Juliet Eilperin’s timely article (“Some question whether sustainable seafood delivers on its promise“ by Juliet Elperin. The Washington Post. April 22, 2012) on the shortcomings of existing seafood certification systems does an excellent job of highlighting the confusion confronting consumers when they want to “do the right thing” by the oceans.  These eco-labels purport to identify sustainably caught fish, but misleading information can give both seafood sellers and consumers a false sense that their purchases can make a difference. As the study quoted in the article shows, sustainability as defined by Froese’s methods indicates:

• In 11% (Marine Stewardship Council-MSC) to 53% (Friend of the Sea-FOS) of the certified stocks, the available information was insufficient to make a judgment about stock status or exploitation level (Figure 1).
• 19% (FOS) to 31% (MSC) of the stocks with available data were overfished and were currently subject to overfishing (Figure 2).
• In 21% of the MSC-certified stocks for which official management plans were available, overfishing continued despite certification.

MSC certification is virtually a foregone conclusion for those who can afford it — regardless of the status of the fish stocks being caught. A system in which fisheries with the financial wherewithal can essentially “buy” a certification cannot be taken seriously. In addition, the considerable expense of undergoing certification is cost-prohibitive for many small-scale, community-based fisheries, preventing them from participating in eco-labeling programs. This is particularly true in developing countries, such as Morocco, where valuable resources are diverted from comprehensive fisheries management to investing in, or simply purchasing, an eco-label.

Coupled with better monitoring and enforcement, improved fishery stock assessments and forward-looking management that considers habitat and ecosystem impacts, seafood certification can be an important tool to leverage consumer support for responsibly managed fisheries.  The harm from misleading labels is not just to the fishery—it undermines the ability of consumers to make informed choices and vote with their wallets to support well-managed fisheries.  Why, then, should consumers agree to pay more for fish that are identified as having been sustainably caught when they are in fact adding fuel to the fire by tapping into overexploited fisheries?

It’s worth noting that the actual paper by Froese and his colleague cited by Eilperin defines a fish stock as overfished if the stock biomass is below the level deemed to generate maximum sustainable yield (denoted as Bmsy), which is more rigorous than the current U.S. regulatory standard. In U.S. fisheries, a stock is generally considered “overfished” when the stock biomass falls below 1/2 Bmsy. A much larger number of U.S. fisheries would be classified as overfished using Froese’s FAO-based standard in the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (1995). NB: the actual scoring system used by Froese is outlined in Table 1 of their paper:

It is also worth noting that a fair number of U.S. fisheries continue to experience overfishing even though overfishing is legally proscribed. The lesson is that constant vigilance and monitoring of fishery performance is essential to see that any of these standards are actually being met — certified or not.

Certification systems have no actual regulatory authority over regional fishery management organizations. Ongoing evaluation of the kind provided by Froese and Proelb is critical to ensure that certified fisheries are performing as advertised.

The only real accountability mechanism in this certification system is consumer demand — if we don’t demand that certified fisheries are meeting meaningful standards of sustainability then certification can become what its worst critics fear: good intentions and a coat of green paint.

As The Ocean Foundation has been demonstrating for nearly a decade, there is no silver bullet to addressing the global fisheries crisis.  It takes a toolbox of strategies—and consumers have an important role to play when they any seafood—farmed or wild—in using their purchases to promote healthy oceans.  Any effort that ignores this reality and exploits consumers’ good intentions is cynical and misleading and should be called to account.

Dr. Steven Swartz returned from a successful winter gray whale research season in Laguna San Ignacio, Baja California and shared his team’s experiences this winter rewarding “random acts of ocean kindness” and fostering “Blue Marble” awareness as part of the Laguna San Ignacio Ecosystem Science Program’s Outreach efforts.

For the second consecutive year Laguna San Ignacio hosted record high numbers of gray whales (some 350 adults at peak of the season), and record numbers of mother-calf pairs, which were looking very healthy, which is reassuring coming off of the lean times of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s when global climate change was affecting food availability for gray whales in the Arctic. All of this suggests that the whales are finding the Laguna San Ignacio marine protected area as a comfortable winter aggregation and breeding habitat, thus achieving the goals and mission of Mexico’s Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, of which the lagoon is a part.

