Researchers have determined that the same pattern of human influence that lead to the collapse of over 500 land species over the past 500 years is now occurring in the world's oceans.
The recent study found the wildlife population in the ocean are as healthy as those on land were between hundreds and thousands of years ago, but this could be about to change, the University of California, Santa Barbara reported.
The recent paper compared the influences of the Industrial Revolution on land-based ecosystems to current human impacts on the ocean. In the 1800s farmlands and factories removed vital habitats and mining depleted resources, driving many species to extinction. In those days the ocean was essentially spared because fishing was mostly executed using small sailing ships, but this has changed.
"There are factory farms in the sea and cattle-ranch-style feed lots for tuna," said co-author Steve Palumbi of Stanford University. "Shrimp farms are eating up mangroves with an appetite akin to that of terrestrial farming, which consumed native prairies and forest. Stakes for seafloor mining claims are being pursued with gold-rush-like fervor, and 300-ton ocean mining machines and 750-foot fishing boats are now rolling off the assembly line to do this work."
These changes are believed to be a huge threat to oceanic wildlife populations, and the findings suggest we may be well on our way to the "marine industrial revolution." One solution suggested in the paper is to set aside larger regions of the ocean that are protected from industrial development and fishing, but even this may not be enough.
"We need creative and effective policy to manage damage inflicted upon ocean wildlife in the vast spaces between marine protected areas," said Robert Warner, an EEMB research professor at UCSB.
Climate change is another serious threat to marine wildlife, and may have an even greater impact on marine wildlife population than those on land. The team pointed out how sensitive fish in a tank are to changes in temperature and acidity. Despite these grim conclusions, the researchers believe it is not too late.
"Because there have been so many fewer extinctions in the oceans, we still have the raw ingredients needed for recovery," said UC Santa Barbara's Douglas McCauley. "There is hope for marine species that simply does not exist for the hundreds of terrestrial wildlife species that have already crossed the extinction threshold."
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Science.
