We Must Begin To Restore Bering Sea “Ice Pastures” NOW!

Bring Back The Crabs And The Salmon

Action Plan for IMMEDIATE Sustainable Replenishment of Bering Sea Aeolian Iron Dust (2025–2027 and Beyond)

The Bering Sea “Ice Pastures” have been collapsing before our eyes — neither from neglect nor the actions of some unidentified hoody “bad guy”, but from our failure to act. These “ice pastures” were once sustained by vast seasonal ice and the tiny amounts of windblown dust/iron accumulated over the long ice season. The incredible Bering Sea Ice Pastures are now starved of the iron they need torelease when the ice melts for the Bering Sea to bloom with life. In lockstep with disappearing ice, plankton have faded, its crabs have vanished by the billions, (losses of more than $200 million catch value in a single year).

Bering Sea King and Chum/Dog salmon have little left to eat, it comes at the worng time and place, and they are starving and lost at sea and not returning to their natal rivers and hence neither do the people (and dogs) of the Yukon and Kuskowhim River systems. We cannot stand by and merely allow our government to dutifully merely watch, measure, and report on tragic the death of this vital ecosystem. We must take charge — now — to restore the natural cycles that once made the Bering Sea one of the most productive marine pastures on the Blue Planet.

YK Salmon harvest now gone — Yukon Kuskowhim salmon once the mainstay of regional nutrition is no more

We know how to do it using Nature-Based ocean pasture restoration!

Purpose:
To demonstrate and prove, through rigorous scientific monitoring and responsible multi-year meso-scale series of ocean pasture replenishment and restorations, that annual Nature-based replenishment of a small, ecologically appropriate prescription of natural iron-rich dust to the Bering Sea “ice pastures” will restore and sustain primary ocean productivity at historic levels and character of health and abundance, protect the marine food web, and dramatically help buffer ocean acidification during a time of unprecedented environmental change.

I. Background and Urgency

In 2012, the world witnessed the first large-scale demonstration of ocean pasture restoration led by Indigenous leadership and scientific collaboration — the Haida Salmon Restoration project. As Chief Scientist and project co-lead, Russ George worked with the Haida Nation over 3+ years to go though the intense review and form the public-private-partnership that included Canada’s Federal government, British Columbia’s Provincial government, and the First Nations government to develop and use nature-based methods and materials to replenish iron to a depleted North Pacific ocean pasture.

The results were a true wonder of nature and historic: within a year, Alaska experienced the largest salmon returns in recorded history, with pink salmon catches soaring to more than 225 million fish, when the forecast catch was expected to be 50 million. This success, born of ancient wisdom and modern science, proved that restoring plankton pastures is not only possible — it just works! Now, with the Bering Sea in even greater peril, the urgency to act has never been clearer.

The collapse of Bering Sea crab stocks, the disappearance of King and Chum salmon in the region, and the overall decline in marine productivity correlate with the loss of natural inputs of iron from aeolian dust and seasonal sea ice. Bering Sea dust comes from the deserts of China and Mongolia, and that vital ocean dust is today only 20% of what it was in the 1950’s. More grass growing in Asia means less dust blowing to the Bering Sea.

As sea ice diminishes, so too does its role as a collector and timed delivery system for iron to ocean pastures. Today, the Bering Sea remains ice-free for most of the year, and ocean acidification and iron starvation is a growing ecological crisis.

Restoring even a modest, nature-mimicking fraction of the iron that once arrived with seasonal dust and sea ice can reawaken the ocean pastures that support marine life from plankton to people.

Sea Ice bloom ecology — Sea Ice is a vital micronutrient supply for Bering Sea Ice Pastures, as the sea ice disappears the pastures are in trouble

II. Objectives (2025–2027 and Beyond)

Prove feasibility at real world functioning ecological scale the effectiveness of targeted, annual nature-based iron replenishment in the Bering Sea.
Quantify ecological responses at all trophic levels, from phytoplankton to commercial and vital cultural species of fish and sealife.
Demonstrate safety, transparency, and economic viability of the replenishment and restoration works.
Build scientific consensus and public trust to support expanded action post-2027.