As part of our outreach to the local ecotourism community and to the whale-watching visitors, we presented 200+ Blue Marbles to whale-watchers from all over the globe, to eco-tourism operators, and to students from the local high schools. We told them that by taking their time and expense to visit Laguna San Ignacio to experience and learn about the whales and other marine life that call this unique ecosystem their home, they provided an economic value and (in the case of the ecotourism operators and students) an educational resource that supports and justifies maintaining this ecosystem as a protected wildlife area rather than turning it into an industrial salt plant, phosphate mine, or some other non-conservation friendly entity. And, that was in our view a “Random Act of Ocean Kindness” worthy of a Blue Marble. We made it clear that they were custodians of their Blue Marbles, and they had the responsibility to pass them on to others that in their judgement had committed other “Random Acts of Ocean Kindness.”

But we did not stop there… Laguna San Ignacio is famous for its “Friendly Whales” or “Las Ballenas Misteriosas.”  Since the 1970’s, some wild, free ranging gray whales have made a practice of swimming up to whale-watching boats to meet and greet the passengers, allowing the whale-watcher to pet them and rub them on the head. Those that meet a gray whale up close and personal this way have been sincerely touched, and come away with an enhanced appreciation for the whales, and the ocean. In the 30+ years this phenomenon has continued, the whales have impressed thousands of human visitors to Laguna San Ignacio, and by so doing have promoted conservation and protection of the whales, and perhaps more importantly, the conservation of the Laguna San Ignacio ecosystem and similar unique marine protected areas throughout the world.

Thus, in our assessment, the gray whales have collectively committed “Random Acts of Ocean Kindness” by the thousands. Therefore, we awarded “Blue Marbles” to the gray whales of Laguna San Ignacio, as a symbol of their commitment to encourage humans to take marine conservation to heart and to encourage ocean conservation worldwide.

In early March 2012, The Ocean Foundation Board of Directors held its spring meeting. As President Mark Spalding presented his summary of TOF’s recent activities, I found myself marveling at the willingness of our Board of Advisors to play a role in ensuring that this organization is as robust and helpful to the ocean conservation community as it can be.

The Board approved a significant expansion of the Board of Advisors at its meeting last fall.   Recently, we introduced the first 10 new members.  Today we are introducing an additional five dedicated individuals who have agreed to formally join The Ocean Foundation in this special way.  Members of the Board of Advisors agree to share their expertise on an as needed basis.  They also agree to read The Ocean Foundation’s blogs and visit the website to help us ensure that we remain accurate and timely in our sharing of information.  They join the committed donors, project and program leaders, volunteers, and grantees who make up the community that is The Ocean Foundation.

Our advisors are a widely traveled, experienced, and deeply thoughtful group of people.  We cannot be grateful enough to them, for their contributions to the well-being of our planet and its people, as well as to The Ocean Foundation.

Carlos de Paco, Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC. Carlos de Paco has over 20 years experience in resources mobilization, strategic partnerships, environmental policy and natural resources management. Prior to joining the IADB, he had been based in San Jose, Costa Rica and Mallorca, Spain working for the AVINA Foundation-VIVA Group on leadership initiatives for sustainable development and was the Regional Representative for Latin America and the Mediterranean on coastal, marine and freshwater initiatives. Earlier in his career, Mr. de Paco worked for the Spanish Institute of Oceanography in fisheries management and aquaculture.  In 1992, he left the National Parks Foundation in Costa Rica to become the Regional Director for the IUCN’s Mesoamerican Marine Program. He later joined The Nature Conservancy as Country Director for Costa Rica and Panama and as advisor to the international marine and coastal program.

Hiromi Matsubara, Surfrider Japan

Hiromi Matsubara, Surfrider Japan, Chiba, Japan would tell you she is just an ordinary surfer who has the passion for the ocean.  Her first engagement with the ocean started when she got her diver’s license at age 16. She then moved on to Sophia University in Tokyo, where she began surfing and competed in windsurfing races at the national level.  After graduation, she joined GE Capital, where she held various positions in commercial financing sales, marketing, public relations and community programs. After 5 years in the competitive, goal-driven business world, she came across the concept and philosophy of permaculture and was intrigued by such sustainable living practices. Hiromi left her job and in 2006 co-created “greenz.jp”, a web-zine based in Tokyo dedicated to designing a sustainable society with optimism and creativity with its unique editorial perspective. After four years, she decided to pursue a more down-to-earth lifestyle (and more surfing!) and moved to a beach town in Chiba to live a simple life. Hiromi currently serves as CEO of Surfrider Foundation Japan to protect and promote the enjoyment of our oceans, waves and beaches.

