OCEAN 320 Lecture 3: Unit 3B.2
Unit 3B:
Shifting Baselines in the Surf (video)
• Baselines: reference point from the past; conditions as they were in a pristine world
o Shifting baselines: when we lose track of those reference points and readjust to
create new ones
o Process behind the slow incremental change of our oceans as affected by humans
• Sea water used to be cleaner, now surfers need Hep A shots to prevent from disease;
frequent beach closing days
• Beach health at 90%, should be 100%
• Low impact development necessary to help reverse effects
Emptied Oceans (Video)
• 1958: raft 18x24 foot raft sailed from Redondo Beach, CA to Hawaii
o Saw many fish and variety of fish; mahi-mahi, sharks, etc
o Ate plankton to supplement died
• 2008: raft built of junk moves from CA to Hawaii
o Saw very few fish, only one shark (2 foot mako)
o Couldn’t eat plankton bc it was contaminated with plastic
Shifting Baselines in the Sound
• Shifting baselines occur when we lose track of the original conditions of our
environment, we allow baseline to shift
• Puget Sound
o Depleted resources; less than 10% of their original stocks of salmon
o 92% of shellfish beaches closed due to human sewage/biotoxins/under advisory
o Orcas now washing up dead, so contaminated they they are prohibited from burial
anywhere besides hazardous waste disposal site
o Can detect caffeine, cinnamon, vanilla in water bc of high levels of human waste
contamination
o Decline of seabirds; puffins in huge decline
o Projected to grow in population, which will lead to decrease in habitat for animals
o Damage is reversible…for now
Tuna Fishing and Canning
• cargo space for 175 tons of fish in refrigerators; grinds finely crushed ice into refrigerated
cargo space for fish
• tuna prefer warm southern waters (in this example, San Diego)
• caught with barbless hooks at end of piano wire leaders attached to bamboo poles
o bounded with feathers to look like sardines in the water
o follow birds looking for sardines; where birds are tuna will also be
o have live sardines on boat; toss them over gradually to attract tuna
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o tuna tossed onto boat and barbless hook is released, and thrown back for another
o tuna immediately packed on ice once they reach the desk of the boat
Tuna Wars
• Indian ocean: environmentalists fighting with fisheries about damage to fish stocks and
habitats
• South Madagascar: locals can no longer catch enough fish for their populations and fish
they do catch are much smaller
o Suspect that large boats are fishing their waters at night
• Indian Ocean
o 25% of world’s tuna caught in Indian oceans
o Rampant illegal fishing is depleting tuna stock
• Greenpeace monitors Indian ocean; monitor illegal foreign fishing fleets
o Depleted stocks mean that local fishermen miss out
o Hoping to document transfers from small fishing fleets to large refrigerated boats
(reefers) out on high seas (known as transshipments)
▪ Legal, but unsustainable
o Tuna Queen
▪ Receives estimated 1 transshipment per day
▪ Have transshipment license
▪ Not illegal, but Greenpeace is concerned with means for finding fish and
whether fish was caught legally
▪ Need a scheme of traceability
▪ Ship management only documents type of fish and amount of them; not
who they obtained it from or how
o Theft and underreporting happens to often it’s too hard to truly estimate the health
of the populations
▪ Occurs either in huge amounts, illegally, caught, caught in illegal locations
▪ Must record and document those interfering/engaging in potentially illegal
practices
o Fleet that sells to Tuna Queen: Philippine ship unequipped with fishing gear
▪ Greenpeace suspects that Tuna Queen isn’t a fishing boat, just collecting
fish from other fleets and claiming them as their own
▪ Once transshipped, illegal obtainment goes undocumented/unnoticed
o Track vessels by transmission signal, but cannot always track smaller fishing
fleets since transmission is voluntary
▪ Filipino delegate refuses to answer questions about vessels
o South Korean vessel investigated by Greenpeace
▪ Recently paid 2 million to Iberian govt over alleged illegal fishing activity
o EU pressures fleets from smaller countries to sign unfair contracts, leaving local
fisherman fighting for leftovers
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
