I spoke from the heart, and here is what I said:

At the risk of being controversial, I would like to offer my honest take. The #1 threat to coral reefs is lack of political will and sense of corporate responsibility. It’s great that this summit is focused on those two groups, but we need much more progress on this front. Apart from that, the primary threat has long been overfishing, and that is now being joined by, and soon to be eclipsed by, climate change. Pollution and habitat destruction are at #3 and #4, the order depending on your location.

I was invited to speak about overfishing. Overfishing is a serious, serious problem. But there are simple solutions: DON’T CATCH AS MANY AS YOU CAN, EVERYWHERE YOU CAN, ALL OF THE TIME, WITH WHATEVER MEANS YOU WANT.

That means limiting the amount of fish that you take out of the ocean (i.e., total allowable catch). That means closed areas  (i.e. fish sanctuaries, reserves where no fishing occurs). That means closed seasons (i.e., times of the year when you do not fish for certain species). And that means restricting and banning some types of fishing gear (i.e., gear that damages habitat, targets juveniles, has high bycatch) – proliferating use of nets is the primary problem here.

All these measures amount to: give the fish and the reefs a break. Give them a respite, a chance to reproduce and replenish. Then fishing can be sustained at a higher level and be more profitable, and there will be more for tourists to see.

If there is one thing you should focus on to improve the health of coral reefs and the fisheries that depend on them it is protecting key herbivores: parrotfish and surgeonfish. They are the lawnmowers of the reef that eat the algae so slow-growing coral stands a chance. They are not choice fish in the Caribbean – there is not a strong cultural/traditional attachment to consuming these species.

Necker Island, British Virgin Islands. Privately owned by Richard Branson, and Summit site.

Belize enacted a ban two years ago and it is well supported by the community. Parrotfish and surgeonfish are only being heavily targeted now because they are the most abundant fish left after severe depletion of groupers and snappers. However, political and business leaders at this Summit committed to focus on creating regional protection for sharks and rays. I think that misses the point; that’s low hanging fruit, and it is not what is needed to restore coral reef ecosystems.

In mulling over all the speeches I heard yesterday, the almost entirely vague commitments made by political and business leaders, at first I thought that what we needed was to be more ambitious, to set bigger goals. But really it’s that we need to be more practical. In a region that is so heavily dependent on tourism related to healthy ocean resources it is simply bad business to allow those resources to continue to degrade.

100% of the ocean should be managed. Managed just means to have a plan. And the goal of that plan should be to increase the quantity of fish closer to their former abundances, and to fish in a way that is sustainable. So I would implore you to be MUCH more visionary than the Caribbean Challenge goal of 20% managed by 2020. If I had gotten to write the goals for the Caribbean Challenge I would have written: 100% of ocean area managed by 2020, and 20% of ocean areas set aside in fish sanctuaries that are completely closed to fishing.

You may say this sounds extreme, but all this really means is treating the ocean more like the land. You don’t just let people bulldoze willy nilly on land, you require permits for development; there are limited areas for industrial use; there are parks; there are farming areas. You should do the same for the ocean.

There is room for creativity in solutions. One such solution for sustainable fishing is the research that won me the Rare/National Geographic Solution Search prize. If you put a slot, a vertical and rectangular escape gap, in the corner of a fish trap you can reduce bycatch by 80% without at all reducing the value of fishermen’s catches. There are other such solutions ready for implementation.

There is also room for needed national and local specificity, but really we all need to think bigger. Not just protected areas, but comprehensive, island-wide zoning of entire coastal oceans or even entire exclusive economic zones, based on science, and with deep stakeholder engagement. That is the approach the Waitt Foundation is taking with initiatives in Bermuda and Barbuda, and we hope to do more of that holistic work in the near future. So if any islands represented here are interested in taking that approach, let’s talk.

Well, someone had to jump on Sir Richard’s trampoline.

In a fantastic event last night at the Seattle Aquarium, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Sylvia Earle and Greenpeace’s Phil Radford announced the Bering Sea Canyons as the official 19th Hope Spot. The event attracted a large turnout and impassioned speeches in defense of the new Hope Spot. Moreover, a bonafide airship was in play!

The Bering Sea isn’t just chilly…it’s also super cool: these 770,000 square miles (1,994,000 square kilometers) of tempestuous waters off the coast of Alaska and Siberia are home to immense populations of fish, seabirds, marine mammals, and ancient corals, as well as the Bering Sea Canyons, the largest and deepest submarine canyons in the world, even larger than the Grand Canyon.

The rich ecosystem has supported indigenous tribes for thousands of years and currently provides over half the seafood caught in the United States.

Sylvia Earle announces the designation of a new “Hope Spot” in the Bering Sea.

If half the total U.S. catch sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. Sadly, under this enormous commercial pressure, the Bering Sea is in decline. Since the 1960’s, the region has seen steep declines in top predators — i.e. whales, sea lions, seals — with some populations dipping by over 80 percent of historic levels. Moreover, trawling nets are decimating ancient corals and sponges in the deep canyons, which are critical to the ecosystem and are hundreds to thousands of years old.

