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Drs Doom and Gloom change their tune
Nancy Knowlton of the Smithsonian
National Museum of Natural History and her husband Jeremy Jackson of Scripps
Institution of Oceanography say they’ve become known as Drs Doom and Gloom on
the conference circuit. Given that they both research coral reefs it’s no
surprise that good news is a bit thin on the ground, but now they’ve decided to
try and promote some of the few success stories through a session Knowlton’s
chairing at the AAAS Meeting. “We really just refused to write ever more
refined obituaries for nature,” said Knowlton. “There is actually
good news there.”
For example, the Northern Line islands in the
Pacific fall into a marine protected area. Pollution is virtually non-existent,
there is a large shark population and the coral is relatively healthy. Even
though coral bleaching has occurred several times as a result of rising ocean
temperatures, around half the reef is currently covered with living coral,
which is about double the average figure. It seems that being in a protected
area, and the consequent shielding from pollution and overfishing, increases an
ecosystem’s resilience to climate change.
“Effective local protection can buy
time for corals,” said Jackson. “Protection from overfishing really makes an enormous
difference. Marine protected areas clearly work but they only work if they are
large and truly protect against fishing.”
Andrew Rosenberg of the University of New Hampshire,
meanwhile, spoke about the recovery of fish stocks off New England following the
imposition of catch limits. “In the mid-90s the haddock fisheries nearly
collapsed,” he explained. “A limit of 400 pounds a day was put on in
1994 and they could barely catch it.” Today trip limits have been removed
and the haddock stock has recovered. Rosenberg also sang
the praises of marine protected areas; he says that catch limits and protected
areas are more effective in combination.
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