Sea Notes

Obama Takes Action for the Ocean!

Big day for the ocean! President Barack Obama created a federal task force to shape a coordinated national ocean policy. He gave it 180 days to report back with results.

Following in the steps of his predecessors, he also proclaimed June as National Oceans Month. All this comes at the conclusion of Capitol Hill Ocean Week -- a week during which a key piece of sea otter legislation cleared a significant hurdle.

Monday was World Oceans Day, so the timing could not be better.

You'll find all the details of the president's memo creating the ocean policy task force here. It explains the tremendous value that healthy oceans play in our lives, and outlines the grave threats the oceans face, from pollution and mismanaged fisheries to climate change.

The president directs the executive branch to develop "a unifying framework under a clear national policy, including a comprehensive, ecosystem-based framework for the long-term conservation and use of our resources."

Leading the interagency effort will be Nancy Sutley, who chairs the White House Council on Environmental Quality. She was formerly deputy mayor of Los Angeles for energy and environment, has a long record on environmental and natural resources policy, and has been expected to be a key player in shaping the Obama administration's policies on climate change and the environment.

Stay tuned as the recommendations move forward. It's a huge, huge step toward realizing the vision of two national ocean commissions for comprehensive ocean policy reform.

The Future of Fish Farming?

It's a story that almost sounds too good to be true -- except that it is true, and it says a lot about the kind of world we're creating for ourselves. It's a world we can live in, for the long term.

I first heard the tale from chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill during the Sustainable Foods Institute we put on last month at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He described his delight in touring a multi-species aquaculture farm in Spain that is a seamless part of a wetland restoration project in the Guadalquivir Marshes of Andalusia. Where the farmers produce abundant, high-quality seafood -- sea bass, bream, red mullet and shrimp -- AND where predators like flocks of flamingos are welcomed as a sign that the ecosystem is flourishing.

Dan was overwhelmed to see the flamingos as they waded in the aquaculture ponds, feasting on the shrimp the farmers were raising. He was blown away that the farmers at Veta la Palma were as delighted to have the birds there as he was -- not the least because the region's wetlands are most important bird habitat in Spain.

Now you can read the details in TIME Magazine (online or in print). The story's  delightfully told (though if you get a chance to hear it straight from Dan Barber, savor the experience).

With roughly half of all seafood now coming from aquaculture farms, this is a model worth sharing -- and encouraging. As the story came out on the eve of World Ocean Day, we can hope that it represents a glimpse of the shape of of things to come.

Paul Hawken's Brilliant Commencement

Some things deserve to be shared, and this is one of them.

My friend Bill Mott of The Ocean Project passed along the text of an inspirational commencement address delivered earlier this month at the University of Portland by Paul Hawken -- businessman/author/philosopher of sustainability. It expresses better than I have ever heard both the environmental and social perils we face, and the extraordinary, exhilarating potential for we flawed human beings to rise to the challenge and turn things around.

These are words of hope that we all need to hear. Paul Hawken speak eloquently. To read the words of his commencement address, just follow the link. If you want to hear more of his words, check out this video from the Bioneers conference, where he talks about the transformational reality described in his book Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came Into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. Enjoy!

Sustainable Soils, Sustainable Seas

Each year as part of the Cooking for Solutions celebration at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we host a two-day Sustainable Foods Institute for members of the media, food industry leaders and key figures with nonprofit organizations involved in promoting sustainable seafood and organic agriculture.

This year, the Institute events were extraordinary -- and it's not just us patting ourselves on the back. Those attending tell us the speakers and panelists were compelling, and the conversations they ignited will be echoing for quite a while.

Topics aren't restricted to seafood issues, because there's a direct connection between how we farm on land and the health of aquatic wildlife in lakes and in the ocean.

We had great media in attendance and on panels -- from publications including TIME Magazine, the New York Times, Gourmet Magazine, the Washington Post, National Public Radio as well as leading online food writers. We had great folks to honor, from our Chef of the Year Thomas Keller and Educator of the Year Alton Brown, to sustainable foodservice leaders like Bon Appétit Management Co. and Compass Group North America.

A lot of folks are already writing about their experiences online, or were tweeting throughout the events.