The Bering Sea was a rich ecosystem of harmony, and now it faces collapse due to the pressures of industrial fishing. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council are the stewards of these precious waters and, as such, they must protect sensitive habitats so the Bering Sea can continue to be a flourishing ocean ecosystem into the future. With the global ocean in a general decline, the preservation of the Bering Sea as a Marine Protected Area — or Hope Spot — is critical.

A Greenpeace airship plies the skies.

Please join your voice in this cause. Sign the Greenpeace petition to help protect the Bering Sea Canyons and reach out to support in any way you can.

Made of rice paper, edible QR codes help diners learn about the fish they eat at San Diego’s Harney Sushi. Photograph courtesy of Harney Sushi

Guests at the upscale Harney Sushi in San Diego now get a little something extra with their fresh tuna and crab rolls: edible QR (quick response) codes. When scanned with a smart phone or tablet, the codes take users to the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) FishWatch website, where they can learn about the sustainability of the seafood they are consuming.

Harney Sushi’s owners, Dustin Summerville and Kirk Harrison, and Executive Chef Robert Ruiz have been working with a number of fishery stakeholders and NOAA scientists at the agency’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in nearby La Jolla, California, to develop a local economy and culture of sustainable seafood.

Harney Sushi is one of the first U.S. restaurants to use edible QR codes, which are printed on rice paper with water-based, edible ink.

In 2010, Harney’s Chef Ruiz won the grand prize at the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, and was named “Chef of the Fest.”

Ocean Views spoke with Ruiz about the QR code program:

Can you give us some background on the restaurant and how you got into sustainable fish?

We have two locations in San Diego and have been fully sustainable for over two years. We do over 25 tons of sashimi-grade fish a year. Our Oceanside location has a maximum occupancy of  260 people, and on a Friday, we’ll turn the restaurant over three times, so we have more than a thousand people walk through the doors. Imagine if you take that weekly, we reach a lot of people.

Our company was founded in Old Town, San Diego, on Harney Street 12 years ago. We’re proud to note that Troy Johnson, Food Network personality and Food/Restaurant Editor for San Diego Magazine, just ranked us the number one sushi in San Diego because of our efforts in sustainability. I was also honored to be listed as “the chef of tomorrow” in the “trends” section of the same issue, again, largely due to our work on sustainable seafood. This is my fifth year as executive chef.

I was born in Oceanside and grew up in San Diego. I moved to Hawaii’s Big Island as a teen and lived there for 10 years. I got a job cleaning fryers and worked my way up. I earned a spot in Kona, at the Hualalai Resort, a Four Seasons property.

I was trained by a CIA (Culinary Institute of America)-trained chef and apprenticed under a Japanese sushi chef from Tokyo, so I was trained very traditionally. The resort had their own aquaculture system, we farm raised our own fish and shrimp and grew our own produce. Hawaiian culture is an example of the utmost sustainable society, everything comes from there, so I came from a sustainable background. When I came back home to San Diego I was shocked that it’s not how it is in Hawaii.

Harney’s owners were excited about all the ideas I had for sustainability. I started looking at MSC (Marine Stewardship Council), the Monterrey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch, and scoured the internet. The problem was I kept getting conflicting info, and that led me to start making phone calls.

I got ahold of Katie Semon at NOAA, who is responsible for their FishWatch, and began working with her. I didn’t want second-hand info, I wanted the best info possible. Now I work with Sarah Mesnick, a NOAA science liaison in La Jolla.

Scripps [Institution of Oceanography] is here in La Jolla as well. Sarah and I got the wheels rolling on a group project with Scripps and NOAA, so we cultivated a public event at Scripps called “Consider a Fish.” We did the first one on urchin, so we brought a bunch of interested people together to sit down and discuss the science. I talked about how urchin is used in food and the market value.

I was then invited to participate in a class at Scripps, with several scientists, on bluetech jobs, which are about sustainability and bringing aquaculture and fishing back to San Diego. The edible QR codes I created were founded in that class.

An edible QR code on a roll. Photograph courtesy of Harney Sushi

Can you take us through how the edible QR program works?

I had seen the concept in a sushi bar in London, with codes for MSC. Pastry chefs and bakers have used edible art for some time for cakes, it’s edible rice paper. With the help of Ro Zinniger, a SanDiego cake and sugar artist, we bought a printer and edible ink. It was a $400 investment.

The program went into full effect about three months ago. The response has been really outstanding, and we haven’t had any negative feedback.

When a QR code shows up on a diner’s plate they are confronted with it, they can’t avoid the issue anymore, they have to ask what it is. That’s our opportunity to educate them. The codes lead to an entire alphabet of fish on FishWatch, with lots of info, so consumers can educate themselves and make their own decision. The trouble with third-party fish guides is that they are lists of what people can or cannot eat, instead of letting people make their own decisions.