III. Implementation Timeline

Year 1 (2025): Pilot Deployment and Baseline Science

Select 1–2 target Bering Sea Ice pastures (~10,000 km² – 50,000km² each) based on historic productivity and ecological need.
Apply ~100 tonnes of nature-based iron-rich dust per pasture via environmentally safe and simple methods we have proven works.
Deploy myriad scientific instruments: ships, buoys, drones, satellite sensors, and AUVs for tracking.
Establish biological and chemical baselines (chlorophyll, pH, dissolved CO₂, +++, zooplankton, crab and salmon returns).
Engage local Indigenous and fishing communities in field observation and co-management.

Year 2 (2026): Expansion and Replication

Expand to 3+ pastures, repeating successful Year 1 methods.
Increase spatial and temporal resolution of monitoring.
Begin multi-trophic level ecosystem modeling.
Host first international field symposium on ocean iron replenishment in the Arctic.

Year 3 (2027): Validation and Policy Acceleration

Continue with additional pasture replenishment and restorations work.
Compile 3-year synthesis of biological recovery and biological flux data
Publish peer-reviewed scientific papers and open-source datasets.
Launch policy advocacy campaign urging permanent replenishment operations with global climate benefits.

IV. Operational Framework

Material Source: Naturally sourced, finely powdered iron mineral dust matching the geochemical signature of historic Asian dust.
Delivery Method: Cpontrolled ship based delivery of the prescribed dust.
Oversight: Managed by our world class leadership in ocean pasture restoration business and science with public reporting and external audits.
Governance: Operate under appropriate Federal and State law.

V. Expected Outcomes

This initiative is guided by the understanding that we must move from passive observation to active nature-based replenishment and eco-restoration. As we launch and refine this vital work we also set a precedent for long-term care — a stewardship model in which we, as beneficiaries of ocean life, assume the responsibility to give back. Restoring a fraction of the natural iron cycle is not only possible but necessary to help the ocean endure in a rapidly changing climate.

Measurable increases in chlorophyll-a and plankton productivity.
Recovery signals in crab larvae, forage fish, and seabird populations.
Stabilization of ocean pH in treatment zones.
Model validation showing alignment with historic productivity patterns.
Foundation for long-term ocean restoration funding.

VI. Conclusion

This multi-year action plan is a commitment to do more than just observe decline, and to establish a sustainable model for ongoing ocean stewardship beyond 2027. It is a call to give back to the Bering Sea — not with foreign chemicals or speculative geoengineering, but with a humble helping of the same dust it once received from the wind and ice. We must act now, decisively and wisely, to sustain life in the Bering Sea while we still can.

Social Media Snippets & Hashtags

Help amplify the message and build momentum for ocean restoration. Use and share these:

Hashtags:
#OceanRestoration #BeringSea #IronForLife #OceanPastures #ClimateAction #CrabCollapse #DustToLife #RestoreOurSeas

Snippets:

“The Bering Sea is starving — not from overfishing, but from iron deficiency. We’re restoring the missing link. #OceanRestoration #IronForLife”
“Crabs can’t survive without plankton. Plankton can’t grow without iron. The sea once gave it freely — now we must give back. #RestoreOurSeas”
“Nature once fed the ocean with dust carried by wind and ice. We’re bringing it back, responsibly and scientifically. #DustToLife #BeringSea”
“It’s time to stop just monitoring ocean collapse and start healing it. Replenish iron, restore life. #CrabCollapse #ClimateAction”
“This is not geoengineering. It’s ecological stewardship. The Bering Sea needs iron — and we know how to deliver it. #OceanPastures #IronMatters”

April 16, 2025April 20, 2025

Alaska Pollock: Half a Century of Change in Size, Sustainability, and Salmon Bycatch

The Shrinking Giants: How Alaska Pollock Size Has Declined Over 75 Years—and What We Can Do About It

Alaska Pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus), one of the world’s most commercially important fish, has been shrinking for decades. Once hailed as a cornerstone species feeding the world, Pollock are now smaller, lighter, and delivering less value per fish. The causes? Overfishing, warming waters, declining ocean pastures, and ecological stress. But there is a clear path forward—and it begins with restoring the ocean itself.