Craig Quirolo, Founder, REEF RELIEF

Craig Quirolo, Independent Consultant, Florida. An accomplished blue water sailor, Craig is the retired co-founder of REEF RELIEF, which he led for 22 years until his retirement in 2009. Craig was the Director of Marine Projects and International Programs for the organization.  He led the effort to create REEF RELIEF’s Reef Mooring Buoy Program patterned after the design by Harold Hudson and John Halas.  The 116 buoys were placed at seven Key West-area coral reefs, eventually becoming the largest private mooring field in the world. It is now part of the federal Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Craig trained local teams to install reef mooring buoys to protect the coral reefs of Negril, Jamaica, Guanaja, Bay Islands, Honduras, the Dry Tortugas and Green Turtle Cay in the Bahamas. Each installation became the first step in the creation of a comprehensive grassroots coral reef conservation program including educational programs, scientific monitoring and support for the creation of marine-protected areas.  Craig’s pioneering work has underpinned the gaps in scientific knowledge and practical solutions that need to be filled wherever we strive to protect our ocean resources.

DeeVon Quirolo, Immediate Past Executive Director, REEF RELIEF

DeeVon Quirolo, Independent Consultant, Florida.  DeeVon Quirolois the retired co-founder and immediate past Executive Director of REEF RELIEF, a Key West-based non-profit grassroots membership organization dedicated to “Preserve and Protect Coral Reef Ecosystems through local, regional and global efforts.”   In 1986, DeeVon, her husband Craig, and a group of local boaters founded REEF RELIEF to install mooring buoys to protect the Florida Keys coral reefs from anchor damage.  DeeVon has been a dedicated educator, and a relentless advocate on behalf of healthy coastal waters, especially in the Keys.  From promoting better and safer boating practices to establishing the Keys marine protected area, DeeVon has traveled to Tallahassee, Washington, and anywhere she needed to go to pursue her vision for protecting and restoring the fourth largest reef system in the world.  DeeVon’s expertise continues to inform, and her legacy will benefit future generations of Keys residents and visitors—under the water and on shore.

Sergio de Mello e Souza, Brasil1 (Left) with Hiromi Matsubara, Surfrider Japan (Center) and Mark J. Spalding, The Ocean Foundation (Right)

Sergio de Mello e Souza, BRASIL1, Rio de Janeiro Brazil. Sergio Mello is an entrepreneur who uses his leadership skills to promote sustainability. He is the founder and COO of BRASIL1, a company based in Rio de Janeiro that organizes special events in the areas of sports and entertainment.   Prior to founding BRASIL1, he was the Operations Director for Clear Channel Entertainment in Brazil. Early in his career, Sergio worked for the State Tourism Commission and helped develop an ecologically friendly approach for the industry.  Since 1988, Sergio has participated in many non-profit organization projects, including a research program for the Atlantic Rainforest and later an educational campaign in the northeast of Brazil to stop the slaughter of dolphins and to protect manatees. He also organized campaigns and special events for the Rio 92 Eco-Conference. He joined the Surfrider Foundation Board of Directors in 2008, and has been an active supporter of the organization since 2002 in Brazil. He is also a member of the The Climate Reality Project.  He has, since an early age, been consistently involved in initiatives and projects to protect the environment.  Sergio lives with his wife Natalia in beautiful Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Forage Fish (School of Goldband Fusilier, Pterocaesio chrysozona. Papua New Guinea - Source: Wikimedia Commons)

As much as a third of the global annual catch of wild fish, totaling tens of billions of pounds of fish every year, consists of small to medium-sized forage fish that serve as prey for other fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Much of this catch is not destined for direct human consumption but instead is processed into fishmeal and oil for use in a variety of livestock and poultry feeds, pets foods, fish oil supplements and, increasingly, as the base of feedstock for farmed fish such as Atlantic salmon and crustaceans such as shrimp.

The Lenfest Ocean Program, a project of the Pew Charitable Trusts, commissioned a Forage Fish Task Force to assess the impacts of these industrial-scale fisheries on competing marine predators and ocean food webs. The report, “Little Fish, Big Impact,”[1] finds that these fish generally have far greater monetary value if left in the water to feed larger, more valuable food and game fish (cod, haddock, flounder, tuna, salmon, striped bass, bluefish, marlin, etc.) than as industrial fodder for livestock and farmed salmon. The Task Force’s key recommendation to prevent the decline of dependent predators (fish, marine mammals, seabirds) is to leave more prey in the water by reducing fishing on these key forage fish to half the conventional level that fishery managers typically aim for to achieve maximum sustainable yield (MSY) for the fishery.

