How to Save a Dying Ocean

The Gulf of Mexico continues to gush oil just as a whaling controversy threatens to land Australia and Japan in international court for killing protected species. Meanwhile, another less-publicized but arguably more cataclysmic oceanic disaster continues to worsen.

Overfishing threatens to destroy most of the world's fisheries within a matter of decades. But while it's proven difficult to save the gulf or save the whales, we know how to save the fish: Stop treating the ocean like a public bathroom, says Christopher Costello, a professor of natural resource economics at UC Santa Barbara.

Director Louis Psihoyos and his team of filmmakers embarked on an elaborate sting operation to expose Japan's illegal dolphin hunters. The result is a documentary called The Cove, which took home the Oscar for best documentary. And days after the Academy Awards Psihoyos was back stirring things up.

Using the same cameras that were used to expose illegal dolphin hunters, Psihoyos and his team busted The Hump, a Santa Monica, California restaurant that had secretly been serving sushi made from the endangered sei whale.

"Everything in the ocean from the great whales to dolphins to plankton is being jeopardized," Psihoyos tells Reason.tv. "We're raping and harvesting the ocean unsustainably."

Overfishing "could mean the end of certain species," agrees UC-Santa Barbara's Costello. He points out that about a third of the world's fisheries have already collapsed, and many more are heading toward the same fate. Costello says the world's fisheries are in such bad shape because of the same reason public restrooms are typically foul places: "Nobody owns them. Nobody has the incentive to keep them up."

One proven solution is a system called "catch share," in which fishermen have the right to a certain share of the total catch of a type of fish. This form of ownership gives fishermen an incentive to make sure fish populations grow, and according to Costello's worldwide research, it's the only thing that seems to work.

Environmentalists are often suspicious of the profit motive, but from Alaska to New Zealand, market forces have been harnessed not for plunder but for preservation. Fishermen like the system because they make money, and environmentalists like it because it supports sustainable practices. Expanding the catch share system may well be the best way to save a dying ocean.

"How to Save a Dying Ocean" is written and produced by Ted Balaker, who also hosts. The associate producer is Paul Detrick, the cameramen are Hawk Jensen and Alex Manning; Zach Weissmueller also helped to produce the segment. Animation by Hawk Jensen.

Approximately six minutes.

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• reason.tv
• reason foundation
• reason magazine
• catch shares
• fishing
• fishing rights
• Chris Costello
• the cove
• Louis Psihoyos
• whale sushi
• the hump
• oceans
• dolphin hunters
• over fishing

[LionEatingMan]

I'm honestly a little confused. Doesn't reason TV dislike any government regulation? Why are they arguing for a different kind of government regulation?

[Rayvok]

@LionEatingMan

They explained that, because nobody owns it, therefore everyone decides they do. If you can distribute the resources of the ocean to each who use it, therefore they will take better care of it. Putting limits on the overall yield is the only way to keep the replenishing resources up. It would be a difficult task to privatize a section of Ocean. How are you going to police your waters? How are you going to mark it? How would you know if someone uses your claim, and if so, prove it

[calorion]

@LionEatingMan

It is not true that Reason.tv dislikes any government regulation. Reason (and libertarians generally) approve of strong property rights, which (most but not all libertarians believe) requires government to enforce. Here they're just suggesting that a kind of property rights be applied to the sea as well.

[StephanieLisaTara]

HAIKU

I hatch! Crawl! And swim!

Oh how I love my sweet life,

Don't pollute my home.

—A Green Sea Turtle

[Vegemighty]

Woo, I was scared that reason was going to offer some solution like, let the market work it out. I'm glad they offered this solution better. Its very clever, and works great in areas where no one can claim ownership, the seas. My state, Maryland, should look into this to boost its oyster population, which is at 1% of historical levels. Whales have better statistics than the MD oyster

[meritree]

i have read Chris Costello's reports, and it has been widely circulated - but there are economists who dispute the "tragedy of the commons," and divorcing sustainable fisheries from coastal economies IS devastating to cultures that have been dependant on fishing and associated economies. Explain to me how sectors management reduces government oversight - fishermen must now submit to 3 TIMES the amount of regulatory management - hail in, hail out, monitors at sea, monitors at docks -

[funkypieguy]

lolololololololol

whale sushi.

[thedongerknowsall]

shouldn't these people be working, you know, at a job?

[thedongerknowsall]

if dolphins were ugly would it be ok?

[fringeelements]

They're arguing for a different type of regulation.

Obviously they (and I) would like to see this happen on a total market with non-state regulatory agencies, but presupposing a state - this is better.

[mooners40]

No one owns the oceans so they are abused?? - answer - let MONSANTO OWN THE OCEANS - then fish can be patented and barcoded and Monsanto can charge you for looking at the ocean and being near it - sell shares of the ocean and float the ocean on the fte and assdac bla bla fuckin shit- SHIT - LEAVE MOTHER EARTH ALONE!