Why Pollock Size Matters

Smaller Pollock mean:

Fewer fillets per fish
Less economic value per ton landed
Reduced reproductive capacity
Greater energy costs for processing
Ecological ripple effects throughout the marine food chain

This decline is driven by the Collapse of ocean pasture productivity, caused by the long-term loss of iron-rich dust that once fertilized vast plankton blooms. Read more about on Understanding The Cause Of Ocean Fisheries Collapse Is The First Step at this link. https://opralaska.com/?p=526

The fishing and seafood processing industries have raised alarm over this size reduction. Research from NOAA Fisheries and the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC) shows that Alaska Pollock in the Bering Sea are now maturing at smaller sizes, likely due to warming seas and food scarcity. This is not just a biological concern—it’s an industrial problem.

“A smaller pollock isn’t just shorter—it’s poorer. Less flesh, less value, more boats chasing more bony fish.”
— OPR Alaska Editorial

Processing Crisis: Smaller Fish, Bigger Headaches

Seafood processors are feeling the strain:

Filleting and deboning equipment, designed for larger fish, is experiencing increased “fall-through” rates.
Smaller fish yield lower-quality and lower-volume fillets, while increasing waste and labor costs.
Industry leaders such as Trident Seafoods have reported substantial profit erosion due to these inefficiencies.

Trade publications like Undercurrent News and National Fisherman confirm that these trends are driving up per-pound costs and undermining the economics of the fishery.

These industrial bottlenecks are not unique to Pollock. A similar scenario is playing out with Atlantic cod, where studies like Björnsson et al. (2017) show that smaller cod reduce processing efficiency. Scientific work by Helser et al. (2019) and Barbeaux et al. (2020) further supports these findings, directly linking shrinking fish size to climate-driven ecological shifts.

Unless fishing practices and processing technologies adapt—or ocean conditions improve—the continued reduction in fish size may jeopardize the economic viability of the Pollock and cod fisheries alike.

Quantifying the Decline: A 75-Year Trend

Alaska Pollock stocks, managed independently by the U.S., Russia, and Japan, all show the same alarming trend: shrinking fish.

Decade	Avg. Length (cm) – U.S.	Avg. Weight (kg) – Russia	Avg. Length (cm) – Japan
1950s	55	1.4	60
1970s	52	1.2	57
1990s	49	1.0	52
2010s	45	0.8	48
2020s	44	0.7	47

Sources: NOAA (U.S.), Funk & Hobbs (2018) (Russia), Japan Fisheries Agency (Japan)

Price Collapse: Quantity Over Quality

Although catch volumes have remained relatively stable—averaging 1.26 million metric tons annually since 1979 in the U.S.—the value per ton has fallen sharply.

“The average price for the decade ending in 2020 was about $1.28 per pound—roughly half of what Pollock fetched in the 1980s when adjusted for inflation.”
— Craig Medred, craigmedred.news

Smaller fish simply don’t pay. The combination of reduced yield, higher labor and maintenance costs, and reduced throughput efficiency means declining profitability per fish, even when total catch volumes remain high.

Let’s look at the added value proposition

If ocean restoration brings Pollock back to historic size and weight, the data clearly shows the decline in weight from the 1950’s is 50%. Restoring Alaska pollock to their historic size could triple the value of the fishery—even without catching more fish—just by getting more and better meat from each fish.

Let’s run a quick model:

Metric	Today’s Fish (~1 lb)	Restored Fish (~2 lbs)
Meat yield	35%	50%
Meat per fish	0.35 lb	1.0 lb
Value per pound (avg fillet)	$2.50	$2.75
Value per fish	~$0.88	~$2.75
Value multiplier	—	3.1x

Now just do the value math!

Annual catch: 1.3 million metric tons = ~2.87 billion pounds.
Doubling weight at 3.1x value per fish → Potential added value: $6–9 billion per year.

Bycatch of King Salmon: A Collateral Crisis

The Alaska Pollock trawl fleet is also at the center of an ecological flashpoint: the unintentional capture of endangered Chinook (King) salmon.

In 2024, the Gulf of Alaska Pollock fishery was shut down early after two Kodiak-based vessels caught 2,000 King salmon, pushing the fishery near its legal limit of 18,000.
Bering Sea fleets face similar caps and incentive-based bycatch reduction strategies, but conflicts with subsistence salmon needs are intensifying.