The Lenfest report is a welcome addition to the growing body of research that highlights the threat posed by these massive fisheries to the ocean food web and the need for a more conservative management approach. Its recommendations validate and lend support to the ongoing efforts of many conservationists and recreational fishermen to reduce fishing on key forage species in U.S. waters, such as Atlantic menhaden and herring and Pacific sardines. Similar scientific findings and recommendations were published last year in research funded by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the London-based sustainable seafood certification group.^[2]

For all of its good points, however, the Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force report, like the MSC-sponsored research that preceded it, suffers from an overly narrow definition of forage fish. The Lenfest definition includes only a subset of small, silvery “baitfish” (e.g., anchoveta, sardine, menhaden, capelin, sand eel), which leaves out squids and other linchpin prey species such as Alaska pollock, hakes and mackerels, all of which are targets of some of the largest fisheries in the world. The North Pacific pollock fishery (U.S. and Russian combined) is the largest food fish fishery in the world, second only to the South American anchoveta reduction fishery in size. The direct and indirect competitive effects of the fishery on the prey availability have been implicated in the decades-long declines of competing pollock predators such as endangered Steller sea lions and depleted northern fur seals off Alaska’s southwest coast, among others.

The exclusive focus on a subset of small, silvery finfish that fit the Task Force’s definition does not diminish the importance of its recommendations for a more conservative approach to forage fish fisheries generally in order to prevent the decline of top predators, but it highlights the need to identify key forage fish on an ecosystem-by-ecosystem basis. Otherwise there will be a strong temptation for fishery managers to limit the discussion of forage fish to a select subset of species while conveniently ignoring the food web impacts of some of the largest fisheries in the world. That is the case of the decline northern fur seal off Alaska right now, where steadily declining fur seal pup production appears related to declining prey availability and stands in sharp contrast to the fortunes of the pollock fishery over the same period (See figure above).

Conventional fishery policies fail to account for the critical role of forage fish as food for marine mammals, seabirds and commercially important fish such as tunas, salmon and cod. Leaving more prey fish in the water is critical to protect the ocean food web and the Lenfest report outlines a management strategy for doing so that makes good economic as well as ecological sense.

Matthew Gianni of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (Photo: Greg Auger)

AMSTERDAM, NL – How much progress the world is making in controlling “illegal” deep-sea fishing on the high seas depends on your perspective, Matthew Gianni of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition told scientists at last week’s Fifth International Symposium on Deep-Sea Corals.

“If you ask the policy people, they say it’s astonishing what been accomplished in such a short period of time,” Gianni, a former Greenpeace activist, told me over lunch after his presentation, “but if you ask the conservationists, they have a different opinion.”

Gianni defined the “high seas” as ocean areas beyond waters claimed by individual nations. By this definition, he said, about two-thirds of the oceans are defined as “high seas” and are subject to international law and a variety of treaties.

Over the past decade, a number of international bodies, like the United Nations General Assembly, have agreed upon various rules and regulations that restrict fishing in some areas with “vulnerable marine ecosystems” like fragile cold water corals.

Deep-sea corals, which are extremely long-lived and may take hundreds or even thousands of years to grow, are often pulled up as by-catch by the bottom trawlers.

But, Gianni told scientists, not enough has been done. Some scoff-law boats and even the nations which flag such boats could be tried in already extant international courts, but prosecutors have been reluctant to take such steps, he said.

There has been some progress, he said. Some areas which have not been fished have been closed to bottom trawling and other kinds of fisheries unless the institutions perpetrating the fishing first do an environmental impact statement.

This in itself is highly innovative, he said, and has had the effect of substantially limiting fishing intrusions in such areas, since few corporations or other entities want to bother with EIS documentation.

On the other hand, he added, where deep-water dragging has been traditionally permitted, the international community has been loathe to try to actively limit fishing, he warned.

“Deep sea trawling should be subject to impact assessments that are as demanding as those undergone by the oil industry,” Gianni told the gathering, since destructive fishing practices like ground trawling are in fact much more damaging than deep-sea drilling for oil. (Gianni was not alone in that viewpoint; throughout the five-day conference, a number of others, including scientists, made similar statements.)

Getting the attention of the international community, Gianni told me at lunch, is no longer the problem. That’s already happened: The United Nations, he said, has passed some good resolutions.

Rather, he said, the problem is getting those resolutions implemented by all the nations involved: “We got a good resolution. Now we’re working to get it implemented.”

