The Environment:
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
By Doug Pemberton

The past 150 years have seen the human race make great advancements in the areas of industry, commerce, science and technology which have reshaped our environment and interfered with the rhythms of nature. The oceans, like the rest of nature, are a complex and dynamic system of weights and balances that complement each other perfectly and only very recently have we realized that their health and our impact upon them are inextricably linked. Given time and left to its own devices, nature can adapt to change and heal itself, but we now have the ability to affect the environment much faster than it can recover. Our progress, and moreover our complacency towards its effect, has left us with a legacy of resource depletion and environmental pollution, and in few places is this more evident than in the oceans. Recent studies of ocean pollution have found traces of pesticides, toxic industrial wastes and nuclear residue in tissues of animals and people in remote areas of the "pristine" high Arctic. The beluga whales in the St. Lawrence are now so infested with heavy metals and other industrial pollutants they must be disposed of as toxic waste when they die. The decline of the Atlantic cod fishery has had a devastating impact on the economy of the Atlantic provinces and the serious decline in Pacific salmon stocks threatens to do the same to British Columbia. It's hard to open the newspaper or turn on the T.V. these days without coming across doom and gloom headlines such as these. It is a shame that, with all our advancements in science and technology, the oceans, for the most part, are still a mystery. We know more about the planet Mars than we do about our own oceans.

Our attitude towards the environment is almost understandable. After all, we are not the biggest, strongest or fastest animal, we don't have large claws, powerful jaws or poisonous glands, and yet we hold dominion over every other species. This probably stems from the fact that we are the one animal that is not bound by any one environment and have adapted to life in a wide variety of habitats from steaming jungles to the frozen Arctic. We have also developed powers beyond our physical abilities that allow us to modify our environment to suit our purposes. Without regard for any other species or the consequences to ourselves, we can tear down forests, dam rivers, flood deserts and take over huge tracts of land, or even make land where there was none before, to build cities. All of this has led us to make the fundamental, and dangerous, mistake of believing that we are separate from the rest of nature. We have come to believe we are superior to the environment and can manage and control it. We claim to be the most intelligent species, but what intelligent species of animal would treat the air, water and earth, things that are vital to its very survival, with the disrespect we do? The truth is we are but one part of nature, albeit a powerful part, and must incorporate the laws that govern all life on the planet into our own existence. Instead of talking about managing the oceans, we should be talking about managing human activities with regard to the oceans and all other environments. We also have to face the fact that we live in a finite environment and do not have an inexhaustible supply of resources.

The bad news is the oceans are experiencing some serious ecological problems that have far-reaching implications and no easy or quick solutions. As Albert Einstein once said, "The world we have created today as a result of our thinking thus far has problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them." We are quickly learning that ecosystems are not only more complex than we think, they are more complex than we can think and if we are to make decisions or regulations with regard to the world's oceans, we first have to understand the interrelationships of all the elements that affect them, including ourselves. That is going to take a great deal of research and a different mindset towards the environment.

The good news is the growing sense of awareness and the desire to deal with the issues. Recently, I attended a hearing of the Independent World Commission on the Oceans (IWCO) held in Vancouver and one of a series of hearings being held in cities across Canada. The IWCO was established by the International Ocean Institute at Dalhousie University in Halifax with the goal of furthering the process initiated by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982 and the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. The commission, consisting of thirty members, all recognized experts in their field and including judges from the International Court of Justice, will work closely with the United Nations. Their goals include promoting awareness of the importance of the oceans and our impact upon them, the importance of rational administration of ocean resources, developing new approaches to solving ocean-related problems and the promotion of wise ocean governance.

Several prominent local scientists presented information, based on their research into the state of the world's oceans, with particular emphasis on Canadian waters.

Much of the discussion focused on Canada's fisheries, which have had devastating declines in recent years. The issue of fisheries resource depletion worldwide is considered to be one of the most serious problems and one of the most contentious issues facing the world today. Thanks to technology, we are now able to catch four times what we caught 40 years ago and global demand for seafood is beginning to exceed the total catch.