“In 2024, the Gulf of Alaska pollock fishery faced an early closure after two Kodiak-based trawlers inadvertently caught approximately 2,000 king salmon.”
— Northern Journal

This bycatch issue further highlights the tension between industrial efficiency and ecological responsibility—a balance that ocean conditions are rapidly tipping out of favor.

Root Cause: The Collapse of Ocean Pastures

Beneath all of this—shrinking fish, falling profits, bycatch crises—is a foundational environmental truth: the collapse of North Pacific plankton productivity.

Since the 1950s, the vital flow of iron-rich mineral dust from Asia has plummeted. Once carried by seasonal winds to fertilize ocean pastures, this dust sustained vast blooms of phytoplankton—the very base of the marine food web.

Without it:

Zooplankton collapse.
Forage fish go hungry.
Pollock and salmon shrink.

The Solution: Ocean Pasture Restoration

There is a proven way to restore ocean productivity—replenishing missing iron to revive natural plankton blooms.

“With ocean pasture restoration, we will bring back the plankton blooms that once made the North Pacific the most productive fishing ground on Earth.”
— OPR Alaska

This nature-based solution mimics what the wind once did naturally: delivering small amounts of bioavailable iron into high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll (HNLC) ocean regions. The results are:

Bigger, faster-growing Pollock with more marketable meat
Stronger, healthier King salmon, better equipped to survive and reproduce
More food for every link in the oceanic food web
A rapid rebound in salmon smolt survival, ensuring multi-year population recovery

“Ocean pasture restoration is not just about saving fish—it’s about saving the future of coastal communities, Indigenous livelihoods, and marine biodiversity.”

The ocean responds within weeks. Plankton blooms return. Fish get fatter. Ecosystems rebound. We’ve seen it before. We can do it again—at scale.

A Call to Action

We cannot manage our way out of starvation. We must restore abundance.

Ocean pasture restoration is ready for deployment. The science is sound. The cost is low. The benefit is immense.

Let us act now—to rebuild the North Pacific’s ocean pastures, put premium pounds back on our Pollock, and ensure that King salmon return in strength, not as a memory.

Let’s restore our ocean pastures—
for Pollock, for salmon, for the future.

Sources & Further Reading

April 16, 2025April 16, 2025

When the Ocean Turned Against the Crabs

How Alaska NOAA Head Dr. Robert Foy’s Warning Became a Grim Reality

Spoiler Alert: We Can Bring Back The Crabs!

🌊 Introduction

In the frigid, storm-lashed waters of the Bering Sea, snow and king crabs once supported one of the most productive and valuable fisheries on Earth. For generations, these creatures thrived in a delicate balance of cold temperatures, rich nutrients, and healthy ocean ecosystems.

But beneath the surface, subtle shifts were already unraveling that balance—long before anyone could see the collapse coming.

🔬 The Science Was Clear—And Ignored

“In lower pH environments, juvenile crabs experienced stunted growth, reduced survival, and impaired physiology.” — NOAA Laboratory Findings, early 2010s

More than a decade ago, Dr. Robert Foy and his team at NOAA began sounding the alarm. Their masterful experiments showed without question that ocean acidification—caused by the ocean’s absorption of rising atmospheric CO₂—was disrupting crab development at the most vulnerable stages of life. Blue and red king crab larvae showed poor survival in these ever so slightly more acidic waters.

These findings were not speculative. By the early 2010s, Foy’s team warned that the Bering Sea could begin tipping into crisis by the 2020s.

And then it did.

Between 2018 and 2021, the snow crab population plummeted by over 80%, decreasing from 11.7 billion to 1.9 billion crabs. This sharp decline was primarily attributed to a marine heatwave in 2018–2019, which led to habitat loss, increased metabolic stress, and starvation among the crabs.

2021–2022: Economic Impact Intensifies

In 2021, snow crab numbers crashed—more than a billion crabs simply vanished. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game took the unprecedented step of closing the snow crab fishery for the 2022 season.