This is not an easy task, given humanity’s ages-old belief that there should be freedom to fish on the high seas.

“It’s regime change,” he said, “paradigm shift.”

The nations involved in deep-sea fishing in the Southern Ocean have done a comparatively good job at trying to comply with the United Nations resolutions. On the other hand, some nations involved in high-seas bottom trawling in the Pacific have been less assertive.

Roughly 11 nations have large numbers of flagged ships involved in the deep-sea fishery. Some of those nations abide by international agreements while others do not.

I asked about the feasibility of ensuring compliance.

“We’re moving in the right direction,” he answered, citing several cases over the past decade involving ships that failed to comply and then were refused entry into a number of ports because of the ships’ noncompliance.

On the other hand, Gianni and others involved in the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (whose more than 70 members range from Greenpeace and the National Resources Defense Council to the actress Sigourney Weaver) feel that progress has been moving too slowly.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Gianni spent 10 years as a commercial fisherman and became involved in ocean conservation when the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1980s agreed to allow dredge tailings from a port development project in Oakland, California to be dumped at sea in an area where fishermen were already fishing.

He joined forces with Greenpeace and many others. The highly publicized advocacy actions forced the federal government to use a dump site further out to sea, but by that time Gianni had become dedicated to conservation issues.

After working full-time for Greenpeace for a while, he became a consultant involved in issues surrounding deep-sea dredging and fishing on the high seas.

"Ancient Coral Reefs" by By Heinrich Harder (1858-1935) (The Wonderful Paleo Art of Heinrich Harder)

Following the collision came an extinction in which all dinosaurs (except for the birds) disappeared. In the seas, the dominant ammonites died off, as did many of the major predators like the super-huge plesiosaurs. As many as 80 to 90 percent of marine species may have become extinct.

But if the post-collision planet was a world of death — it was also a world of opportunity.

Only a few million years later, on the deep sea floor of what is now the town of Faxe, Denmark (it was a very, very warm time on the planet and sea levels were much higher), some very peculiar corals established a foothold. They began building mounds that grew wider and taller with each passing millennium, finally becoming, to our modern way of thinking, fantastic apartment complexes that welcomed all kinds of marine life.

The mounds became gathering points. Other corals joined the system, along with many other kinds of marine species. Dendrophylia candelabrum proved to be excellent as an architectural frame. By the time the planet grew cold again and sea levels dropped and these coral apartment houses, these early Cenozoic Co-Op Cities, were left high and dry, well over 500 different marine species had established themselves here.

Flash-forward to our own 21^st Century. Long-term industrial quarrying had created “the biggest manmade hole in Denmark,” according to Danish researcher Bodil Wesenberg Lauridsen of the University of Copenhagen, who spoke to a gathering of cold-water coral researchers gathered in Amsterdam this week.

When scientists began to study this “hole” and other nearby geological structures, they realized that these ancient coral mounds, dating back 63 million years, are the oldest known and may well mark the first radiation stage of a newly evolved eco-structure.

Of the species found by scientists in the ancient “apartment complex” to date, most are yet to be identified.

Moreover, the Danish scientist told her audience, many more fossils are likely still in the mounds, waiting to be discovered. In some places, the preservation of the mounds has not been good, but other sections of the mounds present prime study sites.

Any marine paleontologists looking for a project?

The Board approved an expansion of the Board of Advisors at its meeting last fall.   In our previous post, we introduced the first five new members.  Today we are introducing an additional five dedicated individuals who have agreed to formally join The Ocean Foundation in this special way.  Members of the Board of Advisors agree to share their expertise on an as needed basis.  They also agree to read The Ocean Foundation’s blogs and visit the website to help us ensure that we remain accurate and timely in our sharing of information.  They join the committed donors, project and program leaders, volunteers, and grantees who make up the community that is The Ocean Foundation.

Our advisors are a widely traveled, experienced, and deeply thoughtful group of people.  This means, of course, that they are also overwhelmingly busy.  We cannot be grateful enough to them, for their contributions to the well-being of our planet, as well as to The Ocean Foundation.