We’re helping create new sustainable fisheries because we’re creating a voracious demand for it.

Will the program help the local fishing community?  

San Diego used to be the tuna capital of the world. Now, I can’t get local line-caught tuna or albacore because the industry has left. But Genevieve Rich, a graduate student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, wants to bring a community fishing project to the area. Thanks to your article (“Red’s Best: Networking Small-Scale Fishermen“), she’s looking into using the tools from Red’s Best to help local fishermen log their catches. So people can get the fish they deserve.

I’m not like a Greenpeace advocate and I’m not a fisherman, but I’m where the tires meet the ground. I’m here making sushi one plate at a time for every customer I can, and I’m making these QR codes so they won’t forget about it.

In July, we’ll be serving MSC-certified albacore and we’ve already generated the QR code. It will go to a YouTube video showing the fleet. We’re also working on a sea urchin code, with Heather Krish, master of advanced studies in marine biodiversity and conservation at Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

I can reward the people who are doing the right thing.

Have you thought of including health information with the QR codes? National Geographic has a seafood decision guide that includes a layer of information on health, including mercury content and omega-3s.

I don’t have that info layered into the codes, but when it comes to the fisheries I get my fish from they have the info. I would love to do a QR code for you guys, that’s a gap I’d like to cover.

I know a lot of people are concerned about mercury, especially pregnant women. I tell people that we catch albacore that are only one to two years old, so they haven’t had time to accumulate that many toxins. A lot of small fish that have short lifespans are great for them to eat as well.

Have the QR codes affected your sales?

We are growing faster than our projections. We have been record busy.

We have also noticed that people are now ordering more sashimi, more straight fish, I think because we’ve given them more confidence. If they were scared about trying some of the specialty fish, now they can scan the code and know everything we have is traceable.

Chef Rob Ruiz teaches area youth about sustainable seafood. Photograph courtesy of Harney Sushi

Chef Ruiz examines fish at the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center. Photograph courtesy of Harney Sushi

Do the codes help fight fish fraud?

Absolutely. We are working with the Ocean Discovery Institute, a charity here that helps underprivileged kids who are interested in marine science. Last month we had a group of the kids come in and they took DNA samples of all our fish. We’ll publish the results this June.

In the [recent Oceana report on fish fraud], West Coast sushi bars were worse than average for fish fraud, so with our QR codes we are shining a light in the darkest tunnel, that’s part of why we are gaining traction. Before coming here I worked in some really bad sushi bars and saw some atrocious things.

A lot of people in the industry are saying that labeling fish is hard and that people aren’t trying to be purposefully deceitful. But do you think a lot of fish fraud is actually intentional?

At a restaurant the margins are so slim that you know exactly how much you are spending on everything. So in my opinion the fraud is intentional.

There’s a giant hole in the sushi business: no matter where I go the chef doesn’t know where his fish comes from. He’ll get it from a wholesaler, who gets it from an auction. When a billion Chinese people start to eat sushi like we are it is going to vacuum the oceans dry. Piracy will go rampant. These sushi bars rely on the ignorance of the customer and murkiness of the fish trade in order to maximize the profit they are making.

One of the most popular dishes is escolar, which makes customers sick. That fish is trash, it’s illegal in many countries. But here many are calling it “white tuna.” They buy it for $6 a pound and sell it for tuna prices (tuna costs $24 a pound).

They also say, “Why would I buy a fresh snapper from New Zealand that’s $12 or $14 a pound when I can buy $4 tilapia that comes in a bag and is easier to prepare?”

A recent article in Huffington Post said that so many people call escolar “white tuna” now that it should be considered acceptable, the author said it is “well understood vernacular.” What do you think of that?

That is outrageous.

Do you think the QR codes could be expanded?

I want to get QR codes on the East Coast and beyond. It would be such an honor to change the way Americans eat seafood.

Any last words?

I love San Diego and I hope through this project we’re going to bring local, traceable, sustainable fishing back here. I want to be known for my food, and that I love the ocean. I layer the science into it.

A chef’s job is to know where their fish is coming from. How can I be the only one asking this question?

Brian Clark Howard covers the environment for National Geographic. He previously served as an editor for TheDailyGreen.com and E/The Environmental Magazine, and has written for Popular Science, TheAtlantic.com, FastCompany.com, PopularMechanics.com, Yahoo!, MSN, and elsewhere. He is the co-author of six books, including Geothermal HVAC, Green Lighting, Build Your Own Small Wind Power System, and Rock Your Ugly Christmas Sweater.

Traditional fishing on Lake Pátzcuaro in Mexico. Photograph by Régis Lachaume, Wikimedia Commons

By Andreas Merkl, President, Ocean Conservancy

Smart fisheries management is a great place to start a conversation about putting the ocean at the center of the world’s biggest challenges.  This is because the most profitable type of fishing is sustainable fishing – better management helps fishermen and the ocean at the same time.