The 2021–2022 season had seen a 47% decrease in the value of crab harvested under the Crab Rationalization Program, amounting to a loss of $102.4 million. This downturn was mainly due to significant reductions in the total allowable catch for both Bering Sea snow crab and Bristol Bay red king crab fisheries. Sustainable Fisheries UW+2NOAA Fisheries+2Alaska Beacon+2

2022–2023: Unprecedented Fishery Closures

In a historic move, Alaska canceled the snow crab season for the first time ever in 2022–2023, following an 87% drop in population from 8 billion in 2018 to 1 billion in 2021. The red king crab fishery also remained closed for the second consecutive year. These closures resulted in a 100% revenue loss for the snow crab fishery, equating to approximately $133 million in ex-vessel value and $171 million in wholesale revenue.

🧊 A Fishery Vanishes But It Was No Mystery

The headlines focused on warming seas and marine heatwaves—but scientists quietly pointed to acidification as an invisible, but no less deadly, co-driver.

🌱 Plankton: The Ocean’s First Line of Defense

“The collapse of crab populations wasn’t just a simple chemical reaction; it was a cascading failure of the ocean’s ecological foundation.”

Ocean acidification is more than a chemical issue—it’s an ecological systems crisis. And the system starts with plankton.

Phytoplankton, the tiny photosynthetic organisms that fuel the entire marine food web, also regulate carbon. Healthy plankton pastures remove CO₂ from both water and air, helping maintain ocean pH. But warming, pollution, and loss of nutrients are killing these critical plankton blooms.

Without these vibrant pastures, the ocean loses its ability to resist acidification—and marine life from crabs to whales feels the effect.

🤫 What Happened to Dr. Foy’s Message?

Ironically, today Dr. Robert Foy is the Director of NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center. But his public statements no longer feature his landmark work on acidification and crabs and his near perfect prophecy of their doom.

Instead, NOAA’s narrative has shifted to a vague “climate change” ocean “warm blob” explanation, obscuring the clear, testable cause-and-effect chain that Foy once helped reveal. When scientist Foy let the data do the talking the doomsday scenario the crabs face is clear, when bureaucrat boss Foy does the talking its a different story.

“Blaming climate change in general avoids responsibility. Restoring ocean biology—especially plankton pastures—is our last and best defense.”

🌍 The Science Is In: We Have the Knowledge and the Means to Restore Ocean Pastures Now

“Like turning off a nutrient tap, the slowing dust storms of the late 20th century left entire ocean basins gasping for vital iron.” — Martinez-Garcia, Nature (2011)

The catastrophic collapse of the Bering Sea’s crab populations wasn’t just a coincidence of warming waters and “climate change.” It was the predictable result of a decades-long decline in vital aeolian (wind-blown) dust—and with it, the loss of iron that once nourished the North Pacific’s ocean pastures.

Read this post “Understanding the cause of ocean and fisheries collapse” https://opralaska.com/?p=526

Ocean Pasture Restoration Now

We simply cannot do any form of chemistry to neutralize oceans growing acidic content, there are not the billions of tons of antacid tums tablets to cure Mother Oceans heartburn, similarly we simply cannot staunch the flow of humanities fossil-fueled CO2 into the air and ocean in the immediate time frame that the dying acidic ocean needs YESTERDAY!

What we can do using proven nature-based methods, immediately replenish and restore the vital ocean pastures and in doing so restore the natural health, abundance, and resiliance of our Bering Sea ocean pastures.

Starting in the 1950s and accelerating through the 1960s, Asian dust storms declined by over 80%, driven largely by rising atmospheric CO₂ fertilizing grasslands in China and Central Asia. With more grass came less dust. And with less dust came starving plankton, collapsing fish stocks, and ocean deserts where once there were life-rich seas.

“Sardines didn’t vanish because we fished too hard—they vanished because we didn’t notice their pasture was dying beneath them.” — Chavez, Progress in Oceanography (2003)

For more than 35 years, hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in public and private ocean iron replenishment research, including major field trials from the U.S., Japan, Canada, Germany, the EU, and independent organizations. These studies have proven again and again that replenishing just a few tonnes of iron-rich dust can restore plankton blooms across tens of thousands of square kilometers of ocean, reviving the marine food web from the bottom up.

This is not speculative science—it’s tested, measurable, and ready for deployment. And most importantly, it is nature-based. We aren’t inventing something new—we’re simply restoring the natural mineral cycle that human activity interrupted.

