Centerblue.org

A comprehensive new study reports that if current trends of over-fishing and polluting the oceans continue, the ocean will essentially become devoid of most marine life by 2048. Our grandchildren may never know what seafood is (except maybe for jellyfish, which can probably survive in any condition).

I don’t know about anyone else, but leaving a huge, lifeless septic tank of an ocean system with jellyfish floating around is not the kind of legacy I’d enjoy leaving for humans for millions of years after such a catastrophe. There are, however, concrete steps that can be taken to stop this from happening: fertilizer runoff can be curtailed, fishing can be limited to sustainable levels, and so on.

Most importantly, we have to keep the pressure on our leaders to get off their lazy, fearful political asses and DO something about climate change and ecosystem collapse.

Just when you thought the news about the environment couldn’t possibly get any worse, it does. The Los Angeles Times is beginning a five-part series today that focuses on the magnitude of destruction we are unleashing on our unseen but essential ocean habitats.

The first article in the multimedia series, “A Primeval Tide of Toxins,” talks about how humanity is quickly knocking the oceans back millions of years on the evolutionary scale. The problem is with the huge amounts of human sewage and fertilizer run-off from farms being dumped into the oceans every day. These substances essentially serve as nutrients for certain species of weeds, algae, and jellyfish that are quickly choking all life around them. They threaten many species, from fish to coral reefs, with imminent extinction as the latter are deprived of oxygen and food.

The statistics and photos in the article are sobering and heart-wrenching to me:

• 75% of kelp forests, prime habitat for many fish, have disappeared off the coast of California in the last 50 years.
• 650 grey whales have washed up sick or dead along the West Coast in the last 7 years.
• 97% of elkhorn and staghorn coral off the coast of Florida has died since 1975.
• 150 ocean-depleted “dead zones” have been identified around the world, including a huge one the size of New Jersey in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana and Florida coasts.
• 90% of the world’s stocks of tuna, cod, and other big fish have disappeared in the last 50 years.

One element in the story I found ironic is that some of the weeds that are now choking fishermen’s nets all over the world are extremely toxic to humans, even if you’re just splattered with water that contained the weeds. It is as if these life forms that are suddenly proliferating have somehow realized that humankind is really their worst natural enemy and have devised a suitable defense.

It doesn’t have to be that way, unless we cherish the idea of a planet with oceans full of nothing but slime for future generations and for millions of years.