Sustainable fishing means keeping enough fish in the water to reproduce and ensure a bountiful catch in the future. It’s a balancing act, but sustainable fisheries are in everyone’s best interest – from fishermen to distributors to gear manufacturers to retailers to consumers. If you’re a fisherman and you want to pass on your traditions to the next generation, or you want to be able to make good money 10 years from now, the most profitable way to fish is sustainably.

Unfortunately, overfishing due to poor fisheries management remains a global problem that threatens ecosystem health and human survival. For example, without enough forage fish—small fish like anchovies, sardines, and squid—the larger predators, like tuna, that feed on them will start to disappear as well.

That matters because we are facing a future with 9 billion people on the planet, and with that future comes huge concerns for food security.  There is no way we can sustainably provide protein to that many people without fixing fisheries management around the world.

The benefits of good fisheries management go beyond food security.  It turns out that many fisheries produce protein much more efficiently than land – after all, fish do not have to fight gravity.  Cows, chickens, and pigs are terribly inefficient protein sources, and their production generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars, trains, and airplanes in the world.  So if recovering fisheries can take some of the protein production pressure off the land, that could have major implications for climate change, ocean acidification, and pollution.

The good news is that we’ve seen a real shift in the state of fishing in the world.  The United States is a shining example of this work, thanks to the success of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which governs marine fisheries management and has helped us turn the corner on ending overfishing and recover a record number of depleted fish populations over the past two years. Ocean Conservancy and Pew Charitable Trusts have just released a joint report about the successes fishermen are seeing thanks to these management policies.

According to a recent fisheries report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the catch by American fishermen has reached a 14-year high—and the evidence can be seen in the recovery of signature species like red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico and lingcod on the Pacific Coast.

Beyond U.S. waters, more work needs to be done. Internationally managed open-ocean fisheries need to adopt and implement proven fishery management  strategies. Developing countries need to embrace modern management techniques to avoid depleting their fish populations; it simply makes economic sense.  We now have the analytical tools to apply these techniques at relatively low costs; for example, we can rely on advanced statistical techniques to get a better sense of the health of current stocks, and we can use standardized approaches to plan for their recovery.

To be successful, we need to think beyond the one fish we are trying to catch today, and instead focus on finding smart ways to sustain fish up and down the food chain, and the people who will depend on them for their lives and livelihoods.

A stretch of open water in the wetlands of the Mobile Delta. Photograph courtesy of the Ocean Foundation

By Mark J. Spalding, President, The Ocean Foundation

One recent Monday, I got to spend the day doing something outside, not in a conference room, not in my office, just out in one of North America’s great natural wonders.

My day began at 7, when the executive director of the Mobile Botanical Gardens, Bill Finch, picked me up at my hotel in Mobile, Alabama. With John Adornato, head of the Sun Coast region of the National Parks Conservation Association, we headed out to the Brookleigh Aeroplex to meet Skip Tonsmeire, a volunteer pilot with SouthWings.

Skip took us up in his Cessna T210 for a trip up the Tensaw Delta. Directly north of Mobile Bay, within a broad river valley that leads northward to the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers, lies a vast region of wetlands known by various names, including the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, the Mobile Delta, or simply “the Delta.”

The Mobile Delta is a premier place to watch coastal birds. Photograph courtesy of the Ocean Foundation

This region is home to some of the most diverse wildlife and landscapes in Alabama, and indeed in the entire United States.

We leave Mobile, its tall buildings and towering port cranes, behind quickly. From the air, the Delta is, at this time of year, a kaleidoscope of shades of green cut through by wide swaths of water that shift and change with season and rainfall. Bill Finch has explored the Delta on foot, by water, and in the air for decades. Many share his passion, and we are fortunate to have such an expert on board for the tour.

As we fly, Finch points out landmarks that represent centuries of the human relationship with its rich, diverse habitat and the many resources—from recreation to wild rice, to fish, to building materials—that the Delta continues to provide. Now in the late spring, the fresh green of emerging growth glows emerald beneath us, punctuated by vacated industrial sites of failed human endeavors.

Group Tour on the Water

After our flight, we join the larger group that is in Mobile to discuss the feasibility of protecting the natural landscapes and the recreational opportunities that the Delta presents. Such protections could bring all kinds of recreational visitors to the region—kayakers, hunters, fishermen, and other nature lovers—and preserve the unique and breathtaking sweeps of the Delta landscape. With TOF project coordinator Devon Coleman, we join other members of the NPCA staff, representatives from Mobile Baykeeper, the Walton Family Foundation, the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, the Sybil H. Smith Charitable Trust, and the Munson Foundation to prepare for our afternoon on the water.

Ray Mayhew and Bryan Pape, president and past president of the Mobile Baykeeper board, have volunteered their time to drive the boats for our tour on this beautiful day. Their love of the Delta is apparent even before we leave the dock—it’s clear that both of them consider it a pleasure, not a sacrifice, to be out here on the water with us.

Our first stop will be to go visit the wet open sweep of lilies, rice, and the invasive alligator weed. As we motor into a side creek, alligators slide off the banks into the water. We clamber out onto the bank and sink immediately up to our ankles in water. The vegetation is thigh high and lush. Stands of Delta lily are in full bloom, there is iris and arrow arum, and we even spy a tiny frog on its stalk.

Next, we head for Three-Mile Creek, a blackwater stream lined with cypress, bay, and sweeps of wild rice. We startle a great white egret as we come around the bend. Here and there, we stop and turn off the engines so we can listen. The scent of native wild wisteria wafts across us and dragonflies buzz round. Hard to envision these two-inch aerial acrobats as one of nature’s most successful predators—successfully snatching their prey out of the air more than 90 percent of the time.

Delta Threats

However, the Delta’s story is not all light, water, critters, trees, and grasses. Red and white for sale signs along the bluff signal the impending loss of dozens of acres of forests, a civil war encampment, and ancient human community sites. The acreage is adjacent to part of Historic Blakeley State Park, a city that once competed with Mobile in size and status. All that remains today are gravestones, a few ruins, and traces of old streets. The site of Blakeley had been the location of important settlements for thousands of years. Native Americans settled here more than 4,000 years ago to hunt, fish, and gather food from the rich delta.

The state park is a wonder in and of itself, sitting on the eastern edge of the Delta, it boasts a quarter mile boardwalk from which visitors can fish or watch for birds as the park is a key stop on the Alabama Coastal Birding Trail. It seems a shame that one day, visitors might come up a river where the scale of human development is so different from the handful of little cabins on stilts adjacent to the landing a half mile or so upstream.

Touring the delta around Mobile Bay. Photograph courtesy of the Ocean Foundation

We find the narrow entrance to Burns Lake. I was expecting that we would come around the bend and there would be a stretch of big open water—like other lakes we can all envision. But Burns Lake is secretive, its open water twists and winds through hardwoods and shrubs. Here we have a unique commingling of species that naturally occur here together whose normal range is far away. Upland and wetland, water lilies and cypress, trees of states further north, and trees best known in Puerto Rico in a crazy collision of perfect habitats for all.

The Delta is a dynamic, changing landscape, rich in life, and vulnerable to shortsighted uses by humans, and we know that we can all share in creating the legacy for future generations to enjoy it in diverse and meaningful ways.

This passenger ship was two-thirds of the way through a voyage up the coast of West Africa, and guests were enjoying a day at sea. As luck would have it, they had just spent the morning hearing about illegal fishing from a representative of the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), a Lindblad-National Geographic grantee.

As they passed through the waters of Guinea-Bissau on their way to Senegal, passengers and crew were faced with an unusual sight.  What had appeared as a large ship in the distance was revealed to be two vessels – a Panamanian cargo ship and a Russian fishing trawler – in the midst of a “transshipment at sea.”

Transshipment refers to a normal process of moving goods from one vessel to another, and when this process happens at sea, it can save time and money but it can also be used to hide/launder illegally caught fish and other illicit commodities like drugs and arms. For this reason, many countries, including Senegal – rich in fish but poor in monitoring and enforcement capabilities – have banned transshipments at sea and insist that any fish caught in their waters be off-loaded at ports where it is much easier to see how much and what type of fish the boat intends to sell.

The government of Guinea-Bissau says these two ships engaged in an illegal transfer in their waters (names blacked out). Experts say such transfers can be used to facilitate pirate fishing. Photo by Richard White, Naturalist, Lindblad Expeditions

Naturalist Richard White first spotted the two ships while he was taking photographs from the bridge of the NG Explorer, and asked the representative from EJF to have a look. The ship’s captain subsequently realized that one of the vessels had switched off its tracking system, effectively rendering it invisible to its distant flag state authorities.  This fact contributed to the suspicion that the vessels may have been trying to avoid Senegalese law by carrying out the illegal transshipment in neighboring Guinea-Bissau, where they had a lower risk of detection.

Working through its London-based team, EJF was able to obtain official confirmation from Guinea-Bissau that the transshipment was not authorized.  The organization then notified the flag states of both ships, Panama and the Russian Federation, who are responsible for sanctioning the vessels’ activities at sea, to determine if the ships were also in violation of the laws of their respective countries.

This sighting by the NG Explorer has the potential to be quite meaningful, particularly for Panama, which was recently named by both the United States and the European Union as a state whose vessels engage in illegal fishing.  EJF has previously reported that most cargo vessels they have documented facilitating illegal fishing in West Africa are flagged to Panama.