By reintroducing trace mineral dust into these barren ocean regions, we can immediately restore the plankton pastures that once supported massive populations of crabs, salmon, cod, sardines, and the seabirds and whales that fed on them.

Ocean pasture restoration is the most practical, fast-acting, and scalable tool we have to reverse marine ecosystem collapse and remove legacy atmospheric CO₂.

🐟 The Failure of Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) and the Need for Ocean Pasture Management

Historically, fisheries management has focused on maximum allowable catch, relying on the flawed model of Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY). This approach fails to consider the declining productivity of ocean ecosystems and has led to devastating overharvesting even as marine habitats wither.

“Managing fisheries without managing their pastures is like raising cattle while ignoring the grasslands.” — Ware & Thomson, Science (2005)

Today, as multiple fisheries collapse, we must replace MSY with Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management (EBFM)—a model that prioritizes the health of the ocean pastures themselves.

By restoring ocean productivity through nature-based iron replenishment, we can rebuild marine food webs, sustain biodiversity, and ensure long-term resilience. This approach mirrors successful terrestrial pasture management, which focuses not on maximum extraction but on maintaining the carrying capacity of the land.

It’s time ocean management caught up.

✅ What Must Be Done – WE CAN BRING BACK THE CRABS

Declare an Ocean and Fisheries Emergency at local, state, and national levels so that we can respond to this true emergency with redirection of existing resources immediately and not via some endless legislative and academic debating exercise in moving through a quagmire. Read more on this emergency at this link https://opralaska.com/?p=504
Restore plankton pastures through proven targeted replenishment of Mother Nature’s missing mineral dust
Recognize ocean acidification and dust decline as a primary, reversible drivers of marine collapse
Move beyond MSY toward full ecosystem and habitat-based marine management
Deploy ready-to-scale ocean iron replenishment, proven over decades of international study

📚 References & Further Reading

Hurst, T.P. et al. (2012). Effects of ocean acidification on juvenile red king and Tanner crab. PLOS ONE.
Martin, J.H. (1990). Glacial-interglacial CO₂ change: The iron hypothesis. Paleoceanography.
Martinez-Garcia et al. (2011). Dust-climate coupling in glacial North Pacific. Nature.
Boyd et al. (2007). Mesoscale Iron Enrichment Experiments. Science.
Moore et al. (2013). Natural iron fertilization is not enough. Nature Geoscience.
Chavez et al. (2003). Sardine collapse and the plankton connection. Progress in Oceanography.
George, R. (2014). Pacific Carbon Restoration.
KMXT.org (2024). Alaska organization wants to renew ocean pastures

📣 Share This Post

“It’s not just about emissions—it’s about the missing plankton, the unraveling food web, and the silent acidification of the seas.”

Use hashtags:
#OceanRestoration #CrabCollapse #PlanktonPastures #BringBackTheCrabs #NatureBasedSolutions #DustMatters

April 10, 2025April 15, 2025

Understanding The Cause Of Ocean Fisheries Collapse Is The First Step

Dust stomrs disappearing means oceans become deserts

The next step is restoring our ocean pastures!

I did an AI search on the decline of dust blowing across the Pacific from China and Asia and the decline began in the 1950-1960 time frame, the 1960’s had only a fraction of the dust of the 50’s. References cite the increased growth of Asian grasses due to rising CO2 as being responsible.

So it’s all there in the scientific data, the great dying of the North Pacific Ocean fish pastures began with the industrial boom that followed WW2 spewing massive amounts of CO2 into the air, growing grass in the Asian dustbowls , and turning the North Pacific into a clear blue desert.

“Like turning off a nutrient tap, the slowing dust storms of the late 20th century left entire ocean basins gasping for vital iron.” — Martinez-Garcia, Nature (2011)

More Grass Growing Means Less Dust Blowing And Fish Disappearing

Decade	Dust Days China	%Change	N. Pacific Iron (μM)	Key Events
1950’s	28.2	Baseline	0.12	Peak Salmon/ Cod/Sardine Catches
2020’s	5.7	– 80%	0.04	Multiple fishery closures

Data sources: Zhang 2016 (Atmos. Chem. Phys.), EMEP 2021

Ocean Pasture Productivity and Fish decline 1950-2010

Sources: Boyce et al. (2010), FAO Fisheries Reports (2021), Wong et al. (2020)