Barton Seaver, For Cod & Country. Washington, DC

Barton Seaver, For Cod & Country. Washington, D.C.  Chef, author, speaker and National Geographic Fellow, Barton Seaver is on a mission to restore our relationships with the ocean, the land and with each other—through dinner. He believes food is a crucial way for us to connect with the ecosystems, people and cultures of our world. Seaver explores these themes through healthful, planet-friendly recipes in his first book, For Cod & Country (Sterling Epicure, 2011), and as host of both the National Geographic Web series Cook-Wise and the three-part Ovation TV series In Search of Food. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and executive chef at some of D.C.’s most celebrated restaurants, Seaver is known for his devotion to quality, culinary innovation and sustainability. In Fall 2011 StarChefs.com presented Barton with the “Community Innovator Award,” as voted by over 1,000 chefs and culinary leaders worldwide. Seaver works on ocean issues with National Geographic’s Oceans Initiative to increase awareness and inspire action.

Lisa Genasci, CEO, ADM Capital Foundation. Hong Kong  Lisa Genasci is the CEO and founder of ADM Capital Foundation (ADMCF), established five years ago for the partners of a Hong Kong-based investment manager. With a staff of eight, ADMCF provides support to some of Asia’s most marginalized children and works to combat intransigent environmental challenges. ADMCF has built innovative initiatives involving holistic support to slum and street children, water, air pollution, deforestation and marine conservation. Before working in the non-profit sector, Lisa spent ten years at the Associated Press, three as a correspondent based in Rio de Janeiro, three on the AP foreign desk in New York and four as a financial reporter.  Lisa holds a BA degree with High Honors from Smith College and an LLM in Human Rights Law from Hong Kong University.

Toni Frederick, Broadcast Journalist/News Editor, Environmental Conservation Advocate, St. Kitts & Nevis

Toni Frederick is an award-winning Caribbean Journalist and News Editor based in St. Kitts and Nevis.  An Archaeologist by training, Toni’s decades long interest in heritage preservation naturally evolved into a passion for environmental conservation.  Lured into a full time career in radio ten years ago, Toni has used her position as a broadcaster to raise awareness of environmental issues through programs, features, interview segments and news items.  Her areas of particular interest are watershed management, coastal erosion, coral reef protection, climate change and the related issue of sustainable food security.

Sara Lowell, Associate Project Manager, Blue Earth Consultants. Oakland, California

Sara Lowell has worked for over ten years in marine science and management. Her primary expertise is in coastal and ocean management and policy, strategic planning, sustainable tourism, science integration, fundraising, and protected areas. Her geographies of expertise include the West Coast of the United States, the Gulf of California, and the Mesoamerican Reef/Greater Caribbean region.  She serves on the board of the Marisla Foundation.  Ms. Lowell has been at the environmental consulting firm Blue Earth Consultants since 2008, where she works to improve the effectiveness of conservation organizations. She holds a Master’s in Marine Affairs from the School of Marine Affairs at the University of Washington.

Patricia Martínez, Pro Esteros, Ensenada, BC, Mexico

A graduate of the Business Administration School at the Universidad Latinoamericana in Mexico City, Patricia Martínez Ríos del Río has been Pro Esteros CFO since 1992.  In 1995 Patricia was the elected leader for the Baja Californian NGOs in the first Regional Advisory Committee formed by SEMARNAT, she has been a liaison among NGOs, SEMARNAT, CEC and BECC on NAFTA, RAMSAR Convention, and many other national and international committees. She represented Pro Esteros in the International Coalition for the Defense of Laguna San Ignacio. In 2000, Patricia was invited by The David and Lucille Packard Foundation to be part of the advisory board to design the Conservation Plan for Mexico. She was also member of the advisory board to design the Fund for the Conservation of the Gulf of California.  Patricia’s commitment and professionalism have been critical to the success of Pro Esteros’s activities and many other conservation programs.

One of the Gulf of Mexico's deepwater coral species, Lophelia pertusa from the Mississippi Canyon 751 site at approximately 450 m depth. (Source: Lophelia II 2009: Deepwater Coral Expedition: Reefs, Rigs, and Wrecks; NOAA Ocean Explorer http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/09lophelia/welcome.html)

AMSTERDAM, NL (April 4, 2012) – Long-term monitoring of the environmental impact of deep-water oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico needs to be greatly improved, Gregory S. Boland, a biological oceanographer with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, told a gathering of several hundred cold-water coral scientists at a week-long meeting today.

“I envision a long-term probably permanent cycle of monitoring,” the federal official said in a the morning’s keynote speech.

Such monitoring has not always been done in the past, he said, “especially in deep water because of finances and time,” adding that the federal agency hopes to improve on that record.

Because of that lack of monitoring, “there’s not a lot of knowledge regarding the details of the impacts” of rigs on deepwater ecosystems. The basic environmental assessments, including listing of species present in the area, was not done.