Another view of the ships as seen from the National Geographic Explorer (names blacked out). Photo by Richard White, Naturalist, Lindblad Expeditions

Panama, through their Directorate General of Inspection, Surveillance, and Control, has already begun formal proceedings against the operators of the Panamanian ship. These proceedings are similar to a court case where parties must be formally notified, and evidence submitted, in order to assess liabilities and determine what sanction, if any, may be appropriate.  It appears that the Panamanian authorities began these proceedings of their own accord, following the evidence obtained by the Explorer and submitted by EJF. Panama’s proactive response can be seen as a positive reaction to the criticisms by the US and the EU, and is a public test of that country’s publicly announced resolve to take measures to curb illegal fishing.

Although a first for a passenger ship, the kind of evidence collected by the Explorer is frequently collected by local artisanal fishermen in West Africa – with training and basic equipment from EJF – and has led to fines on illegal fishing vessels, as well as confiscation of illegal fish in Europe. More importantly, where these programs are most active, countries are seeing a decline in the number of illegal vessels in their waters.  With continued support, these efforts will reduce illegal fishing in West Africa, sustaining local livelihoods and communities, as well as the marine environment.

For further information on transshipments and illegal fishing, visit Chatham House’s Illegal Fishing website or read EJF’s transshipment report which contains specific references to transshipment and illegal fishing in West Africa. 

The summit, which ends today, is “the biggest ocean day on the Hill,” said Helvarg. (Learn more about the Summit.)

In addition to a week of panels, workshops, and events, Blue Vision Summit includes meetings with members of Congress (aka lobbying), with the goal of increasing protection for the marine environment.

Blue Vision brings together a broad group of “seaweed rebels”–local ocean activists and advocates–as well as some familiar names like National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Sylvia Earle, Ralph Nader, and Jane Lubchenco. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Representative Sam Farr (D-CA) also presented.

As Helvarg pointed out, ocean issues don’t just affect those living on the coasts, they can reach deep into our everyday lives through our food, climate, the air we breathe, and much more. To underscore that point, Helvarg noted that some 20 activists from Colorado were in attendance, even though they live a long ways from the sea.

Wyland has painted 100 whale murals around the world to raise awareness.

After he called for a rowdy “seal lion bark out for the ocean,” Helvarg introduced a panel of artists whose work inspires care for the oceans. That panel was moderated by Jim Toomey, the creator of the Sherman’s Lagoon comic strip.

Toomey said the purpose of any art is to inspire emotion. “We hope it changes us a little bit permanently,” he said.

Wyland, the painter who has spent the last 30-some years creating massive murals of whales around the world, spoke on the panel in his trademark ballcap. Wyland said he was inspired by Jacques Cousteau and Sylvia Earle. “Without water we don’t have anything,” said Wyland.

The artist added that it took him three years to convince the city of Laguna Beach, California, to let him paint his first whale mural, back in 1981. He has produced 100 “Whaling Wall” murals since.

“I dedicated my life to creating public art that inspires action,” said Wyland. He added that he frequently paints with kids. “Kids get me because I don’t really have a job, I tag buildings,” he joked. (He also makes educational films.)

Gorgeous eco-art by Asher Jay

Asher Jay comments on plastic pollution in this artwork.

Another panelist, Asher Jay, uses graphic design, fashion, painting, and performance art to create evocative works that inspire concern for the planet. In one project, she made art to order out of pizza boxes, and then delivered it to homes. In another, she “founded” a country called The United Flotsam of Garbagea that is comprised of giant oceanic garbage patches. She also uses her fashion background to turn clothing scraps into gorgeous designs.

For World Oceans Day 2012, Jay created Message in a Bottle, in which she painted plastic bottles, each inspired by the work of a different ocean activist or advocate.

“I don’t want people to get defensive, we don’t have the right to point fingers,” Jay said about her work.

Panelist Courtney Mattison talked about her work at the intersection of art and marine biology. She makes beautiful sculptures inspired by coral reefs, and is working on a line of home decor items that “inspire ocean conservation.”

Courtney Mattison’s coral sculptures evoke awe.

Mattison also produced a series of models of landmarks, like the U.S. Capitol, covered with coral to evoke concern for sea level rise.

Panelist Claudio Garzon makes sculptures from trash (see video above) and teaches disadvantaged kids in Los Angeles to explore their creativity while learning about the oceans. In one project, they filled the bellies of paper albatrosses with plastic beads to signify the problems of ocean pollution.

“Plastic is all around us, it’s something we become numb to,” he said.

Wyland added that artists need to advocate for keeping art and nature education in schools.

Brian Clark Howard covers the environment for National Geographic. He previously served as an editor for TheDailyGreen.com and E/The Environmental Magazine, and has written for Popular Science, TheAtlantic.com, FastCompany.com, PopularMechanics.com, Yahoo!, MSN, and elsewhere. He is the co-author of six books, including Geothermal HVAC, Green Lighting, Build Your Own Small Wind Power System, and Rock Your Ugly Christmas Sweater.

Interviewing Josiah “Papa Joe” Deazle.

Here are some of Papa Joe’s words:

“Things are getting very bad. What you all are doing is trying to help us. This is no joke. This is a serious serious serious thing. If you’re in a country and you mash up your own livelihood what is going to happen? People don’t seem to understand that things are getting worse. If it go good, it’s good for everybody; if it goes bad, it’s bad for everybody. It’s everybody’s business.