Lost in translation

“The ocean’s pastures are starving. While the world focused on overfishing, we failed to notice the dust famine that quietly undermined the entire marine food web.” — Boyd et al., Nature (2007)

“Sardines didn’t vanish because we fished too hard—they vanished because we didn’t notice their pasture was dying beneath them.” — Chavez, Progress in Oceanography (2003)

“Even if emissions halted tomorrow, the ocean’s iron debt would take centuries to repay through natural processes alone.” — Moore et al., Nature Geoscience (2013)

“Managing fisheries without managing their pastures is like raising cattle while ignoring the grasslands.” — Ware & Thomson, Science (2005)

“For less than the cost of one offshore wind farm, we could replenish all the North Pacific’s missing iron—and Bring Back Its Fish.” — George, Pacific Carbon Restoration (2014)

“The geo-engineering experiment has already been run—we removed the iron, and the fish disappeared. Now we must reverse the trial.” — Martin, Nature (2013)

What to do to Bring Back The Fish

There is only one hope for our oceans and our fish, that is replenishing the dust to our oceans which we have ground beneath our industrial heels, doing so will immediately restore the oceans to their historic levels of health and abundance, and bring back the fish and all of ocean life.

New Fisheries and Ocean Pasture Management Policies Are Vital

Fisheries management has traditionally prioritized maximizing allowable catch, often through the concept of Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY). This approach focuses only to harvest the largest possible quantity of fish without overharvesting the stock, but it has faced significant criticism for neglecting broader ecosystem health and the declining productivity of ocean pastures.

Critique of Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY):

MSY has been a cornerstone of fisheries management, focusing on the highest catch that can be taken from a fish stock over an indefinite period. However, this method has been challenged for its oversimplification and potential to lead to overfishing. Sidney Holt, a notable fisheries scientist, referred to MSY as “the worst idea in fisheries management” due to its potential to severely depress fish populations if pursued aggressively. ResearchGate

Furthermore, MSY often fails to account for the complex interactions within marine ecosystems, such as especially habitat dependencies and predator-prey relationships. This “blinders on” focus results in management decisions that overlook the broader ecological consequences of fishing practices.

Shifting Baselines and Goalposts:

The concept of “shifting baselines” describes how each generation perceives the current state of the environment as the norm, often unaware of historical abundances. In fisheries, this has led to the gradual and automatic acceptance of declining fish populations as normal, with management allowable catch targets adjusted over time to accommodate reduced stocks. This incremental moving of the goalposts masks the true extent of ecological degradation and prohibits restoration of marine ecosystems to their former levels of health and productivity.

Ocean Pasture Based Fisheries Management:

In response to the limitations of MSY, there has been a growing advocacy for Ocean pasture based (Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management – EBFM). EBFM is an approach that considers the entire ecosystem, including environmental variables, habitat conditions, and species interactions, rather than focusing solely on target fish stocks. The goal is to maintain ecosystems in a healthy, productive, and resilient condition so they can provide the services humans want and need.

Implementing Ocean Pasture restoration and management will immediately address the decline in ocean productivity and carrying capacity by integrating as a managment priority habitat health, biodiversity, and the impacts of environmental changes. This approach contrasts with traditional methods that prioritize maximum catch without adequately accounting for ecosystem sustainability.

Comparisons to Terrestrial Management:

Fisheries and ocean pasture management has proceeded in a fashing unlike and indeed in opposition to traditional terrestrial pasture management, which aims to optimize the carrying capacity of the land to sustain livestock populations. Traditional fisheries management has focused exclusively on extraction rates as opposed to the health and productivity of ocean pasture habitats. This disparity highlights the need for a paradigm shift in how marine resources are managed, emphasizing the restoration and maintenance of ocean pastures to support sustainable fish populations.

Conclusion:

The historical emphasis on maximum allowable catch in fisheries management has contributed to the massive decline of fish populations and the degradation of marine ecosystems. Adopting ecosystem-based approaches that consider the health of ocean pastures and their carrying capacity is crucial for the sustainable management of global fisheries. This shift requires moving beyond the narrow focus of maximum allowable catch to embrace strategies that ensure the long-term productivity and resilience of marine environments.