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I do communicate with Silvia Earle on occasion. I agree with her view as you will notice by listening to her speak. She says so many things that I have said before but she speaks with greater clarity and grand authority. Many of the same observations have floated by both of us over the years and, much like barnacles, they have attached themselves to our awareness. I am fascinated and excited but at the same time quite intimidated to process the reality that we know more at this moment about the Dark Side of the Moon than we do about the depths of our planet's oceans.
The "High Seas" average some 400 meters in depth and comprises nearly 40% of the global surface and remain the blue and beating heart of this planet (as explained by Sylvia Earle). The High Seas include the Sargasso Sea, Antarctic waters, North Polar seas and many other watery features. Less than 0.6 - 0.8 % of the high seas are presently protected and no international legislation or jurisdiction really controls them or their use. We strive to protect our own heart much more than we seek to protect the High Seas that serve as the beating heart of our planet.
Only 2 people have visited the 7 mile depths of the Mariana Trench since 1950 - fewer than the number of humans who have visited the moon and yet we continue to harvest thousands of tons of biomass from our oceans each year for the food we consume and we throw hundreds of thousands of tons(more than humans eat) of dead unusable catch back into the same seas. This is clearly one of the largest unsustainable practices that has ever been served by the ignorance or greed or need of humans. We hardly speak about it because we can't really properly define the ocean's problem and certainly can't find any handles to grip the problem with.
Plant matter from the Sargasso Sea is presently harvested to feed Cattle. This practice is harmful but it does remove a small portion of the floating plastic from the Ocean's water. It is only one of the ignored truths of our unkind treatment of this place we live in. The eels that spawn there are disappearing. Tuna are still killed with dolphins as a bi-catch. Whales and sharks are in trouble and we continue to ignore the noise of this problem. Sea turtles and flying fish also depend on the Sargasso Sea and they are being dramatically affected by today's changes that are occurring there.
The effects of global warming will undoubtedly define themselves clearly through their impacts on the plants and animals of the oceans in ways we can hardly imagine at this moment. But these negative changes will come unless we seize the opportunity we have over the next 10 years to alter the unfortunate course of the ship we all travel on. The loss of species and community structure within the world's oceans will be a tragic way to learn about the values of these resources to man and every other species and community that inhabits the planet.
Of course not all human news is bad but this does call out for our attention. We will all eventually learn the value of our place among a diversity of life and I hope so much that it will not be through the loss of fish from our Oceans.
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