There is much less lobster now, much less fish. I used to go get conch in water shallower than my knee. There are no more there now. You have to go into deeper water now, use SCUBA. It’s a mess.

Parrotfish is my favorite fish to eat because I have no teeth anymore. How I’m going to eat boney fish? … But catch of parrotfish should be banned. People are taking so much of them the reef is gonna die.

One of Papa Joe’s great-grandchildren with a pet iguana.

Fewer people are using traps now. Young people don’t want to do it. Fish pot wire is getting expensive and young people don’t want to spend the money. Instead they go diving and take the lobster out of other people’s traps –steal the lobster and the traps. We are interfering with one anothers’ traps. That’s the worst thing to happen: piracy. So when you go out you don’t get anything. We are hampering one another.

People are always fishing in the shallow waters. We need to move out into deeper waters and give the shallow waters a break, then the fish would increase again. I don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s a mess.

Need to get the younger people to understand that things might na done, but they get scarce. They get so scarce it’s like it done. You can over do it. I’m an old man. My time is limited. Need to get the young people to come in and say this [Barbuda Initiative] is for the good of everybody. It’s a serious thing.

You have to eat. You can get things worked out, but the people just have to make up their mind to do it. If ya can’t get no fish, what you going to do? If you can’t produce no fish, can’t produce no lobster, what are you going to do? It’s not a joke. “Too late, too late” will be the cry.” 

There is supposed to be a solution to every problem.”

Papa Joe’s great-grandchildren playing marbles.

A growing crop of entrepreneurial fishermen hope the sun won’t set on their business. Photo: Bob Chilton, My Shot

Theresa Peterson has been an Alaska fisherman for three decades.

During summer break one year in college she went to Homer, Alaska, to work in a cannery. She lived in a tent with friends. But after four days of being cooped up in the factory she decided she wanted to get a job on a fishing boat.

Peterson told Ocean Views that she spent a week “hanging around the docks,” before she finally talked her way onto a shrimp trawler. “They said they’d take me out, but not pay me, if I would cook and help ice down the shrimp,” said Peterson.

She was also asked to pick through the bycatch (unwanted fish and other organisms) and toss them back. Someone suggested she save the herring. She put some in a cooler, and then sold them to sportfishermen for bait when she got back to the dock.

“I made $800 that day, that was my getting started in fishing,” she said. “I saw this incredible opportunity to work hard and make money.”

Over the years, Peterson worked her way up in the physically demanding, traditionally male-dominated profession. She eventually bought her own boat with her future husband. She said they benefited from provisions in Alaskan fishing laws that incentivize owner-operators.

A Better Future for Fishing

Peterson was in Washington, D.C., this week with her 23-year-old son, Charlie, who also fishes. In between checking his text messages, Charlie said that he “can’t be away from the ocean for long.” Dressed in a sport jacket and ball cap, the younger Peterson added that he worries about the future of fishing.

Part of the problem, Peterson said, is that it now costs a lot of money to get the necessary permits or quotas to be legally able to bring in a decent-sized catch. “We have to keep opportunities for working fishermen,” she said.

One way Peterson is working on that issue is through her recent grant through the Fisheries Innovation Fund, a public-private partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). With the funds, Peterson is working to organize Alaskan jig fishermen.

“The jig fishery uses vertical lines with individual hooks. Each fish is hand handled,” said Peterson. “It’s a low-impact, low-volume fishery with a low bar for entry, since the gear is affordable.” She said a basic rig can be had for as low as $500, and a permit costs only $75. “I’ve seen people do it from skiffs,” she added.

The problem is that the low volume makes it hard for jig fishermen to make a living, especially when rockfish is going for 25 cents a pound at the dock, or cod 28 cents a pound, said Peterson. However, she hopes that by organizing these small-scale fishers, they can start to do better.  She is working on a website and quality and conservation guidelines and is helping the jig fishermen develop better systems for icing their catches.

“We need to find these white tablecloth buyers that will appreciate fish handled in a different way,” she added. Her community’s fish will be processed in the U.S. and frozen only once, while most conventional seafood is now processed in China and frozen at least twice.

Peterson was one of several fishermen and advocates gathered at National Geographic headquarters for a conversation called “Advancing Sustainability Through Innovation and Entrepreneurship.” Convened by NFWF and NOAA, and largely featuring Fisheries Innovation Fund grantees, the evening took place during the NOAA-led conference Managing Our Nation’s Fisheries III in Washington. The town hall-style debate took place as guests munched fresh scallops, clams, crab, and rockfish provided by various grantees.

From Maine to San Diego

Carla Guenther from Penobscot East Resource Center, another Fisheries Innovation Fund grantee, pointed out that Maine has a very long waiting list for the storied lobster fishery. She said her state has a “license crisis,” and pointed out that her group is working to reduce barriers and red tape for locals and owner-operators, including at the statehouse level.