Reasons for the decline are many and varied but we cannot escape the fact that man's use and misuse of the oceans is the major factor. According to Jeff Marliave, Director of Research at the Vancouver Aquarium, "Excessive harvest has had overwhelming impact on the marine environment. Pollution does occur in the ocean but over-fishing alone is destroying the balance." Concerns were raised about the tools and technologies used for harvesting marine resources, which are now far more powerful, numerous and destructive to the marine habitat than the oceans can withstand. Many ideas were discussed such as proposals to promote the passivity and selectivity of fishing gear. An example of passive, selective fishing gear are longlines, which are laid along the bottom with hooks at various intervals. Minimal damage is done to the marine habitat and hook size determines the size of the fish caught. Changing certain fisheries from species specific to size selective would also greatly reduce the amount of 'by-catch', a major problem in certain types of fisheries such as bottom trawling or dragging. Every year millions of pounds of marine life are discarded, dumped back into the ocean, dead or dying because they are not what the fishermen are after, or licensed to catch. Recent advancements in net design technology is reducing the amount of bycatch but at this point we cannot afford any waste. Subsequent laws and regulations would also need to be enacted to ensure the use of a greater portion of the bycatch.

Seafood harvesting was also a prime topic. Just over 20% of all seafood consumed globally is produced through aquaculture. As wild stocks quickly disappear, this field is going to become increasingly important. According to the Federal Aquaculture Development Strategy, aquaculture now accounts for about 6% of the total Canadian fisheries production. But in 1993, Canada ranked 27th in the world with only 0.3% of the global aquaculture production. Given our natural resources and the technical expertise which has led to the development of state-of-the-art facilities, Canada has the potential to become a world leader in aquaculture.

Discussion inevitably led to governments, their responsibilities and what they are doing about the problems in the marine environment. Fishing is a multi-billion dollar a year industry worldwide and forms the economic base for many smaller countries, but it is also an activity that has its roots embedded deep in national pride, culture and tradition. When governments become involved with trying to solve the problems associated with harvesting marine resources, laws are created that interfere with traditions and the result is turmoil. At present there are some 30 federal, provincial, municipal and aboriginal agencies set up to deal with ocean issues along Canada's coasts. The resulting bureaucracy, in many cases, leads to fragmentation, duplication and a lack of coordination in decision making. Canada already has laws and policies on the books that could be used to greatly improve the quality of the marine environment but their implementation and enforcement must be enhanced if they are to be effective. Recent actions by our government, such as the "turbot war" with Spain and the stance it is taking with regard to salmon conservation in B.C., suggests they are starting to take ocean issues seriously. In addition, the House of Commons has a national oceans legislation bill before it, the Canada Oceans Act or Bill C-26. The bill received second reading in the House of Commons in December 1995 and since then has undergone review and improvement by the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans. The proposed legislation is aimed at establishing a national Oceans Management Strategy through open consultation and will be based on principles of sustainable development, integrated management and a precautionary approach. The bill would also provide access to dispute resolution and raise the profile of ocean issues in Canada. Unfortunately the federal government has been slow to get this bill to Third Reading and through the rest of the procedures that will see it become law.

But, we can't just sit back and expect the government to solve all our problems for us. If solutions to the oceans' problems are to be found, it is important that we work to fix the problem and not the blame. The papers are full of "instant experts" blaming every body but themselves. The problems of the ocean are not the result of any one group of people, industry or government ministry, but the result of decades of neglect, complacency and a lack of awareness by all of us, and only a concerted universal effort is going to alleviate the situation.

What can we do? Scientists around the world are hard at work on the problems and many of us seem content to believe that the solutions dwell in the foggy realms of science and are beyond our comprehension and ability to do anything. But, if saving or preserving the environment is left only to the scientists, the cause is lost. We as individuals can do much to help the environment. It is not rocket science, it's about the way we drive our cars, where and how we dispose of our garbage, how we tend our crops and gardens and what we flush down our toilets. It's about the decisions we make every day as consumers, to choose paper or plastic, biodegradable and environmentally friendly. It all hinges on the little things that we can all do. Two hundred years ago Benjamin Franklin wrote "There is much mischief in small things. For want of a nail, the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost, for want of a horse the rider was lost"