Consequently, he said, “there’s a lot of debate on how much of that oil [the oil released by the nearly two-year-old Deepwater Horizon disaster] affected deepwater communities.”

Boland’s talk was followed by a presentation from Erik E.Cordes, a deep-sea research ecologist with Pennsylvania’s Temple University.

Cordes and a team of other researchers had begun to gather a limited amount of deep-sea data in the Gulf before the oil rig explosion. He and other team members had located a cold-water coral site about 20 miles north of the drilling rig, and following the disaster, they returned to that area. Visually, he said, there was no immediate evidence that Deepwater oil had impacted those corals.

But following the explosion the team found another coldwater coral site about 6 miles southwest of the drilling rig. Cordes said that an area of coldwater coral, about half the size of a football field, appeared to have been severely affected.

In his talk, Cordes showed a number of slides of cold-water corals that had been covered with “a mysterious black substance.” Later analysis of the “substance” showed that it was the same oil, with its unique fingerprint, as the oil that was emitted from the Deepwater site.

“The damage appears to be ongoing,” he told the audience. “It turns out that if you shoot a lot of very hot oil out of a hose at the bottom of the ocean, a lot of weird things happen.”

Later, I asked him to clarify his statement.

“Most of that coral showed some evidence of damage,” he  told me. “We really don’t have any idea at all what the recovery rate will be. Everything in the deep sea happens slowly. My fear is that these corals will continue to decline, and if we waited for recolonization and growth, it could take decades or centuries.”

When environmentally stressed by the oil, the corals seemed to have released a defensive mucus. However, that mucus may well have had the opposite effect of helping press the oil into the coral tissues.

Cordes said that the team is looking at other sites that may also have been damaged, but that they are not yet ready to discuss that work publicly.

Scientists are also trying to create a better overall data-base of species in  the areas surrounding the Gulf’s drilling rigs.

Following the Deepwater disaster, the energy companies have been reluctant to allow scientists to census the corals that may be attached to the rigs themselves.

However, Boland has recently sent a letter demanding that the energy companies provide access to the scientists.

Rembrandt's Atelier in Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM, NL, April 2, 2012 – On the top floor of the Rembrandt House, where the 17^th century artist lived, is the master’s atelier, complete with the famous alcove memorialized in some of his most famous works.

Adjacent to the atelier is the artifact room, where Amsterdam businessmen successful enough to commission a painting from the master could pick and choose among a variety of objects they wished included in their portrait. Their choices would symbolize how they wished to be viewed by future generations.

Corals on Display in Rembrandt's Atelier, Amsterdam

Plentiful among the available objects are a variety of dried coral species like sea fans. Ship owners could opt for these as symbols of their global financial acumen. Only the sharpest businessmen could afford to organize excursions to the then-exotic lands of the Indies, East or West, which would collect and bring back samples of the oddities of nature found there.

This initial era of global shipping may well mark the start of the demise of our planet’s coral reef systems. Ship captains determined to explore the “Seven Seas” either plowed over the reefs, destroying them without realizing it, or tore specimens out of them for naturalists back in Europe.

So it is perhaps fitting that this week’s fifth global conference on the science of cold-water or deep-water coral (International Symposium on Deep-Sea Corals) be held here, in the city that hosted the first truly global mercantile shipping operations.

This week more than 200 scientists studying the surprising phenomenon of cold-water corals – corals that can survive in chilly waters that do not enjoy sunlight – are gathering to discuss their latest findings. Discussions will range from taxonomy and genetics to recent discoveries of important cold-water coral sites in some pretty surprising locales – like just off the coast of the southeast United States or in areas around the Florida Keys.

Much of the research presented here at this forum will provide the scientific foundation for future international policy and will determine where in the world Marine Protected Areas will be declared.

Talks will range from the discovery of cold-water corals in the environmentally stressed Red Sea that separates Africa from Saudi Arabia to the study of the paleontology of cold-water coral mounds in Denmark.

A flashpoint of the conference may well be the Wednesday morning discussion of anthropogenic interference with the ecological health of these ancient ecosystems. Some of these systems have been growing for more than 10,000 years, since before the era of human farming.

And yet, modern human activities like drilling for oil and gas or trawling for fish may be ending or slowing their productivity.

On Wednesday morning, Gregory S. Boland of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is scheduled to present a key-note entitled “Deep-Sea Corals and the Oil and Gas Industry in the Gulf of Mexico.” Boland’s talk will be followed by discussions from scientists who have studied the effects of the Deepwater Horizon spill on the Gulf of Mexico’s cold-water coral systems.