The Washington Post's All We Can Eat blog highlighted our Seafood Watch Take Action cards as a great way to engage restaurants around sustainable seafood issues. Writer Jane Black also did a Q&A with Charles Clover, whose book about overfishing, The End of the Line, debuts as a documentary film on World Ocean Day, June 8. (Terra Wellington blogged it too, and includes a YouTube video with Ted Danson, who's the narrator for the film.)

For Gourmet's Barry Estabrook, news about a pending boom in humane treatment of farm animals was the top headline, and deftly headlined ("Humane Beings"). The potential that more than a third of farm animals will receive humane care within five years was startling -- and encouraging.

Chef Aaron French of Civil Eats offers examples of how writers are telling stories of sustainability to an audience that reaches well beyond the choir. Sam Fromartz shared with Chews Wise readers a range of topics, from seafood to ethical animal care, while alerting MIT's Sloan Management Review subscribers to the growth in consumer demand -- and business acceptance -- of seafood from sustainable sources.

Bonnie Powell shared the wisdom of Wes Jackson on The Ethicurean, including his contention that sustainability is a "value term, like justice and health." The post also explores a Bruegel painting used by Jackson to illustrate what a truly sustainable agricultural community looked like in another era. Food Gal Carolyn Jung offers up a photo tour of the people, purveyors in attendance -- as well as calling out the top news tidbits generated by the Institute.

From Julie Packard's opening remarks, reported by the Examiner, to Mark Anderson's tour of the events in words and photos; from Cheryl Sternman Rule's take on sustainable seafood on 5 second rule, to Fiona Robinson's observations about an aquaculture panel that didn't just bash the aquaculture industry -- there's a lot of good writing and reflecting out there.

With much, much more to come.

Photos of Alton Brown and Alexandra Guarnaschelli (c) Monterey Bay Aquarium/Randy Wilder.

A Roadmap for Saving the Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest on the planet. It's also beset by huge problems.

Now, at last, the scientific community is speaking with a single voice about the best ways to address the threats and preserve a healthy Pacific.

More than 400 leading scientists from nearly two-dozen countries have signed a consensus statement on the major threats facing the Pacific Ocean. The threats identified as the most serious and pervasive include overfishing, pollution, habitat destruction and climate change.

“This is first time the scientific community has come together in a single voice to express urgency over the environmental crisis facing the Pacific Ocean,” according to Meg Caldwell, executive director of the Center for Ocean Solutions, who will present the statement on Wednesday to government officials gathered at the World Ocean Conference 2009 in Manado, Indonesia.

In the consensus statement, the scientists warn that if left unchecked, the cumulative impacts of overfishing, pollution and habitat destruction—exacerbated by climate change—could have devastating consequences for coastal economies, food supplies, public health and political stability.

These threats affect all members of the Pacific Ocean community, said Stephen Palumbi, director of Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station and one of the principal organizers of the consensus statement.

Now, says Biliana Cicin-Sain, a professor of marine policy at the University of Delaware and coordinator of the Global Forum on Oceans, Coasts and Islands, Pacific nations have a roadmap by which they can chart "a new course of policy for the Pacific region."

The consensus statement was largely based on a synthesis of more than 3,400 scientific papers
on the threats and impacts to the Pacific prepared by the Monterey, Calif.-based Center for Ocean Solutions -- a collaboration among Stanford University, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

The center focuses on finding practical, enduring solutions to major challenges facing the oceans.

Green is the new green

It's not easy being green, said a famous talking frog. But these days it seems being green is what everyone aspires to. Green products and green companies all compete for our greenbacks. So how do you know what is green, and what exactly does it mean to be green?

Today's Wall Street Journal examines the new trend towards eco-labeling everything in our lives, and questions whether this helps or confuses the market and the shopper.

When it comes to seafood, there are a number of ways to express sustainability (though thankfully no claims of green seafood!) Our Seafood Watch program acknowledges seafood certified sustainable to the standards of the Marine Stewardship Council (marked on the pocket guides with a blue symbol). You can look for the MSC logo on products in the fresh and frozen counters, and in some restaurants too. If you can't find an MSC eco-labeled product, then look for one of the best choices among our recommendations. It's the green list, of course!

