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The issues listed below are major threats to ocean health. Click on an issue to read about how it might affect your life.
For years, we’ve thought of our oceans as a bottomless resource, vast enough to absorb everything we put into the water and bountiful enough to replenish everything we take out. We know now that’s simply not the case. Here’s how some of the troubles in the deep are coming to the surface.
A Change in Your Chowder
In Maine, traditional chowders once chock-full of cod, haddock and other groundfish are now flavored solely by lobster. Sounds decadent, but it's actually a sign of an impoverished ocean. Big fish are disappearing from the world's oceans after decades of pressure from high-tech commercial fishing operations, which can now reach fish practically anywhere in the sea. And important fish habitat, such as the shallow estuaries that nurture young fish, is being destroyed by pollution from farms and overdeveloped coastlines. Although cod, bluefin tuna and other big fish are still in stores and on restaurant menus, they're much smaller than they used to be, and they're being flown in from farther and farther away -- a sign that the fish population is in trouble. Scientists can tell they’re being overfished -- scooped up faster than they can reproduce -- but fishing quotas are set through a Byzantine process and often don’t reflect the latest science. If we don't take the pressure off, scientists warn, wild-caught seafood we eat today could vanish.
One way to keep our oceans healthy and full of fish -- and keep fishermen in business -- is to create protected underwater parks. See More Solutions.
Ineffective Governance
U.S. oceans and coasts and the Great Lakes are governed by 20 federal agencies administering a jumble of 140 laws. When no one takes the lead, the oceans suffer the consequences of neglect and inaction. The longer we wait to make ocean protection a federal priority, like clean air or clean water, the harder it will be to restore what we have lost.
NRDC is working to pass a national Healthy Oceans Act that will protect and restore ocean life and provide a national oceans protection strategy. See More Solutions.
Missed Medical Breakthroughs
Researchers are discovering tremendous medicinal potential in the wild, the untapped biodiversity from the deep ocean floor. But this potential could remain untapped as unregulated bottom trawling on the high seas scrapes mile-long tracks in the ocean floor, destroying deep-sea corals and sponges that could contain cancer-fighting compounds, as well as marine life new to science. Bottom trawling razes an area of ocean floor 150 times larger than the amount of forests clear cut around the world each year.
To help preserve biodiversity in the ocean, NRDC is pushing for a prohibition on unregulated bottom trawling on the high seas. See More Solutions.
Missing Marlin
Fast, muscular marlins are among the most popular sport fish in the world, but during the past few decades, more marlins have been dying on commercial tuna boats than anywhere else. Longline fishing vessels trail multiple baited hooks on a single line going down for miles into the ocean, hoping to hook valuable, deep-swimming tuna. They often hook less valuable marlin instead, and the unwanted bycatch is tossed back into the sea, dead or dying. Atlantic blue marlin and white marlin are considered overfished today -- meaning there aren’t enough fish to sustain a healthy population. Bycatch is a problem for many other fish, too. Some commercial fishing vessels throw back an estimated 25 percent of their catch. The fish they toss back might not be valuable at the market, but they’re important to maintaining healthy ocean ecosystems.
Putting independent scientific observers on boats would help collect the data we need to cut down on bycatch -- knowing which fish are being thrown away, and where and when. See More Solutions.
Beach Bummers
Red tides and "no swim" advisories put a damper on any day at the beach. In 2005, there were more than 20,000 days of closings and advisories at beaches across the country. Heavy development on the coast is causing more pollution to be washed onto our beachfronts. In a heavy rainstorm, storm water runs off paved roads, rooftops and driveways, picking up everything from human and animal waste to fertilizers, pesticides, motor oil and trash. This polluted stormwater then gets dumped into the ocean without treatment, making beaches unsafe for swimming. Untreated or inadequately treated sewage is another leading cause of beach water pollution. Manure from factory farms and excess fertilizer from row-crop farms also gets swept into the ocean. That nutrient pollution could be feeding the growth of toxic red tides and other harmful algae blooms.
One easy way to help control water pollution at your beach is to use a natural fertilizer such as compost in your garden. See More Solutions.
Beached Whales
Mass strandings of whales and other marine mammals often occur in the vicinity of military sonar testing. Scientific evidence now makes it clear that blasting high-intensity sound through miles of ocean is killing whales and other marine mammals. More noise and water pollution from ship traffic and oil drilling is also hurting marine life, interfering with migration routes, feeding and mating.
NRDC is suing the U.S. Navy to take common-sense precautions so whales don’t have to die for practice. See More Solutions.
Crippled Corals
Coral reefs literally throb with life, providing food and shelter for thousands of marine species. But reefs around the world are vanishing as global warming makes the oceans warmer, driving out sensitive symbiotic coral algae. And scientists have recently identified a broad new threat to ocean life, ocean acidification, which stems from the same cause as global warming: excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. At the sea surface, the excess carbon dioxide dissolves into the water and creates an acid that interferes with coral and shellfish growth. As the ocean becomes more acidic, it could cause dramatic shifts in ocean life.
Cutting carbon dioxide emissions from cars and power plants can curb global warming and help save coral reefs. See More Solutions.
Sick Swimmers and Surfers
Some beaches don't monitor water pollution as well as they should -- and when they don't, you or your family could get sick from swimming in dirty water. The pollution can come from places far away from the beach. After a heavy storm, overburdened sewer systems can dump inadequately treated sewage into the ocean. On a built-up coastline, heavy rains wash off motor oil and other chemicals from paved surfaces into storm drains, which eventually dump into the ocean. Excess fertilizer and manure from industrial farms also ends up in coastal waters, and could be feeding the growth of toxic red tides and other harmful growths of algae.
Check our beach map to see if your beach is being properly monitored for pollution. See More Solutions.
Rising Seas and Raging Storms
As global warming melts ice at the poles, sea levels are on the rise. If the warming continues unchecked, beaches and entire coastal areas could be submerged. In Florida, for example, seawater could advance as much as 400 feet inland in low-lying areas. Also, warmer waters are predicted to make hurricanes more intense, putting coastal residents at greater risk.
Cutting global warming pollution from cars and power plants can help protect coastal cities from rising sea levels and more severe flooding. See More Solutions.