On Friday afternoon, the conference will be concluded by a keynote from a representative of the energy company Statoil, a partial sponsor of the conference.

On the eve of the spring Board meeting of The Ocean Foundation, I found myself marveling at the willingness of our Board of Advisors to play a role in ensuring that this organization is as robust and helpful to the ocean conservation community as it can be.

The Board approved a significant expansion of the Board of Advisors at its meeting last fall.   We are taking this opportunity to announce the first five of those twenty new advisors who have agreed to formally join The Ocean Foundation in this special way.  Members of the Board of Advisors agree to share their expertise on an as needed basis.  They also agree to read The Ocean Foundation’s blogs and visit the website to help us ensure that we remain accurate and timely in our sharing of information.  They join the committed donors, project and program leaders, volunteers, and grantees who make up the community that is The Ocean Foundation.

Our advisors are a widely traveled, experienced, and deeply thoughtful group of people.  We cannot be grateful enough to them, for their contributions to the well-being of our planet, as well as to The Ocean Foundation.

William Y. Brown is a zoologist and lawyer and currently a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.   Bill served in leadership positions at an array of institutions.  Brown’s former positions include the Science Advisor to Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, President & CEO of the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, President & CEO of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, President & CEO of the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, Vice President of the National Audubon Society, Vice President of Waste Management, Inc., Senior Scientist and Acting Executive Director of the Environmental Defense Fund, Executive Secretary of the U.S. Endangered Species Scientific Authority, and Assistant Professor, Mount Holyoke College.  He is a director and former president of the Natural Science Collections Alliance, a former chairman of the Ocean Conservancy and of the Global Heritage Fund, and a former director of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, Environmental Law Institute, U.S. Committee for the United Nations Environment Programme, U.S. Environmental Training Institute, and the Wistar Institute.  Bill has two daughters and lives in Washington with his wife, Mary McLeod, who is the principal deputy legal advisor at the Department of State.

Kathleen Frith, is the Managing Director of the Center for Global Health and the Environment, housed at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.  In her work at the Center, Kathleen has pioneered new initiatives centered on the relationship between healthy humans and healthy oceans.  In 2009, she produced the award-winning film “Once Upon a Tide” (www.healthyocean.org).  Currently, Kathleen is working with National Geographic as a Mission Blue partner to help restore a healthy, sustainable seafood resource. Before joining the Center, Kathleen was the Public Information Officer for the Bermuda Biological Station for Research, a U.S. oceanographic institution in Bermuda. Kathleen holds a Bachelor’s degree in marine biology from the University of California Santa Cruz and a Master’s degree in science journalism from Boston University’s Knight Center for Science Journalism.  She lives in Cambridge with her husband and daughter.

Carleton Ray, Ph.D., and Jerry McCormick Ray are based in Charlottesville, Virginia.  The Rays have been engaged in promoting systems thinking in marine conservation for decades in their work.  Dr. Ray has focused on global coastal-marine processes and distributions of the biota (especially vertebrates). Past research and teaching have centered on the roles of marine mammals in the ecosystems of the Polar Regions. Present research emphasizes the ecology of temperate fish in coastal zones and relationships between biological diversity and ecosystem function.

In addition, with colleagues in his department and elsewhere, the Rays are developing approaches to coastal-marine classification, principally for the purposes of conservation, research and monitoring. The Rays have written a number of books, including one about wildlife of the Polar Regions.  They are currently working to complete a revised edition of their 2003 Coastal-Marine Conservation: Science and Policy.  The new edition expands the number of case studies to 14 worldwide, engages new partners, and adds color photos.

Based near Sao Paolo, Brazil, María Amália Souza is the Founding Executive Director of CASA – Center for Socio-Environmental Support www.casa.org.br, a small grants and capacity building fund that supports community based organizations and small NGOs working at the intersection of social justice and environmental protection in South America.   Between 1994 and 1999 she served as Director of Members Services for APC-Association for Progressive Communications.  From 2003-2005 she served as chair of the Global South Task Force for Grantmakers without Borders.  She currently serves on the board of NUPEF – www.nupef.org.br.  She runs her own consulting business that helps social investors –individuals, foundations and companies– to develop solid philanthropic programs, evaluate and improve existing ones, and organize field learning visits. Past jobs include an evaluation of AVEDA Corporation’s partnership with indigenous communities in Brazil and coordinating participation of the Funders Network on Transforming the Global Economy (FNTG) at three World Social Forums.