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.