• U.S. Endangered Species Act
• U.S. Whale Conservation and Protection Act

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PROTECTING AND SUSTAINING MARINE BIODIVERSITY

• Six of the worlds seven major turtle species are
  threatened or endangered because of human
  activities.

Figure 12-4
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• 1989 the U.S. government has required offshore
  shrimp trawlers to use turtle exclusion devices.
• Sea turtle tourism brings in almost three times
  as much money as the sale of turtle products.

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Case Study Holding Out Hope for Marine Turtles

1. Describe the characteristics of the leatherback
   turtle indentifying those that are helping lead
   to its extinction.

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• What are the threats to turtles other than by
  being captured and killed by humans?
• What are the ways that we are trying to protect
  the turtles?

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Case Study The Florida Manatee and Water
Hyacinths

• Manatee can eat unwanted Water Hyacinths.
• Endangered due to
• Habitat loss.
• Entanglement from fishing lines and nets.
• Hit by speed boats.
• Stress from cold.
• Low reproductive rate

Figure 12-B
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Case Study Commercial Whaling

• After many of the worlds whale species were
  overharvested, commercial whaling was banned in
  1960, but the ban may be overturned.

Figure 12-6
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Case Study Commercial Whaling

• What are the two types of whales and the
  difference between the two types?

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• What are the characteristics of whales that make
  them easier to kill?
• What is the blue whales claim to fame?

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• Why is it that the blue whale may not recover
  from near biological extinction?
• Why is the loss of the whales considered a
  Tragedy of the Commons?

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• What was the purpose of the International
  Convention for the Regulation of Whaling?
• What did the U.S. do in 1970 to protect whales?
• What are the problems with the IWCs mission
  including the actions of Japan?

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• What are the economic incentives that can be used
  to sustain aquatic biodiversity?

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Marine Sanctuaries

• What is the exclusive economic zone and how do
  countries use this?
• What is considered to be the High Seas?
• Describe the Law of the Sea Treaty.
• What are MPAs?

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PROTECTING AND SUSTAINING MARINE BIODIVERSITY

• Describe a fully protected marine reserve.
• How does a marine reserve benefit nearby
  fisheries?
• How does protection of marine ecosystems compare
  to protection of terrestrial ecosystems?

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• List the stressors of the marine ecosystem.
• What is the cause and effect of increasing ocean
  acidity?
• What can consumers do to protect marine
  biodiversity?

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11-3

• How Should We Manage and Sustain Marine Fisheries

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MANAGING AND SUSTAINING MARINE FISHERIES

• Estimating and Monitoring Fishery Populations is
  the first step.
• Describe each of these approaches
• Maximum sustained yield (MSY)
• Optimum sustained yield (OSY)
• Multispecies management
• What is the precautionary principle?

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Government Subsidies Can Encourage Overfishing

• What do governments do that encourages
  overfishing?
• What things can be done to reduce illegal fishing
  on the high seas?

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Marketplace Control

• What are individual transfer rights (ITRs).
• How did tradable quotas change Alaskas halibut
  fishery?
• What are the problems associated with ITRs?

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Consumer Choices to Help Sustain Fisheries

• What can consumers do to help sustain fisheries
  and aquatic biodiversity?

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11-4

• How Should We Protect and Sustain Wetlands?

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Wetlands

• What is happening to the wetlands?
• What ecological services are provided by
  wetlands?
• How will global warming affect the wetlands?

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Preserve and Restore Wetlands

• Laws to protect wetlands
• Zoning laws to prevent development on wetlands.
• Federal permit required to fill in or deposit
  dredged material into wetlands occupying more
  than 3 acres.
• Describe the policy called mitigation banking.

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Wetland Restoration

• Creating and restoring wetlands can be profitable.

AFTER
BEFORE
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Case Study Restoring the Florida Everglades

• Describe the everglades.
• What was the purpose of the water control project
  which resulted in degradation of the original
  Everglades?

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• What changes were made in the Kissimmee River?
• Pros
• Cons
• Describe the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration
  Plan.

Figure 12-10
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CERP

• What problems have caused the CERP to take longer
  to complete or cause it to be abandoned due to
  lack of funding?

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Florida Everglades

• Now ½ its original size and drying out.
• Makes it vulnerable to fire and invasive species.
• Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan
• Largest ecological restoration project.
• Restore the curving flow of the Kissimmee River.
• Remove 250 miles of canals and levees south of
  Lake Okeechobee.
• Buy 93 square miles of farmland and allow it to
  flood creating marshes to filter agricultural
  runoff before it reaches the Everglades National
  Park.

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• Build new canals, reservoirs and huge pumping
  systems to capture 80 of the water currently
  flowing out to sea and return it to the
  Everglades.
• Funding has fallen short
• Restoration project may be secondary to providing
  water for agriculture.

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11-5

• How Can We Protect and Sustain Freshwater Lakes,
  Rivers and Fisheries?

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Natural Capital
Ecological Services of Rivers

• Deliver nutrients to sea to help sustain
  coastal fisheries
• Deposit silt that maintains deltas
• Purify water
• Renew and renourish wetlands
• Provide habitats for wildlife

Fig. 12-11, p. 267
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PROTECTING, SUSTAINING, AND RESTORING LAKES AND
RIVERS

• 40 of worlds rivers have been dammed or
  otherwise engineered.
• Wetlands have been destroyed.
• Invasive species, pollution, climate change have
  damaged or destroyed habitats and/or freshwater
  species.
• Freshwater organisms have been overfished.

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Freshwater Invasive Species

• Origin, manner of accidental introduction, area
  of original introduction.
• Characteristics including positive.
• Zebra mussels
• Quagga mussels
• Sea lamprey
• Asian carp

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PROTECTING, SUSTAINING, AND RESTORING LAKES AND
RIVERS

• Dams can provide many human benefits but can also
  disrupt some of the ecological services that
  rivers provide.
• Positives
• Negatives

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Protecting Freshwater Ecosystems

• Land and Water are connected
• Lakes and streams receive nutrients from
  ecosystems bordering land.
• Watershed
• Land that delivers nutrients from falling leaves,
  animal feces, pollutants wash into the water by
  rainstorms and melting snow.
• How can watersheds be protected?

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PROTECTING, SUSTAINING, AND RESTORING LAKES AND
RIVERS

• A federal law helps protect a tiny fraction of
  U.S. wild and scenic rivers from dams and other
  forms of development.
• National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (1968).
• Wild rivers
• Scenic rivers
• Recreational rivers

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Sustainable Management of Freshwater Fishers

• What are the sustainable practices to protect
  freshwater fishers?

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11-6

• What Should Be Our Priorities for Sustaining
  Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

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Priorities for Protecting Ecosystems and Species

• Edward Wilson, one of the worlds foremost
  experts on Biodiversity proposed these
  priorities.
• Complete the mapping of the worlds terrestrial
  and aquatic biodiversity.
• Keep intact all remaining old-growth forest and
  cease all logging in these forests.
• Identify and preserve the worlds terrestrial and
  aquatic hotspots.
• Protect and restore the worlds lakes and rivers.
• Carry out ecological restoration projects.
• Find ways to make conservation financially
  rewarding to people who live in or near reserves.