Did you know that only around 7.5% of our ocean is protected? Of this, only 2.6% of the global ocean is completely off limits to fishing. Due to plastic pollution, ocean acidification, bycatch, deforestation, and countless other stressors, the health of our ecosystems on our planet are declining. To combat this degradation, New Mexico Senator Tom Udall and Colorado Senator Michael Bennet introduced a bill called The Thirty by Thirty Resolution to Save Nature. 30×30 creates a goal of protecting 30% of our ocean and 30% of lands and waters by 2030. If this goal isn’t met, scientists fear that it will be too late for our planet to recover.
In order to meet the goals of 30×30, we need to protect areas of nature to ensure they are minimally affected by human activities. This means setting up new national monuments, state parks, marine protected areas, and other wilderness areas. We need to choose areas most beneficial to biodiversity so that the largest number of species can have a better chance of survival. Of course, there are many barriers that we face in protecting 30% of our ocean and lands by 2030. Several of these challenges are highlighted below:
Problem 1: Enforcing Fishing Bans
90% of the large fish that once lived in the ocean are gone. As such, it is essential to put in place strictly enforced commercial (large-scale as opposed to recreational) fishing bans to avoid overfishing, bycatch, and destruction of marine ecosystems.
The enforcement of commercial fishing bans will take a lot of effort, but it can be done successfully. For example, the state of California has established 124 Marine Protected Areas or MPAs, more than any other state. Much like on land, MPAs are protected areas in which wildlife and marine habitats can recover from overfishing and pollution. In MPAs, commercial fishing is limited or prohibited. However, commercial fisheries make millions of dollars per year fishing in waters off the coast of California. Though strictly protected areas of the ocean are beneficial to fisheries in the long term as they help wildlife populations recover, most large-scale fishing companies aren’t in favor of establishing MPAs. The combination of this and underpaid, understaffed sea patrollers makes it very hard to enforce fishing bans. Things get even more difficult in international waters, where the law is unclear and there is less funding for patrolling and enforcement. In order to meet the 30×30 goal, MPAs need to be monitored closely to ensure that the areas set aside for the 30×30 project are truly protected.
Possible Solution:
The most obvious solution to this problem is to raise the salary of sea patrollers. These sea patrollers make far less money than policemen and highway patrollers for a job that is just as important. Raising the salary could also potentially bring more people to the job. With increased patrollers, additional boats and equipment would be needed to support them. Of course, not all countries have enough money for this, but if wealthier countries were able to better protect their MPAs, it would make a huge difference. Raising awareness about which fishing companies are not respecting MPA rules is another critical step to ensuring their compliance. Furthermore, in recent years, engineers have been developing drones and other technology as forward-looking techniques to watch over vast areas of the ocean. Though these drones are not yet widely used, they have been successful in monitoring MPAs in Belize, South Africa, and other countries.
Problem 2: Climate Change and Ocean Acidification
Even if we could prevent illegal fishing in protected ocean areas, it is impossible to isolate these areas from the impacts of climate change. In order to protect our ocean, we need to address the climate crisis, and vice versa. With global CO2 levels steadily rising, the whole ocean is warming and acidifying. This causes a multitude of problems for many sea animals.
As the ocean acidifies, mollusks, corals, and other species lose their ability to create strong shells. This makes them more vulnerable to predators and less likely to reproduce. When one species in an ecosystem goes extinct, it causes a ripple effect and the other species also suffer. In order to really achieve 30×30, we need to be doing more to protect the ocean as a whole.
Possible Solution:
In order to help solve the climate crisis, changes have to be made on a global scale, and laws need to be passed to limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere. Carbon taxes are a great way to do this. The ocean already absorbs 25% of the CO2 in the atmosphere. We just need to slow down our consumption of fossil fuels so that the ocean has time to do its job.
Problem 3: Pollution
Plastic pollution kills more than 1 million ocean animals every year. Oil spills kill thousands more. Plastic is carried by ocean currents, paying no attention to MPA boundaries, and when turtles, sea birds, whales, and other sea animals ingest this plastic, it can be deadly. Similarly, oil spills are extremely hard to clean up, and often, only a very small percentage of the oil spilled can actually be recovered.
Protecting wildlife from pollution will be an integral part of achieving 30×30.
Possible Solution:
Though there are a multitude of ways in which oil spills can happen, many are caused by carelessness. Fortunately, there are penalties in place for oil spills thanks to the 1990 Oil Pollution Act. These penalties help regulate large oil vessels, but it is very hard to enforce the fines for smaller vessel oil spills. There are many simple things small vessel owners can do to prevent oil spills, but they need to commit to following through with these precautions, which begins with prevention education.
Plastic pollution is a much more difficult issue to solve. While there has been a lot of buzz around efforts to clean up plastic in the ocean in recent years, we cannot stop the flood of plastic entering our ocean until we stop making so much plastic. The Inland Ocean Coalition and countless other organizations are working not just to raise awareness of the plastic pollution issue and encourage people to use less plastic in their daily lives, but also on solutions that get to the root cause of the plastic pollution crisis. Some of these efforts include working to pass legislation at the local, state, and federal levels to reduce plastic pollution and stop new production facilities; putting pressure on companies to use less plastic; and fighting back against the petrochemical industry buildout happening in the United States, which could see 40% more plastic in commerce by 2027.
Why Should 30 x 30 Matter to You?
There are countless reasons why achieving the 30×30 goal is important to our everyday lives. The ocean is responsible for producing at least half of the oxygen we breathe, in addition to absorbing 30% of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and 90% of the heat created from climate change.
Billions of people rely on the ocean as their main food source. Overfishing may provide large amounts of food in the short term, but the ocean has a finite amount of fish. If we continue to allow commercial fisheries to overfish without letting fish populations recover, billions of people around the world could lose their main source of food.
Additionally, the ocean provides the U.S. economy with $1.5 trillion per year from tourism and recreational activities. Meanwhile, the coal and oil industry only provides $20 billion. If we continue to degrade ocean ecosystems, tourism, recreation, commercial fisheries, and other ocean-related jobs will decline, and our economy will suffer as well. By protecting 30% of the ocean, an estimated $490-920 billion dollars will be added to the U.S. economy by the year 2050. 150,000-180,000 full time jobs would be created. Together, we can reach the 30×30 goal and build a better future.
What can you do to help?
There are many things you can do to help us reach 30×30! Consider contacting your legislative leaders to push for more efforts to protect nature. When you shop, make sure that you buy seafood from companies that don’t fish illegally and that only catch species with healthy populations using methods that limit bycatch. You can also educate yourself on what you can do to help the ocean. By doing small things in your own life to protect 30% of our land and ocean by 2030, you might inspire others to do the same. Collaboratively we can work to achieve this ambitious and essential goal of a more sustainable and healthy ocean planet.
Guest blog post by Maya Chastang, a ninth grade student at Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado
