While celebrating 40 years of the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) there comes a grim warning the Oceans are running out of oxygen and threatening fish stocks
An article published in today’s edition of Solomon Times on Line reminds us all that it was forty years ago that 12 Pacific leaders met in the Solomon Islands under the chairmanship of the late Rt Hon Peter Kenilorea. They adopted, and opened for signature, the Convention to formally establish the agency that today is known as the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA).
In 1979, the leaders recognised the terms “coastal states” and “living marine resources” in the Convention and in particular, the highly migratory species.
They also correctly anticipated the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea [happened in 1982] and so they identified fisheries as a critical regional sector in which Pacific coastal states could support each other in harnessing their sovereign rights to conserve and manage their highly migratory species.
The leaders (i) established the FFA, specifically designed to promote the rational exploitation of highly migratory species in the region for the benefit of the Forum member countries, and (ii) came up with the vision to drive and inspire its efforts into the unknown waters of the future.
The British Broadcasting Corporation has just released a report, to coincide with the COP 25 Climate meeting in Madrid and, quoting from the report, it said climate change and nutrient pollution are driving the oxygen from our oceans, and threatening many species of fish, including tuna, marlin and sharks.
That's the conclusion of the biggest study of its kind, undertaken by the conservation group IUCN.
Further details of the report were relayed by Radio New Zealand today, 9 December 2019 and I believe worth quoting.
“While nutrient run-off has been known for decades, researchers say that climate change is making the lack of oxygen worse.
“Around 700 ocean sites are now suffering from low oxygen, compared with 45 in the 1960s.
“The threat to oceans from nutrient run-off of chemicals such as nitrogen and phosphorus from farms and industry has long been known to impact the levels of oxygen in the sea waters and still remains the primary factor, especially closer to coasts.
“However, in recent years the threat from climate change has increased.
“As more carbon dioxide is released enhancing the greenhouse effect; much of the heat is absorbed by the oceans. In turn, this warmer water can hold less oxygen. The scientists estimate that between 1960 and 2010, the amount of the gas dissolved in the oceans declined by 2 percent.
“That may not seem like much as it is a global average, but in some tropical locations the loss can range up to 40 percent.
“Even small changes can impact marine life in a significant way. So waters with less oxygen favour species such as jellyfish, but not so good for bigger, fast-swimming species like tuna.
"We have known about de-oxygenation but we haven't known the linkages to climate change and this is really worrying," said Minna Epps from IUCN.
"Not only has the decline of oxygen quadrupled in the past 50 years but even in the best case emissions scenario, oxygen is still going to decline in the oceans."
“For species like tuna, marlin and some sharks that are particularly sensitive to lack of oxygen - this is bad news.
“Bigger fish like these have greater energy needs. According to the authors, these animals are starting to move to the shallow surface layers of the seas where there is more of the gas dissolved. However, this makes the species much more vulnerable to over-fishing.
“If countries continue with a business-as-usual approach to emissions, the world's oceans are expected to lose 3-4 percent of their oxygen by the year 2100.
“This is likely to be worse in the tropical regions of the world. Much of the loss is expected in the top 1000m of the water column, which is richest in biodiversity.
“Low levels of oxygen are also bad for basic processes like the cycling of elements crucial for life on Earth, including nitrogen and phosphorous.
"If we run out of oxygen it will mean habitat loss and biodiversity loss and a slippery slope down to slime and more jellyfish," said Minna Epps.
"It will also change the energy and the biochemical cycling in the oceans and we don't know what these biological and chemical shifts in the oceans can actually do."
“Changing the outcomes for the oceans is down to the world's political leaders.
"Ocean oxygen depletion is menacing marine ecosystems already under stress from ocean warming and acidification," said Dan Laffoley, also from IUCN and the report's co-editor.
"To stop the worrying expansion of oxygen-poor areas, we need to decisively curb greenhouse gas emissions as well as nutrient pollution from agriculture and other sources."
Sources BBC and Radio New Zealand.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