I look forward to the day when all fisheries and fish farms are best choices, and labels are only for prices! 

Blue Hope, Fish Crystals & Hot Algae

There are many places to find hope in a time when the dangers of rapid climate change are becoming all too evident.

One comes from marine explorer and advocate Sylvia Earle, a TED Prize-winner who issued a call for "ocean hope spots". She spoke eloquently about the ocean as "the blue heart of the planet" at the launch Monday of Google Ocean, and continues to advocate passionately to protect marine life.

Two others come in the form of new scientific insights that offer hope for the future of marine life -- and our own survival.

In the first case, researchers have documented that fish are pooping a LOT of calcium carbonate -- enough that they're a big player in maintaining a healthy chemical balance in the ocean. (The material, in the form of "gut rocks," is produced when fish absorb calcium as they ingest seawater,. The calcium is converted into calcium carbonate crystals in their gut. When the alkaline crystals are excreted, they buffer against ocean acidification and its ill effects.) Since the ocean is growing more acidic as it absorbs excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the new finding -- published in the journal Science -- charts a course for addressing two threats at once. if we can keep fish populations abundant, the fish will help maintain a chemical balance that supports ocean life. And since we depend on the ocean for our oxygen and for food -- well, it's enlightened self-interest do all we can to keep that "blue heart" beating!

In the second case, a University of Miami researcher is looking for heat-resistant algae that might keep coral reefs from experiencing the deadly bleaching events that occur when corals expel their symbiotic algae when the seawater around them grows too warm. Warming seawater and coral bleaching events are linked to global warming.

It may not be a panacea, but some scientists think it could be a step in the right direction.

Do You See What I See?

CNN's Anderson Cooper performs a great service with his his Planet in Peril series, winner this year of an Environmental Media Award. (Heck, he even gets to free dive with white sharks; not a bad deal.) It's not just what airs as part of the show, but blog posts related to the program topics.

Here's a good example: This post by Shawn Heinrichs of Blue Sphere Media about shark finning in a marine protected area that safeguards coral reefs at Raja Ampat in Indonesia. He describes it as "truly one of the most beautiful places on Earth...one of the most remote and biologically diverse marine ecosystems on the planet."

Yet even here, as Heinrichs recounts, the finning is allowed so subsistence fishermen can make a scant living.

Tough choices in our world today. It will take all of us, working to support sustainable seafood so fish populations will recover, to create marine protected areas, and to promote environmental justice. The reward is worth the effort.

Seawater Synergy

Now here's a brilliant idea:

Pipe seawater into the Sahara Desert, use solar energy to create freshwater via evaporation, then use the water to grow greenhouse crops that will feed a hungry world. And, as a bonus, build enough solar capacity to ship surplus energy from the Sahara to Europe.

It's still a dream, but there are demonstration projects in Tenerife, Oman and the United Arab Emirates -- and a lot of buzz today about the Sahara Forest Project, Check it out.....

As if that weren't enough, the Japanese are dreaming big, too. The Times of London reports on a vision for offshore "eco-rigs" that would generate energy from the sun and waves, and use some of the energy for aquaculture farms to raise seaweed, fish and plankton.

Refill not landfill

I recently took a tour of one of Monterey's other prize winning destinations - the landfill! The Monterey Regional Waste Management District is one of the country's leaders in its field -- finding ways to limit the amount of waste we "dump". Anyone using the D-word on the tour was gently reminded that the correct term is landfill. It's more than semantics. Dumping and throwing things "away" allows us to disconnect from our responsibility. Excavating land to fill with our trash (an average of 3 pounds per day, per person), is another matter altogether.

I learnt many new things, but the one thing that struck me most was the statement, "You are not truly recycling if all you are doing is sending your recyclables to a recycling facility." Hmm. "True recycling", we were told, is "buying recycled products and creating a market."

With this in mind, I was excited to find a new product this weekend. A non-toxic, biodegradable, eco-friendly bathroom cleaner. But the neatest thing about it, was that it was contained in a recycled soda bottle! Terracycle has a range of products using containers reclaimed from the waste stream, including worm poop fertilizer!

I haven't tried the product yet, but I'm sold on the concept! And of course, when I'm done, I can recycle it!