Ben Martens of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association said he has been working with the Nature Conservancy to map groundfish catches in the Gulf of Maine, “so fishermen can share info and stay out longer.”

Paul Parker of the Cape Cod Fisheries Trust outlined his group’s efforts to buy fishing quotas and hold them in a trust, to be shared by the local community.

Tj Tate of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance said her group is using the grant award to arm seven of their vessels with electronic monitoring for bycatch. “We had longliners getting shut down because of turtle interactions,” she said. “We are now working on tagging every snapper and grouper caught. We want to be fully traceable.”

A lobster fisherman works on Cape Cod. Christopher LeClaire, My Shot

Ken Franke, president of the Sportfisher’s Association of California, said his group is testing acoustic receivers off San Diego, to see if descending devices are working. After an angler hauls up a protected species, he or she can return it to depths by using a descending device, which inventors hope reduces the mortality that comes from pressure shock.

“In California sportfishing is a $2.2 billion business, and we hope to restore our access to the ocean,” said Franke, who noted that angler bycatch has resulted in restrictions.

Sam Rauch, the acting assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries, added that “regulation is only half of the issue. How can we work with our partners to innovate?” he asked. (See how National Geographic’s Ocean Initiative is working to empower ocean innovations.)

Mark Holliday, the director of the office of policy for NOAA Fisheries, said, “[the Fisheries Innovation Fund] is a very modest investment of money in the overall scale of the federal government, but we couldn’t have gotten the kind of return if we tried to do this on our own.” He said one in ten fishing communities in the U.S. has been touched by the program in some way. “It’s putting money at the grassroots level, where it does the most good.”

Holliday added that the fund helps inject a sense of problem solving into the fisheries debate. He said we also should recognize the “social, cultural, and historical benefits that fishing has had for our nation.”

Peterson said, “A great thing to come out of this [discussion] is the encouragement. And the sense that policy makers really care about our community.”

Brian Clark Howard is an Environment Writer and Editor at National Geographic News. He previously served as an editor for TheDailyGreen.com and E/The Environmental Magazine, and has written for TheAtlantic.com, FastCompany.com, PopularMechanics.com, Yahoo!, MSN, Miller-McCune and elsewhere. He is the co-author of six books, including Geothermal HVAC, Green Lighting and Build Your Own Small Wind Power System.

Hundreds of fishermen, conservationists, managers, and ocean experts from around the country are gathered in Washington, D.C., May 7-9 for a summit hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the regional fishery councils. The conference, Managing Our Nation’s Fisheries 3, will provide a rare opportunity for stakeholders to discuss an array of fisheries issues facing our nation. My hope is that this discussion will build on past achievements and identify new ways to better meet remaining and future challenges.

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the bedrock law governing U.S. fisheries, is up for debate and amendment in Congress. This conference will formally launch the reauthorization discussion.

In the 1960′s and 1970′s, fishing by large foreign vessels in U.S. waters brought many valuable commercial species to the brink of collapse. The Act’s passage in 1976 pushed out the foreign fleet, promoted the U.S fleet, and put the nation’s ocean fish populations under U.S. control. This was strong progress. Unfortunately, domestic overfishing soon replaced the overexploitation by foreign vessels. Along with this came damage to ocean ecosystems from indiscriminate industrial fishing practices. So Congress strengthened the law in 1996 by calling for an end to overfishing, the restoration of depleted fish populations, the protection of important fish habitats, and the minimization of the catching and killing of nontarget ocean wildlife. Regrettably, overfishing remained a particular problem, which Congress addressed by amending the act again in 2006.

After decades of hard work and innovation, the United States now boasts one of the best fisheries management systems in the world: with science-based catch limits designed to end overfishing on all federally managed species and 32 previously depleted species rebuilt to healthy levels since 2001. These hard-won successes are profiled in Pew’s new report, “The Law That’s Saving American Fisheries: The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.”

Fishing for shad on the Potomac River at Fletcher’s Boathouse is a spring tradition for many Washington-area anglers.

While we have made significant progress protecting and restoring individual species over the past two decades, there’s still much work to be done. As far back as 1996, Congress recognized that ending overfishing was just the beginning of sustainable fisheries management and it added amendments to Magnuson-Stevens to address the cumulative effects of fishing on marine ecosystems. We now need to do more to ensure healthy oceans by protecting essential forage fish, small prey species that our valuable fish populations rely upon and by reducing the effects of destructive fishing practices on habitats. Finally, we need to rethink how we broadly manage our oceans, in order to minimize the effects of individual decisions on the ecosystem. Doing so can help safeguard our gains while allowing us to handle new global threats to our oceans, including warming waters and ocean acidification.

Embracing ecosystem-based fisheries management can even help ensure that once again shad will migrate by the thousands up the Potomac to provide fishing opportunities for anglers like me and food for other fish and wildlife.